Feb. 10, 2010 — Board Room, San Mateo Daily Journal. The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m.

Present: Jon Mays, Micki Carter, Dave Price, Marshall Wilson, Melissa McRobbie,
Darryl Compton. Absent: Ed Remitz, Jamie Casini, Kristy Blackburn, Antonia Ehlers

Minutes of January were approved as read.

Treasurer’s Report: No change from last month.

Evening of Excellence: Darryl will check to see if June 5, 12 or 19 will work for the Crowne Plaza since the room they offered for our first choice was unacceptable. If those dates don’t work, Darryl will check with other venues.

A discussion on possible speakers followed. Among the suggestions, Willie Brown, Ward Bushee of the Chronicle, Dave Eggers of Panorama, the Google exec who can talk about the economics of the news business and someone from the Bay Area News Project. A decision will be made at the March meeting.

Professional Development Workshop: Micki reported that she couldn’t do any work on the Math for Journalists workshop this spring. Other topics were suggested: Ins and outs of getting news from the San Mateo County Courthouse, how to get mug shots of defendants, how to cover teen suicides. Members were asked to return with firm ideas at the March meeting.

High School Journalism Project: Jon suggested the club by ads in the local high school papers as a funding resource. Micki urged the group to consider a broader approach such as creating an ad consortium that would allow local merchants to buy into all the San Mateo County high school papers at one time. She also mentioned purchasing national ads through a group like Alloy Media which offers national ads for college papers. More discussion on this will follow.

The board also focused on using the SFPPC Web site for posting media resources such as the workshops from the September boot camps and online media kits.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Micki Carter, Secretary