NAHJ Votes to Explore Chapter-Based Organizing
During Historic Fall Board Meeting
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The NAHJ board voted this weekend to craft a plan by early next year that will permit the association to create local chapters and affiliated organizations in cities and colleges throughout the United States.
"Among minority journalism organizations, NAHJ is almost alone in not having local chapters," NAHJ president Juan Gonzalez said. "We need to change our structure to better serve our growing membership and to better influence coverage and hiring decisions at local media companies."
Details of the plan and proposed rules and regulations to govern new chapters and affiliates will be prepared over the next few months and will be voted on at the board’s next meeting in February. The final proposal will then be submitted for approval to the organization’s membership.
Other actions taken by the board as part of a work plan for 2004 that was adopted during its Oct. 17-18 meeting in Los Angeles included:
- The first-ever joint meeting with the California Chicano News Media Association to discuss ways to unify the efforts of both groups to improve diversity in newsrooms throughout California.
- Launching NAHJ’s own leadership institute for mid-career journalists
- Sponsoring receptions around the country to introduce NAHJ’s new Spanish-language stylebook. The stylebook is the first resource guide specifically geared for both print and broadcast journalists working in Spanish in the United States.
- Organizing a series of nationwide workshops with Alberto Gomez Font, the director of Español Urgente EFE news agency on the proper use of Spanish in news coverage in the United States.
- Co-sponsoring seminars across the country with the Open Society Institute to provide more information to the Spanish-language media on how the civil liberties of immigrant communities have been affected by government actions since Sept. 11.
Founded in 1984, NAHJ’s mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation’s newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the country’s Latino community.
With more than 2,000 members, NAHJ is located in Washington, D.C.
