By Tim Stephens, APSE President
Deputy Managing Editor, CBSSports.com
When our Convention Committee sat down in Indianapolis earlier this month to finalize our summer conference workshop lineup, I asked the members to focus their attention to “hands-on” mentoring opportunities.
At a time when so many of our members are asked to pay their own way, we wanted to make sure we were offering them something tangible to take home: New skills.
I believe our lineup, which you can see here, offers exactly that : http://apsportseditors.org/conference-2014/
My hope is that it also offers sports editors the ammunition they need to make a case to their managers: Investing in their development by sending them to the APSE summer conference will benefit their entire newsroom. When their sports editor returns home and immediately implements things they learned at the conference, their sports department will improve and those skills can be replicated in other areas of the newsroom.
We also made small newspapers a priority in our planning. I asked John Bednarowski of the Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal to survey small-newspaper editors at Indianapolis for ideas; several of those suggestions are among the final lineup. You might see others at region meetings in the future. I think we have found a good balance between big and small, big-picture and specific hands-on training. And hopefully we’ll have a few more nice surprises on the way.
I’m also thrilled to announce we’ve lined up Butch Ward of Poynter Institute to conduct two management seminars. Butch and colleague Jill Geisler delivered an immensely popular management workshop at our Boston conference a few years ago. I’m glad to say it is back by popular demand. If you’ve never heard Butch speak, make sure you can attend.
Butch Ward is senior faculty and former Managing Director at The Poynter Institute, where he teaches leadership, editing, reporting and writing. He worked for 27 years in newspapers, at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore News American, and was managing editor in both newsrooms. Before joining Poynter in 2005, Butch spent three years being covered by journalists as Vice President for Corporate and Public Affairs at Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. Butch has taught and facilitated programs for print and broadcast newsrooms and for journalism associations, including the Committee of Concerned Journalists, American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors. He has taught leadership and narrative writing to journalists in South Africa and Australia, and has helped lead specialized Poynter conferences on subjects ranging from gun violence to America’s New Veterans to the impact of social media in election campaigns. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Butch lives in Wallingford, Pa., with his wife, Donna, who helps run the library for a kindergarten academy of 250 students. Their daughter, Caitlin, is pursuing a nursing degree. Their son, Coley, and his wife, Suz, live in Newton, MA, with Cassidy, the most beautiful granddaughter in the whole, wide world.
Butch also graciously offered to conduct one-on-one management training sessions, beginning at 9 a.m. June 26. Having attended two of these myself over the years, I can speak to their effectiveness. You’ll learn something that will make you a better manager and make your department better. And you’ll make a mentor for life. Because of the limited availability of these sessions, they are only open to sports editors from Class D papers (under 40,000 circulation) or first-year managers in a higher classification. They will go first-come, first-serve to registered attendees. Please email tim.stephens@cbsinteractive after you have registered here if you wish to be considered for these sessions. You can register here: http://apsportseditors.org/conference-2014/
If you have never been a member of APSE or left the organization for any reason in then past, I urge you to join us now for 2014-15. We’re conducting a spring membership drive for new members. We also are offering a lowered registration rate rates for the convention for small newspapers and websites. You can get more details here. http://apsportseditors.org/how-to-join/
