Rio Grande Chapter of SPJ

Inspired by this post on The Open Notebook about the spaces writers inhabit while they’re working, we couldn’t help but bug some Rio Grande Chapter members–and find out what their desks and offices look like, too.

Sandra "I still use a rolodex" Martinez at the Santa Fe New Mexican.

No surprise that there appear to be some public documents on the desk of Bryant Furlow ...

Laura Paskus was shamed into cleaning up her desk before snapping this picture

"Unless you are Thor..." Inspiration from the Santa Fe New Mexican's Julie Ann Grimm

A series of photos from KOB-TV’s Peter St. Cyr and Gadi Schwartz:

And more are still coming in…

KNME-TV's Matt Grubbs calls his the "least exciting desk you will ever see." But wait...what's in that box under the desk?

KUNM Morning Edition host Elaine Baumgartel's pristine desk

The Rio Grande Chapter board of directors is excited to announce its training scholarship recipients.  This round’s winners include KUNM’s Elaine Baumgartel, Silver City Sun-News reporter Aaron West, and independent reporter Bryant Furlow.

Elaine Baumgartel, KUMN's Morning Edition Host and Reporter

Elaine volunteered to answer phones during a KUNM pledge drive in 2003 and she’s been unable to drag herself away from public radio ever since.  And why would she want to?  As a graduate student in the Communication and Journalism MA program at the University of New Mexico, she also worked at KUNM in the operations, programming, and news departments.  For her MA Thesis, she examined patterns in coverage of violence against women and produced a three-part radio documentary series on the West Mesa murders in Albuquerque, NM.  She’s been hosting NPR’s Morning Edition since the fall of 2007 and is enjoying the new task of hosting the KUNM Call In Show Thursday mornings at 8am.  In her spare time, Elaine likes to garden and work with ceramics in addition to spending time with her family.

Elaine will be enrolling in the Poynter SocialMedia Webinar Series.

Silver City Sun-News reporter, Aaron West

Aaron West, recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin’s journalism program, is a fledgling news reporter at the Silver City Sun-News in Silver City, NM.

According to West: “When I graduated from college in December, I knew exactly what I wanted to do— work at a daily newspaper in a small town. You see, I grew up in a small city in East Texas and I’ve had a hand in putting newspapers out since I was the editor of my 6th grade class’ newsletter, so I figured moving to an unfamiliar place and putting myself in the middle of its culture and politics would be right up my alley. I was correct. Upon getting the job (I know, those things still exist?) and moving here in January, I’ve written long features, covered breaking news situations (an inmate escaped from the local detention center within three weeks of me starting at the paper), and even broke the news when a famous Colorado runner vanished into the rugged Gila Wilderness and was later found dead. And of course, there’s that endless flow of community journalism. Basically, I love what I do and I’m very pleased that I decided to move here, but I want to go deeper.”

Aaron will be putting his scholarship money toward attending the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government seminar happening later this week in Albuquerque.

Independent reporter Bryant Furlow

Bryant Furlow is an Albuquerque-based freelance journalist who covers health care and state and local government for the Santa Fe Reporter and the Guadalupe County Communicator. He also volunteers as a coordinator for the Corrales International School’s middle-school newspaper.  This year, he’s reporting on environmental and veterans’ issues, rural drug abuse and obesity, and improprieties and possible corruption at government agencies—and will be putting his Rio Grande Chapter scholarship toward five online Poynter/NewsU online courses.

Please join us in sending out congrats to Elaine, Aaron, and Bryant!

The Santa Fe Reporter is currently hiring a staff writer and an arts and culture editor. You can find the two job announcements online at:

http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/staff-writer-at-santa-fe-reporter/JobPosting?oid=6144771

and

http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/arts-and-culture-editor-at-santa-fe-reporter/JobPosting?oid=6157837

UPDATE: The staff writer position has been filled, and the SFR editor hopes to have the arts and culture editor position filled by June 1.

NMPWA's Sherry Robinson and Peter St. Cyr in Santa Fe (May 5, 2012)

Last weekend, the New Mexico Press Women Association recognized SPJ Rio Grande Chapter Board Treasurer Peter St. Cyr for his KNME – New Mexico In Focus interview, which focused on New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis program. That interview won first place in the Broadcast Television Interview Category. The judges also recognized his column in Albuquerque the Magazine and his profile of art critic Dave Hickey, which was awarded an honorable mention.

Northern New Mexico Press Women (Santa Fe and Los Alamos) is hosting the annual state meeting of New Mexico Press Women in Santa Fe on Friday and Saturday, May 4-5.

More than 200 journalists–both men and women–from around the state are expected to visit the City Different for the conference.

For more info and reservations, visit www.newmexicopresswomen.org/conference.

SPJ Rio Grande Chapter president Julie Ann Grimm and New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Director Gwyneth Doland (also an SPJ board member) met Thursday with Al Lama, the director of the Civil Division at the New Mexico Attorney General’s office, and Phil Sisneros, the office’s communications director.

Our organizations wrote a letter to the AG this spring because of complaints from journalists who said they weren’t receiving press releases from the office. These people work for some of the biggest news organizations in the state, and several suspected they had been cut off because of unflattering coverage of the office.

While we didn’t exactly get to the bottom of that, Sisneros acknowledged that the office did take people off the list and did tell some reporters that “not everyone could be on the list.” He said that action was in an effort to minimize problems with bad e-mail addresses bouncing back. He also said the office is not doing much list maintenance right now.

Here’s the news:  Sisneros said that the office is getting ready to launch a new method of issuing press releases. In a few weeks, he said, we will all be able to sign up on the AG website to be included in automated e-mails.  The down side is that if you are on the press release list today, you will still have to sign up for the “new way.”

Something else to look forward to is a new edition of the AG’s compliance guide for the state Inspection of Public Records Act.  (This link is to the most recent version, from 2009; see document below.)

Lama said that the office is focused right now on writing a compliance guide for the Governmental Conduct Act, but when that project wraps up, he’ll turn to IPRA. The new guide will incorporate changes to the state law in 2011 (see document below) about records being provided electronically and in their native format, and rules about personal information.

Lama also listened to us make the case for significant revisions to clarify the intent of the law with respect to draft documents and personal notes, a section of the guide that local governments have abused in an effort to withhold public documents. He didn’t make any promises, but said he would consider those ideas in the revision.
IPRA_Compliance_Guide

IPRAchanges2011