The monthly Press Club is a great way for SPJ members and local media professionals to meet, mingle and connect. Whether you want to learn more about the benefits of joining SPJ as a member, meet chapter leadership or just network with your peers, please join us for this FREE, informal event.

The Eastlake Bar & Grill is at 2947 Eastlake Avenue East in Seattle. Questions? Contact Western Washington Pro Chapter President Clay Holtzman at choltzman@bizjournals.com.

Freelancers who want to get the inside scoop on how to compete in these changing times are invited to hear tips from experts on the craft, business and technology of writing at “All Access Pass: The Freelancing Survival Guide” from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 21 at the REI flagship store, 222 Yale Ave. N. in Seattle.

Seating is limited. SPJ members get a $10 discount. To purchase a ticket please go to the event’s page at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information, read more or please contact SPJ board member David Volk at david at davidvolk.com or 206.696.5426.

KUOW commentator and travel writer Crai Bower will lead a session titled “From Proposal to Paycheck,” following a story idea through the process from pitch letter to publication while Patricia Vaccarino, author of “PR for People: Be famous for who you are and what you do” will head up a panel on “Branding for Writers.”

Speakers include Paul Frichtl, editor of Alaska Airlines Magazine; Nicole Meoli, editor of AAA Journey Magazine; James Ross Gardner, senior editor of Seattle Met Magazine; Katherine S. McKelvey, publisher of Kenmore Air in-flight publication, Harbors Magazine; Julie Case, managing editor of Columns Magazine; Financial advisor Steve Juetten; Robert Cumbow, attorney with Graham and Dunn who specializes in intellectual property rights; Alex Johnson, MSNBC.com senior writer/producer; and Diane Mettler, trade publication writer and editor of Timberwest Magazine.

The event is sponsored by the Western Washington Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It will open in REI’s upstairs meeting room with a panel discussion, followed by a selection of concurrent sessions that participants can tailor to their interests.

Topics include hidden freelance markets, diversifying income sources, the basics of running a business, financial planning for freelancers, research tips, contracts for freelancers, breaking into new markets and useful technology for journalists. The event will continue with a editor/freelancer mixer sponsored by Media Bistro.

Cost is $40 ; SPJ members receive a $10 discount. Tickets will be available through Brown Paper Tickets (brownpapertickets.com)

Certificates that are not claimed at the May 22 banquet will be mailed to the winners. Unclaimed trophies will be available at The Seattle Times, 1120 John St., Seattle, WA 98109. Please pick up your awards by Friday, June 4, 2010.

If the winner is located within 50 miles of Seattle, we will expect you to pick-up the trophy or cover the shipping expense. If you are outside a 50 mile radius of Seattle, we will ship your awards to you at our expense, unless you make other arrangements.

Questions? Contact Dana Neuts via email.

June Anderson Almquist Memorial Scholarship winner:

Rachel Solomon

SPJ Scholarship winners:

Andrea Castillo
Hein Quan Le
Gavin Mathis
Rachel Bryant

As always, we received many applications from worthwhile candidates. However, these students stood above the rest in their drive, desire, motivation, attitude and nature. They are the best of the best! Please join us in congratulating the next generation of journalists!

Award Re-Orders & Corrections (all regional awards)

If you received an award that included an error, please complete this form and return it to regional director Dana Neuts by Monday, June 21. Awards will be corrected and duplicates ordered by month end and should be sent to the winners by the end of July. [Note:  If the error was our mistake, we will make the change at our expense. However, if the error is based on your mistake (e.g., entered incorrectly in the online submission system) or you are ordering a duplicate award, the re-order will be done at your expense.]

Award Pick-up (Western Washington chapter awards only)

Certificates that are not claimed at the May 22 banquet will be mailed to the winners. Unclaimed trophies will be available in Seattle - at a location to be determined - early next week. Additional information will be posted as soon as we have selected the pick-up location. If the winner is located within 50 miles of Seattle, we will expect you to pick-up the trophy or cover the shipping expense. If you are outside a 50 mile radius of Seattle, we will ship your awards to you at our expense, unless you make other arrangements.

Questions? Contact Dana Neuts via email.

For those of you who were not able to attend the Portland or Seattle chapters’ May 22 awards banquets, or who belong to a chapter that doesn’t host an awards ceremony, we are pleased to be able to share the winners of this year’s Region 10 SPJ contest with you.

Download the winners here!

Congratulations to all of those who submitted entries this year! We are honored to work along side you!

As in past years, we will post the winners by midnight the night of the Portland and Seattle banquets, May 22. So by 12 am on Sunday, May 23, the full list of regional winners will be posted at that time. They will be posted to this site and passed onto other chapters who have websites. They will also be posted to the Region 10 blog.

If you have any questions, please direct them to your individual chapter presidents. Thank you and good luck!

For AAJA Seattle’s inaugural Innovation Salon series, we bring together a group of the city’s hungriest tweeters: PR-pro Hsiao-Ching Chou, food writer Matthew Amster-Burton and chef Becky Selengut.

Journalists, businesses owners and just about anyone else with a message is scrambling to carve a presence in emerging social media markets. This panel represents a micro-community that adopted social media and pushed its boundaries since before it was cool.

Moderated by Karen Johnson, Seattle magazine online managing editor, this intimate salon will focus less on the Twitter basics and more on the broad lessons, stories and musings from a foodie community that has embraced, and in turn, been transformed through social media

DETAILS
Event: “Eating while tweeting: Social media lessons from Seattle’s fooderati”
When: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Where: TASTE Restaurant at Seattle Art Museum, 1300 FIrst Ave., Downtown
Time: 6 p.m.
Cost: $25/$20 for AAJA Seattle members (includes appetizers provided by TASTE)
Buy tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/112278

More details here:  AAJA Seattle

It is once again time for everyone’s favorite SPJ event - our annual awards banquet where we honor the very best journalists in Western Washington. In addition to the cocktail hour and our Silent Auction and Raffle, the much-anticipated awards for work produced in 2009 will be presented throughout the evening. We will also announce the winners of five $2,000 journalism scholarships!

Join us for a fabulous evening to network and honor your peers!

SPJ Annual Awards Banquet
Saturday, May 22, 2010
6 to 10 p.m.
Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE 6th Street Bellevue, WA 98004

6 - 7 p.m.:         “No host” cocktail hour
7 - 7:30 p.m.:     Dinner
7:30 - 10 p.m.    Awards ceremony, raffle winners, etc.

Tickets for this gala evening are $60 each* (+ a $1.99 service fee charged by Brown Paper Tickets). Each table seats 10 guests. Media organizations with 6 or more attendees may reserve tables (or partial tables) by contacting Dana Neuts. In addition, guests will be charged $10 (payable by cash, debit or credit card at entry) for parking in the Meydenbauer’s parking garage. Registration is closed.

Each guest will choose one entree from the list below when ordering tickets.

Meal selections:

• Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Sauce Bercy, Horseradish Mashed Potatoes, Braised Mustard Greens, Seasonal Vegetables, Balsamic Braised Shallots and Roasted Tomatoes.

• Smoked Halibut a la Nage, Boursin Mashed Potatoes, Leeks and Carrots, and Seasonal Vegetables.

• Butternut Squash Ravioli and Chanterelle Mushrooms in an Apple and Brown Butter Sage Sauce. (vegetarian option)

Each meal includes a salad of baby spinach, blue cheese, spiced pecans, roasted red peppers, dried apricots with herbal vinaigrette dressing and a decadent dessert.

*Note:  The $60 ticket price covers SPJ’s costs for the meal including required taxes & gratuities and other banquet-related expenses.

Order Tickets Now

A more detailed program and a list of Silent Auction and Raffle items will be posted as the details become available.

Questions? Email regional director Dana Neuts.

Elliott, a travel blogger, has been sued for defamation, false light and tortious interference with contract by the travel company Palm Coast Travel. After an investigation by the State of Florida, Palm Coast Travel in March 2010 agreed to cease and desist selling unauthorized insurance and pay a $2,500 fine as well as restitution to its customers affected by the purchase of an unauthorized insurance policy. It has been placed on 18 months’ probation and has agreed not to sell unauthorized insurance in the future. The agency took issue with a post related to the state’s investigation, which Elliott wrote in March 2009 on his website, www.elliott.org.

The post on Elliott’s site originally stated that the State of Florida had filed a Notice of Intent to Issue a Cease and Desist Order against three travel agencies, including Palm Coast Travel, for selling unauthorized insurance policies. Elliott quoted a spokeswoman for Florida’s Department of Financial Services as saying the state ordered the three agencies to “stop transacting business” and that “they’re on notice that further activity is pending (by the state).” However, the official misinformed Elliott, which was evident by the press release the state disseminated shortly thereafter. The release clarified that the travel agencies would be ordered to “stop selling insurance” as opposed to “stop transacting business.” Elliott modified his original post the following day with a clarification and the statement, “I’ve updated the post to reflect that new information, and I apologize for any resulting confusion.”

Despite the clarification, Palm Coast Travel sued Elliott.

The SPJ Legal Defense Fund Committee and the SPJ Board of Directors voted to support Elliott, who is National Geographic Traveler’s ombudsman, is a syndicated columnist through Tribune Media Services, and is a columnist for MSNBC.com and The Washington Post. Elliott’s biography is available on his website along with posts related to the lawsuit.

Mr. Elliott is represented by Gregory Herbert of the Orlando office of the national law firm Greenberg Traurig.  Herbert focuses on First Amendment and intellectual property law, and has handled many similar cases. 

“Often, when someone gets caught violating the law, they try to limit bad publicity and stifle a free press by suing a blogger who simply reports the story. That tactic often backfires, as we believe it will in this case,” Herbert said.  “Grants from organizations like SPJ are an important means of furthering a free press, because these lawsuits are all about wearing bloggers down financially.”

The SPJ Legal Defense Fund aids journalists in defending the freedom of speech and press guaranteed by the First Amendment. Grant money can also be used to initiate and support litigation that enforces public access to government records and proceedings. For more information about the SPJ Legal Defense Fund visit www.spj.org/ldf.asp.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.