Date: Saturday, March 18, 2012
Location: AFTRA – Los Angeles, California
Presiding Officer: Beverly White, BJASC President

I. Introductions

II. Elections

a. Review of those nominated
b. Nomination speeches
c. Members and board elect new positions

III. Meeting Changes

a. Per newly elected president, Earl Hutchinson, meetings will be changed to 2pm start time
b. Starts next meeting, April 21st

IV. American Public Media – Marcello Sawyer

a. Reaching out to local BJASC chapter and opening door to positions that are open there
b. Embracing diversity
c. Openings: SoCal Public Radio in Pasadena; Reporter/Producer position; Editor
d. Can contact Marcello at Msawyer@americanpublicmedia.org

V. Kony 2012

a. Discussion on the public meltdown of incident and controversies surrounding the video
b. Suggested to check out Counterspin/FAIR site which looks at media reporting and what elements and details may be missing in a story

VI. Lisa Cox – NABJ National Secretary

a. NABJ 2012 National
• Registration deadline – May 15th
• Magic Johnson potentially coming, discussing new TV projects
• Still awaiting attendance confirmations from: Obama, Gingrich, Romney
• Salute to Excellence Honorees: Peter Thomas, Monica Pearson

b. Round of layoffs at Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News

• Sarah Glover & John Mitchell
• Find statements on the website

VII. Sue Simmons Leaving WNBC

a. White male co-anchor staying

VIII. Dodgers Baseball African American Heritage Day

a. Sunday April 15
b. Checking interest as a chapter in attending

IX. Billy Johnson – Yahoo! Music Editor

a. Being on cover page for big music stories – MJ, Whitney, Kanye vs. Taylor Swift etc…
b. What Yahoo! Is doing
• Emphasis to bring together all entertainment properties and unify YahooTV, YahooMusic, OMG etc..
• Cross promoting
• Making sure all stories have video

X. UNITY Update (by Herbert Sample, on committee for UNITY discussions)

a. UNITY committee has had 5-6 conference calls
b. Expect report later this year about what the committee suggests about rejoining with UNITY – Decision not to come until at least October
c. Tentatively approved to have NLGJA (National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association) as a part of UNITY
• NLGJA want UNITY to change from journalists of color
• October a decision will be made on changing the name and having a group that isn’t ethnically based
• NLGJA has for years tried to become part of UNITY. UNITY has always said no, but now under consideration again to bring money into the convention

d. President Greg Lee’s Requests:

• Independent auditor on revenue sharing formula
• If going to be on UNITY board, individual must have been on the board of their respective group
• US House Model – number of reps on board delegated by number of members in their organization
• Non journalists serving on the board
• Random draw of UNITY officers

e. NABJ wants funding formula deal that is more lucrative to NABJ than it has been. Funding formula depends on how many groups are in UNITY.
f. UNITY needs NABJ because of the number of people we bring in to the convention
g. BIGGEST ISSUE – Changing the name of UNITY and taking off the ‘Journalists of Color’

Minutes Written by: Seshmi Robertson