KCABJ Newsletter for August 2015

KCABJ News
KCABJ members at the August membership meeting critiqued the 2015 KCABJ Urban Student Journalism Academy and picked the four scholarship winners from the six students who were enrolled this summer.

The scholarship recipients will be announced at the KCABJ Media Awards set for Nov. 14. KCABJ members also decided that they would review print and broadcast entries that members bring to the September meeting as potential candidates for media awards. People who want their work considered should make sure their membership dues is current in order to have their work reviewed. The recipient of the KCABJ President’s Award also will be announced at the awards program.

Members in discussing the academy said that the students all exhibited a lot of hustle. Their stories have been edited and are ready to be copy edited and laid out for the 2015 KCABJ Journal, which The Kansas City Star has annually printed for KCABJ.

KMBC-TV, Channel 9 has already produced the student broadcast. Copies just have to be made to present to the students at the awards program. KCABJ academy coordinator Glenn E. Rice, also KCABJ vice president/print, put together the curriculum for both the print and the broadcast week. KCABJ Treasurer Bette Tate-Beaver stayed with the students throughout the broadcast week. Glenn and KCABJ President Lewis Diuguid and Bette were with the students for the print week of the program at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley.

Most of the speakers were strong and provided good information for the students. Bette pointed to one speaker during the broadcast week who was not worth inviting back in 2016. Glenn pointed out that it was a struggle to get some broadcasters to commit to speak to the students. Bette complimented KMBC-TV, Channel 9, saying people at the station went out of their way to help the students learn more about broadcast journalism. In addition to doing their newscast, the students got tours of the station and the trucks that go out on assignments. Bette said she made sure to work with the students to ensure that they dressed appropriately to be on camera, having them text her pictures of what they planned to wear.
NABJ News
The National Association of Black Journalists held its 40th annual convention in Minneapolis, attracting hundreds of journalists from throughout the country. New officers were elected. Sarah Glover is the new NABJ president, defeating Mira Lowe. Glover is a social media editor at NBC owned stations. Glover had been defeated by Bob Butler in the 2013 presidential election. The NABJ Monitor, which reports on the convention, said that the new president and NABJ officers will have to contend with the organization being $227,137 in the red. NABJ Finance Chair Greg Morrison was quoted, saying the organization hoped to make up the shortfall with projected revenue from the NABJ Hall of Fame event in December.

KC People
KCABJ members who attended the NABJ convention were Kia Breaux, Lewis Diuguid and Bette Tate-Beaver. Lewis received the Angelo B. Henderson Community Service Award on the morning of Aug. 8. The big awards program was that evening. Former KCABJ members who were at the convention included Mark Holland, LaVelle Neal, Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Greg Moore. KCABJ academy graduates who were at the convention included Gary Cotton and Miesha Miller. For more information about the convention go to nabj.org or check out nabjmonitor.org.
The next meeting of KCABJ will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 19 at The Star.