By Lois Self
Executive Secretary
Greetings, NINA friends! As crisp, golden days of Fall arrive, the word from NINA headquarters at NIU is, "Send us your best!" I'm excited about our upcoming conference on Oct. 27 and a new best-clip contest.
Following NINA's successful recent workshops on writing, Lonny Cain and
board members have put together a conference to assist you and your paper's
staff in really "going for the gold."
We'll gather for a day of networking and professional development. We'll
hear a Pulitzer winner and a Pulitzer judge tell us how it's done. Then
we'll celebrate with the winners of NIU Journalism's annual newspaper contest
over a scrumptious buffet lunch, recognize potential co-workers who win
our college newspaper excellence awards, and pass out some gold in the form
of hard CA$H prizes to best-clip contestants. Sound like fun? Take five
minutes now to mark you calendar and send in your conference registration
and best-clip entries today, before this gets buried on your desk!
Your officers and I also want your best ideas for future NINA activities
and programs. Especially as coordinator of the journalism contest our department
has historically sponsored for NINA members, I want your ideas and help
in keeping strong this tradition of recognizing journalism excellence in
our region. We've invested a great deal of time and energy in improving
entry categories, rules, and judging to insure a high quality contest in
recent years. This year we were, frankly, disappointed by a drop off in
entrants, even among some past regulars. Of course, I know with frequent
staff turnovers, things like contest deadlines sometimes get lost in the
shuffle.
Please don't hesitate to contact me directly, though, if you have any concerns
about the contest, status of your membership or thoughts about other ways
NIU and my office can contribute to NINA's mission. I do hope to see you
all at this year's conference and to see your newspaper represented in the
contest next year. We're actively committed to continuing quality journalism
and journalism education and I know you are, too.
News from NIU's journalism program is good. Fall classes are packed;
we now have more than 200 journalism majors. Student interest in both print
journalism and in broadcast is growing. As resources permit, we are upgrading
our facilities. This year we also increased involvement of professional
journalists in our teaching and internships. For example, Allen May, a 20-year
veteran reporter who came to us from a position as anchor and head of investigative
reporting at the NBC affiliate WTMJ in Milwaukee, is teaching broadcast
news. Future student prospects look good from this summer's largest camp
for high schoolers in recent years.
Finally, the legacy of success of our journalism alumni also continues strong.
The program recognized NINA board member Lonny Cain, editor of the The Daily
Times (Ottawa), who won the Donald R. Grubb Distinguished Alumni Award last
April. And, the university presented alumnus Robert Reed, Editor of Crain's
Chicago Business, with a Distinguished Young Alumni Award last summer.
Here on campus, as in NINA, we have lots to be proud of and we value our
contacts with you. We'd be delighted to see NINA alumni and friends at
our Homecoming Tent at the Oct. 7 NIU football game and plan to see you
at the Fall conference. 'Til then, best wishes for a golden fall.