Great gift items are in hand, plus three UNT grads seasoned
in tuba tunes will serenade revelers on the big horn.

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MEETINGS

Next at IABC Fort Worth ...
Going to the JPS book benefit.

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Deck the Halls with ‘Wow!’ and Jolly

No program this month, in favor of an old-fashioned holiday meal, just like at grandma’s ... except 39 floors above the ground and with a better view.

Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers, students $20

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Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...
They’re with the IABCers.

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STRAIGHT STUFF

The Region 8 Conference, March 20-21 at the downtown Hilton-Fort Worth, headlines a packed schedule — more spring in the spring — at Fort Worth SPJ. Former Arlington Star-Telegram publisher O.K. Carter leads the team that’s lining up presenters, plus students will benefit from one-on-one critiques, and the Mark of Excellence Awards luncheon will honor the best student journalism in Texas and Oklahoma. A Friday-evening reception launches the whole affair. Details forthcoming. ... On Saturday, Feb. 7, students and young professionals are targeted for enlightenment at the Careers in Journalism/Mass Communication Conference at the TCU Moudy Communication Center. Organized by retired (hah!) TCU ad prof Jack Raskopf, the sessions will address newspapers, magazines, radio-TV, convergence media, photography, PR and advertising. ... OpenTheGovernment.org director Patrice McDermott, an expert on government secrecy and what’s being done to combat it, will keynote the 6th annual First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Dinner, April 17 at Cacharel in Arlington. Deadline for both the awards competition and scholarship application is Feb. 11. ...

Holiday stress getting you down? Forego the grind for a few hours at the American Society of Business Publication Editors’ holiday happy hour and business card exchange with the Freelance Alliance, 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Trinity Hall at Mockingbird Station in Dallas (next to the Angelika Theater). Contact ASBPE’s Tonie Auer at tonieauer@gmail.com or the Freelance Alliance’s Pat Pape at patpape@yahoo.com or Kelly Lane at kelly@klanepr.com. ...

Krys Boyd, Cynthia Pharr Lee, Bobbie Wygant, Dorothy Adler, Elaine Gwaltney, Janie Bryan Loveless, Joy Hart, Lenora Steadman, Liz Oliphant and Roslyn Dawson-Thompson will be honored at the Association for Women in Communications Diamond Anniversary brunch Saturday morning, Dec. 6, at the Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas with headline speaker Cheryl Diaz Meyer, who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography with fellow Dallas Morning News staff photographer David Leeson for their images of the Iraq war. Advance registration and payment deadline is Dec. 4. More here or from Erin Prather Stafford at 214-385-9010 or awcdallas@gmail.com. ...

Application postmark deadline is Jan. 5 for SPJ’s Pulliam/Kilgore Internships focusing on FOI issues. One position is based at SPJ headquarters in Indianapolis, the other in Washington, D.C., at the offices of Baker Hostetler, SPJ’s legal counsel. Interns receive $400/week for the 10-week program. The application is here. E- Joe Skeel with questions.

IABC local update: Crayton Webb, director of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility for Mary Kay Inc. in Dallas, will discuss at the Dallas IABC meeting Tuesday, Dec. 9, how the company is improving the lives of women and children around the world. Info here.

PRSA local update: Mark that calendar. The Best of the Southwest Communicators Conference, presented by the Texas Public Relations Association and the PRSA Southwest District, will be Feb. 27-March 1 at the John Q. Hammons Embassy Suites – Dallas/Frisco Hotel, Convention Center & Spa. More at tpra.org/.

PRSA local update II: The 2008 and 2009 boards will cheer up from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, at Mi Cocina (upstairs), I-30 at Hulen Street in front of Central Market. RSVP here. ... Attention,Twitter users. A list of GFW PRSA members who are on Twitter is being compiled for the web site. To be on the list send your name and Twitter ID to fortworthprsa@gmail.com in this format: firstname lastname - @name - title, employer ... A new Social Media SIG is forming. E- Richie Escovedo at richie.escovedo@gmail.com.

PRSA local update III: The Masters and NuPros SIGs met Nov. 17 at Scampi’s Mediterranean Cafe to discuss ethics, new media, social media and the like. Conversation flowed until well past the scheduled end time as members of both groups learned from each other. To join NuPros, e- Sarah McClellan-Brandt at smbrandt@safehaventc.org.

PRSA local update IV: Meet the 2009 Board of Directors: Andra Bennett House, APR, president; Tom Burke, APR, president-elect and membership VP; Carol Murray, APR, programs VP; Allyson Cross, treasurer; Linda Jacobson, APR, treasurer-elect; Lyndsay Hoover, secretary; Dan Keeney, APR, and Laura Van Hoosier, APR, National Assembly delegates; and Richie Escovedo, Joan Hunter and Lauren Kwedar, directors.

PRSA local update V: “After listening to Doug Newsom, grande dame of public relations, speak about the ethical situations in which a public relations professional can become mired, I was surprised to hear her tell of how she resigned a position because she was asked to do something unethical. And in her words, she had four children to support at the time. The show-and-tell of that kind of moxie is really needed so that those of us in the public relations profession understand that, where the stakes are high, resigning just might be the appropriate action. ... ” Continued at thesaltlick.blogspot.com.

SPJ national update: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said in September that they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Now as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going. More here. ... Just because you have access to public information, does that mean you should publish it? The Victoria (Texas) Advocate is asking itself this and other questions as it prepares to publish an online database of public records. The situation presents an ethical debate not only within the community, but also among the newspaper staff.



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Robert Bohler