December 2003 Newsletter
Jodi Leong starts Gridiron 2003 with "All Dat Stuffs"
Gridiron 2003: Media Molesta
Gridiron 2003 was a success. The show took in nearly $49,000, about a $1,000 more than last year's show.
Based on the show's revenue, the board of directors has
approved up to 14 summer internships again for 2004.
Many thanks to the cast and crew, who worked so hard on their own
time to bring song and satire to another level Oct. 24-25 at
Diamond Head Theatre.
Keoki Kerr and Garett Kamemoto were co-producers, and Donna Bebber oversaw the stage production as stage manager. Corin Overland was music director.
Cast members were:
Photo by Bruce Asato
Gordon Pang displays new UH logo
Top designers conduct workshop
News design takes centerstage Feb. 7 at the University of
Hawaii Campus Center Ballroom.
Top professionals will conduct a daylong workshop for the Society
for News Design, co-sponsored by the University of Hawaii School
of Communications and the Hawaii Chapter, Society of Professional
Journalists.
This one-day workshop is for designers, photographers, artists
and editors.
Featured at the workshop will be Tracy Collins, deputy editor of
visual content for the Arizona Republic; Bonita Burton, business
design director for the San Jose Mercury News; and Tim Harrower,
author of “The Newspaper Designer's Handbook.”
You can register online at www.snd.org or print out this form..
International Journalism
Susan Kreifels, vice president of the SPJ Hawaii Chapter, was part of a national SPJ delegation invited to attend the first East Asia Journalists Forum in Seoul in October.
The SPJ delegation joined journalists from Australia and Germany as observers.
The SPJ also presented a resolution supporting the East Asian journalists in their efforts to raise the standards of journalism in their region.
The December edition of Quill will run stories on the forum, including one written by Kreifels.
Kreifels was also asked to be a member of the national SPJ International Journalism Committee.
Better Watchdog session at UH Crawford Hall
Better Watchdog sessions
Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists “trained” many local journalists how to be better watchdogs.
Some 55 people - including some from the Big Island and Maui -- attended the Nov. 8 event held in the auditorium of Crawford Hall on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.
They learned how to organize their notes, discovered wonderful new search engines to find even the most hard to find people, found out how to do that crucial interview and reviewed how to check tax reports of nonprofit organizations from veterans such as Jim Dooley of the Honolulu Advertiser and Robert Lopez of the Los Angeles Times.
Better yet, they recharged their reporting skills.
Some general tips from Brant Houston, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors:
Some basic tools or techniques:
Viglielmo elected president of the chapter
2004 Regional Conference is in San Diego
Get ready for speakers, workshops and networking. Print,
broadcast and online newshounds from throughout the West will be
in San Diego to see how journalism is really done.
The San Diego Pro Chapter will host the Society of Professional
Journalists
Region XI conference March 19-21, 2004.
Conference topics include post-mortems on the California Recall
Election and San Diego Wildfires, ethics in the wake of the
Jayson Blair scandal, and the latest in online journalism, as
well as practical advice on landing your
first job, managing your career and succeeding in the freelance
world.
The conference is being held in association with the West Coast
chapter of
the Radio-Television News Directors Association and will include
many
speakers from the broadcast industry.
The early bird conference rates are $125 for professionals and
$75 for
students.
The San Diego Chapter has negotiated a special hotel rate of
$119,
which is good for three days before and
after the conference for members who
want to spend more time in San Diego.
Online registration for both the
conference and the hotel are available at www.sdspj.org.
Dates of Interest
Sunshine Law questions
When do two Honolulu City Councilmen showing up at a
closed-door session held by another set of government officials
constitute an official meeting subject to the state Sunshine Law?
It depends on whom you talk to.
The state Office of Information Practices said their attendance
at the meeting wasn't covered by the Sunshine Law.
The state Attorney General's Office disagreed and said it was
covered by the open meetings law.
The issue centered on two City Councilmen attending a
transportation brainstorming session in March with the newly
elected governor and other government officials.
There were complaints about whether the two councilmen could meet
behind closed doors even though the meeting was not directly
related to their duties.
Council Chairman Gary Okino stayed and Councilman Nestor Garcia,
Council Transportation Committee chairman, decided to leave
because of the objections.
Deputy Attorney General Charleen Aina based her opinion on the
chance meeting that forbids board members from using social
occasions to circumvent open meeting restrictions thqt
deliberations toward decisions be done in public. Also, she said
the law allows the Council to assign two or more Council members
to investigate matters but the Council had not done so.
Office of Information Practices Director Leslie Kondo wrote the
Council members, telling them that one of them didn't have to
leave.
Kondo said the law permits two councilmen to discuss matters in
private as long as no commitment to vote is made or sought. He
said the law also permits the Council to assign less than a
quorum to investigate matters.
"The issue has come up in the context of multiple members of
a board attending the same seminar, legislative hearings,
meetings of private organizations and meetings called by other
county, state or federal government officials, agencies and
boards," Aina said.
But Kondo said: "Unfortunately, there appears to be grave
misunderstandings of the Sunshine Law, and more specifically, the
circumstances in which council members can discuss matters
privately or attend social functions."
Please report potential Sunshine Law violations to: spj@flex.com
'Aha'ilono: reporter, messenger, bringer of news
'Aha'ilono is a newsletter of the Society of Professional
Journalists-Hawaii Pro Chapter.
We welcome news stories, commentaries, letters, tidbits and other
items of interest concerning professional journalists in Hawaii.
Submit items to P.O. Box 3141, Honolulu 96802, or call Stirling
Morita on Oahu at 529-4755 (fax: 529-4750).