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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Holly Ellman, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
OK, it's July and it's hot. So let's focus a few months out on an event that will happen in cooler October. Greater Fort Worth PRSA will participate in Cowtown Brush Up on Saturday, Oct. 7, and you should be there.
This year's community service project -- sprucing the exteriors of homes owned by low-income individuals, particularly the elderly and people with disabilities -- will let us step away from our traditional role of PR advisers and communications planners and work with other volunteers in the city. The chapter is forming a team, and we need you. No special talents are required to join the fun -- just a good heart and an energetic spirit.
Approximately 2,500 volunteers will paint homes, plant trees and remove graffiti. Over the past 15 years, Cowtown Brush Up has proven to be more than an annual house painting in the central city. It has come to symbolize the heart of Fort Worth: neighbor helping neighbor.
E-mail Richie Escovedo, 2006 community service chair, at rescovedo@mansfieldisd.org. Tell him you have a pair of old paint-splattered paints perfect for the job, and you'll bring them out of retirement for the occasion.
Another event to anticipate in October is the chapter's 20th anniversary celebration. Contact Laura Squires, APR, at laura@witherspoon.com to help. She also seeks photos, artifacts and memories from the "good ol' days."
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Ken Roberts, Fort Worth IABC
Entries in Fort Worth IABC's 2006 Bronze Quill Awards were judged by three IABC chapters across the nation, and the comments we received just reaffirmed that communicators in North Texas are doing outstanding work. From more than 60 entries, 14 earned the Award of Merit.
Two or three times a year we're asked to judge other chapters' BQ competitions. When those chances arise, I hope you'll volunteer. It only takes a couple of hours, and you get to see, touch and feel strong material from other professional communicators. It's a great way to kick-start your creative brain.
Speaking of awards, look at this lineup: PR Week Award for Crisis Management, Dallas Volunteer of the Year Award, Telly Award, The Dalton Pen Communications Award, IABC Bronze Quill, 3M Telecom Systems Division "Best of 3M MAP" Award, and multiple American Graphic Design and Premier Print awards. Lynn Handley of Market Builders Principle received those honors, and she will speak at our July 25 meeting.
Lynn was a key participant in UT Arlington's recent rebranding. Drawing on this and other experiences from more than 20 years as a communications professional, she will share valuable lessons about branding, visibility, identity and public perception. I look forward to the professional development that Lynn will provide, and I look forward to seeing you there. Member or guest, all are welcome.
Fort Worth IABC's year began July 1, and new directors were installed. Next month I will introduce you to the 2006-07 board.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Thanks, Wes Turner, for letting us tool about in Amon Carter's boat again at the SPJ come one, come all lake party July 22. You know you're invited. So is everyone else at the Star-Telegram, PRSA, IABC, FW Weekly, FW Business Press, Wise County Messenger -- you get the idea. Out there at The Keller Citizen, you folks doing anything that night? ...
SPJ.org has undergone a massive redesign. The idea was to produce a more informative and entertaining site that is simple to navigate, and the html'ers succeeded handsomely. The previous version was a little of some of that. Also, find plenty of materials aimed at helping chapter leaders and SPJ members promote the organization. ...
Your dues at work. SPJ has awarded a $1,000 Legal Defense Fund grant to the Deseret (Utah) Morning News to defray legal costs associated with filing a brief to be reviewed by that state's supreme court. The case involves the paper's right to obtain government records. The paper seeks information tied to a sexual harassment case filed by a former county employee who alleges that a superior made unwanted advances and that other county officials knew about the situation but did nothing to stop it. ...
Maybe something will come of this. In early May, a group of U.S. senators and representatives formed a caucus to monitor press freedom violations worldwide and to lobby in defense of persecuted journalists. Co-chaired by Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Mike Pence, R-Ind., the Congressional Caucus for the Freedom of the Press aims to draw attention to attacks on journalists and media censorship. The caucus has pledged to "provide guidance to Congress and federal agencies on policies and actions related to press freedom at home and abroad." ...
Do you know a journalist who has demonstrated courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism? Then nominate him or her for the Tom and Pat Gish Award, presented by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Nomination deadline is Sept. 1. Send nominations to Al Cross, the institute's director, at al.cross@uky.edu or 122 Grehan Journalism Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0042. Tom and Pat Gish, who are in their 50th year of publishing The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., have withstood advertiser boycotts, declining population, personal attacks and even the burning of their newspaper office to provide the citizens of Letcher County the kind of journalism pretty much lacking on the East Coast, West Coast, in your home town and in rural areas in between, especially those places dominated by extractive industries -- in this case, coal.
Closing words: "As an officer, I have the deepest respect for the president. But as an officer, it is also my duty to point out when an order is wrong. What protects our democracy is that we do not just follow orders blindly. ... There was often a real Alice in Wonderland quality to this case. They had already decided that the detainees were terrorists so didn't have normal rights, but then they wanted to hold a commission to determine that they were terrorists." -- Lt. Cdr. Charles Swift, court-appointed counsel for Osama bin Laden's driver, who launched a series of groundbreaking legal challenges that ended with the Supreme Court ruling that the military commissions backed by President Bush for international terrorism suspects were unlawful
Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees division: "I think -- tide turning -- see, as I remember, I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of, it's easy to see a tide turn -- did I say those words?" -- George W. Bush, asked if the tide was turning in Iraq
Closing words III, special Republicans must have it both ways, it's an entitlement entry: "A few days ago, Treasury Secretary John Snow said he was scandalized by our decision to report on the bank-monitoring program. But in September 2003 the same Secretary Snow invited a group of reporters from our papers, The Wall Street Journal and others to travel with him and his aides on a military aircraft for a six-day tour to show off the department's efforts to track terrorist financing. The secretary's team discussed many sensitive details of their monitoring efforts, hoping they would appear in print and demonstrate the administration's relentlessness against the terrorist threat." -- Dean Baquet and Bill Keller, editors of the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, respectively, in a joint op-ed piece July 2
