GET A JOB
The Star-Telegram, Al Dia and The Dallas Morning News are sponsoring an ASNE regional job fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Radisson Hotel DFW South, 4600 W. Airport Freeway in Irving. Recent grads or seasoned pros, all are welcome. Direct questions to Claudia Delgado at cdelgado@aldiatx.com or 469-977-3608, or Larry Lutz, 817-390-7121. ...
The UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth seeks a continuing education coordinator. Must have a high school diploma or GED and five years experience in needs assessment, program development, marketing or outside revenue generation. Must be able to travel locally and nationally on short notice, plus have experience in Microsoft Office and database management, hotel negotiation, and site and vendor selection. Go to unthscjobs.com and search for "CE Coordinator." More from Andrew Crim at 817-735-2644.
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NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Lori Soderbergh, American Cancer Society ... Jahnae Stout, North Central Texas Council of Governments
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COMINGS & GOINGS
Promotions ... at the S-T: Phil Beckman, to promotions manager in the circulation department; he recently received his 10-year service pin
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Holly Ellman, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
It's not a sexy topic, but in today's world of corporate scandals and questionable practices, ethics must be discussed. September is ethics month at PRSA, highlighted by a 90-minute teleseminar, "Resolving Bad Ethical Practice Situations," to be shown at 11 a.m. Sept. 5, noon Sept. 12 and 2 p.m. Sept. 26. Cost is $190 for members, $290 nonmembers. If you have a site with an audio hook-up and can host a group on one of those dates, let membership chair Marc Flake know and he'll help with arrangements.
Three senior members of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards will serve on the panel, and senior BEPS member James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, will moderate. The panelists will take questions during the last 20 minutes.
Keeping with the theme, the chapter will host an ethics panel at its monthly luncheon Wednesday, Sept. 13. The panel will involve experts from PR, journalism and corporate America and will feature an interactive portion where you can weigh in on what's right and what's wrong. At this writing, Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA, will speak from the public relations perspective, and David House, Star-Telegram senior editor/reader advocate, will discuss ethics in the media.
These are strong opportunities to learn how experts have faced ethical challenges and come out on top. I hope to see you there.
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Ken Roberts, IABC Fort Worth
The IABC Fort Worth board is working to ensure that our monthly meetings offer something practical and valuable. We recognize that making time to attend represents perhaps a sacrifice and certainly a commitment, and if you show up, it better be good. We think it is.
Case in point No. 1: The August speaker, Lori De La Cruz, principal of Blue Marble Media, provided pointers on getting the most out of your print jobs. I left the meeting with several ideas and a bid sheet to help me cover all aspects of a print job, from pre-press to bindery and delivery, when developing projects and working with printers on bidding, scheduling, printing and delivering my projects.
Case in point No. 2: IABC's September speaker will be achitect/marketer Laurin McCracken on "How to Build and Use an Effective Network." Whether for personal or professional reasons, every communicator needs a well-established network. Read more about Lauren's presentation on p. 1.
Member or guest, we look forward to providing you worthwhile information at our next IABC meeting, 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26. And the one after that. And the next ...
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
You do not want to miss Curry-Moore II with district attorney candidates Tim Curry and Terri Moore, Wednesday, Oct. 18, at Joe T. Garcia's (in the remodeled church, La Puertita, south of the main building). Incumbent Curry and challenger Moore jousted spiritedly four years ago at Joe T.'s, and expect more of the same this time. Other meeting dates already secure: Wednesday, Nov. 15, at Joe T.'s, with arts critics (what in the world are they thinking?), and Wednesday, Dec. 6, the Christmas party/JPS book benefit, at Coors. ...
Good job, Gayle Reaves-King, Craig Flournoy, Tony Pederson and Steve McGonigle, but most of all Bob Berg and his cohorts at Carter Financial Management for the hastily arranged but thoroughly successful financial advice session for the Belo buyout people. Belo used to be where you wanted to go when you died, but now, less than two years after a major layoff, The Dallas Morning News is cutting at least 85 newsroom jobs, 17 percent of the 500 employees in editorial, including interactive (for the latest, check out D Magazine's Frontburner or the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blogs). That's a lot of talent and experience marching out the door -- like finding friends' names on a wartime casualty list. ...
And we wonder why they don't trust us. One in a continuing series. At the moment that serial confessor and child-porn pervert John Mark Karr's DNA tests cleared him of killing JonBenet Ramsey, a Google search for his name with "Ramsey" added produced 6.7 million returns (7.8 million four days later). Yet we're still killing and being killed, maiming and being maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan; the Cost of Iraq War calculator is set to reach $318.5 billion on the last day of this month; TXU will succeed in resisting efforts to clean up its 11 new coal-fired power plants; the water table has dropped precipitously in Parker County, coincidentally ground zero of the Barnett Shale drilling frenzy; parts of East Texas will soon be flooded to provide the water so the drilling can accelerate; and -- where's the reportorial intensity? Who's holding our "leaders" accountable? Who's telling these stories again and again until someone listens? I'd be happy if they got the same news attention as Brad Pitt's sperm. ...
The old Fort Worth Press was right. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times -- they're all broadsheets, in keeping with the tradition that a broadsheet connotes seriousnessness, while a tabloid is sensational. That view was long held in the United Kingdom as well, but last year several "serious" newspapers became tabs -- and circulation shot up. More here.
Closing words: "Reporters and editors are Americans, too. We believe it is our duty to inform Americans of how the government is using its power, and how that use affects the people's rights. Reporters and editors are not always going to agree with the government on what information is vital for Americans to know. Americans are not always going to agree on what's good for the nation. That's the beauty of our form of government. Having divergent opinions and being able to express them is at the root of democracy." -- outgoing SPJ president David Carlson on a House of Representatives resolution condemning news organizations that wrote about the Bush administration's surveillance of international bank records ... "By the time we are 40 we wear the faces we have earned. No amount of plastic surgery can hide a countenance buffeted by years of anger or self-absorption, and no surgery can create the beauty of a face nurtured by compassion or kindness." -- fine-art photographer Phil Borges in American Photo, July/August 2006
Closing words II, jocks and socks division: "When I played, there was a young lady that every time I walked in [at Boston], she'd holler, 'You're a chump, Dawkins!' The whole time she'd be screaming this in a game. So finally I walked over to her and said: 'That's it, I'm not bringing no more guys over to see your mother.' After the game she came down by the bench and said: 'Can we talk? Can we have a drink?' And we became friends." -- ex-76ers center Darryl Dawkins (from Don Steinberg, Knight Ridder)
