President Julie Pedretti welcomed everyone to the Press Club of Southwest Florida’s annual meeting Dec. 8 at the Hilton Naples and surprised attendees by personally treating them to a glass of champagne as she called for everyone to raise their glass in a toast to the 27th anniversary of the club.
Annual Meeting. Julie then called the annual meeting to order and announced that members of the club would be voting on a slate of nominees for the Board of Governors as submitted by Nominating Committee Chair Bob Orr and committee members Marqueeta Curtis-Haynes and Hyla Crane. Members then voted on and approved the following:
Officers for 2024:
- Julie Pedretti, continuing as President for 2024
- Bob Orr continuing as Vice President-Administration for 2024
- Tom Marquardt continuing as Secretary for 2024
- Dave Maksymetz, newly elected as Treasurer in September continuing in the role for 2024
New Nominees for Board of Governors for Two-Year Term (2024-2025)
- Wendy Fullerton Powell, VP & Florida Region Director, USA TODAY Network, and Executive Editor, Naples Daily News
- Dayna Harpster, MA, APR, Adjunct Faculty Member in Journalism at FGCU and Communications Specialist at WGCU Public Media
- Sean Martinelli, NBC-2’s Stories2Share producer, and winner of back-to-back National Edward R. Murrow Journalism Awards and 10 Regional Emmy’s
- Sandra Rios, Public Relations and Communications Manager with the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau
Current Governors Nominated to Continue Serving on the Board of Governors for a New Two-Year Term:
- Frank Cipolla
- George Lehner
- Jeff Margolis
Current Governors Continuing for Another Year, to Fulfill Their 2023-2024 Term (no voting needed):
- Connie Kindsvater, Scholarship Chair
- Karla Wheeler, Membership Chair and SCOOP Editor
- Rhona Saunders, Press Club Co-Founder and Governor-for-Life
- Phil Beuth, Governor at Large
- Marqueeta Curtis-Haynes, Governor at Large
- Jill Jaffe, Governor at Large
- Gregg Ramshaw, Governor at Large
Those Rolling off the Board:
- Chris Cifatte, WINK News
- Joel Banow
- Sandra Dee
- Bill Butler, who served as Treasurer through September
Julie thanked Chris, Sandra and Bill for their service to the club. She asked members to join her in offering special recognition to Joel Banow, who was a founding member of the club. Joel has more than 50 years of broadcasting experience and was senior director for the manned space program broadcasts with CBS, where he won a Directors Guild of America award for “Outstanding Television Directorial Achievement” for his work on Apollo 11 coverage. He has been an extraordinary community volunteer and won many local awards.
Moment of Silence. Julie then asked for a moment of silence to remember longtime club members Joan J. Curley, past president, and her husband Dr. Neil B. Curley, who died of natural causes within days of each other in May.
Members and Scholars: New members were introduced, including Catherine Bergerson, Peter Bergerson, Renny Severance and Summer Manning. Scholarship Chair Connie Kindsvater then introduced scholarship students, including Sophia Lowrie, a freshman at the University of South Florida; Layza Pinero Resto, a junior at Florida Gulf Coast University; Emma Rodriguez, a junior at FGCU; and Maddie Laufer, a junior at Florida State University. Maddie was still in school so could not attend.
Lunch: Southwest salad with sliced chicken breast and amazing chocolate cake.
Speaker: The club welcomed new FGCU President Dr. Aysegul Timur, who spoke about “your university,” pointing out how many ties to FGCU there were among members and attendees. Dr. Timur remarked on the school’s 26 years and it being “still such a young, vibrant and very responsive institution.” Titled as a commuter school in 1997, FGCU then had no dorm or athletic programs and few buildings. Dr. Timur presented numbers showing where FGCU is today:
- 15 sports teams
- 16,169 enrollment for fall 2023
- 83 percent from Florida
- 47 percent from Southwest Florida
- 5 million service hours performed by students
- 50 percent of alumni stay in SWFL
- 43,192 alumni through fall 2022
- 6 colleges
- 5 schools
- Average age of alumni: 34
- 59 percent of alumni leave without college debt
- 64 undergraduate programs
- 26 master’s programs
- 7 doctoral programs
- 17 academic certificates
- WGCU serves students and community
- College of education students are 100 percent employed upon graduation; same with nursing students
- FGCU has not raised tuition in 10 consecutive years
- 42 percent graduation rate
We Meet Again: Next luncheon meeting is Jan. 18 at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. The speaker will be Sandy Parker of Sparker’s Soapbox about upcoming elections.
Renew Membership: It’s time to renew memberships, due at the end of January. Dues are $75 a year or $30 for anyone under 30. Watch your inbox for information about options to pay.
Dayna Harpster has worked full time in journalism for 38 years – at weeklies, monthlies, and mostly dailies. She was the editor for Expressions magazine for WGCU Public Media and now works as a communications specialist with the PBS station. She also teaches journalism classes for Florida Gulf Coast University. She was recently elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the Press Club of Southwest Florida.