I’m your newly elected Region 10 director, I work fulltime at The Spokesman-Review, and I’ve been involved with SPJ since 1996 when I was a journalism student at Eastern Washington University.
I give SPJ credit for how I landed my very first job at The Inlander, because I had already met the people who decided to hire me back in 1998 at several SPJ programs #ReasonToJoinSPJ
Over the years I’ve put on a ton of programs, lectures, cocktail hours and spring conferences – we had a great spring conference here in Spokane in April – and I’ve attended national conventions in almost every part of the country, where I’ve met amazing people and learned lots #ReasonToJoinSPJ
Now, I’m uncertain to what the purpose is of this blog – except it’s a way for me to communicate with a geographically huge region without starting an email storm. I suppose the purpose will become clear?
I would LOVE to hear from you, Region 10ers, whenever you have programs or meetings or gatherings, no matter where you are in the region. Let’s share program announcements – getting together with our peers is another #ReasonToJoinSPJ
The best way to reach me is via email: Piah@spokesman.com
You can follow my not very active Twitter here: https://twitter.com/PiaHallenberg

And join my much more active Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/PiaHallenberg
I’ve also claimed a Region 10 Facebook page here – https://www.facebook.com/spjregion10?ref=hl – it’s in its virgin state. Please like it so we can have a central place of communication. (Those of you who already belong to the Region 10 Facebook group: please consider migrating to the fan page – creating a group page was a tactical mistake)

All the best – Hope your hump day is a good one.

Seattle, Washington, January 17, 2011 – Today Region 10 of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) announced its call for entries for the 2010 SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest. The contest honors exceptional journalism published or produced in 2010 in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and Montana in all forms of media (print, online, radio, and TV). Both SPJ and non-SPJ members are invited to participate in the contest.

This year’s contest is getting off to a late start so that organizers could implement a different online contest vendor this year, omniContests. The SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest is officially accepting entries today through 11:59 pm on Wednesday, February 23, 2011. SPJ Regional Director Dana Neuts, a freelance journalist in Kent, Washington, highlights several changes to this year’s contest:

— All entries except General Excellence entries must be submitted online this year.

— Entries can be paid online (preferred) or via check.

— In the Daily Newspaper category, Feature Photography has been expanded from one category to two to include both Feature Photography and Portrait Photography.

— SPJ members will receive a $5 discount on contest entry submissions, $15 for regular entries and $40 for General Excellence entries. Non-SPJ members will pay $20 and $45, respectively.

In the 2009 contest, more than 2,500 entries were received from around the region. An increased number of entries is expected this year. Entries will be submitted to out-of-state judges in March, and he Western Washington Pro and Southwestern Washington/Oregon Pro chapters will present awards to those in their area at banquets in Seattle and Portland on Saturday, May 21. The remaining awards will be announced online that evening and presented by their respective chapter leaders.

To enter the contest online, please visit http://www.spj-northwest.org. For questions, please contact contest administrator Ruth Pettis at 206-781-8097 or contest coordinator Dana Neuts or 360-920-1737.

SPJ FOI Chair Dave Cuillier is taking his “Access Across America” dog-and-pony show on the road, starting April 27. He arrives in the Pacific Northwest next week and will travel throughout Region 10 on this leg of his trip. His mission? To provide national FOI training to journalists and newsrooms. His Region 10 stops include:

May 3:  Portland, Oregon  (Oregon/SW Washington Pro Chapter)
May 4:  Tacoma, Washington  (WCOG & Western Washington Pro Chapter)
May 5:  Yakima, Washington (William O. Douglas)
May 6:  Spokane, Washington  (Inland Northwest)
May 7:  Missoula, Montana  (Montana Pro)

For more info. on Dave’s cross-country FOI tour, funded by a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, visit the Access Across America page at SPJ.org.

So, folks have been asking me about our  Region 10 blog. I admit I have neglected the blog this spring. With too much to juggle, something had to give and this was it…but SPJ life is returning to normal, and I am committed to keeping this blog up to date. Want to help? Send me your chapter news, events and updates so we can learn from each other and share ideas!

Here’s a brief recap of our spring so far:

– February-March:  Approximately 2,500 contest entries were submitted to the 2009 Pacific NW Excellence in Journalism Contest, and passed on to out-of-state judges at SPJ chapters around the country.

– March 1:  Regional Director reports on individual chapters were due.

– April 10:  The Western Washington Pro Chapter hosted the spring SPJ conference in Seattle. With about 150 in attendance, the conference drew about 50% students and 50% pros, a big change from the 25%/75% split usually seen. National SPJ president-elect Hagit Limor from Cincinnati attended the conference which focused on providing skills-based training. The conference also included an awards ceremony to honor student MOE winners. Regional winners will go onto compete at the national level.

– April 17:  As regional director, I attended the national SPJ board meeting in Indianapolis where I learned about SPJ’s proposed budget for the 2010-2011 year; HQ’s plans to launch its new and improved, user-friendly website complete with video training; that the joint SPJ-RTDNA 2011 conference will be held in New Orleans; and more.

– April 20:  Added a Facebook group for Region 10. Join us here.

– April 27:  The last week of April chapter presidents were given the names of contest winners to begin making announcements. The Oregon/SW Washington and Western Washington Pro chapters host a formal banquet, while the William O. Douglas chapter will honor its winners with a less formal BBQ.

What’s new in your chapter? Send your news to me via email or post comments here.

Welcome to SPJ’s Region 10 blog, called The X Factor (for now). The purpose of this blog will be to share news, regional contest updates, training opportunities and ideas for SPJ members in Region 10 (Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana). If your chapter resides in one of these states and you have information to share with the region, please send it to me via email and I’ll be happy to post it for you. I also welcome your comments to my posts and would love suggestions for a new name.

I look forward to working with you!

Dana Neuts
Region 10 Director
www.spj.org