June 10, 2009 — Board Room, San Mateo Daily Journal. The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m.

Present: Jon Mays, Jack Russell, Micki Carter, Marshall Wilson, Ed Remitz, Peter Cleaveland, Dave Price and Darryl Compton; Absent: Jamie Casini and Melissa McRobbie

Minutes of the May meeting were approved as read.

Treasurer’s Report was accepted. Darryl noted that the Mercury News, Daily News Group and Examiner haven’t paid for the Evening of Excellence dinner, and the Daily News Group hadn’t yet paid for their contest entries. He added that he had invoiced Hillsdale Shopping Center for the high school contest bills but hadn’t yet received reimbursement.

Evening of Excellence June 6

The Evening of Excellence dinner was reviewed. Darryl reported that there were 113 at dinner although only 104 made reservations. The club probably lost about $400 on the dinner with a net profit of about $1,300 on the contest. Most participants liked the idea of lumping all the dailies in one category. All agreed that Darryl had done a remarkable job on the event.

Jon reported that he had received a letter from Bruce Balshone, a local blogger, who was upset about the negative tone toward bloggers at the dinner. The board discussed a way to bring bloggers into the club. Jon will invite Brad Kava, Balshone, the Coastsider and others to an upcoming meeting.

Prior to the dinner, the board voted 7-0 by email to offer two $1,000 high school scholarships and one $1,500 college scholarship rather than the usual one $1,500 scholarship for each category. The scholarships were presented at the dinner.

High School Contest

Micki noted that the representatives of the Eastside College Prep Panther were delighted to be invited to the awards dinner and to be recognized for their General Excellence honor. We will continue to introduce the winner at the Evening of Excellence dinner but will announce the winner at the high school reception.

High School Project

Jon reported San Mateo High School had submitted a funding request for a locked metal cabinet for the San Mateo Hi newspaper office. Marshall will check out the availability of such a cabinet at the county surplus furniture sale next week.

Town Hall Meeting

Marshall reported that a joint meeting with Rep. Anna Eshoo isn’t likely to work so he suggested a meeting in Burlingame during the summer. He will talk to Mike Garvey.

High School Boot Camp

The board settled on Sept. 18 for the High School Journalism Boot Camp at CSM. Ed will look for a larger room for the opening session. We will also look for a speaker. Marshall suggested Peninsula TV’s Studio in a Box for one of the sessions. Micki will contact Paul Sakuma to see if he can get the same speakers again. We will not do an adviser session at the Boot Camp but rather look for a later date as a retreat for advisers only.

Professional Development Workshop

The board decided to delay this until early next year. Jennifer Aquino will be invited to do a presentation on multi-media.

Scholarships

The club will ask Herb Caen Scholarship applicants to include a personal statement with their application.

Summer Picnic

Sept. 13 from 2-4 p.m. at the home of Micki Carter and Mike Venturino.

CSM Newspaper

The board discussed the threat to the continuation of a newspaper production class at CSM. Ed will keep us informed if action by the club would be useful.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Micki Carter
Secretary