Minutes of NINA Board of Directors Meeting
Friday, June 20, 2008
Northern Star, Campus Life Building, NIU-DeKalb
Board members present (12): Sharon Boehlefeld (president), Jim
Slonoff (treasurer), Mike Cetera, Denise Renckens, Rick Nagel, John Etheredge,
Joe Corrado, Lonny Cain, Pete Nenni (1st VP), Colin O'Donnell, Dirk Johnson
(executive secretary), Jim Killam (communications coordinator).
Board members absent (8): Kim Kubiak (2nd VP), Randy Swikle, Greg
Rivara (past president), Pam Lannom, Jay Dickerson, Penny Wiegert, Wally
Haas, Roger Ruthhart.
Guests present (1): Kristen Turner.
Boehlefeld called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
Minutes of the March 21 board meeting were approved.
Treasurer's report: Slonoff reported a checking account balance of $10,573.30. Savings account balance is $5.94. Expenses since the last meeting include travel expenses for the spring conference e speaker ($309.78), the Billy Goat gathering in Chicago ($748), the NINA scholarships given by the NIU communication department ($2,000) and NINA's $1,000 donation to the Dan Parmenter scholarship. About $3,000 in revenue has been received, from conference and workshop registration fees and from dues.
Report accepted unanimously (Johnson motion / Cain second)
Executive secretary's report: Johnson said the June 12 panel discussion in Chicago was a big success. About 90 people attended, and many attended the social event afterward at the Billy Goat. The event was sponsored by NINA, the Chicago Headline Club and NIU. Office space was donated by the law firm of Mayer Brown LLP.
President's report: Boehlefeld nominated Kristen Turner to fill the board seat vacated by Josh Albrecht, who resigned in January. The board approved unanimously.
Program committee: Nenni said the Spring Conference, with Curt Chandler from Penn State, went very well, with about 42 paid registrants and lots of positive feedback. For the Oct. 24 Fall Conference, the tentative theme is "How to make yourself more valuable to your company," emphasizing learning new-media skills and dealing with change in the industry. The committee will work to schedule presenters. Slonoff suggested a separate fee for attendees wanting to attend the conference only, as a possible way to boost attendance from non-members.
Education committee: Etheredge, for Kubiak, thanked the board members who helped judge and publicize the high-school scholarship competition: Renckens, Nenni, Negel, Corrado and Killam. In turn, board members thanked Etheredge for again organizing the competition.
Membership committee: No report.
Resource committee / communication coordinator: Killam said the summer newsletter should be done by next week; some of the material already is on the Digital Ink blog. Blog traffic has spiked to more than 300 this week due to publication of the video reports from the Chicago event.
Killam also mentioned that Dr. Steve Ralston, chair of the NIU Department of Communication, has resigned to take a position at Marist College in New York state. Dr. Jeff Chown has been named interim department chair for 2008-09.
Old business: None.
New business: Boehlefeld asked the board to consider a donation to the Iowa Media Employees Disaster Relief Fund. A number of newspaper employees lost their homes in the flood. The board approved a $300 donation (Nagel / Corrado).
She also mentioned the idea of NINA obtaining a new Web-site address,
rather than being a division of the Northern Star's Web site. Killam said
he has checked domain availability, and nina.com is definitely not a journalism
site. He will look for and buy an appropriate domain name and transfer the
site to it this summer.
Update: We have purchased ninaonline.org.
Discussion also turned to whether the word "newspaper" in NINA's title should eventually be changed to include new forms of media, and potentially even television and radio stations. The board agreed this could be an ongoing discussion in the coming months. Thoughts and ideas are welcome.
Next meeting: Friday, Sept. 12, at the Northern Star.
Meeting adjourned at 10:50 a.m.
Minutes submitted by Jim Killam,
communications coordinator, 6-23-08.
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