SAAHJ
General Meeting Minutes
Oct.
21, 2006
Tito’s
Mexican Restaurant
Members and guests in attendance, per
sign-in sheet: Joe
Sandoval, Roxanne Reyes, Edward Leal, Mary Anthony, Elaine Rodriguez, Nina
Pruneda, Carol Schliesinger, Vincent Bosquez, Danny Sanchez, Luis Mercado,
Rosenda Rios, Kris Rodriguez, Javier Rodriguez, Ed Tijerina.
Call to Order/Welcome/Introductions
Elaine Rodriguez called the meeting to order at 10:40
a.m. Introductions by all present followed.
Elaine introduced the featured speaker, Rosenda Rios.
Rios explained how she started her journalism career. Several members asked
her questions about her work experience, what’s different for
Hispanic reporters, what can stations do to help train young reporters,
what young reporters are like and common rookie mistakes, reporter-intern
relations, etc. Rios gave several tips for students/interns on how they can
seize opportunities and improve their confidence level. Other questions
from members included: how TV news has changed over the years, the reduced
amount of international news on local news broadcasts and local news rating
related to national news. Elaine thanked Rosenda with a one-year SAAHJ membership
in appreciation for her presentation.
Approval
of the September & August minutes/Secretary’s Report
Carol Schliesinger asked if there were any corrections
or additions to the September minutes. Ed Tijerina made a motion to accept
the minutes as submitted and Joe Sandoval seconded. Carol also asked for a
motion to accept the August minutes, which were not accepted at the
September meeting for lack of quorum. Elaine made a motion to accept the
August minutes, Luis Mercado seconded.
Treasurer’s Report
Carol gave the treasurer’s report on behalf of
Nora Lopez who was not able to attend the meeting. The Scholarship Fund has
a balance of $64,212.96. The Operating Fund has a balance of $7,212.67
Old Business
2007 Scholarship Gala Report
Mary said she is co-chairing the Gala with Nora Lopez.
They are looking for co-chairs and trying to get sponsorship from the
Express-News. Dino Chiecchi will serve as the Scholarship Chair. Mary has also revised the scholarship
application and will email it to Carol to post on the SAAHJ website.
Meeting/Speaker Committee
Elaine explained the objective of having speakers at the
general meetings. We will have a new speaker at the January meeting.
Membership Drive
Mary said the membership ended Oct. 21 Special rates for
dues were reduced to promote registration and the membership drive was extended
past Hispanic Heritage Month.
Approximately 5-6 new members signed up.
Media Mixer Recap
Elaine said the mixer turned out to be a nice event at
Circa. Approximately 15 people attended. Luis said a problem with having
the event at Circa is parking. Mary said we’ll give more details
about parking with the Christmas party invite.
New business
Christmas Party
Christmas party will take place Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. at
Circa. Ed gave a $100 deposit. The total cost will be $500 and members will
not have to pay a cover charge.
Henry Guerra
Award nominations
Nominations and voting for the Henry Guerra Award will
take place during the Nov. general meeting. Members making nominations will
also need to provide a bio for the nominee. Luis Mercado asked about judging
criteria. Mary will forward the criteria to Luis by email.
Latino Forum
Javier Rodriguez asked about the Latino Forum turnout. Ed
Leal gave a summary and said a small group attended. Ed added that Rosie
Castro in the audience, said the SAAHJ can do a lot more and its members
don’t realize how much power the Association has and that power can help make a big difference
in the community. Luis said Sheryl Sculley just hired a person from Florida for a new
position at City Hall. Javier said that doing little things like going to a
classroom and talking to students would help. Ed Leal said we should invite
people like Rosie Castro to the meetings. Elaine responded that even when
the Association has speakers, like Rosenda Rios, at their meeting for members
or students to ask questions, the same group always shows up. Ed Leal mentioned
he has created many opportunities in the past for students and usually the
kids have to be dragged out. Carol suggested having a new student affairs
committee chair. Kris Rodriguez mentioned he usually directs students to
the website, but the information is not always available. Javier added he tries teaching in an interactive
way and connected to the community and suggested we have members go talk to
students in their classrooms once a semester. Carol said the opportunities are very
limited. Javier said we need to have specifics of how the students can
learn and how the Association can we be useful to the students. Ed Leal
said the members are an amazing resource in itself. Elaine said we had the
Latino Forum and very few members showed up. Javier said events like the Latino
Forum need to happen on a yearly basis, it’ll grow and get a momentum
on its own. Ed Leal said getting out in the community is a responsibility
of the organization; it shows ‘lo
mejor de lo nuestro’. Elaine said this will be discussed further in
a board meeting.
Next meeting
Our next meeting
is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18 at Edward’s Aquifer.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:49 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol
Schliesinger
SAAHJ Secretary
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