Present:  Ron Martz, Don North, Leif Skoogfors, Lou Hansen, Otto Kreisher, Salome Angrand, Sig Christenson, Michelle Pendleton

Sig is the recording secretary today, filling in for Carl. The board meeting begins at around 11 a.m. and runs 95 minutes.

Ron's e-mail message to the board: We will have another conference call Saturday 10/25 at 12 noon Eastern time to get updates on this year's conference. That will be slightly less than three weeks from the conference. We have filled the two remaining panels, military justice and ethics and access. OSD has opted out of the ethics and access panels but we have gotten Rick Kiernan a former Army PAO thanks to the work of Otto, and Richard Willing, spokesman for the Office of Director of National Intelligence and a former USA Today writer. OSD will provide someone for the military justice panel.

Discussuion
We have a new flier and are beginning to distribute it. Contact Salome if you want some of the fliers and wish to distribute them. We'll be distributing them to the Pentagon this week.

Agenda

1. Salome: Update on finances, conference registration, award plaques, programs, and other logistical issues related to the conference.
2. Don: Updates on Thursday night social, keynote speaker, and photo/video panel.
3. Ron: Update on military justice and ethics and access panels.
4. Other updates, as necessary.

Discussion & Action

3) Mil justice and ethics panels.
We may have four people on the ethics panel. Andy Schotz, chairman of the Society for Professional Journalists ethics committee, has agreed to join our panel. A couple of bios are still out. We need one from tne New York Times' David Barstow, who has pledged to send it in. We are told that we're waiting until after the election to know who the third member of the "What Next?" panel will be.

Ron asks Sig to moderate the Military Justice panel. So far we have an agreement from OSD general counsel's office for someone to appear. They haven't send a bio yet. Moe Davis has opted out; he has taken a new job. Ron has reached out to a writer in Washington. We are still looking for a third member to sit on it. Ron has asked Gene Fidell to see if he could recommend someone. Gene gave Ron the name of a retired Marine colonel but so far no word back on this. Sig suggests former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters, who also was the service's general counsel. Whit could speak to the possibility of troops being prosecuted in U.S. civilian courts for crimes overseas. Ron will ask Gene, who is on this panel, for his thoughts on including this issue in the panel discussion. Ron to forward Sig phone numbers for the panelists.

4) Other updates, as necessary

Luncheon
We'll do it as in past years. Ron to make a brief introduction for Kimberly Dozier. We then do all the awards and leave the Crawley award last. Ron asks that Sig say a few words about Jim and his contributions to MRE and about the award. He will then call up Melba Crawley, who will present the award. Ron will open the conference with a few remarks about Jim. Don asks if we have a picture of Jim. Salome says she has taken care of that.

Panels
First panel after lunch is Ethics & Access, which Ron is moderating. We think we will have four people on it. Barstow is leading off. Any other questions? None.

Photo-video panel: Don getting Bill Gentile's bio will be in this week. He recently shot video in Afghanistan for PBS. He does regular contributions for PBS and has been Iraq the past year. He teaches videography at American University and is a veteran war correspondent. Ron asks if Paul Richards be at the conference. No one seemss to know. Ron will call and ask if he is in a position to moderate the panel, since he knows two people on it.

Coming Home: This is the veterans issues panel. Lou, the moderator, says that we have bios on two of the people on it and that we have not heard from the VA about who they will send us. Ron advises that all bios have to be in to Salome by the end of the week,.

Video issues. Expect Kimberly Dozier to have a short video prior to her speech. Others also will have videos as well but Don has this under control. We're plugging a laptop into a system that projects images on two large screens. The speaker will be able to control the images.

Technical issues. We discuss who will be responsible for setting it up. Ron asks how we will manage it. Don says we can work with a Press Club technician after the Thursday night social and Salome says she could work with the same guy, whose name is George, and Don will help out. Don says the Press Club will provide an invoice.

A/V. Things on order. Ron and Don have information. Ron does not know the cost of all this but here is what we've got on A/V set up: a mike and podium for the social. For panels, a podium mike and three mikes for panelists. Two standing wireless mikes for questions. multbox, two plasma screens, a table and three chairs outside the hall for registration and also tables for book sellers. Don says the cost for this is $1,000.

"That's not too bad at all," Ron says.

Ideally, it would have been good to have two wireless wandering microphones for those asking problems, but Don says that costs $150 each and standing mikes cost less. So he got two wireless standing mikes for $60 each. Salome asks if the plasma monitors have speakers. Don says yes. Don says the Press Club's George mentioned some of the promotional things the club does, one of them putting information for our conference on its Web site for $25 a day. For $120, PR Newswire distributes to 350 newsrooms.

Otto wonders if we cannot get PR Newswire to put us in their daybook for free and Don agrees. Don says the Press Club's $25 a day posting reaches its membership and that this might be worth it. This includes all of our conference information, which is not included in the PC's free blurb. Ron's concern about spending the money before the conference is that our message will get lost in the election shuffle.

Otto asks about our registration status. So far, 14 people have registered. This is in line with past conferences; people tend to register the week before with a sizeable walkup the day of. Ron is not overly concerned about that issue at this point but does wonder if were spending wisely on PR Newswire anf the Press Club. Sig's question: who does PC reach and who does PR Newswire reach? In Washington or out of Washington? Otto thinks both are similar. Press Club has retirees and associate members who are public affairs folks as well as working members. PR Newswire goes to active news organizations. Sig suggests that we buy the Press Club, since it has retired members who might show up. Otto thinks we should try going directly to PR Newswire to see if we could get on their daybook for free. Ron checks their site and finds there is a cost to be a member. They don't tell you online what the cost is; you have to request a pricing from them and then complete a membership form. Otto thinks we should go to PC. There is cost for PR Newswire and its people might be less inclined to come.

We are thinking of running something on PC site in the two weeks before the election. That would come to $300. One week is $175. Otto thinks one week is good. Don proposes two appearances in the week beforre the conference and another in two days before it. Sig suggests running the spots twice in the week before the conference - Wednesday and Thursday, and then from Sunday through Thursday. Otto thinks Sunday would be a wasted day. Ron asks if anyone looks at this site? He asks if anyone up there actually visits it? Otto doesn't know. We ought to ask.

Ron reads from PC site. Our information would be on the home page of the Press Club. They have a list of the meetings that would take place there on the week of Oct. 25, 26 and 27. They also list things through November and December. "How many people use this is my question," Ron asks. Lou thinks the people visiting it would be those visiting the club for events and luncheons. Don gets a lot of messages and notices them. Otto thinks we ought to perhaps pay in the week before the conference and then run the free blurb the week of the conference. Sig asks if that is $100 for four days. That is correct. Sig thinks this sounds like a good deal. Lou wonders if our information would go on their e-mail blaster. That would be a real hel to us. Ron thinks Dozier's photo would be good to have on the site; the question is how much traffic do they get? Salome says that Ellen has notified AP and Reuters for their daybooks, and is to notify C-SPAN. Sig mentions that he has notified C-SPAN.

Ron: What is the decision on spending $100? Otto says he'll ask Monday about their numbers. He says we ought to know before committing the money. Don says he could check with George at PC. Sig suggests we tentative commit to buying, with Ron making the final decision. Ron says this sounds good. Sig says Ron has the authority to make this decision without a vote. Lou agrees that this is a good idea.

Finances, incidentals
Salome outlines. We now have about $4,100 in the bank. It could be a little more; she got some PayPal registration yesterday. She asks about the placement of tables for book sellers. Did we want to put a table outside the Holman Lounge or elsewhere. Otto thinks we do not have to do this on Thursday night; we committed to this on Friday.

Ron thinks if Tom wants to sell books he ought to do that outside the lounge. We don't have to worry about the bar; it is a cash bar. Sig asks if we are giving coupons. That is how we have done it in the past. Ron prefers to bypass the coupons and run this as a cash bar. For the conference, we have three rooms, one of them the Murrow. Ron is looking at a map of the rooms. There are slide-out dividers that can be used to create three rooms, with three sets of double doors leading into the PC atrium. There is an area where the tables could be set up outside the room for registration and book sales.

Lunch will be served, unlike the past, when it was buffet. We have to give PC a hard count on luncheon attendees a couple of days before the conference, Salome says. Salome says PC charges for broadband access but she wonders about wireless. There is talk about registering online. We also talk about a credit card machine. We need to research this more. Ron worries about the time to do online registration. Michelle says you can have them fill out everything on a paper registration form and then enter it into a computer during the conference. But to do that, Salome says we need one Internet connection. Don to check on the Internet connection.

Ron to make closing remarks but they will not run long, maybe five minutes. Sig suggests that we announce earlier in the day that we are a) holding elections on Saturday morning and b) that some of us will meet for drinks at Shelly's after the conference wraps up. Also, don't forget the War Correspondent's dinner Friday night, which could be at M&S Grill near Press Club. Finally, Ron says that we ought to have another confernce call at noon ET Saturday, Nov. 1 We all need to get bios in by end of next week at the latest.

Plaque situation. Salome discusses. The plaques we have bought before from the same company cost $28 and they are of better quality than another company we are looking at. That would cost $400. Special lasered Galloway and Crawley plaques, which we want, cost $80 each. Unless we know of something cheaper, with good quality, we ought to go ahead with the company we have used in the past. Ron agrees.

Board meeting ends around 12:35 p.m.