L to r – NPC President Carole Greene, Eric Crum, Oscar Santiago-Torres, NPC Scholarship Committee member Rhona Saunders, Andrew Friedgen
As many of you readers of SCOOP know, Sandy Reed—our NPC secretary for several years who also posts our SCOOP to WordPress—moved to Boston last month. Although the board members really miss her already, at our November 14 board meeting, Karla Wheeler stepped in to take the minutes. Without those minutes, I would have difficulty knowing what to tell you. I get so involved in presiding at the meeting that my notes look like someone wrote them in Sanskrit.
We spent quite a while making sure plans are in good shape for our December 5 holiday party and annual meeting. By the time you read SCOOP, that event will have passed and we will have elected a new secretary. For our January board meeting, Ann Cardamone will take over the secretarial chores. The board won’t convene in December—my gift to everyone was no meeting this month!
We also discussed several technology issues: creating and maintaining a consistent brand across all NPC communications platforms, accessing our member database, providing whatever speakers need for their presentations. I hope to have more to report to you on these matters in the January SCOOP.
Program VP Randy Jones talked about speakers scheduled and some he hopes will say yes for the one or two spring luncheons that haven’t yet been finalized. I’ll toss out a tease by saying he mentioned some household names as possibilities. Don’t want to divulge them until they are confirmed, but I think you’ll say WOW!
An ad hoc committee plans to honor Phil Lewis—long-time NPC member and recently retired (and loving retirement!) Naples Daily News editor—at a special event in late January. We’re looking at the possibility of a “happy hour” occasion, but nothing’s chiseled in granite. The committee is also working on criteria, nomination guidelines, etc., for an annual award to a local or regional journalist, to be called, as of this writing, The Phil Lewis Freedom of Information Award. Also not set in stone. But you get what we’re going for. If you have great ideas to share, contact Gina Edwards or Phil Beuth.
Rhona Saunders and I represented NPC at the FGCU “President’s Scholarship Luncheon,” where we honored three of our current NPC scholarship recipients: Eric Crum, Andrew Friedgen, and Oscar Santiago-Torres. I want us to keep in mind that, in addition to enjoying the camaraderie and fascinating presentations at our luncheons, we want this club to continue to fund and mentor scholarship students. If anyone is considering year-end charitable donations, please remember our NPC Scholarship Fund. Look elsewhere in SCOOP for details.
Two new committees we discussed will plow ahead. To provide more support for the book authors in our membership, we’ll support a sub-organization that will be an Authors & Books Group. Several people indicated an interest and will gather to organize and see what they want to do with it. Watch for an e-blast on that. The other will work toward hosting a Documentary Day to screen three to five documentary films. February is possible, but the exact day will depend on availability of the films and their creators. Anyone interested in working on that project may contact Randy Jones.
As I close out my first year as your president, I say thank you for all your support, and I eagerly look forward to next year. Thanks to the efforts of all, the club grows bigger and better. Keep up the good work!