North Richland Hills seeks a marketing and research coordinator. Must have a bachelor's degree with major coursework in PR, economic development, marketing, urban planning, business administration or public administration and at least two years of increasingly responsible experience in a related field. Starting salary $40,252-$50,315. Apply at nrhtx.com. ... Freese and Nichols has an opening in its Fort Worth office for an online services administrator to design, write and maintain the company web site and sites for clients. Must have appropriate software knowledge, at least two years experience and a bachelor's degree in journalism, marketing, technical writing or web site development. Send résumé to Human Resources, Freese and Nichols, 4055 International Plaza, Suite 200, Fort Worth 76109-4895; (817) 735-7491 fax; hr@freese.com.
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NEW MEMBERS
IABC ... Jenny Walker, Tarrant Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse ... Michael Moore, Public Strategies, Inc. ... Amy Warren, transferring from the Brazos Valley chapter in College Station
SPJ ... Ruthanne Brockway, Star-Telegram
PRSA ... Jamie Higgins Brown, JPS Health Network ... Anna Riehm, Harris Methodist HEB Hospital ... Margaret Ritsch, Fort Worth Museum of Science & History ... Amy Allen, AmeriCredit ... Margaret Campbell, JPS Health Network ... Cindy Cantu, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, North Central Texas chapter ... Viqui Litman, Freese and Nichols
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COMINGS & GOINGS
Additions ... at the S-T: UNT j-grad Patrick Walker on the copy desk; the week he started coincided with the announcement that he had won first place, print category, in the inaugural James S. Hogg Journalism Award for Mental Health Reporting competition sponsored by the UT Austin School of Journalism and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Exits ... at the S-T: Patrick Badgley, to the Houston Chronicle
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth
Our year has started out with a bang. Past president Lori De La Cruz of Blue Marble Media spoke to a full house July 26 about internet marketing and was very informative as well as entertaining. Programs VP Ken Roberts has an exciting fall schedule planned, so stay tuned. If you have a suggestion for a topic or speaker, let Ken know at kmr@freese.com.
I am pleased to announce that membership continues to grow. We now have 61 members! If you know someone who might be interested in joining IABC/Fort Worth, contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com. I hop to see you in August.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
How soft has journalism gotten? This soft. ...
Splash Day, it's called, and for the first time in a long time, the title fit. About 60 SPJ members, prospective members and friends hit the lake for the season-ending fling July 23, and what a fine hoo-ha in the hills it was. Thanks, Gayle Reaves-King and Paul King, Carolyn Poirot and Jack Strickland, Kay Pirtle -- you do know how to throw a party. See Kay's pictures on p. 2. These people aren't faking fun. Troubadors Jeff Prince and Phil Rodriguez entertained, Don LeGrand squired us about the lake on Amon Carter's marvelous old Chris-Craft, the West-Texan, and even the blistering weather cooperated. Local microbrewery Rahr & Sons was represented, the Fort Worth Boat Club staff set a tasty table, and the Star-T (publisher Wes Turner, his associate Nancy Burford and surely Mr. Carter's ghost) loaned us the boat. Thanks, all. And a special thanks to party wrangler Mike Cochran, who saw in advance the potential for unbridled happy and told all his friends to come (and many of them did). Kay headlined the evening "fun in the sunset." That's clever, and so apt. Wish I'd thought of it. Next year, I will. ...
Look for Angie Summers, Kay Pirtle and new member Melissa Winn on the Las Vegas Strip Oct. 16-19, respresenting the chapter at the 2005 SPJ National Convention. Join them, why don't you? Details here. ...
SPJ is participating in the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, which is lobbying support for a reporter's shield bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ky., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. The bill continues to pick up sponsors, but there are no indications of quick movement despite the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the Judith Miller-Matthew Cooper cases. The Justice Department reportedly wants less than the absolute privilege the bill would provide and is seeking special consideration in national security cases, an element it argues makes any federal shield law different than state law. Media attorneys have been negotiating for language that maintains the strongest possible privilege while recognizing the security issue in limited circumstances. They're also working on modifying the language in the bill to broaden the protection from traditional media to include internet and freelance journalists. ...
They're writing letters and awarding money at SPJ national. SPJ recently endorsed legislation that would establish a commission to study ways to improve the FOI Act and speed responses to requests. Direct ideas to Charles Davis, cdavis@spj.org. The board has awarded Legal Defense Fund grants of $3,000 to support Kentucky news organizations' efforts to gain greater access to the state's juvenile courts, $500 to challenge a gag order imposed by Maryland's governor on 30,000 state employees, and $2,000 in The Crimson's lawsuit against its university, Harvard, seeking access to campus police records. A separate fund within the LDF is raising $30,000 for a lobbying effort behind passage of a federal shield law. More: The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation recently awarded $217,000 in grants to improve journalism. Recipients include SPJ, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, and Western Kentucky U. ...
Lest I get all the credit for finding the quotes at the end of this column, many of them come from Garrison Keillor's daily update, "The Writer's Almanac." I'd tell you where to find it, but then you'd be as smart as I. Wait, you say you already are? Smarter? You say your standards are higher than that?
Closing words: "Like a quarreling group of monkeys on a leaky boat, armed with sticks of dynamite, we are embarked on an uncertain journey. Humanity's best chance of survival lies in creating taboos against the manufacture of nuclear weapons -- such as those that already exist for chemical and biological weapons -- and to work rapidly toward their global elimination." -- Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan ... "The only thing an alligator's any good for is if you happen to be a murderer and you want to get rid of the body." -- Billy Bob Thornton, Life magazine, July 22, 2005
Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "Barney is like, kind of like the son I never had." -- George W. Bush, father of twin daughters, on the first dog
