===========================================================
GET A JOB
The city of McKinney seeks a part-time graphic designer for project work. Send résumé and samples to marketing director CoCo Good, cgood@mckinneytexas.org.
===========================================================
NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Amanda Churchill, Fort Worth ISD ... Jennifer Eggleston, Fort Worth ISD ... Donald Ellis, Fort Worth ISD ... Melia McFarland, EECU ... Sarah Anne McDaniel-Langhorst, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport ... Kara Lyn Peterson, Americredit
===========================================================
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Laura Van Hoosier, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
What’s on your New Year’s resolution list? If you’re like me, a few of the items mirror pledges from past years. I call those my “rollover list.” I’m determined to stay true to most of my resolutions, but I’m realistic that I may need to fine-tune a few far-reaching hopes.
As for professional goals, your 2008 Board of Directors will have a retreat
later this month to map out key objectives. I know for certain that we’re committed to providing meaningful programs alive with information that you
can use — right now.
Take the Jan. 16 (third Wednesday this month) program with Emily Callahan from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Emily recently spoke to the Tulsa PRSA
chapter and received rave reviews. Special thanks to PRSA member Ashley Wesson Antle for sharing her chapter’s great experiences with Emily.
Also, please add 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Feb. 21 to your calendar. We’re finalizing the details on a not-to-be-missed professional development program
in conjunction with TCU that will center on new media/social media with a
nationally known author. PD chair Lauren Burkett, Dr. Julie O’Neil and I have been dialoguing nonstop for just the ideal presenter.
I’m thankful to all of our board members and committee chairs who will be
volunteering their time to add value to your local membership. Throughout the
year, I’d love to hear your suggestions and requests. Keep my e-mail handy — lauravanhoosier@msn.com. I pledge to get back to you, and come December 2008 I’ll tell you how that exercise plan went!
I hope the New Year brings you happiness, personal and professional success, and
much joy.
-----
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth
New year, new resolutions, new ideas! In 2008 I resolve to: • prepare my Bronze Quill entry early so I will be ready for the call for entries
during spring break • get my eChaser columns in on time, every time • strive for new and inventive ways to connect the IABC membership.
In my seven years in IABC, I have seen example after example of how this
organization benefits members and nonmembers alike. You already know about the
professional development, leadership opportunities, access to IABC’s Research Foundation and local, regional and international competitions. What
you may not know are how the relationships established through luncheons and by
volunteering on committees are invaluable.
They come back in the form of references on résumés, knowing about job openings before everyone else and knowing a potential new
employer and new friends. If you are not a member of IABC yet, please consider
joining us for a luncheon and see what you think.
Now that I can catch my breath, I want to thank you for your support during
2007. We’ll see you at our first luncheon of 2008 on Jan. 22 with UTA’s Dr. Paul Paulus. He will share his wisdom with our group on how to obtain the most productive
solutions during brainstorming sessions.
-----
OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
If you ever have a chance to see Gary Cogill live (vs. taped or on TV), take it. He’s quite a speaker, funny, animated, an encyclopedia of movie lore. A theater major who went to school on a wrestling scholarship, he can do dialect
— good dialect — Shakespeare, rolling stanzas from classic scripts, and throughout, he seems,
how to put this, genuine. He covers Hollywood, but he’s not Hollywood, you know what I’m saying? He added immeasurably to the IABC/SPJ/PRSA book benefit and holiday
romp in December, which, by the way, generated $764 and 402 books for the
readers library at the county hospital. The Coors hospitality room seats 70
people, and 72 signed in. They picked a good night to show up. ...
Note the big blue flyer on p. 2 for the Paul LaRocque- and Jack Raskopf-engineered Careers in Journalism/Mass Communication Conference, Saturday, Feb.
16, at TCU. To register or to help, e- prrock@mac.com. There’s no regular meeting in February, and for a few moments on the last day of 2007
there was no location for the January meeting, either, when Shady Oak Barbeque & Grill in Arlington called with the news that it and the next-door Mexican Inn,
both owned by Chris and Becky Carroll, are closing until the oppressive construction on, by and for the pleasure dome
lightens up. And Star-T columnist Jim Reeves, the night’s speaker, was counting on a robust helping of barbecue, too. Think he’ll accept a plate of Joe T. Garcia’s enchiladas instead? ...
This visually spiffed-up eChaser and the accompanying redesigned SPJ web site
were spurred by a friend’s comment that their predecessors didn’t look “modern.” He was right. Glad he had the nerve to say so. Happy New Year to him and to you
and to truth tellers everywhere.
Closing words: “What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald ... “The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than
that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other
apparent purpose, for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem
and the science of metaphysics.” — H.L. Mencken ... “If any question why we died, / Tell them because our fathers lied.” — Rudyard Kipling, one of the millions of parents to lose a son in World War I
news/views
the industry / tools of the trade
organizations
antidote
send additions for the list to:
