SmarTrip Cards: Your Ticket to Ride (Updated)

Update: After the ISWNE Winter board meeting, the decision was made to move away from the Metrocards to buses for our two main trips. We will not be issuing the metrocards. However, you may still find a need for one, either getting from the airport or getting around town on Friday evening, a dinner-on-your-own day.

ISWNE Conferees will get SmarTrip cards with their conference registrations at ISWNE DC 2017 (it’s about a $60 value, so you’ll want to keep it safe once you get it). As we move from place to place, we’ll have people ready to help out-of-towners stay with the pack, but you might find yourself going off without us (on purpose, I hope) at some point.

Metro personnel tell us that the card works for a week starting with the first day that it is used. We’ll use it on Thursday June 29 to go to the U.S. Capitol and Library of Congress, so the pass should be good through Wednesday July 5. You can use it to get downtown for the July 4 fireworks, if you stay in DC for that.

[Dual-Sidebar: 1: We will stay at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, but they cannot allow people to stay after our Sunday July 2 departure. If you plan to stay in DC for the big holiday, book that hotel now! 2: Metro is undergoing some changes, so there is a chance the card and what it gets us will change somewhat. I’ll keep you informed. –Steve Thurston]

You might want to take the train from the airport to College Park, and if so, you might need your own SmarTrip card. Purchasing kiosks are confusing, so you might want to look at this video from the Washington Metropolitan Transportation Authority (WMATA). It’s cute and lasts a couple minutes. It shows you how to buy and refill a card. If you stay long enough, you might have to refill the card from us!

[Final Sidebar: Metro used paper “Farecards” for years. If you have used them in the past, remember that fondly, if you wish, but I’m sorry that they have been phased-out.]

 

Waltner Returns to Run Critiques

I just got word from ISWNE renowned retiree Tim Waltner that he will be back to help with the critique sessions! That is huge, big, good news for me. (Thanks, Tim!)

With luck, things will run swimmingly as they have in the past. I look forward to working with Tim and to making sure we get what we need where we need it.

Next week at some point I will be in touch with the University of Maryland, College Park, about where, exactly, we’ll be meeting. There are two options, but more on that later.

Check back here, as always, to see the latest.

–Steve Thurston, host of #iswne2017

Publisher-Editor Assumes Role of Golden Dozen Judge!

So that you don’t feel the urge to send $20 in small, unmarked bills to the 2017 Golden Dozen judge, I’m not revealing her name just yet.

Trust me, though, she:

• is a community journalist with tons (that’s “tonnes” to my British friends) of experience.
• publishes a chain of papers, edits, writes, and is politically active in the press association.
• participated in the front-page-blitz
• supports the notion that community papers should be strong voices in their communities.

This is gonna be good!

–Steve Thurston, conference coordinator.

PS: You like the G12-GQuill logo? Spiffy, eh?

 

2017 is the year for ISWNE DC

View of the Newseum atrium and helicopter. Photo by Don McCullough (Flickr: Don McCullough, Creative Commons).

Block your calendar, you won’t want to miss ISWNE DC 2017! Wednesday June 28 through Sunday July 2, 2017!

We are still working on the details of all the days, but the outline has taken shape nicely:

Wednesday (June 28): Welcomes and Hellos at the University of Maryland, Merrill School of Journalism. (A huge thank you for their support so far!)

Thursday (June 29): We’re off to Capitol Hill!

• Capitol tours in the morning.
• Library of Congress in the afternoon.
  • Tours, discussions, especially of Chronicling America

Friday (June 30): The Newseum

• Virtual Reality and the News
• Live-feed of our events out to the world!

Saturday (July 1): Editorial Critiques

• Editorial Critiques and Banquet

July 2 Sunday: So Longs and Farewells!

Keep coming back, more details to follow.

 

Set Your Calendar for ISWNE DC 2017!

Have you blocked your calendar yet for ISWNE DC 2017? You should. We have confirmed two major programs:

1: The Newseum. Not only are they cutting us an incredible discount on the space (how does free sound?), we’ll be looking at journalism through an entirely new lens: a Virtual Reality lens.

In June, the Newseum will showcase Virtual Reality, and we’ll be getting either the personal tour or the behind-the-scenes peeks.

2: Library of Congress. We’ll get the behind-the-scenes look at the immensely popular (and important) Chroncling America, a wonderful online and in-person celebration of American newspapers.

Details will keep coming in. Keep checking back!

Locking Down Event Days/Times

Hello ISWNE!

We have locked a day and some ideas down with the Newseum and Library of Congress. Both are (thankfully) inexpensive as the LoC considers this educational and is federally funded. The Newseum is giving us space out of the goodness of their hearts. We’ll be able to live-stream at least one of our major lectures.

The Newseum will have a virtual reality program either ready for us to see fully, or a behind-the-scenes look at a nearly-ready show. The hope is to ask ISWNE members about technology at their own papers and how the latest tech could and should be used by our members. A huge thanks there goes to Gene Policinski, the COO of the Newseum Institute, a former USA Today and Gannett papers editor at many different levels, and an all-around wonderful guy.

I am talking to the people at the soon-to-be-opened (September 2106) National Museum of African American History and Culture. They’re not quite set-up yet for talking to people about visiting, but the plan is to visit there on the same day that we visit the Newseum. The Newseum will take the morning and lunch. The AAHC will take a few hours in the afternoon or early evening.

Metro train in tunnel. Photo by Josh Hallett (Flickr: Josh Hallett).

We will be using the Metro system despite the fact that it is under a major repair project, called “Safe Track,” which requires entire portions of the system to be shut down. The whole project should be completed a couple months before ISWNE arrives. I’ll be watching this closely.

The University of Maryland at College Park is on the Green Line of the Metro System. It should receive its repairs and have its shutdowns in November and December this year. So far, a couple weeks into Safe Track, reports in local media say, things could be much worse.

See you in June 2017!

–Steve Thurston, Conference Chair

Meet our hero

Yes, I said hero.

Johnathan McKinney is a program manager at the University of Maryland. He’ll be leading us through the process as we approach June 2017, and he’ll be there when we arrive. After that, it’s on us and other nice people at the University of Maryland.

But before then…

Johnathan will reserve rooms, talk us through the process, walk us back from the ledge. He’ll tell us where to eat or meet to discuss editorials. If he thinks it will too damn hot to walk to the Metro station in June, he’ll find us a campus map that shows the shuttle bus stops. He’ll tell us where the bathrooms are in the Stamp Student Union. And when we need a cold beer, Johnathan will point the way.

He is our hero.

Seriously, the man will help plan this conference from the pre-conference meetings to post-conference July 4th celebration. Thank you, Johnathan!

Also, if you’re wondering why he’s standing next to a turtle: A) he’s in the Stamp Student Union which has a turtle statue and B) the University of Maryland Mascot is the “Terrapin,” a species of turtle (given the Chesapeake Bay and all).

As they say here in Maryland: Fear the turtle but not the ISWNE conference! (Yeah, that’s a thing.)