Don't miss out on the Chicago Convention

Here's the skinny for freelancers at the Chicago Convention:

FREELANCING FOR BEGINNERS
Date: Thursday, August 24
Time: 2:15-3:30 pm
Moderator: Wendy Hoke, chair of SPJ Freelance Committee

Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell is an award-winning writer and member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and SPJ and a past president of the Kansas City Press Club, the local SPJ chapter. She has crafted more than 2,000 articles for local, national and international publications including The World and I Online, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fate, Kansas! Today’s Collector, Diabeteswatch.com and for Vance Publications, a trade paper for the produce industry.

She’s a regular contributor to The Kansas City Star, Kansas City Hispanic News, The Best Times, and Kansas City Homes & Gardens and a contributing editor for Discover Mid-America. She’s won awards in investigative reporting, magazine features, health, essays, columns and photography from the National Association of Hispanic Publications, The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, Writer’s Digest and the Heart of America Journalism Awards. Her first book, No Immediate Threat, the story of an American Veteran (ASJA Press Sept. 2005) chronicles her brother’s struggles after the Vietnam War.

Jamie Cole is an award-winning Senior Editor at The Progressive Farmer magazine in Birmingham, Alabama. Jamie's career started as an online editor at Southern Progress, where he built the first Web sites for Southern Living and Coastal Living magazines. He was editor of ProgressiveFarmer.com before being named Senior Editor of the magazine.

Cole now works with the executive editor on long-term planning, leads the web and copy editing teams and hires freelance writers and photographers for story assignments. He has won awards from the American Agricultural Editors Association, the American Society of Business Press Editors and the Associated Press. He also won an SPJ National Mark of Excellence Award as a student.

MARKET YOURSELF AS A FREELANCER
Date: Friday, August 25
Time: 10:45-11:45 am
Moderator: Wendy Hoke, chair of SPJ Freelance Committee

Sally Lehrman is an award-winning reporter and writer for some of the top names in national print and broadcast media, including Scientific American, Nature, Health, the Washington Post, Salon and the DNA Files, distributed by NPR. She specializes in medical and science policy reporting, with an emphasis on genetics, race and sexuality.

Lehrman is a national board member and serves as diversity chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and is active in several organizations that promote diversity in the media. She is author of News in a New America, a fresh take on developing an inclusive U.S. news media, and is a USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Expert Fellow.

Stephenie Overman is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in workplace and health issues. She is managing editor of Staffing Management magazine and has written for Daily Labor Report, HR Magazine, Executive Talent, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Physicians Financial News, Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada.

She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Ball State University and a master’s in labor studies from the University of the District of Columbia. She is past president of the Washington D.C. and New Jersey chapters of SPJ and received a Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Chapter Member Award. Her Web site is www.stephenieoverman.com

John Ettorre is a writer, editor and writing coach. His work has appeared in more than 75 newspapers and magazines, from such national newspapers as the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor to local and regional outlets. He has been a business reporter in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, a stringer for United Press International and the University Editor of John Carroll University, his alma mater. He is now a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and a board member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has written, ghostwritten or edited five books.

His writing has won recognition from the Press Club of Cleveland, SPJ and Women in Communications. His work on video scripts has also garnered both a Telly award and an Emmy, the latter for a baseball documentary broadcast on PBS stations across the country. He publishes an award-winning weblog devoted to the writing craft at Working With Words.

FRIDAY NIGHT HAPPY HOUR
Our friends at the Chicago Headline Club are working on organizing some casual happy hours after 8 p.m. for freelancers. Stay tuned for more info on this fun event.

FREELANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
Join us on Saturday, Aug. 26 from 11;15-12:15 in the New Orleans room for the Freelance Committee Meeting. We'll discuss the following:
• 2006-07 program year
• Quill columnists/ideas
• freelance programs for regional and 2007 national conventions
• national speakers bureau of freelancers for chapter programs
• committee assignments