IHSA

IHSA Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - 2005-06

News Media Advisory Committee

August 31, 2005

The IHSA News Media Advisory Committee met in the IHSA Office in Bloomington, Illinois, on Wednesday, August 31, 2005. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. Committee members present were: Tina Akouris, Sports Writer, Chicago Sun-Times; Don Chipman, Sports Writer, Beardstown Cass County Star Gazette; Jean McDonald, Sports Department, Champaign News Gazette; John Radtke, Sports Editor, Fox Valley Daily Herald; Lee Hall, Sports Director WEEK TV – Peoria; Dan Burich, Sports Director WQAD - TV – Quad Cities. IHSA Asst. Executive Director Anthony Holman.

Recommendations

General Media Passes Policy (Policy 32. 7 – b.)

User may broadcast, cablecast, air, televise, netcast, cybercast, webcast or display Highlights only in a "bona fide newscast" or approved IHSA media outlet website. “Bona fide newscast” is defined as a half hour or one hour program that regularly scheduled and includes news, weather and sports, e.g., the 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. newscasts on broadcast television stations. Entertainment and commercial uses of Highlights are not considered “Bona Fide Newscasts” and shall not be permitted without the express, written consent of IHSA.

Rationale: This is an editorial change that would allow recognized legitimate media outlets to air highlights from IHSA events on their website. The highlights/clips could not exceed 30 seconds per event or 2 minutes of running time total.

Approved Recommendation 1

Recommendation

To reinstate the telephone conference calls for Football and Boys/Girls Basketball.

Rationale: This was a great service to the media and coaches; it produced quality pre-state final stories and coverage, and also cut down the number of requests that coaches received from the media for interviews. The IHSA has eliminated several media publications over the last several years so perhaps the financial savings could be used for the teleconference. Finally if finances are the major concern perhaps a sponsor of some sort could be enlisted to underwrite the cost of the teleconferences, i.e. Sprint, SBC, or another phone service provider.

Rejected Recommendation 2

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the advisory committee, there are certain agenda items that the committee discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the August 31, 2005 agenda:

1. Create a template for managers hosting IHSA State Series events to complete when submitting scores and game results to the IHSA Scorezone. The template would have a few simple statistical questions. The manner in which information is reported is quite inconsistent from one host to the next, the media would like to get a more detailed and standardized reporting.

Example:

Bloomington Baseball Regional
Bloomington 4
Normal 2
Winning Pitcher: Scott Johnson
Bloomington: 6 Hits, 2 Errors, Lead by Kurt Gibson with 2 hits

2. Dress-up the Press Conference Area, add some lights and IHSA signage.

3. Make programs at all levels available to working media, at no cost.

4. Develop an e-mail distribution list utilizing the Media Center to notify Media outlets of Press Releases, Pairings, and other pertinent information.