After a Brief Intermission -- Monthly Meetings Are Back!

We hope you all enjoyed your summer months! Now that you've hopefully gotten a break, here's your chance to meet other Journalists and get involved. It all begins with our September meeting. From there, you can pick and choose how you'd like to participate! The schedule below not only indicates our upcoming events, but what you need to do to get involved!

CAABJ General Body Meeting
Tuesday, September 18th at 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. at the Carabbas Restaurant on 1520 South Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28203.
We hope to see you there!


Upcoming Events:

Thursday, September 6th, 7:30 p.m. CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts to Visit JCSU, Sarah Belk Gambrell Auditorium at JCSU How can you help? Show up with your support!

Saturday, October 20th, noon Brief General Body Meeting, Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh Street, Charlotte

Saturday, October 20th, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. CAABJ Forum: Race 101: An Examination of Race and Education. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh Street, Charlotte, How can you help? Call Chair, Ken Lemon if you can volunteer the day of the event: 704-564-0313

Fall School Semester: CAABJ Email Mentoring Program. Here's your chance to volunteer according to your own schedule. How can you help? If you'd like to be paired with a college student looking for a mentor, email us at charlotteaabj@gmail.com. Pairing will begin at the September 18th General Body Meeting

December, Date TBA: CAABJ Yearend Scholarship Mixer: We're celebrating the year that has past for CAABJ and everything that will happen in the future. And we'll award a book scholarship to a deserving college student. How can you help? Email Lindsay Pollard at lpollard@charlotteobserver.com to join the committee.

CAABJ Cookout -- Thank you for coming out

A big thank you to all of you who came out to CAABJ's June cookout. It was great to see some new faces and reunite with old ones. Glenn Burkins and his family were great hosts and made all who attended feel right at home. For those of you who couldn't make it you missed some good food.

We hope all of you are well and enjoyed your Juy 4th holiday. We will continue to update you here on our blogsite and via e-mail of any upcoming events and meetings.

CAABJ Cookout -- Are you coming?

The date is getting closer and we're getting more excited. We want to remind you to come out and take part in our official summer kickoff cookout on June 30th.

CAABJ (Charlotte Area Association of Barbecuing Journalists) invites you to a cookout at the home of our member Glenn Burkins of The Charlotte Observer. Glenn is graciously opening the doors to his home and his grill. CAABJ will be providing the meat and we'd like you to bring one of your best dishes (we all have that one thing we swear we make better than anyone). See sign up info below.

Come mingle with your friends from print, TV, radio, and PR. And have a good time. You know black folks invented the cookout. You don't believe it? Check Wikipedia.

What: CAABJ Summer Kickoff Cookout

When: Saturday, June 30th at 1 p.m.

Where: Glenn's House, 211 Glen Oaks Rd, Charlotte, NC 28270 (use Mapquest for directions)

Here's a list of the kinds of items we need (the board has already nabbed a few spots).

If you're able to provide any of the items, please email Jarvis Holliday a jarvis.holliday@charlottemagazine.com. Please plan on serving 15-20 people.==

Side Dishes:

Shrimp Pasta Salad - Lindsay Pollard

Potato Salad - Lena Warmack

Mac & Cheese - Alva Pearson

Italian Meatballs - Jarvis Holliday

Snacks:

Chips and Dip - Bervette Carree

Drinks:

Dessert:
Brownies - Mary Curtis

Banana Pudding - Melody Freeman

Also, members of CAABJ, we do have a bit of business to take care of and we cannot do it without the majority of you there so please plan on being there early! ;)

PLEASE RSVP by June 28th so that we can a get an accurate head count and make sure that everyone has enough to eat. We'll see you all June 30th at 1pm! Questions? Log on to the blog at http://caabjournalists.blogspot.com/

Sizzling Summer Meeting -- Come Cookout with CAABJ

The weather is warm, school is out, and gas is three dollars. Yep, it's that time of year. And we'd like you to join us as we officially kick off summer on June 30th.

CAABJ (Charlotte Area Association of Barbecuing Journalists) invites you to a cookout at the home of our member Glenn Burkins of The Charlotte Observer. Glenn is graciously opening the doors to his home and his grill. CAABJ will be providing the meat and we'd like you to bring one of your best dishes (we all have that one thing we swear we make better than anyone). See sign up info below.

Come mingle with your friends from print, TV, radio, and PR. And have a good time. You know black folks invented the cookout. You don't believe it? Check Wikipedia.

What: CAABJ Summer Kickoff Cookout

When: Saturday, June 30th at 1 p.m.

Where: Glenn's House, 211 Glen Oaks Rd, Charlotte, NC 28270 (use Mapquest for directions)

Here's a list of the kinds of items we need (the board has already nabbed a few spots). If you're able to provide any of the items, please email Jarvis Holliday at jarvis.holliday@charlottemagazine.com. Please plan on serving 15-20 people.
==
Side Dishes:
Shrimp Pasta Salad - Lindsay Pollard
Potato Salad - Lena Warmack
Mac & Cheese - Alva Pearson
Italian Meatballs - Jarvis Holliday
Snacks:
Chips and Dip - Bervette Carree
Drinks:
Dessert:
Banana Pudding - Melody Freeman

Also, members of CAABJ, we do have a bit of business to take care of and we cannot do it without the majority of you there so please plan on being there early! ;)
We'll see you all June 30th at 1pm! Questions? Log on to the blog at http://caabjournalists.blogspot.com/

What's Next for CAABJ? -- Stay Tuned!

Thanks to all of you who came out to the monthly meeting on May 22, 2007. For those of you who could not make it out, we've posted the meeting minutes below. Also we had a great time Thursday at the Mixer at Tutto Mondo. It was great to see all of you. And if you look at the announcements on the left side of the screen you'll notice that we have an Education & Race forum coming up on October 20, 2007 at the Levine Museum of the South from 1-3pm. Dr. Peter Gorman will be the main speaker. So please start spreading the word. If you are interested in volunteering during the event send us an e-mail at charlottejournalists@gmail.com.


May Meeting Highlights: May 22, 2007

I. Welcome/ Opening

- We began the meeting at 7:15pm with 8 people in attendance. 6 members and 2 new people, Barbara Pinson a reporter/anchor for WBTV and Richard Washington a producer from WBTV. Vice President of Print, Lena Warmack stood in for President, Melody Freeman who was out of town getting married. Lena Warmack also read the Treasurer’s report. Treasurer, Lindsay Pollack could not attend because she was sick.

II. Treasurer’s Report

- We currently have $1,325.94 in our account.
- That total comes after an $81 dollar reimbursement to Lena Warmack for food for the April workshop and $55 payment for the use of the library for the “Accessing the Media” workshop.

IV. Overview of the Board’s Goals for 2007

- Bervette Carree: Plans to institute an e-mail mentoring program for students at UNC-Charlotte.
- Alva Pearson: Plans to make the web work better for members and people interested in the organization. Wants to put job openings, discussion questions and possibly work with locally black owned businesses to advertise on the site.
- Lena Warmack: Wants to get the organization involved with volunteer
opportunities. She has talked to several organizations which are outlined in detail below.

III. Volunteer Opportunities

- CMS : Needs volunteers during lunch time or after school to help out
with reading and writing assignments.

- Able Center : Needs tutors to help out on nights and weekends with
people trying to get their GED.

- Rivens Scholarship Foundation : Needs volunteers to help tutor
grade school children on weekend.


IV. Recap of “Accessing the Media” Workshop

- Ken Lemon gave a quick summation of how the event turned out.
He said he was glad that this year participants got to take home helpful information. The event gave the public the chance to learn the ins and outs of the news business. He thanked everyone who donated food to the event.

V. Upcoming Events

- Education and Race Forum will be held on October 20, 2007 at the
Levine Museum of the South from 1pm to 3pm. The main speaker
will be Dr. Peter Gorman, Superintendent of CMS. The president of Gaston College and a student from UNC-Charlotte will also speak. CAABJ Member, Mary Curtis will be the moderator. Members still need to vote on the $100 budget. The Planning Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 29 at 7:30pm at Brixx Pizza on East Boulevard to further discuss details and preparation for the event.

CAABJ wants to hear from you. Every week we will post a new discussion question that pertains to what's going on in the media and the world at large. It's your chance to let your voice be heard. Just click on "comment".

May 28, 2007: Does a victim's race play a role in media coverage?

University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, were last seen by friends Jan. 6 in Knoxville as they left for a dinner date. Newsom's burned body was found the next day near a railroad track. Christian was found the day after that, stuffed in a trash can. Both had been raped repeatedly. Five people have been arrested for the crimes and await trial. More than a dozen e-mails have been sent to several Plain Dealer editors describing torture and mutilation in horrific detail and asking why this and other newspapers have not printed anything about this awful crime. Most of the e-mails carried accusations of "reverse racism" - the victims were both white, the alleged attackers were all black - saying that if the races had been reversed, this would have been a huge national story. The Associated Press moved at least a dozen stories about it - including five that were sent on the national wire and thus were available to any AP member paper. But it didn't appear in The Plain Dealer until yesterday, when we ran an AP story that summed up the complaints about the lack of national play. The reason for that is straightforward: Regrettably, rapes and murders are committed around the country every day. While this one was horrible for the victims and their families, the early reports about the attack were not different enough to make editors think that it was a story our readers needed to read.