2005 News: 2004 a very good year for SABEW

Reported by Carrie Paden, SABEW’s executive director:

SEATTLE – The Seattle conference was very successful, with a paid attendance of about 223 persons. In addition, we had 18 exhibitors and 88 speakers.

SABEW had a very good year in terms of revenue, membership and programming.

For 2004, we had net revenue of $66,691 with the annual conference in Fort Worth generating $83,634. The three fall workshops (personal finance, writer’s and agate) in Atlanta broke even.

We ended the year with 199 institutional members with staffs of 2,979. Individual memberships totaled 424.

The Best in Business contest attracted 643 entries, including 14 from students from eight colleges. All of the winners were honored at the Seattle conference at a ceremony hosted by Governors Greg McCune and Gail DeGeorge. Retiring Governor Sandy Gonzalez and her husband, David Wilson, sponsored BIB student winner John Frank’s attendance at the conference.

Last year the Web site recorded more than 2 million hits with April being the heaviest month. Members are most likely looking for conference information and Best in Business results that month. Governor George Haj and the Internet committee are working on ways to improve the functionality of the Web site.
Financial results for the Seattle conference will be available later.

The fall writer’s and personal finance workshops will be Oct. 10-11 in St. Louis at the Sheraton West Port Hotel. Heading the workshop committee is James Madore of Newsday, Andre Jackson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and SABEW Chair Marty Steffens, of the Missouri School of Journalism.

The annual conference next year will be in Minneapolis-St. Paul. A hotel and dates will be announced shortly. Vice president Dave Kansas chairs the conference committee. Helping him will be Governors Bernie Kohn, The (Baltimore) Sun, and Gail MarksJarvis, St. Paul Pioneer-Press.

The board created a new standing committee as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley. Non-profits are encouraged to create a pre-audit committee to ensure sound financial reporting. Secretary-treasurer Gail DeGeorge heads the preaudit committee. Joining her are Henry Dubroff, Pacific Coast Business Times; Steve Keating, Denver Post; and Diana Henriques and Floyd Norris, The New York Times.

The SABEW staff has worked hard during the last year to improve member services.

Callie Epperson is focused on updating our electronic membership directory.
You can help keep records updated by letting us know when you change jobs or other personal data changes by using the membership forms used for new members, renewals and updates. The forms can be found at SABEW.org.

Select “About SABEW,” then “Join SABEW,” then choose between “SABEW Individual” or “SABEW Institutional.”

Vicki Edwards handles SABEW's finances and processes membership payments.
Webmaster Brad Jacks is leaving SABEW for an internship. Before he leaves he is teaching replacement Irena Marinova the ropes.

Please let me or one of the staff know if we can help you in any way.