UNITY orgs mull more joint conventions

By WESLEY LOWERY and DEXTER MULLINS
nabjconvention.org

Hampered by the economy, NABJ and the three other minority journalists groups are considering joining forces more regularly in order to survive.

Members of UNITY: Journalists of Color, which was founded in 1994 as a partnership between minority news organizations, are mulling a plan to increase its number of “joint conventions.”

Since its inception, UNITY has held conventions in Atlanta, Seattle, Washington and Chicago. All four organizations have seen year-end balances in the red over the past four years; some hope increasing the number of joint conferences will aid the organizations financially.

Under this new structure, the alliance would continue to meet every four years for the UNITY convention, but the proposed joint conferences would occur every other year. UNITY President Barbara Ciara, said UNITY alliance partners have had “informal discussions” about the possibility of having two organizations hold joint conventions in the same city.

“To protect the cultural identity of each organization, it would be the equivalent of having two separate conventions in the same city sharing some expenses and one exhibit hall,” Ciara said. This would also allow the organizations to negotiate joint hotel agreements and avoid incurring fees for not filling pre-determined hotel blocks. UNITY conventions tend to make more money for the organizations than individual conventions.

NABJ Treasurer Greg Lee said Tuesday that revenue from on-site registration goes directly to UNITY. Since most of NABJ’s members have a tendency to register late or on-site, NABJ loses revenue from not being able to collect those registration fees. Lee also highlighted other organizations’ willingness to work with NABJ, since they have the largest amount of members and the greatest potential for filling room block commitments.

Joining forces to host a convention was first proposed in 2008. UNITY founders Will Sutton and Juan Gonzalez wrote an open letter asking the organizations to increase the number of joint meetings. Sutton and Gonzalez suggested holding joint conferences every two years. The idea was rejected.

“The resistance to that idea is natural, as natural as the resistance to UNITY in the first place,”  said Rafael Omeda, former president of UNITY and NAHJ. “We all have our individual associations; they all have very proud legacies.”

Financial hardships have reopened discussions of increasing the frequency of UNITY conventions; however, that could be a high hurdle to clear. Some organizations have already signed contracts for future conventions, making it difficult to coordinate hotel registration.

All four organizations have plans to attend the 2012 UNITY convention in Las Vegas.
Some NABJ members believe increasing the number of joint conventions is necessary to keep the organization financially viable in the future.

“I don’t want NABJ to lose its identity, but we’re at a point — realistically and financially — that we need our conventions to be successful,” said Sherlon Christie, a sports reporter at the Asbury Park Press and an NABJ member.

Region II director Charles Robinson said he isn’t necessarily ready to jump into a new UNITY alliance right away. Robinson wants NABJ to examine more closely the model of how the funds are divided up.

“Now every two years UNITY members want to have a UNITY event,” Robinson said. “I’m not exactly thrilled with that. The bottom line is, how do we make it work and what is the roll of UNITY?”

UNITY currently uses the following formula to split the money generated from the joint convention:

• 20 percent of the funds go directly to UNITY
• 40 percent is split evenly among the four partner organizations
• 40 percent is split based on registration per organization