Each year, convention resolutions are the highlight of SPJ’s Main Business Session at the national convention.

This year’s annual convention is Sept. 12-14 in Fort Worth, Texas, and it’s never too early for Society members and chapters to start thinking about resolution ideas.

Resolutions passed by convention delegates represent an opportunity for the Society of Professional Journalists to speak out on issues of importance to the profession.

At the 2001 convention, delegates passed resolutions chastising the government for seizing the phone records of a reporter and for jailing a writer who refused to hand over her notes. Another resolution called on the Bush Administration to follow the guidelines drafted in the aftermath of the Gulf War in its treatment of journalists covering the war on terrorism, and still another called on journalists to follow ethical standards.

Resolution drafts should be mailed no less than two weeks before the beginning of the convention. This year’s postmark deadline is Aug. 29. If delivering a resolution in person, you can deliver it any time until the time the committee convenes for its deliberations at the convention in Fort Worth.

HOW TO SUBMIT RESOLUTIONS
If you have an issue that you’d like to take before convention delegates in the form of a resolution, contact Kelly Hawes, resolutions chair, at 979/265-7411 ext. 209 or kelly.hawes@thefacts.com.

Hawes mailing address is:
The Facts
P.O. Box 549
Clute, TX 77531

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