| President’s
Letter
My favorite years
by Roy Harris, National
President; Senior Editor, CFO
 For
ASBPE, progress is measured in 24-month stretches. Our
officers are elected every other year, after all, and tend
to prepare
for their terms by setting goals they’d like to realize
before
they leave. That was certainly true for me when I took over
for
Rob Freedman in 2005.
Of course, a few 2006–7 goals can’t be called
mine alone.
The need to revise our ethics code — what we call Guidelines
for Preferred Editorial Practices — was something that
the
entire board knew had to be done. The previous code barely
recognized that little change in our daily routine called
the Internet, for example.
And putting the code to work on day-to-day issues was the
work of our new
ethics committee. In another case, our desire to establish
a 501(c)(3) charitable
foundation predated my term by several years.
The goals I did bring with me included
pointing our award program toward
recognizing journalistic excellence online as well as in
print, making all four of
our regions more active, and taking our National
Editorial Conference to New
York City for the first time.
Board members stepped forward
As ASBPE
developed its agenda, board members were ever supportive.
(Getting
New York accepted took a while, true. But the enthusiasm
has mushroomed, with
chapter president Warren Hersch and his New
York crew taking
charge of making
programs and activities come together.)
Just as important to the overall thrust of the organization,
though, were the
variety of goals brought to the table by board members. Rob
Freedman, the force
behind our two
business-to-business books, never let up in
his vision of ASBPE
being an educational voice for journalists. Treasurer Ira
Pilchen made things happen
for us financially, still assuring that our grasp was within
our reach. President-elect Steve Roll and Warren turned Webinars into powerful
training tools.
Tina Grady Barbacci guided the
Azbee awards through two of
its biggest seasons.
And we can thank Mary Slepicka and national treasurer-elect
Jyme Mariani for
the drive to rebuild two important chapters, in Southern
California and Dallas-Fort
Worth. These are only a few contributions that together
made this a remarkable
two-year span.
Overcoming frustrations
What hasn’t
gone so well? The progress of getting our 501(c)(3) approved,
for
one. That’s held up other plans for a tax-exempt foundation,
and an increase in
sponsorships. I remain convinced that we can do more to get
publishers to support
ASBPE membership at their titles, giving our membership a
needed boost.
Still, the organization is far more
plugged-in to the national journalism scene
than ever before. And the coming New York Conference will
certainly be an
ASBPE event for the ages. I’m proud of what we’ve
done, and of the platform that
we’ve built for Steve,
Jyme, and vice president-elect Amy Fischbach to use in creating
their own favorite years for ASBPE.
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