Note to readers: The 2012 Society of Professional Journalists Membership Drive runs Sept. 4 to Oct. 4. As membership chair, I’ve assigned myself the task of sharing the stories of members around the country through a series of Q&A posts. If you would like to share your thoughts via Q&A or in a guest post, email me@hollyedgell.com. We are also interested in hearing from people wondering why they should join and former members who have constructive ideas about how SPJ can serve the profession. Please share these posts with non-members! 

Q&A with Susan Stabley, Greater Charlotte SPJ

Stabley is a reporter at the Charlotte Business Journal. She and fellow Greater Charlotte SPJ members are in the thick of Democratic National Convention happenings, and the chapter is making itself useful to journalists who are covering the convention.

Edgell You and your fellow journalists are going to be covering the heck out of the DNC this week. The Charlotte SPJ chapter held a seminar this summer to help reporters get ready. How did it go?

Stabley Turnout was fantastic. We sold out and had to turn people away. It was standing room only and attendees came from as far as New York. The response was a phenomenal validation of the chapter’s work, especially that of our program director Cheryl Spanhour and Frank Barrows, our president. It’s one thing to think you have a great idea, a concept for a program. Our instincts told us there was a demand, a need for professional training. But you never really know until the program is out there.

Edgell Not everyone gets a national party convention in their backyard. Still, to what degree do you think timely tools and resources are draw for new members and a tangible value for current members?

Stabley Does the nth degree count as an answer? Newsrooms and broadcast stations can’’t afford continuing education. The new hires these days are cheap labor, right out of school that can be exploited, and as a result, there’’s a high burn out. Veterans are getting driven out, and media outlets then lose their institutional knowledge. The survivors are exhausted and dejected. Organizations like SPJ must provide support or our craft will be unable to fulfill its mission. There’s a reason why journalists became journalists, and it’s not the money. But we can’t continue to do our jobs and keep the faith without reinforcement. And it’s just not happening in the workplace right now.

Edgell When did you join SPJ and why?

Stabley Before I worked at the Charlotte Business Journal, I worked at a sister paper, the South Florida Business Journal. My real estate editor was Darcie Lunsford, a longtime leader in SPJ locally and nationally. She was always promoting the organization. I called her up a couple years ago, frustrated with the lack of a journalism community in Charlotte and asked her what I needed to do to start a chapter. She gave me advice and the right contacts at SPJ National, and then I turned to other journalists that I respected in the city and, we made it happen.

Edgell Perhaps equally important, why do you remain a member? For example, what are the elements, resources, or tools you find most relevant and useful?

Stabley Journalism is the greatest job in the world and it’s also one of the most stressful. There’ are days that turn into total nightmares. Worse still, is the quality of journalism overall. There’ are outstanding reporters out there but there’’s also a lot of crap. Our role is essential to a healthy democracy. Communities suffer when there’s no watchdogs. Or worse, when people instead get garbage news that just makes them more ignorant and irrationally angry. SPJ on the chapter level allows journalists to reenergize each other and also mentor each other. On a national level, SPJ sets a bar, enforces ethics, celebrates excellence and guards our First Amendment rights. We need this, perhaps now more than ever.

Edgell Fill in the blank. Life without my SPJ membership would be _____________.

Stabley How about: “Life with my SPJ membership is like sweet ice tea on a sunny, humid day. Refreshing. Just what I needed to beat the heat”.

Follow @CharlotteSPJ on Twitter for details and information about the DNC

More about the SPJ Membership Drive: Toolkit and Calendar included!

Why join SPJ?

Tuesday, Sept. 4 marks the first day of the 2012 Society of Professional Journalists Membership Drive. At the heart of what we are doing this year is encouraging members to reach out to friends and colleagues to encourage them to join our ranks.

There are three components:

1. Each one reach one (E1R1): One member makes an effort to recruit one person
2. Twitter Power Push: Light up the Twitterverse with information about SPJ > #joinspj
3. Programming: Making the most out of chapter events and meetings to engage new members

You can find details about each of these elements right here. 

As your membership chair, I’ve assigned myself the task of sharing the stories of actual members through a series of Q&A posts here on this blog.

Regional Directors have been sending me the suggestions for members to interview, and I welcome members to self-nominate! Basically, I’m asking five questions in an email that the parties in question answer.

And here’s a novel idea: I invite former members out there to share their stories, perspectives and/or ideas on how SPJ can serve the profession to use the comments section or even email me@hollyedgell.com about 400-500 words as a guest post.

Day 1: Cue (or queue) the Q & A

Check this blog Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. Central for the first Q&A post of the drive. It comes from Greater Charlotte Pro Chapter member Susan Stabley, a reporter at the Charlotte Business Journal. She and fellow chapter members are in the thick of Democratic National Convention happenings, and the chapter has been making itself useful to journalists who are covering the convention.

Follow @CharlotteSPJ on Twitter for details and information about the DNC.

Watch this space! (And, if you’re not a member, read this).

Protests, grandstanding, goofy t-shirts and hats — oh, and presidential politics. Covering a national party convention in an election year is a tough job, and SPJ members in the Carolinas are getting ready to tackle it. In fact, they’re practically shouting, “Bring it on!”

On July 28, Greater Charlotte SPJ will host a day-long event, “Ready, Set, Go: Preparing To Cover DNC 2012,” to prepare journalists, academics, and insiders for what could be the story of a lifetime. The seminar will be held at UNC Charlotte Center City, and promises to provide context, tips, and insights across media platforms. I asked chapter president Frank Barrows four questions about the seminar.

EDGELL: What’s the excitement and/or stress level among your members as the Greater Charlotte Chapter gets closer to the big day?
BARROWS: Many of our members will cover the convention or its impact on the city for their news organizations. I think, generally speaking, the best word to use to describe our members’ attitude toward the arrival of the Democratic National Convention in early September is dedicated. The folks I’ve talked with are resolute in their determination to do the best possible journalism, and to that end a good number of them have signed up for “Ready, Set, Go: Preparing To Cover DNC 2012.”

Register for the seminar via Eventbrite

EDGELL: This event seems like a great way to provide a service to journalists in your area. How did the chapter decide to do this and what key elements did you want to include?
BARROWS: The idea was hatched by Cheryl Spainhour, who teaches journalism at UNC Charlotte. She realized that most of the reporters who come to the convention in Charlotte from nearby media outlets will have had no experience with national political conventions. We wanted to provide them with an overview of the history of conventions, as well as, most importantly, practical advice from veterans who’ve been-there-and-done-that.

EDGELL: What does the convention coming to town mean for journalists in your region? Seems like this could be one of the highlights of an entire career.
BARROWS: It’s a great opportunity to do significant journalism, and we’re hoping that our seminar will help them. Our speakers include Rob Christensen of the News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina’s senior political reporter and a veteran of 10 conventions; Charles Bierbauer, dean of the University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, who worked nine conventions during his time at CNN; John Ensslin, national SPJ president, who covered the Democratic Convention in Denver in 2008 for the Rocky Mountain News; and WCNC‘s Carrie Hofmann, a producer at a Denver television station during that convention.