News & Events
Happy Holidays!
Season's Greetings and best wishes from all of us here to each of you. We know for many us this holiday season will present new issues and in some cases real difficulties. Times of change are often times of challenge. But they are also times of opportunity, a time to re-invent, re-invest and reap new benefits. We at NATJA will be working to help our members adapt successfully to the changes in our industry and the world in which we all live and work. With that objective clearly in mind, we will be able to enjoy the special spirit of the holidays and look forward to a happy and healthy new year. We wish the same for each of you.Award submissions hit new highs!
We are still logging and tabulating the submissions for the 17th Annual NATJA Awards prior to making them available to the judges. The early data suggest we have hit a new high in entries received. The distribution by category is broad and our sampling indicates entries of very high quality. (We would expect no less!) About half the submissions are from members. All in all, the first phase of the NATJA Award process seems, well, very rewarding.Award Winners to Be Announced in January.
Our award submissions are indeed diverse. They will present difficult choices for our new "peer review" panel of judges. To give the Awards the gravitas they deserve--given the work that went into the submissions--we have assembled a judging panel not of academics as in years past, but of your peers: writers, photographers, editors, publicists. Their experience includes newspapers, magazines, and publishing. They have endured the range of challenges you have faced in building your careers, so we expect truly meaningful results from this year's competition. Despite the holidays and the richness and diversity of the entries, we expect to announce winners in late January. Two additional "firsts" this year: We will be working for increased recognition of Award Winners so that Awards will have special meaning, and we will be handing out physical mementos to top award winners at our conference in Cleveland. Stay tuned for details.Cleveland Conference Details Shaping Up Nicely.
We expect our coming Conference and Marketplace to be the best ever. In light of developments in our economy and on our beats, we will be emphasizing this year's theme: Managing Change Successfully. We are fine tuning our program so it will help members--both media and organizations--build results in the rapidly changing world of travel journalism. We expect to consider changes in our marketplace and how those can be addressed profitably. We expect to introduce new tools to make members' work easier and more profitable. We expect to enhance our member to member contacts and networking, all to meet the challenges of a future much changed from the past. And, of course, we expect to have fun. Cleveland and its surrounding area will present dozens of destinations and thousands of stories. There is much to be savored in University Circle, a fabulous time at our sock hop at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, a rousing evening at The House of Blues. Mark your calendars for the first week in June. Conference details will be posted here shortly.Advisory Board to Meet in January.
In our continuing effort to make our Association responsive to members’ needs and desires, we will be holding our Winter Advisory Board Meeting this January. There will be much to consider, from our Mission Statement to our new Code of Ethics to our new communications with members and the public, and so on. We intend to make NATJA the premier professional organization in terms of member benefits. If you have issues or opinions you would like raised at our Winter meeting, drop a line to your Director Helen Hernandez (helen@www.natja.org) or any one of your Advisory Board members.Volunteers Needed for Beta-testing NATJA new website.
We expect to be finishing the design for the new website in 1Q09 and will be seeking focus group members and beta-testers for the new features. If you're interested in serving this important function, please drop a line to Ben (ben@natja.org) or Andrew (andrew@natja.org). You'll be helping your organization and getting in on the ground floor of the New NATJA.