NorCal Conference 2018

Information for the 2018 JACC NorCal Conference  (updated November 4)

• Write-in Contest Winners
• On-the-Spot Contest Winners

• Registration website
• Informational Flyer (location, parking, map, food, lodging, etc.)
• Student Informational Flyer (contests, workshops, Wi-Fi, snacks, etc.)
• Schedule 
• Meet Keynote speaker Joaquin Alvarez

We are excited you’ll be joining us on Nov. 3 at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton for the 2018 Journalism Association of Community Colleges NorCal Conference.  We’ve compiled some detailed information to hopefully answer your questions for you in preparation for the event.

When: Saturday, November 3, 2018, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: San Joaquin Delta College, 5151 Pacific Ave., Stockton, California.  Delta College is located at 5151 Pacific Avenue. The front of campus, where Google Maps will take you, isn’t as easy to navigate as the back, where we recommend you park.  Plan on entering campus from Pershing Avenue. The nearest entrance to the recommended parking lot, Shima 1, is near Robinhood Drive. You will be entering onto Burke Bradley Drive, which runs a partial perimeter of the campus. The nearest lot to check in is Shima 1, which is marked by signs with “S1.”

• Campus Map
• Parking is free on weekends at Delta College. Students needing accessible parking will have an easier time parking near our Math & Science building, as the sidewalks are new and more level.

Behavior Policy: Please download a copy of the behavior policy and associated forms that must be signed by each delegate (one per) and handed in at registration.

Check-In:  will be in Danner Hall. Advisers will be given envelopes at check-in with contingents’ name badges. Before receiving a name badge, please be sure to fill out the JACC Behavior Policy, which is required!

• Food Tickets: A ticket for your lunch meal will be included with your name badge. Regular meal tickets are orange. Vegan/vegetarian meal tickets are blue. Please present your ticket at lunch to receive a sandwich. We ask that students not take seconds until after everyone has received a sandwich.

Breakfast & Lunch:  Meals will be in Danner Hall. We’ll have coffee, muffins, bananas, and bagels for students in the morning. Lunch will be assorted Subway sandwiches, chips, and cookies (we’ll also keep the leftover food out from breakfast). We’ll also serve water. Nearly all the vending machines around Delta College take credit card if you want a soda. NOTE: San Joaquin Delta College is a Pepsi-product campus. The nearest location to procure a Coca Cola product is Target, which is adjacent to campus.

Wi-Fi: The student wifi (DeltaStudentWiFi) is open. It’s not available everywhere on campus, but is over most of campus.

Keynote: The program will begin promptly at 9 a.m. Doors to the Tillie Lewis Theatre, located on the first floor of the Locke Building, will open near 8:30 a.m. No food or drink is allowed in the theater.

Contests: Five on-the-spot contests are tentatively planned for the NorCal conference this year: Tentatively they will be News Writing, Opinion Writing, News Photo, Editorial Cartoon and a multiple-choice Copy Editing test, but this is subject to change. Check the schedule when it is posted.

• Writing Labs:  The newswriting and opinion writing contests will be in Delta’s Graphic Arts Mac/PC hybrid lab inShima 241. There are 30 computers (15 Mac, 15 PC).  Students have been encouraged in the past to bring their own machines. There will be room for that. If you are more comfortable with your own computer, make sure you also bring a power cord. No AlphaSmarts will be used.
• Photo Lab:  The photo contest will be feature photo of images from The Market at Delta College. It’s a flea market in the B4 and H1 lots (near the southern edge of campus), that runs from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays (every Saturday, rain or shine). Students can shoot photos anytime during the conference day, but all work has to be in by the 2 p.m. deadline.  Students will have access to the lab (to submit work) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The lab will close at 2 p.m. This is not a “be in there by” time. This is a hard deadline. The Photo contest lab will be in Shima 146, which is Mac-only. The machines have Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Students can also bring their machines to edit, particularly if they are PC people. There will be signs directing people to The Market from the main registration area in Danner Hall.  Photography students are encouraged to attend Record Photographer Clifford Oto’s photo session at 10:30. Oto is an award-winning photographer and a product of Sacramento City College. His work can be viewed ahead of time through his blog.
• Data Journalism Session (2:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.)
  The lab for the session, also in Shima 146, only has 20 Macs (with four laptops likely being added). We are asking to limit to 2 to 3 per school for that session, unless students have laptops with Excel. Google Sheets is OK, but the speaker will be using Excel.
  This session is scheduled to run two hours and is not a drop-in session. Students should plan to stay theentire time.
• Thumb/flash drives and SD cards: It is recommended all students participating in contests bring their own thumb/flash drives and SD cards (for photo). The photo lab doesn’t have a CF card reader.
• Lab/Classroom Rules: Please note NO food or drink is allowed in Delta College’s computer labs and, generally, our classrooms. This is a strict policy. Water bottles are typically OK if they won’t spill if tipped. We will have lab techs in the computer labs being used to make sure this policy is adhered to.

Workshops: There will be a series of workshops from professionals in the industry and editor roundtables. A schedule will be available by early October once workshop speakers have been confirmed.

Special needs: Advisers registering students with special needs should consult with the Disabled Students Program and Services office, or similar department, on their own campuses about providing student support for the college-sponsored field trip to the conference. In addition, please email JACC NorCal Faculty Representative Cecilia Deck  and Conference host Tara Cuslidge-Staiano at with details.

Hotels: Please note that JACC is not providing hotel room blocks or special room rates.