MEETINGS
You Want Fries With That BQ, Dude?
They'll be slapping each other on the back and handing out awards left and right at the Bronze Quill luncheon, Fort Worth IABC's annual celebration of Tarrant County communicators and their work.
This year's theme is "Bronze Age and Feather Quill Pens." Organizer Jeff Posey notes that the writing instrument with the longest history is the feather quill pen, whose 11-century run of popularity ended around 1850. The feathers of living birds were considered superior, particularly those of geese (right-handed writers preferred feathers from the left wings, while left-handed writers preferred the opposite).
Writing expanded during the Bronze Age, and Posey notes that some scholars point to the earliest forms of writing as being employed by monks to track their beer production. Could the love of beer have launched what has evolved as professional business communication?
"Barkeep, Bronze Quills all around!"
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 26
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $20, nonmembers $25, students $18 (online sign-up add $1)
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Maximizing an IMC Strategy through Public Relations
It's called integrated marketing communications -- all communication tools working together and delivered seamlessly for maximum effectiveness. While the benefits of such integration have long been touted, the reality is that PR and marketing efforts remain isolated from one another inside most organizations. But there's never been a better time to collaborate.
TCU's Dr. Julie O'Neil will expand on these concepts at the PRSA June meeting. Learn why the growing importance of corporate social responsibility and reputation management means that PR professionals must demonstrate to upper management and marketing colleagues the ways in which their efforts build relationships with stakeholders.
O'Neil, a former board member of both the San Antonio and Fort Worth PRSA chapters, chairs the advertising/public relations division of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in PR, integrated marketing communications and research methods. Prior to joining TCU in 2001, she worked for almost a decade in corporate, nonprofit and agency PR and marketing. Her award-winning research on public relations and IMC has been presented around the world and published in international and national journals.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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They're Gone! So What Did They Do?
Members of the 80th Legislature have headed home, and it's time to assess what they did to and for freedom of information in Texas. Access to public information affects all citizens, not just reporters. Two FOI specialists will tally the scorecard at the June SPJ meeting.
Attorneys Paul Watler and Tom Williams, both directors of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, are back for a return engagement. Two years ago, they briefed SPJ members and friends on Texas FOI issues and the status of shield laws. Watler is with Jackson Walker and is a past FOIFT president. Williams is a libel specialist with Haynes and Boone and a Fort Worth SPJ board member.
Time & date: mingling 6 p.m., eats around 6:30, then the program Wednesday, June 13
Place: Shady Oak Barbeque & Grill, 1600 E. Copeland Road, Arlington (south side of I-30 at the Nolan Ryan Expressway exit)
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students
Menu: brisket, sausage, chicken, plenty of sides, iced tea and corporate parent Spring Creek Barbeque's signature bread; cash bar
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Among the brightest in American letters -- Mary Roach, Nan Talese, Burkart Bilger, William Nack, Kevin Fedarko, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke -- will join headliner Joyce Carol Oates, a three-time Nobel Prize nominee, at the 3rd Annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, July 27-29 at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine. The conference will include a manuscript and article/essay writing contest, with the manuscript winner earning a provisional contract with UNT Press; the 10 best articles or essays will appear in a literary journal jointly published by Hearst Newspapers and the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. The best articles and essays will also compete for $12,000 in cash prizes. To register or for more information, visit mayborninstitute.unt.edu or contact George Getschow, the conference's writer-in-residence, at 972-746-1633, or Nancy Eanes, conference coordinator, at 940-565-4778. ...
Author-columnist Candy Havens, entertainment critic for the Dorsey Gang on 96.3 KSCS, will present "Fast Draft: Learn How to Write a Book in Two Weeks or Less" at the Monday, June 18, meeting of the Greater Dallas Writers' League of Texas at the Richardson Public Library, 900 Civic Center Drive. Starts at 7 p.m.; the public is invited. Havens is considered one of the nation's leading entertainment writers and has interviewed numerous celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Heath Ledger, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon and George Clooney. More on the Writers' League of Texas from Carol Woods at shurlock@flash.net. ...
No summer meetings for the DFW chapter of the American Society of Business Publication Editors, but all things ASBPE, including job leads and a report on last month's meeting, are at asbpedfw.blogspot.com/. ...
The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering up to nine lecturing, research or combined awards in journalism during the 2008-09 academic year in Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Israel, the Maldives, Syria or the West Bank. U.S. citizenship required. Deadline: Aug. 1. More info and an online application at cies.org/us_scholars/. ...
The Religion Newswriters Association is offering scholarships of up to $5,000 to full-time designers, editors, freelancers, photographers and reporters who want to take religion courses at accredited colleges or seminaries. Recipients do not have to cover religion to participate in the Lilly Scholarships Religion Program. Deadlines: July 1 and Oct. 1. Call Amy Schiska, 614-891-9001, ext. 3. ...
The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association's Excellence in Journalism Awards recognize coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in print, broadcast, online and photojournalism. Initial publication/broadcast must have occurred between June 1, 2006, and May 31, 2007. Postmark deadline June 15. Winners will be honored at the NLGJA national convention Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in San Diego. More at the NLGJA web site.
