2002 Committee Meetings
December 12, 2002
October 17, 2002
August 1, 2002
June 13, 2002
April 5, 2002
February 7, 2002
Meetings of the Statewide NIE Committee
are held at the New Jersey Press Association's
headquarters: 810 Bear Tavern Road, Suite 307, West
Trenton, N.J. Our phone number is (609) 406-0600 (dial
ext. 0 for the receptionist).
Our offices are located in the Mountain
View Office Park, which is adjacent to Exit 2 of
Interstate 95 in central New Jersey ... about one mile
north of the Delaware River bridge linking New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. (NOT exit 2 of the New Jersey Turnpike)
When leaving I-95 at Exit 2, turn left
at the top of the exit ramp. Then turn right at the first
traffic signal to enter the Mountain View Office Park.
Our offices are on the third floor of
Building 840, which is clearly marked on the top of the
building.
For a map to NJPA's headquarters, click here.
Minutes
of the December 12, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 11:10 a.m. at
the New Jersey Press Association’s headquarters in
West Trenton.
ATTENDING: Cynthia Forster (Chair), Shirley
Sasor (Vice-Chair), Tom Engleman (NJPA), Antonette
Bomentre-Walter, John D'Achino, Steve Gondelman, Wendy
Halle, Milli Kerner, Liza Mattison, Jackie Mickelburgh,
Allison Spinella, Lee Williams
MINUTES: Milli made a motion to accept the
minutes of the October 17th meeting. The
motion was seconded and approved.
FIRST UNION ESSAY CONTEST
• Tom recapped the grant highlights and
“Living Without Hate” essay contest. Twelve
newspapers participated. The winning essays from each
newspaper were judged by members of the Illinois NIE
Committee and the winners were announced at the NJEA
Convention. The winning essays are available online at
the NJPA NIE website. Tom has edited these essays.
Savings bonds have been ordered for each winning student,
and these students will be invited to attend the NJPA
Dinner of Champions in July. Many newspapers are
publishing the essays of their local winners.
• Bills related to the contest have been paid,
and checks were distributed to the participating papers
who submitted entries. Each paper received $717. Lee
Williams reported that The Herald did participate in the
contest, but received 0 entries. She questioned whether
or not she was eligible to receive compensation for
participating. Cynthia suggested that in the future, the
rules make clear that in order to qualify for
compensation, a newspaper must submit entries.
• Jackie Wilson arranged to have one
complimentary ticket for each winning student donated by
Great Adventure.
• Milli made a motion to repeat this contest
again in 2003, with a different theme. The motion was
seconded and approved.
• Tom questioned whether or not next year's topic
should tie more into the committee's mission of using
newspapers as a resource. Jackie M. suggested a possible
theme: local, everyday heroes. There are numerous
curriculum materials available on this.
NJEA CONVENTION
• The consensus was that this year's NIE booth
had a good location and the hand-outs from the newspapers
were sufficient. One suggestion was made: next year,
BRING rubberbands for the poster!
• The committee thanked Shirley for arranging the
photo for the poster and appearance by Alicia Luciano,
Miss New Jersey. Alicia was very popular. While teachers
waited in line for her autograph, NIE Committee members
were able to share about the NIE program.
• If your newspaper changes it logo, be sure Tom
has the updated one.
• Antonette motioned to have next year's Miss New
Jersey on the NIE poster. The motion was seconded and
passed.
• Additional convention possibilities were
discussed, including Schools Boards, State PTA, NJ
Reading Association, and NJ Association for the Gifted.
Cynthia asked members to send recommendations. Jackie and
Milli are interested in doing a workshop at the Gifted
Convention in Princeton on February 28 and March 1. Liza
brought up the importance of attendees reporting back to
the NIE Committee.
INPRINT MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON NIE TOPICS &
PROGRAMS
Cynthia's article was printed in the December issue.
Steve's article will appear in January. Be sure to have
your article in to Missy Flynn by the 15th of
the month. Send articles to and add a brief bio. These
individuals are scheduled to submit future articles:
February – Antonette; March – Liza; April
– Jackie W.; May – Jackie M.; June –
Milli; July – Shirley; August – Jeanne;
September – Wendy; October – Julian; November-
John; December – Allison, January – Lee;
February – Jody; March – Melissa.
NJPA BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST
Flyers on the upcoming contest were handed out.
NIE PRESENTATION AT CIRCULATION MEETING: April
4th Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City
• Cynthia is looking for a speaker who would be
of interest to both NIE and circulation people. NJPA will
pay travel expenses. Liza suggested Jim Abbott and
Cynthia concurred. She will approach him. If you have
alternate names, contact Cynthia.
• Tom raised the issue of how the statewide
committee could reach out to newspapers without NIE
programs. Cynthia suggested perhaps writing a letter to
these papers. Discussion followed that maybe we should do
this type of presentation at the Annual Circulation
Meeting.
NAA RECOGNITION PROGRAM
• Liza Mattison made a Powerpoint presentation on
the NAA NIE Awards. This presentation was prepared by Jim
Abbott and presented to the Pennsylvania NIE Committee,
which Liza attended.
• Hand-outs of the presentation were distributed.
The KEY to a successful entry is measurable objectives.
“If it can't be measured, it's not an
objective.”
• Called the Sophia Awards, the divisions and
categories include: Division 1: General Excellence;
Division 2: Category Awards; Category 1 – Original
Curriculum; Category 2: Direct Mail/Marketing; Category
3: Literacy; Category 4: Collaborative Efforts; Category
5: New Media; Category 6: State or Regional NIE
Organizations; Category 7: Special Projects; Division 3:
Rookie of the Year. This year's deadline is March 1.
• It was agreed that there should be a State NIE
Committee entry. Cynthia will email committee members to
accomplish this. Shirley and Antonette offered to help
finalize the application package at NJPA offices.
• Steve brought up his desire to see a regional
NIE conference. Committee members liked the idea.
• Liza will send Cynthia a list of curriculum
materials put together by the PA NIE Committee.
NIE WEEK
Statewide ideas are needed. There is an NAA Study
Guide for NIE Week available for apx. $25.
NEXT MEETING: FEBRUARY 6TH
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1:35 PM.
Minutes
of the October 17, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the
New Jersey Press Association’s headquarters in West
Trenton.
ATTENDING: Cynthia Forster (Chair), Shirley
Sasor (Vice-Chair), Tom Engleman (NJPA), Antonette
Bomentre-Walter, John D'Achino, Steve Gondelman, Wendy
Halle, Milli Kerner, Liza Mattison, Jackie Mickelburgh,
Julian Rosado, Jeanne Schexnider, Jackie Wilson, Lee
Williams, Zygmunt Wozniak
MINUTES: Steve made a motion to accept the
minutes of the June 13th meeting. The motion
was seconded and approved without correction.
FIRST UNION ESSAY CONTEST
• A total of 12 papers participated.
• Winning entries, total numbers of entries, and
total number of schools submitting entries should be sent
to Tom at NJPA by October 25th. Additionally,
please send copies of any flyers that were mailed and any
in-page copy. When winning entries are published, please
send those, too.
• There were more middle school entries than high
school entries.
• NIE Coordinators reported that information
about the contest was distributed through
superintendents' offices, direct mailings to schools,
follow-up phone calls to teachers, letters to principals,
emails, routine NIE back-to-school packages, newspaper
websites, and discussions with teachers at annual
workshops.
• Local prizes included movie tickets and
Blockbuster gift certificates. Perhaps Great Adventure
will donate tickets. Tom will let coordinators know about
this.
• Consensus: Hot Topics was not easy to work
with.
• Illinois NIE Committee will judge each paper's
first place winner. State winners will be announced at
the NJEA Convention. Coordinators of winning entries need
to get name, address and SS# of students to Tom so he can
purchase the savings bond prizes.
• Special thanks to Committee Members and
especially Wendy Hallee
How remaining grant funds will be distributed:
Whatever funds remain after paying Hot Topics and buying
savings bonds for students will be divided among papers
that submitted entries. Funds are to be used for the
newspaper's NIE program.
Tom will follow up with First Union/Wachovia about
applying for a grant for 2003.
OTHER BUSINESS
Harrisburg: November 26th –
Pennsylvania NIE Committee will be reviewing NAA General
Excellence Awards in NIE and will have judges there to
discuss how winners are selected. Liza has offered to
drive interested people.
InPrint Magazine: Missy Flynn will accept
articles from NIE Coordinators that promote NIE programs
starting in December. The following schedule was agreed
upon, with these individuals responsible for getting
articles to Missy: December – Cynthia; January
– Steve; February – Antonette; March –
Liza; April – Jackie Wilson; May – Jackie M.;
June – Milli; July – Shirley; August –
Jeanne; September – Wendy; October – Julian;
November & December: TBD. Send article to and add a
brief blurb on yourself.
NJEA Convention
• This year, we will have 2 adjoining booths
instead of one.
• Newspapers may put out individual materials,
limited to one item per paper. Please ship in advance to
Atlantic City Convention Center. Suggested items include
lesson plans or newspaper activities. Steve will donate
tabs as hand-outs. Tom will prepare a sign-up sheet. He
has also invited all coordinators to dinner in Atlantic
City.
• The Star Ledger, NY Times and Gannett will have
their own tables.
• Volunteers to staff NIE booth include:
Antonette (Thursday), Steve (Thursday afternoon and
Friday from 1:00), Tom, Cynthia, and Jackie (Friday am).
• NIE Poster: Alicia Luciano, Miss New Jersey
will attend the convention to sign autographs on Friday.
NJPA Contest: Cynthia attended the meeting
about changing award system for NIE. The contest is run
by Circulation – Better Newspaper Awards. Changes: 1
award to 2 awards in daily category; new curriculum and
promotion: 2 for dailies; 1 for weeklies. Entry forms
were distributed.
NIE Presentation at Circulation Meeting: April 4th:
Looking for a speaker; NJPA will pay travel
expenses
Next Meeting: December 5th
- Bring ideas for NIE Week; New statewide sponsorship
ideas; Ideas for website needed – contact Tom.
Minutes
of the August 1, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the
New Jersey Press Association’s headquarters in West
Trenton.
ATTENDING
Cynthia Forster (Chair), Shirley Sasor
(Vice-Chair), Antonette Bomentre-Walter, John
D’Achino, Wendy Halle, Milli Kerner, Julian Rosado,
Andrea Spaeth, Jackie Wilson.
Milli Kerner made a motion to accept
the minutes of the June 13th meeting. The
motion was seconded Julian Rosado and approved without
correction.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Neale S. Godfrey, Chairperson,
Children’s Financial Network, Inc., Karen McMullen,
Executive Director, Center for Financial Training , and
Robert Desch, Director of Education, New Jersey Bankers
Association
Ms. Godfrey, author of 13 books
including Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees, a New
York Times list best-seller, made a presentation on
the topic of financial literacy. Did you know that there
are more people annually who declare bankruptcy than
graduate from college?
Ms. Godfrey is dedicated to educating
our nation’s children about money and finance. She
has developed a supplementary curriculum for Grades 1
– 6 on topics including money, banking and
investments. She has teamed up with the Center for
Financial Training with the goal of making this
curriculum available in every elementary school in New
Jersey. With financial support from the banking and
corporate world, the curriculum is currently being used
in 5,000 schools in 48 states at a cost of
$600/classroom. They are looking for new partners -
corporations, foundations, organizations, etc. - to help
sponsor the curriculum in classrooms. Currently, their
goal is to make New Jersey the national model for
teaching financial literacy. With support from Senator
Corzine, they are working toward mandating the teaching
of financial literacy, and are sponsoring a financial
summit on October 19 at Kean University. This full-day
conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. NIE Coordinators are
invited.
The challenge they posed to the NIE
Committee is: How do we reach your constituents? How can
we partner with you to achieve our goal? Suggestions
included sponsoring a contest, creating a kid’s
newspaper, or possibly generating a survey to kick off at
summit on the theme: Test Your Financial Literacy.
Following the presentation and upon
further discussion, it was the consensus of NIE committee
members present that if they are willing to make
available - at no cost to us - curriculum materials that
tie into using the newspaper as a source, perhaps we can
introduce it to the schools.
FIRST UNION ESSAY CONTEST
Wendy Halle reported for her committee
on the parameters established for the upcoming essay
contest. She handed out sample entry forms, rubrics and
flyers. The tab created by Hot Topics, Live Without
Hate, will be made available on CD-ROM for individual
newspapers to reproduce.
There were several issues raised about
the contest rules and sample materials distributed. The
committee agreed to allow faxed essays but not E-mailed
ones, and to eliminate "Presentation" from the
rubric. The flyer makes no mention of the local judging
process, the right to reproduce the essay, or the NJPA
luncheon invitation that will be extended to winners.
Since it was approaching 2 p.m., coordinators were asked
to review the hand-outs during the next few days and
E-mail Wendy any corrections or omissions. Her E-mail
address is whalle@gannett.com.
When finalized, Wendy will E-mail the contest materials
back to coordinators.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Antonette handed out "Golf Fore
Literacy" brochures. This golf outing will benefit
the Newspaper-In-Education Program at the Burlington
County Times.
The next statewide NIE Committee
meeting will be at 11 a.m. on October 17 at the NJPA
headquarters in West Trenton. At that time, we will need
to discuss the upcoming NJEA Convention and what
materials individual newspapers may bring for the booth.
It was agreed that Shirley Sasor would arrange a photo
shoot with Miss New Jersey, similar to last year, for a
poster. Following discussions with the Miss New Jersey
organization, Shirley reported that Miss New Jersey will
appear both days at our booth to sign autographs.
The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Minutes of the June
13, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the
New Jersey Press Association's headquarters in West
Trenton.
ATTENDING:
Cynthia Forster (Chair); Shirley Sasor
(Vice-Chair); Tom Engleman (NJPA Director); John Achino,
Antoinette Bementre-Walter; Melissa Edwards, Steve
Gondelman, Wendy Halle, John Leach, Julian Rosal, Jeanne
Schexnider, Lee Williams, Zygmunt Wozniak
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tom Engleman encouraged attendees to
look into the upcoming NJPA Golf Outing. Sponsorships are
still available. The event will be held at the Royce
Brook Country Club to benefit the NJPA Foundation.
International Literacy Month is
September.
OLD BUSINESS
Recap of April ABC Presentation
Cynthia Forster gave a recap of Joe
Saloman’s April presentation to NIE Coordinators.
Recap of NAA Convention in Hershey
Cynthia Forster reported that the
annual NAA Convention in Hershey drew approximately 210
attendees. Eleven New Jersey newspapers were represented.
Workshops included: Grant-writing; Basic Salesmanship;
and Workshops Out-Of-The-Box. All the workshops and
general sessions were recorded. Information about
purchasing tapes will be available on the Verizon
website.
Next year’s convention will be
held in Chicago. Hand-outs from sessions were passed
around.
Cynthia may invite the Director of New
Jersey Reads to a future NIE meeting to explore ways
we can partner with Verizon, maybe a literary guide.
Literacy Unites Us Conference
(Elizabeth New Jersey)
Melissa Edwards and Cynthia Forster
reported on their attendance at the Literacy Unites Us
conference for for adult literacy tutors.
NEW BUSINESS
School Violence Essay Contest (First
Union Grant: $11,000)
Wendy Halle reported on committee
discussions. They are looking for a curriculum to
purchase. Hot Topics has a $700 tab: Conflict
Resolution or Living Without Hate.
Ten newspapers expressed an interest in
participating in the contest.
By unanimous vote, it was agreed that
there would be two levels of awards: Grades 5 — 8
and 9 — 12. Essays must be 500 words or less.
Students may only send in 1 entry. Local entries must be
postmarked by October 11th. Each newspaper
will choose 3 local winners in each level. These must be
forwarded to Tom Engleman by October 18th and
will require a parental signature. Tom will arrange to
have them judged by an out-of-state NIE organization.
After much discussion, it was decided
the topic would be: How We Can Live Without Hate. Other
considerations included: How Can I Live Without Hate
(4votes); What I Can Do To Stop The Hate (4); How To Live
Without Hate (1 vote); and Hate Hurts (1 vote). Steve,
Jean, Antoinette, Wendy, and Jackie Wilson will prepare a
flyer.
Readership Programs
Steve Gondelman shared how the Atlantic
City Press and the New York Times are partnering to build
student readership on college campuses. This combination
of a local and national newspaper seems to work well as
one does not overshadow the other. Local colleges are
beginning to promote the program.
website Renovation
Please send Tom an email with a link to
your NIE website, if you have one. The NJPA website is
being redesigned and can now include curriculum links,
lessons online, local workshops, essay contests etc.
Election of Officers
Cynthia Forster and Shirley Sasor were
re-elected by unanimous vote to a third term.
Next Meeting Date: August 1
Minutes of the April
5, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 2:30 p.m. at the
Princeton Marriot Hotel, U.S. Route 1, Princeton.
ABC Rules Presentation by Joe Salamone
of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. He described the
recently updated ABC rules on counting educational
subscriptions
Next meeting
June 13, 2002, 11 a.m., at the New Jersey Press
Association offices in West Trenton (see directions
above) Note date change due to NIE national conference
in Hershey earlier that month.
Minutes of the
February 7, 2002, Meeting
The meeting started at 11 a.m. at the
New Jersey Press Association's headquarters in West
Trenton.
ATTENDING:
Cynthia Forster (Chair); Shirley Sasor (Vice-Chair);
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