ASPA Huntsville Fall Regional Workshop

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ASPA would like to thank our financial supporters: Alabama Press Association • Dow Jones News Fund • UA Center for Community Based Partnerships • Mercedes-Benz Endowment• UA College of Communication and Information Sciences • UA Department of Journalism • Southern Interscholastic Press Association • National Education Association Foundation • The Selma Times-Journal and its board members!

President: Melissa Dixon, Oak Mountain High School, Birmingham Vice President: Connie Nolen, Pelham High School, Pelham Secretary: Nikki Minoso, Vestavia High School, Vestavia Past President: Erin Coggins, Sparkman High School, Harvest

ASPA 2012-2013 CALENDAR OF EVENTS December 14: Deadline for all media for competition and critiques.

January 31: Senior award deadlines: Bragg, Thomson, Stevenson and Journalist of the Year awards. Administrator and Adviser of the Year award deadlines.

Feb. 22-23: ASPA’s State Convention April 1: Deadline to apply for the Multicultural Journalism Workshop June 14-16: The Long Weekend summer camp June 14-23: Multicultural Journalism Workshop

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Fall Regional Workshop Huntsville, Ala. The University of Alabama – Huntsville Sept. 28, 2012 The Alabama Scholastic Press Association offers special thanks to: Dr. Loy Singleton, Dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences Dr. Jennifer Greer, Chair, The University of Alabama Department of Journalism Alabama Scholastic Press Association Director Emeritus Marie Parsons Alabama Press Association

Welcome!

8:30 a.m.Welcome and introductions, Exhibit Hall A Meredith Cummings, Director, Alabama Scholastic Press Association Keynote Speaker, Clarissa McClain

Sessions

Session 1 9:30-10:30 The Best Yearbooks I’ve Seen This Year, Erin Coggins, Room 131 (Yearbook) Why some staffs seem to nail a great concept, while others fail to hit the mark. A look at the best of 2012 with an eye to 2013.

Features That Make You Laugh and Cry, Tara Bullock, Game Room/026 (Newspaper, Yearbook, Multimedia) Ready to delve into human-interest stories? Feature Writing will teach students how to pair in-depth reporting with descriptive, narrative-style writing. This session will also focus on how to find great feature stories by teaching students to develop sources and understand their communities.

Lit Mag Grab Bag, David Hornbuckle and Callie Mauldin, Room 027 (Literary Magazine) What is your focus? Who is your audience? Who and what will you feature? How often will you come out? What in the world will you call it? David and Callie discuss your answers to these and other questions you may face when you decide to launch your new lit mag project.

Session 2 10:30-11:30 How to please your readers, Erin Coggins, Room 131 (Yearbook) Choosing the coolest angles and the freshest, most inspiring photographs is easier than you think. Why using them to bring your layouts to life equals: Less is better!

Print or Online: What Medium to Choose for Your Literary Magazine, David Hornbuckle and Callie Mauldin, Room 027 (Literary Magazine) Many literary magazines are moving from print to online. Both media have advantages and disadvantages. Based on extensive experience in both areas, David and Callie discuss the pros and cons of each and how to take the best advantage of the medium you choose.

Live-Tweeting: Real-Time Reporting and Real-Time Results, Amethyst Holmes, Game Room/026 (All Media) Tweet baby! Why it’s important and how it can help you tell your stories for your media.

Session 3 11:30-12:30 5 Ways to Improve Your Storytelling Skills, Amethyst Holmes, Game Room/026 (Newspaper, Yearbook, Multimedia) Ramp up your stories with words that paint pictures and draw the reader into your world.

Verbal SNAP!, Erin Coggins, Room 131 Forum (Yearbook) Content and Coverage: Why close enough is not good enough. Use a different structure as a base to showcase content for your publication. Ways to ensure that your reader is rewarded for purchasing and reading great work. Really!

Edit. Lead. Conquer The World., Tara Bullock, Game Room/026 (Newspaper, Yearbook. Multimedia) Every great writer needs a great editor. Learn what stories need – and what they don’t – through editing. This session will focus on writing headlines, creating a budget and reiterating grammar and AP Style. Being an editor means being a leader, so we’ll discuss how to lead writers in an effective and impacting way.

The Slush Pile Demystified, David Hornbuckle and Callie Mauldin, Room 027 (Literary Magazine) This session discusses what to do if you aren’t getting enough quality submissions and what to do if you are getting too many. Learn tips on how to set up guidelines and criteria that will help optimize the selection process.

Join us for the 30th annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop in June, 2013!

The University of Alabama’s 30th annual Multicultural Journalism Workshop will be held June 14-23! The purpose of the workshop is to give high school students experience that teaches them more about college life and a career in media. If you are interested in becoming part of the Class of 2013, please submit an application, due April 1.

Students who will be in the 9th grade through freshman year in college in fall 2013 are eligible to attend the workshop. Students do not have to live in Alabama. The program is free and the University supplies housing, meals and field trips, as well as top-notch, intensive instruction by industry professionals. Transportation to and from Tuscaloosa is the student’s responsibility.

Save the date!

We hope to see you at the State Convention in February!

Feb. 22-23 University of Alabama campus

Keynote speaker Clarissa McClain anchors WHNT News 19 at 5:00 with Lee Marshall and WHNT News 19 at 9:00 on WHNT2 with Greg Screws. Helping people, keeping them informed, and inspiring them is what drives her passion for news. Her personal philosophy: “Everyone has a story -- good or bad, happy or sad -- It’s my job to share it with others. One story has the power to change many lives.” One would think after years of pretending to be Vanna White, staging talk shows in her parent’s living room, and developing a slight obsession with MAC makeup, she would have known all along that she was destined for a future in television. But it took her four years and two academic major changes to figure it out. In 2005, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from Auburn University. WAR EAGLE!!! Her broadcasting career began with an internship with the award-winning Investigative Team at FOX5 News in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly after that, she landed her first job at WTVY News 4 in Dothan, Alabama. Clarissa spent one year in the Wiregrass, reporting on a range of topics from city government to the Enterprise tornado disaster. In April 2007, she moved to North Alabama to work at WHNT-TV. Clarissa is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, yes a real native, (there aren’t many left), but loves living in the Tennessee Valley. Clarissa is a newlywed. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, hanging out with friends, traveling, and cooking. On her top five list of favorite things: two hour naps, shoe sales, singing loud and very off key in the car, old Disney movies, and playing with her terribly spoiled pooch Elle.

Session leaders Tara Bullock is a graduate student studying journalism at The University of Alabama. She also earned her undergraduate degrees, a B.A. in English and a B.A.C. in Journalism, from UA. She’s currently the graduate assistant for the Alabama Scholastic Press Association and the National Elementary School Press Association. Bullock has worked as an editor at The Dome, a University of Alabama online arts magazine, a production intern with The RoundTable, a sports talk show on WJOX 94.5 FM and as a design intern at The Tuscaloosa News.

Erin Coggins, MJE, advises the yearbook and newspaper at Sparkman High School in Harvest. She is president of the ASPA Board of Directors. She has been named the Susie DeMent Adviser of the Year twice and was recently recognized as a Special Recognition Adviser by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and was awarded the 2007 Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Key.

Meredith Cummings is the Director of the National Elementary School Press Association, the Alabama Scholastic Press Association and the Director of the Multicultural Journalism Workshop at The University of Alabama. She is a journalism instructor at The University of Alabama, and served as the Community News Editor at the Tuscaloosa News where she was a member of the editorial board, planned and edited the teen section, Pulse, edited the weekly newspaper, T-News Weekly and wrote a weekly health column on the lighter side of life with diabetes. She was a 2010-11 Faculty Fellow in Service Learning awarded by the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, currently writes for al.com, freelances for many publications, and is a member of several organizations including Vice President/President-Elect of the Alabama Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Jody Evans teaches broadcast journalism at Hillcrest High School. She recently received the Rising Star Award from the Journalism Education Association for her work with PATS-TV, the Tuscaloosa County School’s only broadcast television show. In 2009 she received ASPA’s Susie DeMent Journalism Adviser of the Year Award. She writes a blended family column for Tuscaloosa’s local magazine, KidsLife. Her stories often come from her family of six kids, one husband, three goats, twelve chickens, and too many honeybees to count.

Amethyst Holmes is a Huntsville native and Sparkman High School graduate. She recently graduated from University of Alabama with a degree in Journalism and was a thrower for the Alabama Track &Field team throughout her collegiate career. During her time at UA, she served as Campus Life Editor for The Crimson White, completed internships with The Center for Community-Based Partnerships, Crimson Tide Productions, and two summer internships with The Huntsville Times. She is now a local buzz reporter for The Huntsville Times.

M. David Hornbuckle is the Founding Editor of Steel Toe Review, an online literary magazine.

Over the past twenty years, he has worked in many areas of print media, from Xeroxed ‘zines to major publishers of commercial magazines and books. He is also the author of a novel (Zen, Mississippi) and a collection of short fiction (The Salvation of Billy Wayne Carter). In his spare time, he performs editorial duties for an alternative newspaper, the Birmingham Free Press.

Currently, he is also a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he teaches freshman composition.

Callie Mauldin is the senior fiction editor for PMS:poemmemoirstory, the women’s literary journal published annually at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. She is a second year graduate student in the UAB Creative Writing Program.