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The East Tennessee
chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the East Tennessee
Writers Guild will co-host a panel of full-time freelancers at 7 p.m.,
Tuesday, Jan. 25, in Room 225 of the University Center at the University
of Tennessee.
Topics will include getting started as a freelancer, finding markets,
managing your time, what to do about health benefits and more. The panelists
will also answer questions from the audience.
Brown, moderator
Wynne Brown,
moderator, recently left her day job at The Knoxville News-Sentinel
to re-join the freelance world as a writer, editor and designer. She has
written for national horse magazines, is editor and designer of a newsletter
for Sequoyah Museum and serves as a graphic design and editorial consultant
for several local businesses.
A freelance writer for 5 1/2 years, Dorothy Foltz-Gray is a contributing
editor for Health Magazine; a health columnist for American
Way, the in-flight magazine for American Airlines; and a past contributing
editor of Family Fun. She has also written for Bon Appetit,
Cooking Light, National Geographic Traveler, Parenting,
Ladies Home Journal, McCall’s, and Redbook.
She is currently revising a book on fibromyalgia for the Arthritis Foundation,
and is writing a memoir, “With and Without Her,” about
being and losing a twin.
Weaver, rose writer
Mary Weaver is a freelancer with 17 years experience editing, writing
for, and managing magazines, books and corporate communications. Her clients
have included Home & Garden Television, Whittle Communications, the
National Storytelling Association, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the
Catholic University of America, and the University of Tennessee at
Knoxville. She has also written a beginner’s guide to growing
roses, Burpee Basics: Roses, which was published by Macmillan in
1998.
Murphy-Racey, photographer
Patrick Murphy-Racey, a native of Chicago, graduated from journalism school
at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He has worked for the Milwaukee
Journal, Palm Beach Post, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel,
Mesa Tribune in Arizona and The Knoxville News-Sentinel.
He resigned from the News-Sentinel in June 1992 to start his freelance
company, Patrick Murphy-Racey Photography. “And I’ve never looked
back,” he said. “It’s been a great ride.”
He describes his business as one-third sports (work for Sports Illustrated,
ESPN Magazine, the NFL and the NBA, among others), one-third corporate
annual reports (companies such as Goody’s and Clayton Homes) and
one-third advertising (companies such as Adidas).
Can you imagine
adults—professionals, they call themselves, clamoring to take home
a Christmas tree with bug eyes and false eyelashes? Or a stuffed Taco
Bell-like Chihuahua that, according to Wynne Brown whose husband Hedley
Bond “won” it, not only shimmies (sort of) but also sings “La
Bamba” and holds a place of honor in the Bond/Brown living room?
The strange (someone called it “obscene”) tree and annoying
dog were two very popular items at the ETSPJ Christmas party crazy gift
exchange. Who ended up with that tree anyway?
Other memorable and not so memorable gifts from the December party:
- Snuggliest
-- the furry brown moose that went to Fatima Hyder (“stolen”
from Brown and Dorothy Bowles);
- Cutest
-- mice finger puppets that went to Sally Guthrie (who pleaded her case
and saved them from “theft” by Brown);
- Farthest
travelled (and most, umm, interesting) was the Chinese tape dispenser.
- Most beautiful
was the card collection and handmade paper created by Suzanne Neal.
- And the
person most often stolen from must have been Jean Ash.
What else did
people take home? Calendars, jelly beans, soup fixings, coffee mugs, books,
a toy Volkswagen, and a giant candle.
Approximately
30 members and guests attended the Dec. 9 party held at the University
Club.
Loquacious elves say 'thanks' for ETSPJ-donated toys
SPJ member-donated
Barbie dolls, “Toy Story” movie figures, Legos, a totem pole paint kit
and toddler-sized stuffed animals were among the estimated 3,000 toys
that the Marine Corps Reserve Center’s Toys for Tots program expected
to distribute to East Tennessee children this Christmas.
A couple of dozen toys were collected at the annual ETSPJ Christmas Party
and taken to the Marine Corps Reserve Base on Alcoa Highway before the
holiday.
Local Toys for Tots coordinator Staff Sgt. Jeff Staines said they planned
to sort the toys and match them to applications received from about 250
needy families in Knox County. “We have programs in Roane, Loudon, and
Sevier counties, too,” he said. “This year we’re also working with an
orphanage in Cocke County and with the Mountain Women’s Organization in
Jellico.”
He joins the ETSPJ Board in thanking members who generously helped make
a lot of little girls’ and boys’ holidays brighter.
Note: Last year when Ash delivered the toys, she encountered what she
referred to as a “laconic” elf. We can only guess what the millennium
elf will be.
U.N.
budget a concern, Benesch tells SPJ
by
Bryan Tinsley, former Journalism 200 student
Deputy Director
of U.N. Political Affairs, Tony Benesch, told an ETSPJ audience that the
U.S. State Department is attempting to become more accessible to the public
in hopes of dispelling some common misconceptions about the role of the
United States in U.N. affairs.
One of these myths is the idea that the United States is allocating too
much money to foreign affairs and the United Nations, according to Benesch.
“We spend one percent of our annual budget on all foreign affairs combined.
That’s half of the total amount of money spend on gambling in this
country.”
U.N.
budget concerns
A big concern,
said Benesch, is not our own budget as a country, but that of the United
Nations itself. Currently, the United States pays 25 percent of the United
Nations’ annual budget, but it often refuses to pay certain dues
for projects deemed disagreeable by Congress. “Although we are not
paying our total dues, we are still being charged and have created a deficit
of $600 million,” Benesch said. He added that this creates an imbalance
in the United Nations and could cause other countries not to pay their
dues as well.
Benesch said he believes the United Nations is vital to the overall peace
and well-being of the people of the world. He added that the State Department
is not looking to pour money into the United Nations, but to cut its budget,
reduce the size of its council and to make it more efficient.
Press
coverage
If the United
States continues to ignore its financial obligations, it could lose its
General Assembly vote, Benesch said. The formula for determining the percentage
of the budget that a particular country pays to the United Nations is
based on things like gross national product and assets. The United States
ranks last among the world’s richest countries in percentage of wealth
given to the United Nations.
Benesch said he
believes there should be more press coverage in Washington. This would help
keep the public better informed about State Department affairs. He believes
a lack of accuracy in reporting occurs because more press coverage comes
from the U.N. building in New York than from the headquarters of the State
Department in Washington.
Benesch, a former graduate student at the University of Tennessee, was the
guest speaker at the Nov. 18 meeting, held at the University Center. Approximately
15 members and guests attended.
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