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Vol. 22, No.1/Fall 1999

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Notes from the Chair
The News Division Wants You!

Ginny EverettBy Ginny Everett

It takes a village and more to make any far-flung organization truly dynamic and useful to its members. The News Division has always been just such a resource for its members, and this year we continue that tradition.

The News Division's membership includes people with a tremendous range of expertise - whether it is in technology systems, archiving and organizing information, designing and implementing intranets, research or marketing and public relations - you name it, we've got it. The Division is a source of information and advice for new members, veteran members and beyond our membership to others in the profession of journalism and in library and journalism schools.

We hope that all of you share your knowledge by lending a hand in the projects and activities of the various committees of the News Division.  Equally important, we invite you to let us know the concerns and issues that you would like to see us address as a group.  Between now and the 2000 conference in Philadelphia, News Division committees will be hard at work - helping provide conference programs, devising ways to reach out to potential new members, writing standards, looking ahead, finding ways to raise the visibility of the division.

The Automation-Technology Committee, led by Justin Scroggs of Time, Inc., will be breaking into subgroups to provide useful services to our membership such as vendor lists and technology standards as well as coordinating with other news associations.

Our Publicity/Public Relations Committee, led by Jeff Graveline of the Tuscaloosa News, will be coming up with a new News Division brochure, and looking for ways to get it into the hands of potential members as well as new members.

Our Stategic Planning Committee, led by John Cronin of the Boston Herald, will be looking into the future and coming up with a recommendation for where we need to be as a division in the new millennium - specifically in the next five years.

For the first time in many years, we have a Diversity Committee, led by Jacci Cenacveira of the Los Angeles Times. Jacci's committee will continue the research begun this year by Jacci and look for ways to attract and retain a more diverse membership.

We also have filled our Government Relations post for the first time in a number of years. Heidi Yacker of Congressional Research Service, will keep us abreast of legislation or legal rulings that affect news division members, both as researchers and as publishers.

Our International Relations Committee, headed at this writing by Phyllis Lyons of the Freedom Forum, will be working with Debra Bade and others on the News Division's role in Brighton 2000.

The Small Libraries Committee, once again headed by Marcia MacVane of the Portland Press Herald, will be coming up with ways to make newspapers with small or no libraries aware of the resources of the division.

If you'd like to get involved in News Division activities, contact me or any other officer or committee chair. Even though we are mid-way through the year, it is most definitely not too late to get involved. You'll see on page 2 of NLN this year's officers and committee chairs, complete with telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Believe me - committee chairs would welcome any ideas you may have and would love to recruit you as a volunteer.

Ginny Everett is the head of the library at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her email is geverett@ajc.com


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