Awards for distinguished service

This year, our chapter will honor two local people with Distinguished Service Awards, the highest honor this chapter bestows. Brian Tucker, publisher of Crain's Cleveland Business, and Anthony Kozlowski, communications consultant and longtime board member for our chapter and the Ohio SPJ Awards, will both win awards for their contributions to excellence in journalism. Congratulations!

Also honored at the June 13th luncheon we'll be holding at the City Club, 850 Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland, will be the yet-to-be-announced winner of the Phillip W. Porter Scholarship for the coming four years. Every year this chapter selects a graduating high-school senior who intends to pursue journalism, for this $1,000-a-year, four-year scholarship. Past winners are listed in the Porter Scholarship section of this website, while winners of the DSA from other years are listed under Other Awards.

Details will soon be announced concerning registration and ticket sales for the June 13 luncheon. Meanwhile, we await the Porter Scholarship announcement as our committee reviewing the applications, headed by Anup Kumar of Cleveland State University, conducts the final interviews.

_{The SPJ Cleveland Google Calendar helps you keep track of our events. Bookmark it! For details on each event, click the title to open its information box.}

Here are some examples of recent programs....

Ethics Feud

Did you know that the International Association of Business Communicators has its own Code of Ethics, that is comparable to the SPJ Code of Ethics, for which our organization is so famous?

On Thursday, April 12, we had an all-out contest to find out who's more on top of their organization's ethics code. A team of journalists faced off against a team of business communicators at the City Club, and the journalists lost, but only on the final question, after leading almost the entire time. We at SPJ Cleveland were proud to be represented by Leo Jeffres, recently retired journalism professor from Cleveland State University. Three others on the journalists' team were Becky Gaylord, an independent communicator formerly with the Plain Dealer; Randy Roguski, business editor of the Plain Dealer; and Scott Suttell of Crain's Cleveland Business.

Congratulations to the four business communicators who beat us in a "Family Feud"-style, professional game-show with a professional emcee from Rock the House Entertainment. They were Kelly Blazek, Barb Payner, Mark Crowley and David Meeker. They deserve applause for their ethics as well as their game-show skill.

Tips for independent journalists

Developing "entrepreneurial" journalism skills

Our program on Feb. 22 featured four longtime local journalists who make a living from freelance writing and editing, teaching, consulting and other contract work. They described how they have successfully navigated the sometimes choppy waters out there. Their stories of triumph and trial, their advice and their tips for success were gratefully received by a roomful of aspiring and practicing freelancers.

For a writeup that includes some of their tips, see the Feb. 27 Writer's Week, as well as this blog entry by Maria Shine Stewart.

Do check out the websites, books and blogs of our speakers:

John Ettorre: Writing and editing consultant, author of the blog, Working with Words

Maria Shine Stewart: Writer, editor, writing coach, teacher and tutor, owner of Make Your Writing Shine and author of the blog Wordsanctuary Revisited. as well as a weekly column in Inside Higher Ed.

Eileen Beal: Medical writer and author, specializing geriatric and caregiver issues, general health/wellness and medical training. Her frequent articles for AllHealthcareJobs.com are conveniently collected and updated here.

Mary Mihaly: Author, editor, magazine writer and speaker. Her latest book, The 250 Questions Every Self-Employed Person Should Ask, is right on topic – and right on her website, linked to above.

County government ethics:

A followup one year later

On Jan. 1, 2011, a new county government took office, pledging a clean sweep to rid Cuyahoga County of the corruption that plagued its predecessors. At that time, we held a program featuring Richard Condit, of the Government Accountability Project in Washington, D.C., who praised the proposed code of ethics drawn up by a workgroup under the Transition Advisory Committee. Most of that proposed code has been incorporated into an ethics ordinance passed by County Council in April. In addition, the county now has an official charged with enforcing it and ensuring that ethics permeates the culture of the county: Inspector General Nailah Byrd.

County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who made ethics his top priority in his first year in office, led off our Jan. 11 panel discussion about the progress the county had made to date on this issue. To bring perspective to the issue, Lynda Mayer of the League of Women Voters, who is the league's county observer and was chair of the Code of Ethics Workgroup that proposed the code largely adopted by council, joined the panel. Our third panelist was Harlan Spector, former county government reporter for The Plain Dealer, who covered most of the council meetings on the new ethics ordinance. Also attending and participating in the discussion was Councilman Dave Greenspan, who chairs the council committee that dealt with the ethics ordinance and has worked closely with FitzGerald on bringing about the institutional changes that are making it work today, such as the office of the Inspector General.

Here's a link to a story that appeared the next day in the Toledo Blade, by reporter Tom Troy, who travelled to Cleveland for our luncheon. Maria Shine Stewart wrote about the event in her blog, Wordsanctuary Revisited, on the weekend. There is also a writeup in the Writer's Week for Jan. 13. Thanks to everyone who attended, wrote stories and blog entries, asked questions and contributed in other ways to the success of this venture. Thanks also to Cheryl D'Mello, who took the photo of the audience below, and Jerry Masek, who took the photo of FitzGerald speaking and chapter president Carrie Buchanan taking notes, at left above. Special thanks to the participants in our panel and those who helped make it possible for them to be involved. We really put on a great program, folks!

Take our survey

It you're a chapter member or someone who's thinking of becoming a member, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey: click here and it will take you to the questions. The survey is designed to tell us members' preferences in programming, including location and time or day. If you have been thinking of attending programs, but unable to do so, make sure you let us know why. If you have enjoyed particular programs more than others, let us know that too. Here is your chance.

Election Post Mortem

SPJ Cleveland hosted an Election Post Mortem on Tuesday Nov. 15 to discuss the issues that dominated. We focused particularly on Issue 2 (on future of public sector collective bargaining rights) as well as Issue 3 (on health care) and the eventual impact of the strong No vote on Issue 2 and Yes vote on Issue 3.

Our excellent panel included Joe Frolik, chief editorial writer for the Plain Dealer, Henry Gomez, political reporter for the Plain Dealer and Professor Richard Perloff, internationally known scholar in persuasion, political communication and news media from Cleveland State University.

Breaking News, Breaking Down

On Sept. 6, director Mike Walter was in town for a screening of his movie about journalists who covered 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, jointly sponsored by SPJ Cleveland and the campus SPJ chapter at Cleveland State University. The 40-minute documentary, which won awards at Cannes, Sundance and several other film festivals, discusses how journalists handle their own emotions after covering traumatic events,

We are grateful to Mike and Kathleen Walter for visiting Cleveland, speaking at the evening event and, the next day, to a couple of journalism classes, and joining the campus SPJ group at John Carroll University for lunch on Wednesday.

If you missed this excellent film, or saw it and want your own copy, it is now available for a very reasonable price from PBS.org here. It comes with a classroom session and teacher's guide included.

Cleveland Press Nostalgia Night

Our second annual Nostalgia Night, on June 30, focused on the late, great Cleveland Press, which folded on June 17, 1982.

We met at the Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State University's Michael Schwartz Library, Third Floor. Curator Bill Barrow put on a terrific program for us, we heard from several Cleveland Press alumni who shared stories of the glory days, and we elected our new board for SPJ Cleveland for the coming year. The board members' names and bios are at the Chapter Officers tab. Also find them in the July 2 Writer's Week (permanently available in the Archive – see box at lower right for access), which includes a writeup of the Cleveland Press Nostalgia Night and some excellent photos from the event.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the event, especially the Cleveland Press alumni and alumnae who came, shared their stories and made our event really special.

There are more ways than ever to learn what your chapter is doing 

Chapter president, Carrie Buchanan, has for the past couple of years spearheaded the Writers Week that came to your e-mail in-box so faithfully. She is assisted by editing and design student Elaine Wilson.

Not subcribed yet? You can subscribe for free - there's a link in every edition of Writer's Week plus one on this page, in the column at right. Past issues are also available in our online archives -- see the button at lower right for access.

Secretary-Treasurer Tom Moore manages our Facebook Fan Page, and we have a Facebook Group you can join as a member, too. Our name on Facebook, if you're searching from your own site, is Society of Professional Journalists Cleveland Pro Chapter.

But that's not all. We are on Twitter as ClevelandSPJ. Check us out at https://twitter.com/ClevelandSPJ and sign up to follow our Tweets for the latest news!

The board of directors (see Chapter Officers for profiles of board members) has been hard at work this year, led by first VP and program chair Cheryl D'Mello.

Events in 2011 included:

Jan. 10: Creating an Ethical Culture. Speaker Richard Condit, from the Government Accountability Project came from Washington, D.C. to join members of the Code of Ethics Workgroup, who prepared the proposed Code of Ethics for the new Cuyahoga County Government, to describe and explain the reasons for key elements of the proposed code.

Jan. 31: SPJ welcomed a delegation of broadcasters from Kyrgystan to a luncheon at John Carroll University's Tim Russert Department of Communication and Theatre Arts.

Feb. 23: Luncheon with Debra Adams Simmons, the new Plain Dealer editor, co-hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists.

April 28: Networking Night with The Press Club,at Nighttown, 5 to 7 p.m. 12387 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights.

May 12: Luncheon at the Doubletree Hotel for winners of our 2011 Distinguished Service Awards and Phillip W. Porter Scholarship. Noon to 1:30 p.m. See the blurb above and the archives Writer's Week following this date for more info.

June 30: Our annual meeting, which once again took the form of a Nostalgia Night. This year we celebrated the late, great Cleveland Press in a special evening at the Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State University, with curator Bill Barrows and several Cleveland Press alumni who shared stories with us.

July 28: The Art of Self-Publishing. A panel of experts, including Peter Jedick, author of four books and member of our board, and Joanne and Ron Humphrey, owners of Windjammer Adventure Publishing in Chagrin Falls, to advise you on how to publish your own work. Beachwood Public Library, 6:30 p.m. No admission charge.

Sept. 6: "Breaking News, Breaking Down" – a film about journalists who covered 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina with its director, Mike Walter, was our program commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9-11 and the sixth of Katrina.

Oct. 22: The Ohio SPJ Awards were presented at a luncheon in Cleveland at Windows on the River in the Powerhouse at Nautica.

Oct. 29: Stress Management for Journalists. A holistic medicine practitioner spoke about self-care and treatment options, and we practiced relaxation. Details above.

Nov. 15: Election Post Mortem at the Riverside Park Brank of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, with panelists Joe Frolik and Henry Gomez of the Plain Dealer and Richard Perloff of Cleveland State University.

Dec. 7: Communicators' Holiday Party. While our big party was canceled due to low number of signups, we had a less formal get-together that worked really well.

2012 Events

Jan. 11, 2012: Ethics in County Government: A Followup One Year Later. County Executive Ed FitzGerald, plus Lynda Mayer of the League of Women Voters and Harlan Spector of The Plain Dealer discussed progress toward creating an ethical culture at Cuyahoga County.

Feb. 22: Entrepreneurial Journalism, with John Ettorre, Eileen Beal, Mary Mihaly and Maria Shine Stewart, four local independent writers who have made a living from writing and editing for years and were happy to share tips, stories and advice.

March 23-24: Region 4 Conference "Rebooting Journalism" in Lansing, Mich., with SPJers from four states: Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

April 12: Ethics Feud with the International Association of Business Communicators, Cleveland chapters.

And there is more in the works!

If there's something you'd like us to consider doing in future that would help you and other Northern Ohio journalists, send chapter president Carrie Buchanan a message at spjcleveland@me.com and we'll talk it over at our next monthly meeting. Members and friends are always welcome to attend the monthly meetings, even if you're not on the board. These meetings, like all our programs, are open to all, and the dates, times and locations are published in Writer's Week and on the Google calendar.

Latest site update May 7, 2012.