2020 is Off to a Great Start!

Dear NABJ:

The year 2020 is off to a great start thanks to your various contributions and involvement!

On Feb. 14-15, we held our annual “NABJ Presents: The Basics Bootcamp,” providing training, tips and tools for hundreds of attendees. The event was held at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, and included dozens of sessions with expert trainers and influential speakers like Kelley Carter, Roy Wood Jr. and Judge Tammy Kemp. Hats off to event organizer and VP-Print Marlon Walker, our Board members, planning team members, staff and all of the trainers (including some of our Founders) who helped to make the event a success. 

I was proud to spend time with our attendees and flew in from Chicago to facilitate an intimate training session on broadcast writing. It is important to me to engage with our members at every level. You can read more about all the many offerings of “The Basics” in this edition. Learn more about our upcoming Millennial Media Summit in New York on March 7 in the “Jobs & Training Opportunities” section. I am also happy to report that we will host conferences in all four regions this spring. More information can be found at NABJ.org and in this newsletter.

Since the start of the new year, we have been hard at work in our commitment to providing you with the services and resources necessary to help you navigate today’s media landscape and work effectively at the chapter level. And that commitment is highlighted by the Board’s focus on ensuring that it is also trained to operate at the most productive level possible. During our January Board meeting in Birmingham, we participated in various training modules throughout the weekend focused on effective engagement, goal setting, teamwork, accountability and more. We also took time to brainstorm about how to further NABJ’s impact as an advocacy, educational and career advancement organization. I am proud to say that we have already hit the ground running with finding unique ways to bring more training and support to our members.

We have already held the following webinars thus far in 2020 thanks to the support of our regional directors and task force chairs: 

• Jan. 20 – Doing the Most: How Chapters Can Maximize Productivity When Help Falls Short 
• Jan. 16 – Guide to Finding an Awesome NABJ Mentor (and Being One)
• Feb. 5 – Pay & Perks: How to Negotiate Salary & Beyond 
• Feb. 19 – “PeakMetrics: How Media Monitoring Software Can Help You Do Your Job Better” 

We will host additional webinars in the coming days and weeks, including: “Rules Review: A Refresher on Parliamentary Procedures & Bylaws,” “Longform Magazine Writing 101” and “The Do’s and Don’ts of Reporting and Copy Editing.” You can learn more about them in this issue or register at NABJ.org.

Thank you to all of our Board representatives, Founders, members and friends who joined me last month in Washington, D.C., for the United States Postal Service’s unveiling of the Forever Stamp for our beloved member Gwen Ifill. I was honored to have the opportunity to speak about what Gwen meant to us. The event was breathtaking and inspired all of us to continue carrying out NABJ’s great mission and our work as journalists, journalism educators and communicators. 

I also want to thank all members and chapters who helped us to complete our Job Satisfaction Survey last month. We will come back to you soon with the results of our survey as we have collected important data that can help drive change in our industry. 

I am thrilled to share that thanks to the contributions of our members and supporters we were able to raise a combined total of more than $10,000 to support our new Help Members Excel Fund (for hardships) and scholarships and training, as a result of our Giving Tuesday and year-end campaign. It’s not too late to donate. Look for opportunities on our website and registration forms or visit this link.

It has been more than six months since you gave me the honor of serving as your President. I am grateful that you have entrusted me with leading our great organization. I want to ensure you that I will continue to work hard to deliver on my promises and address your needs and concerns. Here are just some of the additional things we have been able to accomplish since I took office in August 2019.

• Launched the NABJ Editor Database to connect members with hiring managers
• Launched the Each One Reach One Membership Drive, which also offers convention discounts for members who refer friends
• Launched a new scholarship with Medill/Reuters and an internship with the NFL/Sports Task Force
• Enhanced the Salute to Excellence Awards recognition process
• Launched #NABJAdvocacy Day, during which Board members advocate at local newsrooms, stations and media companies as a part of our meetings
• Launched the NABJ Diversity Institute in conjunction with Executive Director Drew Berry and Board input
• Renewed our focus on NABJ’s Career Center and advocating for press freedom
• Enhanced how we use data collection to inform advocacy and training
• Launched the President’s Challenge to put money back into our chapters
• Launched “Chapter Chats” to stay connected to our chapters
• Created new formats for committee and task force leadership teams to diversify gender, age and location 
• Increased webinar offerings to provide more training opportunities 
• Commissioned a Media Entrepreneurship Survey that we will release in the coming weeks, which will inform the development of entrepreneurship programming

While we’ve got so much more work to do, I am excited about what we have accomplished and what’s in store for the future. Please enjoy this first issue of our new monthly newsletter “The NABJ Roundup!” Thanks to editor Kathy Chaney and her team for helping to bring it to life.

Yours in Service, 

Dorothy Tucker, NABJ President