Members  present: President Hagit Limor, Vice President Felix Winternitz, Secretary Joshua Rinaldi, Jon Hughes, Amanda, Aiesha, Taelonda, Alex, Jeannine.

President Hagit Limor called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m.

AGENDA - Cincinnati Pro SPJ Meeting -  Sept 19, 2007

1) Come to order

2) Approval of minutes from last meeting Felix moves, Rinaldi seconds, passes

3) Old Business -

      I. Update on Banquet - Amanda

1. Add all board members to the program.
2. Frame borgman items.
3. Silent auction minimum bids at about half retail value or so.
4.  Need to close silent auction earlier than a half hour after the event. 8:45 p.m.
   Programs update: Programs are just about ready, will take to printer today. Brentwood said about a week and $377 to print 180. 10 pages, front and back covers in color. Full-page ads from Post and Enquirer (Enquirer’s was included in original sponsorship). Will place programs at seats at tables at banquet. We might be a handful short, but it’s too late to adjust the quote w/Brentwood.

1. Attendance update / Seating issues: As of 9/18, we have 180 people attending. Tables: 2 for WCPO, 1 for Middletown Journal, 1 for Cincy Gentlemen, 1 for Cincinnati Magazine, 1 for Post - 4 people have requested to sit together. The rest will be open seating. Will mark tables/Post seats off with place cards. Guests must check in w/me at top of steps outside banquet room so I can mark off who’s present and give each person a place card with a color-coded dot so Phoenix knows which meal to serve him or her. Will order five extra chicken meals from Phoenix in case of walk-ins, though I strongly discourage that.

1. Budget update: Of the 180 RSVPd, 17 are comped tickets. Of the 163 paid guests, 13 have yet to pay. Three will pay at door; I’ve contacted the others and checks are forthcoming. Not terribly worried about this, b/c we’ve already paid Phoenix for the base 150 guests, and Phoenix will bill us after banquet for others. See attached banquet budget, but we’re on track to make about $1,500 (Budget does not include revenue from awards yet. I will have one more, very small, expense for place cards and colored dot stickers. Two other expenses if we opt to frame Borgman prints and/or do silent auction item booklets. Also, keep in mind silent auction proceeds to go scholarship fund, not general.)

1. Silent auction update: We have a lot of fantastic items. I think we should auction the gift certificates separately & do packages of the other items. A lot of the Post books are sets or doubles, and we have tons of Borgman things, could probably do three Borgman-only packages. (Should we consider getting the three posters framed?) Should probably set prices within $5-$10 above retail, depending on the item. We’ll have them set up at Phoenix. Should we take pictures of items/packages and make booklets to distribute at Cincinnati Club and on tables (keep in mind we’ll have around 23-25 tables of eight).

1. Hall of Fame/Awards update: Videos have been produced. All Hall of Fame inductees or their family members are attending. Joe Wessels has agreed to handle AV during banquet, and working on getting a projector so we don’t have to pay thru Phoenix. Awards/plaques at the printer now.

1. ACTION ITEM: Need to set program for event. The plan is to begin ushering people from Cincinnati Club to Phoenix around 7:15 p.m. Carol Williams will begin intro and ask people to take their seats at 7:30 p.m. SHARP, when Phoenix will begin serving salads. Dinner will follow. Announce awards during dessert. Jeannine should make a few remarks about number of entries, who judged them, etc. Then she, Hagit and Carol will alternate reading winners’ names. Aiesha, me and anyone else who can will hand awards and newsboys out as winners come forward. Need to keep this snappy. After, Carol will make a few remarks and introduce Hagit to speak about 40th anniversary of chapter. Hagit will introduce Scott Aiken to say a few short words about Hall of Fame, introduce each inductee’s video, then invite him or his family to make a brief (5 min.) remarks after their respective videos. Carol will close event, thank everyone for coming, remind them silent auction is open. We will close silent auction 30 min. after that. I (and/or anyone who wishes) will document winners, take checks and thank them before releasing items. Then we all go home. Hoping to keep banquet to 90 minutes, since Carol has to get back to anchor news.

1. ACTION ITEM: Need volunteers to help at banquet: help AVB w/checking people in as they arrive, monitoring silent auction and answering questions, ushering people from Cincinnati Club to Phoenix (Aiesha volunteered for this) and then into banquet @ Phoenix, handing out awards/reading winners’ names, helping wrap silent auction up afterwards – Josh has volunteered to help w/something.
2. 
   

4) New Business -    

     I. Treasurer's Report – Alex
- 7,186,68 in primary.
Activity in last meeting includes $6,895  in deposits and $7,316.89 in expenses.
    II. Secretary's Report - Josh  -   
           -took photo of the board
- newsletter will include contest winners list and will come out after the banquet.        
-Board suggests the following ideas for the newsletter: Update on events, letter from president. Beat changes. Comings and Goings Web site, announcements. Babies, jobs, otherwise, job opportunities.

     III. President's Report - Hagit
    
        a. membership drive   -  
            i. - Proposal to eliminate local membership fees  - At $10/year they don't generate meaningful revenue and this would mean anyone who joins national SPJ in our area would automatically become a local member. It would increase our membership and hopefully, ability to draw in more new blood.
-will add 56 members to chapter immediately.
-National fee is too high for a lot of people.
-Alex: isn’t a lot of money, but if it was so little money, why shouldn’t people pay it?
-Need zip codes that included in Cincinnati.
-Could charge for events.
- Jon suggested the chapter waive fees rather than eliminate.
Josh suggested suspending fees for 2008 as a test.
-Jon: options. Active member status. Waived for new members, inactive status.
Motion tabled

           ii.  Gen-J project - Suzanne Murray -  need to approve $150 budget for event. Jon Moves, Rinaldi seconds. Passes.  


      b.  Convention update  - Aiesha, Hagit and Emil are going
Amanda is jealous.
     
       c. New meeting day -  Propose to change meeting to 2nd Wednesday in December to avoid vacation problems - would be Dec 12  

      d.  insurance coverage for board members  
  Tabling pending input from Monica.

 5) Committee reports
 
    I. Programming  - Stephanie  - upcoming schedule
- Aeisha cranking away at City council candidate forum. 6:30 p.m. 7:30 debate. Oct. 6 -  The Greenwich on Gilbert .
-Will push Football event to later in the season if possible
-Revitalization event is Nov. 29.
-Can apply for an SPJ grant to use for a specific program.
-Lets shoot for a happy hour in late October/Early November.  Aiesha: Morton’s in Carew Tower? Nov. 14.
-Aiesha received an SPJ diversity leadership grant is trying to put together a high school workshop (weeklong) next summer at UC. Possibly looking for SPJ to sponsor a night with the students. June or August 2008.

II. Ohio Contest - Felix  - are we withdrawing?  
Motion to introduce a best producer category for next years contest. alex motions, jon seconds, passes.

   III. Mentorship progam
-Worked better than ever expected. Jeff Hirsch set up through U.C. got enough response. About 20 professionals who offered to be mentors already.

-Emil looks at the possibility of sponsoring. Emil will email.
6) Adjournment