Three board officer positions are open for current TAJE members this month: secretary, treasurer and president-elect. You can read more about these positions and the candidates running for them below. The electronic election will be held Feb. 22-25, so look for that information in our weekly email or check back here later this month to cast your vote. Good luck to all of our candidates!
What does each position do?
Treasurer: Working closely with the executive director, the treasurer oversees all finances and presents financial statements to the Executive Board and then to the membership at large. The treasurer must be familiar with Quickbooks because he/she records all transactions made by the executive director in Quickbooks and then uses that software to prepare reports, etc. The treasurer will act as the TAJE agent in securing an independent bookkeeper or accountant to audit the financial records as needed. Treasurer is a two-year term.
Secretary: The secretary keeps the minutes of all meetings of the association and the Executive Board and provides minutes for previous meetings at conventions and meetings. Copies of the minutes should be delivered to the Executive Board within two weeks of meetings. Secretary is a two-year term.
President-elect: In addition to serving as chair of the Nominating Committee and overseeing committee chairs, this person will become president if the office of president becomes vacant. After serving a two-year term, the president-elect becomes president for two years and then past president for two. (The president works closely with the executive director, and the past president is responsible for overseeing the Awards Committee.)
Secretary Candidates
Name: Haley Gluch
Email: haleygluch@gmail.com
School: McNeil High School
Media Advised: Newspaper, Yearbook
Years Experience: 6 years
Short Bio: I was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and Theresa Proctor was my yearbook adviser at McNeil High School. I was on the yearbook staff all throughout high school then went to University of North Texas to study journalism/advertising and joined the NT Daily newspaper staff as a designer. After working at a few ad agencies, I really felt like something was missing and went with my backup plan and got my teaching certificate. Now six years later I am building my program and also getting a masters in mass communications from Texas Tech to better myself even more and fine tune my skills.
Why I’m Running: The people who run TAJE have really helped me become the teacher I am today. When you get into teaching publications, there might be one person on campus that can help you but in most cases you have to reach out beyond your school. Kari Riemer took me to my first TAJE event six years ago when I was still in my first year teaching, and meeting all these veteran advisers who had so much great advice still helps me to this day. Going to Fall Fiesta and watching kids learn is always a great refresher for why I stay a teacher – especially this year… I want to be part of the board to learn even more and hopefully help new advisers and kiddos along the way.
Name: Stephen Green
Email: smgreen@conroeisd.net
School: Caney Creek High School
Media Advised: Newspaper, Yearbook, Online News
Years Experience: 6 years
Short Bio: Stephen Green, CJE, is in his fourth year advising at the award-winning Caney Creek High School Student Media program in Conroe, Texas. He has a B.A. in multiplatform journalism from Sam Houston State, nearly complete with an M.A. in journalism from Kent State. He also has more than eight years in collegiate and professional newspaper experience as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers. The Caney Creek Student Media program has been recognized on the local, state and national level for its photojournalism, reporting and design.
Why I’m Running: Scholastic journalism is one of the last places where this craft can thrive in nearly journalism’s purest form, away from the pressures of the industry. It’s my belief that journalism educators can help bolster the quality of the news industry by turning out high quality reporters, photographers, designers and multimedia journalists, as well as a more well-informed electorate. Being a part of an organization that strives to improve all of us educators in this goal is a worthwhile endeavor and one I would be proud to take on.
Name: Alicia B Merrifield
Email: merrifield@thevillageschool.com
School: The Village School
Media Advised: Yearbook, Online News, Photojournalism
Years Experience: 30 years/11 in journalism
Short Bio: If you would have asked me 30 years ago if this is what I would have been teaching, I would have told you no! But after eleven yearbook seasons and seven years teaching online news and photojournalism, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I am a YERD through and through. I have recently been named a JEA Mentor and a Scripps Howard Foundation Teaching Ambassador. One of my favorite things is mentoring growing staffs and brand new advisers. I will be finishing my Masters in Journalism Education through Kent State and will graduate fall of 2022. I have been married to my husband for 30 years and have two college-aged children and twin Doberman fur babies.
Why I’m Running: Now that I am wrapping up my Masters in Journalism Education, I feel like I want to be a bigger part of our community. I am an adviser at a private school which could add a different perspective to the group. Along with advising multiple publications, I am an active member with JEA and a mentor working through the JEA Mentor program. Besides my own programs and staffs, the thing I am most passionate about is keeping advisers in schools. It seems we are losing young and strong advisers faster than we can keep them. Part of this reason is the lack of campus support that advisers might feel at work. I want to find a way to build professional learning communities through social media.
Treasurer
Name: Margaret Edmonson
Email: m.edmonson@comalisd.org
School: Smithson Valley High School
Media Advised: Newspaper, Yearbook, Broadcast, Online News
Years Experience: 19 years
Short Bio: I advise student publications at Smithson Valley High School, a 6A high school just north of San Antonio. My staffs have received recognition from National Scholastic Press Association, Texas Association of Journalism Educators, Interscholastic League Press Conference and Jostens in my 15 years at my current campus. I previously taught at Burbank High School where two of my journalism students advanced to state UIL competition for the first time in the school’s history. Prior to that, I spent 13 years reporting and editing at two small daily newspapers in central Texas.
Why I’m Running: I am a former journalist who worked as a managing editor of a small daily newsroom, overseeing the operation funds and budget of the department. As a journalism adviser, I oversee budgeting for the yearbook, newspaper and journalism programs. In my seven months as treasurer, I have worked closely with the board to manage the association’s funds and analyze expenditures and receipts.
President-Elect
Name: Michael Reeves
Email: ekister101@hotmail.com
School: James Bowie High School
Media Advised: Newspaper, Yearbook, Online News, News Magazine
Years Experience: 19 years
Short Bio: Michael Reeves is the adviser of Dispatch Media at James Bowie High School in Austin. His students produce the Dispatch newspaper, thedispatchonline.net online newspaper, and coming soon: a pair of digital magazines. One will be focused on pop culture while the other will be sports-based. Students in his award-winning program create content across the journalism spectrum from long form, feature-based pieces to podcasts, videos and robust social media offerings. After nearly 20 years leading publications, one of his favorite things to do is to work with other programs around the country to learn and share ideas. Reeves is married to his wife Katie, and they have one amazing daughter named Flannery.
Why I’m Running: I have been debating with myself about running for this position for a few years. I have always been an active member of TAJE and even held a couple of elected positions in the past. But the time commitment has always scared me off. This was especially true right after we had our daughter. I just wanted to dedicate time to her, and I always had our program to look after. It was also more than time; it was feeling ready. It was about believing I could contribute.
Despite those concerns, I still found time to do so many journalism things, from critiquing and judging to traveling to conventions all around the country, helping new advisers in my district, and even long-distance efforts to assist others. I really didn’t save much time, in fact I probably did too much.
So why now? What has changed between then and now?
Well, I reached out to a past TAJE president and she said something in our discussion that stuck out to me. She said, “Being involved with TAJE at this level isn’t about attaining a certain level or winning more. It’s a desire to help advisers do their jobs better and bring more opportunities to kids.”
This hit home to me. Really, that is what I have been doing. Critiquing is helping students be better and to sometimes guide an adviser in a better direction.
Judging is using all the knowledge I have gained over the years to “guide” a program to what they are doing well and what they could improve.
Entering contests is about helping my students better themselves, and by proxy me.
Assisting others, especially those new to advising, is about helping others get better.
Attending conventions is about bettering myself, but also by presenting, judging, critiquing and being present is also helping others.
I have been doing it all this time. But that effort has been random and unguided. To be honest, having a direction to point would make a huge difference. By running for this position, I will have a direct focus; to help people in my own state, to help students in my own state, to work with my friends and friends-to-be across our massive state.
Honestly, this is my desire, to help advisers do their jobs better… and I will add in easier, and to bring more opportunities to students in our own state. Instead of throwing my ideas out into the wind, I can devote the same exact amount of time, with the same goals, and see tangible results of those actions.
I have always been a proponent of students, and I believe I was an influence on how TAJE does their Best in Texas judging. I always argued that we should reward as many students as possible for their excellence. Giving two awards in a category with 25 entries means something, but so does giving six or seven kids a certificate. Certainly, differentiate those certificates, but don’t be stingy. Getting an award is the greatest thing we can do for our students. When my new podcaster won an award for his first podcast… you couldn’t have stopped him with a freight train from continuing to make podcasts. When a former Editor-in-Chief won a scholarship from TAJE, we enabled a brilliant young man to attend Georgetown and to continue his journalism. And today he is on an SPLC regional board serving others to combat censorship. I want to continue to fight for Texas TAJE students in this regard.
I also want to continue to grow the TAJE mentor program. The past three years have been unbelievably difficult and we all know there will be turnover. Now more than ever we need to make sure we are creating homes for new advisers, that we are fostering the care we know that needs. They need TAJE and we need them.
TAJE needs to continue to support and build New Voices Texas so we eventually gain those much-needed rights for our students. All of the new advisers coming into the profession need our support from the long reach of censorship as well.
There has been a long line of great TAJE presidents… I wouldn’t compare to them, but I do promise to work hard to live up to the path they have carved and to do their efforts justice. I credit TAJE and ILPC for the things I have learned and how I have grown as an adviser.
It is time to throw my hat into the ring.
It isn’t about winning.
It isn’t about attaining a level.
It is about giving.
I am ready to give back.