Dear NAHJers,

The Board of Directors of the NAHJ Washington, D.C. Chapter is pleased to announce that Saturday’s fundraiser, Una Noche con Periodistas at the home of Ray Suarez, raised $3,970!

Here’s the breakdown:
Revenue:$1,900 raised in ticket sales.
$1,800 made from the auction.
$270 received in on-site donations.
Expenses:$374.31 was spent.
Profit:$3,595.69.

Here’s a list of auction winners and the winning bids:
NBC4 Tour                                 Franklin Garcia         $100
Translation Services            Guillermo Meneses    $100
Video for Print Reports       Peter Copeland           $250
Design Services                       Anna Lopez                   $350
2 United Airlines Tickets    Nancy Trejos               $1,000

Although this was a fundraiser, I can tell you that as a Board, our
No. 1 goal and intention was to put on an affordable event so that
you, our members, could get together and network. We hoped to make a
profit, but even when we passed the event budget, we projected to
bring in $875. We anticipated that it would be tough to raise money in
this economy, so we made sure to keep our expenses, tickets prices and
starting bids low.

We are amazed so many people bought tickets, cooked food and
volunteered their services to help our chapter. You, our members in
the nation’s capital, are the best!

Thank you for your generosity, and mil gracias to Ray Suarez and his
wife, Carol, for opening their home to us!

All this helped make the event such a success! We hope you enjoyed the
homemade food, wine, beer, live Latin Jazz band — and all the great
company and conversation.

With warm abrazos,
The NAHJ D.C. Chapter Board of Directors

Brandon Benavides
President

Azhar Al Fadl Miranda
Vice-President

Jacqueline Baylon
Secretary

Rosalba Ruiz
Treasurer

Vanessa Alvarez
General-At-Large Officer

www.nahjdc.org
Twitter: @nahjdc
Facebook: Ñ D.C. Chapter
Facebook group: NAHJ-Washington, D.C. Chapter

Dear NAHJers,

Thank you for being a part of Una Noche con Periodistas!

Every member who bought a ticket, cooked a dish, brought food, cut fruit and veggies, designed our event logo, volunteered their services for auction, volunteered to play the congas and beat the drums, and those who invited a friend to come … all of you… made our chapter fundraiser a wonderful success.

A big thank you to Ray Suarez and his wife, Carol, for opening up their home on a Saturday night.

We are still working on the final financial report from the fundraiser and auction. I can tell you that we raised more than our projected profit of $400. We made enough money to replenish the $800 our chapter spent on sending three people to UNITY this year, the $800 spent on sending three people to the NAHJ convention in Orlando last year and
the $100 we spent on the MegaMixer last fall. We also replenished the $51.82 we had spent over the past two years to maintain our chapter website.

Once our treasurer, Rosalba Ruiz, finishes crunching the numbers, we will release the grand total. If anyone took pictures or video, please let us know. We would like to include them in our write-up on the website.

Mil gracias a todos.
Sincerely,
Brandon Benavides
Chapter President

Join us for our NAHJ Washington, D.C. Chapter fundraiser and live auction.

Enjoy a drink and eat a fajita taco with top journalists from the Washington area. Relax and bring a friend to mix and mingle in the home of Ray Suarez, PBS NewsHour Senior Correspondent and NAHJ member. Latin jazz band Club 209 will fill the night with music.

Cost: $50, per person, includes one drink ticket.

*Reduced Cost: If you cook a side dish, it’s $25, per person, plus a drink ticket.

*Must purchase by June 1.

To Buy tickets click here.

Venga a disfrutar de un trago, comida, música y la compañía de sus compañeros periodistas. Acompáñenos este 9 de junio en la residencia de Ray Suarez, reportero de PBS NewsHour. El grupo de jazz Club 209 le dará el toque musical a la noche.

Entrada: $50 por persona, incluye un trago
*Descuento: $25 por persona si trae un plato de acompañamiento.

*Para obtener el descuento, debe comprar un boleto a más tardar el 1o de junio.

El evento recaudará fondos para las actividades de NAHJ DC

Para comprar entradas, haga clic aquí.

The most diverse gathering of journalists happens at the UNITY convention every four years. This year the UNITY convention is meeting in Las Vegas, August 1-4. What better way to prepare than a Mega-Mixer in the Nation’s Capital! All are welcome to network with members of 9 journalism groups at a Mega-Mixer with top journalists covering Washington, the nation and the world. Bring your business cards and get ready to network.
 
Enjoy free hors d’oeuvres and a cocktail or two at the cashbar. The Pre-UNITY Mega-Mixer 2.0 is happening at the National Press Club on Tuesday, June 26, from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. The cost is $10 per person; $5 for Press Club members.
 
Brought to you by: Asian American Journalists Association D.C. Chapter, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, National Association of Hispanic Journalists D.C. Chapter, National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association D.C. Chapter, National Press Club, Online News Association D.C., Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter, UNITY Journalists, and Washington Association of Black Journalists.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

By Vanessa Alvarez

Noticias-DC/Univision’s News Director for local news, Karen Mendez, and National Correspondent, Fernando Pizarro, led us through a Spanish Writing Workshop. Here are some helpful tips and highlights.

From Karen Mendez:

• TV news should be clear and straight to the point
• TV news must be written in the active voice.
• “TV reporting is much more aggressive [than print reporting].”
• “It’s important that we communicate with our audience as if they were literally right in front of us, as if we personally knew them.”
• Mendez also discussed the power of headlines and the fact that TV news must be approached differently,
• “Newspapers report the news once it’s already happened, but our job has to go beyond that – We have to make the connections and give news the context as to how it will affect the public before things ever happen.”
• When Writing a ‘Kicker’ – Make it light and humorous; keep in mind that the information is not as important as is allowing the viewer to enjoy the video. So the writing should be straight to the point but take advantage of this opportunity to be creative.
• “This is an art because it, certainly, isn’t easy. There are people who are born for this [type of writing].”
• Show Format and Structure> The time of the day when your show airs is of the essence; it dictates the tone and flow of the writing. Because demographics of who you’re writing for changes, the room to be creative also changes.
• Morning audiences usually find themselves multi-tasking while getting ready to start their day, so chances are your audience is not glued to the TV set. Strong writing is must. Again, be creative!

From Fernando Pizarro:
On Reporting in the Nation’s Capital:

• Our biggest challenge day-to-day is that because public officials in DC aren’t usually fluent in Spanish, it can be hard sometimes to paint that “official” picture with a lack of Spanish sound.
• Furthermore, keep in mind the pressure to give stories a local, Latino angle; and to find that Spanish sound.  Those are the everyday challenges on the job.

La Directora de Noticias de Noticias-DC/Univision, Karen Mendez, junto al Corresponsal Nacional, Fernando Pizarro, nos abrieron las puertas a miembros de NAHJ-DC y nos presentaron con un taller de noticias en Español.  He aquí una lista de resaltos y sugerencias:

En conversacion con Karen Mendez:

• Es importante que la noticia siempre vaya al grano<
• El escribir para television es diferente.
• “Nosotros tenemos que crear la noticia antes de que pase, los periódicos reportan las cosas que ya han sucedido.”
• Un elemento adicional de la television es que el periodismo es mas agresivo,
• “Nosotros tenemos la licencia de hablarle a la gente como si los tuvieramos frente de nosotros, como si los conociéramos [personalmente].
• Cuando se trata de escribe un ‘Kicker’ – El ‘Kicker’ es una nota mas liviana y graciosa, así que no importa tanto la información ya que lo mas importante es que vaya ‘straight to the point’ o ‘al grano,’ y que el televidente disfrute de el vídeo.
• “[El Kicker] es un arte porque no es fácil, hay gente que nace para esto.”
• El formato y estructura de el programa. Hay diferencia en audiencia entre las personas que ven el programa de la mañana versus las personas que lo ven en la tarde y en la noche.
• Por ejemplo: La audiencia de la mañana siempre esta escuchando pero se mantiene ocupada preparándose para irse al trabajo, entonces los productores tienen que ser mas creativos con su noticia. Hay que aprovechar esta oportunidad para ser mas creativos!

En conversacion con Fernando Pizarro:
Como reportar en Washington, D.C. y los obstáculos de cada día:

• El desafió mas grande es que aquí los oficiales usualmente no te hablan Español, y es difícil construir un dibujo official de lo que ha sucedido con la escasez de sonido.
• Como en Washington se trabaja mucho con feeds y subscripciones, hay mucha precion de buscar sonido con gente que hable Español al igual que hay precion de localizar la noticia y darle un ángulo Hispano.

(Photos Courtesy of Jackie Diaz)

Evelio Contreras submitted his resignation as our Chapter General At-Large Officer. He is leaving The Washington Post to join CNN in New York City. His last day at the Post is Friday.

He has been a great asset to our chapter. We wishhim well in his new position in the big apple.

If you are interested if filling the remainder of his term, please send an email to nahjdc@gmail.com. The term ends July 31.

The NAHJ Washington, D.C. Chapter selected two professional members to receive financial assistance to attend UNITY in Las Vegas. A third member won our Early-Bird UNITY Registration raffle. Originally, the Chapter Board set out to offer assistance to one professional (valued at $325) and one student member (valued at $150). Since no student applied, the Chapter Board decided to help a second professional member by providing $150 towards the Early-Bird Registration. Carol Ponce won the Early-Bird UNITY registration raffle, which was drawn at our meeting at the Telemundo Network Washington Bureau.

Thanks to all who attended the meeting at the Telemundo/NBC NewsChannel Capitol Hill Bureau.
LIVE TWEETS FROM THE EVENT
@llmontenegro we work closely with the other networks we share this building with.it is a family affair #telemundo #nbclatino
@llmontenegro talks about getting started in Spanish radio “I didn’t think my Spanish was good enough for radio”
@NAHJDCLoving the Spanglish/Bilingual talk with @llmontenegro !
@penachristian will now tell us about NBC Latino #nahj
@penachrisian NBC’a marching order was “we want a Spanish language website”
@penachristian we had to build a car,but first find the parts re:what it was like to build NBCLatino as part of 2 person team#nahj#nbclatino
@penachrisian about audience: younger population is still deciding what news confer they want to use #nahj #nbclatino
@penachristian just because we are Latino doesn’t mean we at NBC Latino sit around drinking cafecito talking about the DREAM Act #nahj
RT @NAHJDC @penachrisian we give our users credit for being smart,proud of where they are from and where they are going #nahj #nbclatino

The NAHJ Washington, D.C. is raffing off early-bird registration to UNITY 2012. Tickets are $25. The lucky winner will be drawn at our membership meeting Wednesday, February 29 at 6:45 PM at the Telemundo/ NBC News Capitol Hill Bureau. The drawing is open to any NAHJ member who is current with their annual dues. Email nahjdc@gmail.com to get in the drawing. Mail a check to NAHJ ATTN: Anna Lopez 1050 Connecticut Avenue NW 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. Please indicate it is for the NAHJ Washington, D.C. Chapter.

PLUS….The NAHJ Washington, D.C. Chapter is offering to pay the early bird registration fee for one professional and one student member. NAHJ members in the District, Maryland and Virginia can apply by emailing nahjdc@gmail.com. Send a resume and write a one page letter on what you hope to learn at the convention. Also describe your financial situation. Winners must ensure national dues are paid. The deadline is Wednesday, February 29.