Poynter Institute Hosts AAJA Chapter Leadership Retreat

Twenty-eight members and upcoming leaders from 19 AAJA chapters will participate in Camp AAJA, a 3-day chapter leadership retreat, to be held February 1-3, 2008 at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The biennial training is designed to hone participants' leadership skills and provide a venue to discuss effective national and local strategies to help achieve AAJA's goals. Among the topics to be discussed by participants with the help of consultants and guest speakers include membership recruitment and retention, fundraising, program planning, diversity and coalition-building.

Camp AAJA was first held in San Francisco in 2000. Subsequent retreats were held in 2002, 2004 & 2008 at The Poynter Institute. Many of Camp AAJA graduates have since taken on leadership positions within AAJA, both on the national and local levels.

This year's Camp AAJA is made possible through grants and contributions from The Poynter Institute , St. Petersburg Times Fund, AAJA supporter Skip Rhodes, AAJA Florida Chapter, and proceeds from AAJA's National Endowment.

This year's Camp AAJA participants are:

Arizona Chapter
Mindy Lee

Atlanta Chapter
Vino Wong

Chicago Chapter
Sabrina Wu
Inggrid Yonata

Florida Chapter
Adam Vance

Hawai'i Chapter
Laurie Au

Los Angeles Chapter
Grace Lim
Cathy Tran

Michigan Chapter
Erin Chan

Minnesota Chapter
Thomas Lee
Bao Ong

New England Chapter
Shirley Goh

New York Chapter
Raymund Flandez

North Carolina Chapter
Meiling Arounnarath

Philadelphia Chapter
Saliqa Khan

Portland Chapter
Ruth Liao
Elizabeth Suh

Sacramento Chapter
Bobby Caina Calvan
Judy Lin

San Diego Chapter
Jessica Chang
Warisa Chulindra

San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Katherine Tam
Janet Kim

Seattle Chapter
Candace Heckman

Texas Chapter
Kristi Hsu
Angie Joe

Washington, D.C. Chapter
Hanah Cho
Susan Yoo