President Carole J. Greene
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we’re not just a bunch of old-fogey media pros meeting once a month to eat and gab with our friends. Our Press Club of Southwest Florida has attracted some top people in their fields. At our March meeting, the board spent some time talking about ways to showcase the experience of our members to inspire, teach and mentor one another. Over a period of time—perhaps several years, since our membership continues to grow—we’ll find ways to bring you programs and presentations by various NPC members. Look elsewhere in this issue of Scoop to learn of an upcoming program featuring one of our members. You will definitely want to attend!
Scholarship Committee Chair Phil Beuth reported that a potential scholarship student was interviewed and seems promising. He has some others in mind. Stay tuned for more announcements as the work of this essential committee proceeds.
If you attended the February luncheon, you know how touched Phil Lewis was to be the first recipient of the Phil Lewis Prize. Our March board meeting allowed a good amount of time to discuss the best way to formulate and process an annual journalism competition that will culminate in the awarding of the Phil Lewis Prize. Phil Beuth and Gina Edwards are gathering several other NPC members into a journalism competition committee to oversee the rules for and judging of entries. They will also coordinate the awards presentation in the fall. We feel this competition will bring even more honor and prestige to our club.
By now, you have received and—I hope—reviewed the club bylaws with the changes the board approved at our March meeting. They were last amended in July 2006, after some unusual situations arose. Clubs such as ours do experience ups and downs. Right now we seem to be on an upswing, as our outstanding programs, support from Naples Daily News and our many new members demonstrate.
Back in 2006, however, the club was in transition and needed to redefine goals and operations. You’ll see that some elements of those bylaws have not been needed in the last few years. It was high time to make the bylaws reflect the way we actually operate, and to operate according to bylaws that were up-to-date. The amendment process started at the March board meeting. Then a majority of individual board members voted to approve the bylaws as amended. Now it’s up to you. We need your aye or nay vote for the bylaws as amended. Our club secretary, Ann Cardamone, is our official vote counter, so e-mail her your vote at tcagraphics@aol.com. We’ll tally all votes on April 9, in time for our April 10 board meeting. If you failed to receive them, let me know and I’ll get them to you.
The NPC board is also growing. Rhona Saunders, already a board member, was appointed to the position of 1st VP-Administration to fill the remainder of Phil Jason’s term. We have invited Penny Fisher, Community Editor at Naples Daily News, to join our board. What a nice win-win for both of us! A new NPC member has expressed an interest in coming onto the board as an appointee who could then stand for election in December. I’ll let you know if this expression of interest develops into a sure thing!
How rewarding it is when a new member steps forward to help in the operation of the club. We always need members to get more involved. Think of what you could do to aid YOUR club. Have an idea for a program or a field trip? Tell someone on the board. Have a skill we could use? Speak up. A list of officers and governors appears in the “About Us” section on our naplespressclub.org website. We all look forward to hearing from you.