eChaser: March 2009 / p3

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NEW MEMBERS

SPJ ... Darren White, Community Media Group ... Beth Francesco, UTA Student Publications

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Andra Bennett House, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Do you think President Obama is saying, “Only three years, 11 months to go”? It’s one heck of a first quarter, that’s all I know.

As every enterprise at every level is reviewing its business model and budget, so is GFW PRSA. Your volunteer elected board is evaluating all aspects of the chapter, from programs, special interest groups and service projects to our registration software and luncheon expenses. Bottom line: We want to provide the best value to you, the member. And we want to be good stewards of our funds and finish in the black!

A priorities survey is on its way from PRSA national, and your chapter might conduct its own “all things Fort Worth” poll. Check your e-mail, and of course feel free to relate suggestions to the board or committee chairs at any time. Our e-mails are at fortworthprsa.org/about/board.htm.

There’s no luncheon this month, following the Best of the Southwest Communicators Conference the first weekend in March. Our April 8 program will feature creative guru Brian Pierce on how to make people notice your writing. That’s also our Pro-Am Day with ACU, TCU and UTA. Please sign up when you get the e-mail from Jahnae Stout or Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA, for a student shadow that morning. Details in the next eChaser and online at fortworthprsa.org.

Also in April, mark your calendars for Saturday, April 11, for the Komen Tarrant County Race for the Cure, the non-competitive 5K run/walk. We need 10 members to field a team. Contact community service chair Cindy Vasquez at cindy@cancercareservices.org ASAP and join us in an invigorating activity for an important cause.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth

Here’s the 411 on IABC FW, IMHO IABC rox! If you haven’t rsvp’d for the kewlest lunch b4 today, DIY ASAP. Internet speak is the wave of the future and writing for the internet is something we all need to know. IMHO you won’t regret it. It’s EZ to do and you’ll be ROFL by the end of lunch. K? CUL8R. xoxo b.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

Of milestones and warm memories. I didn’t really know Jim Kunde until I attended his memorial service. I left mourning not only his family’s loss but my own. I should’ve made the time to be around this man, for he was something: educator, conservationist, fun-loving dad, avid fly-fisherman, indomitable long-odds optimist, a true servant leader and champion of the marginalized and warrior in his fight against Hodgkin’s disease. A devoted husband to Diana, with whom I worked on the FW SPJ board. A great city manager (Dayton, Ohio), by all accounts. A clever trainer/consultant on assignments for the UTA School of Urban and Public Affairs in the Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro. A faithful voice in the Northwest Christian Church choir. A doer of the word as a leader of the church’s ESL program. Jim had attitude, and the attitude was positive. My loss. ... “I just wanted to let you know that my dad, George Burlage, a member of SPJ (or as he preferred, SDX) passed away Nov. 30, 2008. He became a member while an undergrad at the University of North Texas in 1960 and continued his proud affiliation with SPJ until his death. He was 90 years old and had retired from his public affairs position at the FAA in 1983. ... Of course you can include this in the newsletter! There might be someone still around who remembers my dad. He used to comment that he had outlived most of his colleagues. ... He always put himself on e-mail lists using my e-mail, but he had no idea how to turn on a computer. He said he retired just in time — right before the advent of computers. He used his old manual typewriter faithfully. He was an old-school journalist. Thanks so much. Georgianne Burlage (also a member of SPJ while at UNT a few decades ago!)” ...

Thanks, Chance Welch and Andrew Young, for the photos of our journalism conference at TCU, and Laura Van Hoosier, whose PRSA pictures brighten every p. 2. Without you, the eChaser is just a bunch of words. ...

Last call for the SPJ Region 8 Conference, March 20 and 21 at the Hilton Hotel. Twenty-nine presenters, 13 professional development sessions, hands-on video training, networking and three rounds of good eats. The recently laid off get in for half price (limited to the first 40 deep-sixed journalists whose $50 registration is received). Checks and registration forms need to be in hand by March 14. Proceeds benefit scholarships. It’s all here and here and here. ...

Sunshine Review is now posting proposed legislation for each state. Check the list and see what’s transpiring of a non-transparent nature. Any government class should start here. ... SPJ national’s mentor match-up program pairs young journalists with industry and academic veterans to offer valuable perspective and networking potential. Sign up online, and SPJ will make a match for you. ... The Frontline Editors Project, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, offers ideas and other resources for those who edit, manage and lead from the front lines of today’s newsrooms. The site offers online training, resources, books and articles, a discussion forum and more for assigning editors looking to learn how to be more effective in their jobs.

Closing words: “That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he’s (Barack Obama) the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn’t, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally.” — conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson responding to interviewer Dan Gilgoff’s question, “So you don’t subscribe to Rush Limbaugh’s ‘I hope he fails’ school of thought?” ... “For nearly four years you have had an administration that instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a campaign speech in Madison Square Garden

Closing words II, Strunk and White edition: “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” and: “It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.” — William Strunk ... “Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don’t have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace.” — E.B. White