Convention attendees head to registration on Wednesday. (Photo/Melvin Felix)
Latino Reporter staff |
Update 1:29 p.m.
The Native American Journalists Association is open to partnering with other minority journalism organizations for its convention in 2013.
A NAJA representative announced at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists membership meeting on Friday that it was willing to be a partner for that convention.
NAHJ Financial Officer Russell Contreras has already approached the Asian American Journalists Association for a potential partnership in 2013.
12:53 p.m.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists says it will have to partner with another journalism organization if it wants to organize a convention in 2013.
Budgets are tight, resources are limited, and minority journalism organizations are looking for creative ways to continue their programming into the future.
One potential partner for NAHJ is the Asian American Journalists Association, as neither NAHJ nor AAJA have decided upon a location yet for 2013.
“We’re going to have to partner with someone else,” said Russell Contreras, financial officer for NAHJ, on Friday before the noon membership meeting.
The NAHJ board voted on an austerity budget earlier this year that lays off the organization’s staff and takes its office out of the National Press Club Building in Washington, D.C., after its lease expires.
AAJA President Doris Truong confirmed that Contreras approached her about a potential partnership.
NAHJ has 1,500 members and AAJA has 1,400 members.
“We’re looking at different options,” said Truong, who is attending the 2011 NAHJ Convention in Orlando, Fla. “Several groups have approached us.”
Truong said the Radio Television Digital News Association is another potential partner.
She invited Contreras to give the AAJA board a presentation about the potential partnership at its meeting in August.
Contreras said he also approached the National Association of Black Journalists, but that partnership wasn’t a possibility for 2013 because NABJ has already designated Las Vegas as its convention site that year.
AAJA will be holding its 2011 convention from Aug. 10-13 in Detroit.
Both AAJA and NAHJ, along with the Native American Journalists Association, will be hold a joint convention through UNITY Journalists of Color in Las Vegas in 2012.
Earlier this year, NABJ pulled out of UNITY and will hold a separate 2012 convention.
