TOP 10 REASONS TO JOIN SPJ CLEVELAND

Career Services & Support...

1) The national Sigma Delta Chi Awards have honored the best in journalism for more than 80 years. The Ohio SPJ Awards (spjawards.org) annually honors the best of Ohio's print, radio, online, trade and television journalism.

2) The Society’s Foundation annually presents the $75,000 Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writers. The fellowship allows writers to increase their understanding of a particular subject so they can better serve the public.

3) The Society’s Mark of Excellence Awards recognizes outstanding college journalists at the regional and national levels. The national winners are honored at the Society’s National Convention. The Cleveland Pro Chapter annually awards the $4,000 Philip W. Porter Scholarship to a graduating high school senior planning to pursue journalism as a career.

4) The Pulliam/Kilgore First Amendment and Freedom of Information Internships are paid internships that offer students the opportunity to study, research and write about Freedom of Information issues.

Journalism Advocacy...

5) The Society’s Freedom of Information Committee coordinates all areas encompassed by our Freedom of Information initiatives, including SPJ’s Legal Defense Fund efforts, the FOI Alert, Project Sunshine and working closely with our legal counsel in the nation’s capital. The committee led the fight to ensure that the Iran/Contra report was made public.
Locally the Cleveland Pro Chapter has been instrumental in answering reporter’s questions about freedom of information and assisting in the first-ever statewide public records audit in Ohio.

6) SPJ’s Legal Defense Fund wages court battles across the country to secure First Amendment rights. The fund also supports state Freedom of Information hotlines, computer bulletin boards and organizations that resolve First Amendment conflicts before they require costly litigation.

In 2003/2004 the Cleveland Pro Chapter counseled students at Wooster High School, resulting in a legal settlement that clarified the rights of students to publish their newspaper and required the school board to spell out a policy that would prohibit the superintendent from summarily confiscating the newspaper without consulting with the student editors.

7) Project Sunshine is the Society’s grass-roots campaign to improve the ability of journalists and the public to obtain access to government records and proceedings. The program surveys and monitors newsrooms across the country, publishes guidelines and legal advice for sunshine legislation and provides educational workshops and seminars.
State Sunshine Chair Richard Hendrickson (rhendrickson@jcu.edu) has successfully counseled journalists across the state on sunshine matters, ensuring that local governments respect and adhere to open government laws.

Continuing Professional Education...

8) When you read Quill Magazine, the Society of Professional Journalists’ national magazine, you have your finger on the pulse of American journalism — its challenges, opportunities and responsibilities.

9) Professional development through events such as our Sharpen Your Skills workshops, designed to provide low cost, high impact training for all journalists.

And most important of all…

10) When you become a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, you’re also joining a network of 10,000 journalists nationwide who are working to fulfill the Society’s mission to improve and protect journalism by strengthening access to information, responsible reporting and writing and accessing outstanding resources.

You can join SPJ securely online with a credit card by clicking here.

To learn more, email SPJ Cleveland's 2010-11 Membership Committee Chair Carrie Buchanan by clicking here.

Society of Professional Journalists
Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Center
3909 N. Meridian St.
Indianapolis, IN 46208
(317) 927-8000  Fax: (317) 920-4789