SPJ Green Thumb Awards
And the winners are...
Later this week at the SPJ national convention in Atlanta, three outstanding pro and student chapters will be honored with the first-ever Green Thumb awards for being the fastest growing chapters in the country.
The SPJ membership committee decided last fall to present these awards to the chapters that posted the largest membership gains either by number or percentage based upon the May 1, 2008 census.
And the winners are: Maryland Pro, St. Louis Pro and the University of Drake student chapter in Des Moines, Iowa.
Maryland posted the greatest numeric gain by posting a net increase of 59 new members, quite a jump for a chapter that started the year with 55 members.
St. Louis grew from 31 members last year to 80, for a percentage gain of 158 percent.
If corn grew as fast as the Drake SPJ chapter, we would have beat world hunger. The chapter went from just two faithful members to 55 in one year.
How did they do it? If we could bottle their methods, I’d send every chapter a case.
For the story of how Drake revived its chapter, see Kate Fazzini’s story in the July 27 post on the Garden Center blog.
Watch this space also for stories from members of the St. Louis and Maryland chapters within the next few weeks.
The outstanding growth enjoyed by these three chapters is part of larger trend that saw SPJ’s national membership rolls grow by about 6.5 percent over the last year.
Our current membership stands at 9,650, an increase of 589 members. That's the highest level we’ve reached in at least two years.
Those gains come after several years of flat or no growth. What makes this trend all the more remarkable is that we posted these gains at a time when economic turmoil in the newspaper business has led to the loss of more than 6,000 jobs.
How did we do it? Analysis shows the two fastest growing sectors of SPJ has been among the professional and post-graduate members.
At last year’s convention in Washington D.C., members approved a deal that extended the post-graduate rate of $36 per year for three years after a college journalist graduated.
We also sweetened that deal by offered a three-year membership for the price of two years.
The results were clear: we had a net gain of 208 new post-graduates, an increase of 24 percent.
Growth among the professional chapters was steady and pervasive nationwide. Of the 64 chapters for which data was available, 55 chapters posted membership gains, for a net increase of 367 pro members.
Our challenge for the year ahead will be retaining these members and continue to grow. But with innovative and energetic chapters like Drake, St. Louis and Maryland, I’m confident we’ll find a way.
Postscript…
This week marks my last post for the Garden Center. After a year as membership chair, I’m stepping down to run for Region 9 director.
The very able John Huotari, a committee member from Tennessee, will take over as chair this month. Please give John the help that I enjoyed this past year.
It’s been a fun year. I wish to thank the membership committee for all their ideas and suggestions. And a special thanks to vice chair Ellen Mrja for keeping both the faith and the minutes.
I’d also like to thank our “gardeners” Kate Fazzini, Melvin “Buddy” Baker and Rekha Raman, who helped report and write stories for the Garden Center. Special thanks to Kate for also keeping members of the SPJ membership network informed.
And last but not least, thanks to SPJ staffers Linda Hall and Joe Skeel, who were invaluable when it came to helping put our ideas into practice.
SPJ by the numbers
Membership this week 9,650
Membership last month 9,570
Membership one year ago 9,061