2008 JAWS Conference Program

JAWS Fall Symposium 2008

Attitash Grand Summit Hotel

Bartlett, New Hampshire

Friday, Sept. 5

3 – 5:30 p.m. Registration and Check-in

Pick up your t-shirts, camp program and drop off our auction items!

4 p.m. - 5 p.m. Camp 101

Is this your first time to a JAWS symposium (aka “Camp”)? Did you offer to be a mentor or did you want a mentor? Are you a scholarship winner? If you answered “Yes!” to any of these questions, Camp 101 is for you. This session is a good place to get tips on how to make the most of a JAWS camp, meet JAWS members and for mentors to meet up with those who want mentors. Coordinators: Megan Kamerick, senior reporter, New Mexico Business Weekly & Merrill Perlman, Merrill Perlman Consulting.

6 p.m. Cocktails/Cash bar Reception

7 p.m. Dinner New England BBQ, with welcome by JAWS President Dawn Garcia

8 p.m. JAWS’ Poet Laureate Charreah Jackson (and associate producer, Essence.com) reads her newest poem

Camp Introductions

A JAWS tradition! Each camper will have 10 seconds to share your name, title, where you’re from and a professional or personal “first.” Use your imagination, but please be BRIEF.

Saturday, Sept. 6

7 – 8 a.m. Yoga or group exercise

8 – 9 a.m. Meet your mentor for breakfast

or Mid-career fellowships breakfast table:

9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Pick one

10:30 – 10:45 a.m. Break

10:45 - noon Pick one:

Noon – Lunch

12:15 p.m. Good news for JAWS – and a chance to win a prize! – President Dawn Garcia

12:30 to 1:30 pm. Keynote lunch speaker: Connie Schultz

Connie Schultz, the JAWS keynote speaker, is a columnist for the Plain Dealer of Cleveland. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for commentary, and was a 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. Schultz's first book, "Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths", is a collection of her previously published columns, and was printed in 2006. Her second book, "… and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man", is a journal of her experiences on the campaign trail, and was released in 2007. She is married to Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio. Because of her husband's campaign for U.S. Senate, Schultz took a leave of absence from The Plain Dealer and actively campaigned across the state of Ohio. She returned to The Plain Dealer in January 2007.

1:45 – 3 p.m.

Election roundtable: Hear election coverage stories from JAWS women on the front lines and back in the newsroom. What's it like to be on the road with the candidates? What have the media covered well/poorly? How does coverage of this campaign compare to that of campaigns past? Did having a woman and an African American vying for the Democratic nomination affect the coverage?

3 – 6 p.m. Free Time

6 – 6:30 p.m. JAWS group photo – please be prompt!

6:30 – 7 p.m. Cocktails/Cash Bar

7 p.m. – Dinner

7:45 – 8:30 p.m. The Eileen Shanahan speaker Andrea Batista Schlesinger, executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, will help frame the economic issues of the fall election campaign for JAWS members as the Shanahan Speaker at the Attitash Camp. This talk honors one of JAWS’ founding members, Eileen Shanahan, an ace economics reporter for the New York Times for many years and later founding executive editor of Governing Magazine.

8:45 – 10:00 p.m. Talent Show

Moderator: Michele Weldon, assistant professor & author, Medill School of Journalism Talent agent: Janice Littlejohn, freelance journalist, Los Angeles

Book Fair


Sunday, Sept. 7

8 – 9 a.m. Breakfast/Coffee with your mentor

Or The Op-Ed Project breakfast table:

Or Non-profits in journalism breakfast table with Rita Henley Jensen, editor in chief, Women’s eNews

8:45 – 9:30 a.m. Cast your Vote: JAWS Annual membership meeting and Election of New JAWS Board

9:45 – 11:15 a.m. Science/Environment/Technology panel

11:30 a.m. – noon Auction wrap-up, pick-up & pay

Noon – 2 p.m. Lunch on your own and play time.

2 – 3:30 p.m. Meeting of new JAWS board

Sunday night: Whine and wine! And a new feature: The Copydesk Slap Down