SPJ Faces Transparency Issues and Board Tension, With a Call for Impeaching Its President
Concerns related to the departure about a month ago of Society of Professional Journalists Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie continue to roil the journalism organization. A hastily called Saturday board meeting led to contention among directors about whether they could vote on who would chair the search committee to find a permanent executive director replacement.
The fallout from the contentious board meeting — video of which appears to be available in full here — led a board member to call Monday for the impeachment of SPJ’s elected president, Alex Tarquinio. Board member Michael Koretzky said that Tarquinio does not listen to others.
The issue that prompted heated debate at Saturday’s board meeting as well as allegations that the board was not proceeding in a democratic manner was who would lead the search committee. “The board of directors innocuously wanted one person, but president Alex Tarquinio wanted another — and she went thermonuclear over it,” wrote Koretzky.
The issue was whether search committee member and President-elect Patti Newberry would lead this committee. Tarquinio said that Newberry would be too busy to do so.
Some on the board appeared to have wanted Newberry — or at least someone representing SPJ and not its foundation — to lead the search. At one point, Tarquinio appeared to have accused Newberry of going behind her back. Tarquinio hoped that when Newberry becomes president in September (if the board ladder is followed), similar won’t happen to Newberry.
At one point, Tarquinio appeared to suggest that she would have some SPJ leadership role following the end of her current term in early September. “This plan I put together only works if you allow me to lead SPJ at the end of my term,” she told the board.
On behalf of an ad hoc coalition of local SPJ chapters and other local and regional leadership of the group, I asked the national board Monday night for details about this past Saturday’s board meeting and other transparency concerns. I also asked Tarquinio for comment Monday afternoon about the impeachment request.
Last month, this loose group requested that there be more transparency about the executive director search, after the departure of the association’s staff leader was not announced in the usual manner. Neither our group nor I am taking any position now on the impeachment request. Some of us do however continue to have concerns about overall board transparency in communicating with all members in a timely way and keeping them informed of the executive director search.
Tuesday morning, Tarquinio responded to my email from the last night with the following information. She said that the search committee is: SPJ Foundation President Irwin Gratz and SPJ Foundation board members Battinto Batts and Michael Bolden, all appointed by Gratz. Tarquinio said she named herself, Newberry and SPJ Secretary-Treasurer Matt Hall.
Tarquinio emailed me that she named SPJ Foundation Vice President Hagit Limor to chair the committee: “Hagit is not only a past national president, she served on the last two Executive Director Search Committees and chaired the committee that selected Joe Skeel,” who was the past SPJ executive director who after he left was succeeded by Bethel McKenzie. “She is, of course, currently the vice president of the foundation, the role that Irwin was serving in when he chaired the last Executive Director Search Committee,” Tarquinio emailed.
There won’t be an interim executive director who is hired on a full-time basis, according to Tarquinio. That’s per what she said the six members of the SPJ executive committee decided, along with Gratz and Limor.
That ad hoc committee “expressed a strong preference for hiring a consultant to perform an organizational assessment that would benefit the new executive director. They also advised having the management consultant work part time from our headquarters to provide a level of staff oversight and guidance during the interim,” emailed Tarquinio. “I recommended one firm to the board to perform both the study/two days a week in the office plus support our search for a long-term executive director. I cannot announce the name of this firm until the foundation board approves the plan and we’ve negotiated and signed a contract. If all goes according to plan, I will be announcing the hire of this firm in a Freedom of the Prez blogpost, most likely in one to two weeks.” You can read this blog here.
Of the timing of the announcement of Saturday’s board meeting, Tarquinio emailed that “unfortunately, this meeting agenda was not announced 72 hours in advance, which is our goal. I sent the agenda to the board on Thursday, May 30, a day later than intended because my flight returning from a visit to the headquarters in Indianapolis on Wednesday was cancelled. The staff posted meeting notifications via all of our social media channels on Friday and Saturday.”
Tarquinio said that SPJ headquarters staff prefer “to work with me during the transition. I’ve told the staff that I will be visiting HQ more often over the summer, beginning with a visit that I made last week.”
The SPJ president concurs “wholeheartedly with your praise of the staff, which has performed above and beyond the call of duty,” she emailed me. This was regarding my comment to the board that “first and foremost, I would like all of you to know that we continue to hope that members such as ourselves and the membership as a whole can be kept fully and timely informed about all next steps.”
