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Boot Camp
Slots Filling up fast
If you plan on attending or sending someone to the KPA Journalism
Boot Camp, you better hurry. Slots for the camp are going fast.
The three-week session, dubbed a “boot camp” because of the
intensive training over a relatively short period, is designed to
provide additional training for inexperienced newsroom employees or
allow newspapers to hire a person from the community who has
potential, but no journalism background. It’s limited to the first
20 to sign up and pay registration fees.
This year’s boot camp has been scheduled for July 16 through
August 3 at Georgetown College and some major changes have been made
to the format over last year’s proposed camp.
Attendees this year will be given the option of either staying on
campus or commuting daily to the sessions. Last year, it was a
requirement that those attending stay on campus. Another change is
the cost. This year’s boot camp fee is $995 for those staying on
campus and $595 for commuters. The $995 fee includes lodging in a
college dormitory, three meals a day, all materials and handouts for
the training and computer use. The commuter fee includes a
continental breakfast and lunch each day, materials and handouts and
computer use.
Both fees are substantially less than last year’s boot camp
registration of $1,200. The boot camp scheduled for last summer at
Midway College was postponed due to scheduling conflicts and a drop
in the number of registrants. One major obstacle was the on-campus
requirement.
The instructor for this year’s boot camp is Jim St. Clair, head of
the journalism department at Indiana University Southeast. St. Clair’s
career in journalism began as a sports writer for his hometown
newspaper. While in the Army, he worked as a reporter for the Army
Signal Corp and upon leaving the service, worked as a reporter and
editor for the Bedford Times-Mail. He’s worked for business
publications in Louisville and has co-authored two books and a
number of screenplays.
Kentucky journalists and First Amendment legal authorities will also
serve as guest instructors throughout the camp. Guest speakers
include: David Hawpe, The Courier-Journal; Jack Brammer, Lexington
Herald-Leader; David Greer, The Kentucky Standard, Bardstown; Ninie
O’Hara, former newspaper reporter and editor and now editor of
Southeast Christian Church’s newspaper; Jon Fleischaker, KPA
General Counsel and FOI attorney; Teresa Revlett, McLean County
News; and Kevin Hall, Georgetown News-Graphic.
Topics planned during the three weeks include: Understanding and
Writing News, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, Conforming to
Associated Press Style, Brainstorming Story Assignments, Meeting
Stories, Feature Stories and Photojournalism.
St. Clair plans for the class to produce a “Boot Camp Newspaper”
during the final days of the session.
The boot camp will run Monday through Friday in each of the three
weeks.Class times each day will be from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m.
to 4:15 p.m., and there will be meeting times available with St.
Clair from 4:15-6 p.m. daily. There will be one night meeting
required of all students on Thursday, July 26, when the students
will cover the Scott County Fiscal Court meeting for story
assignment purposes.
We’re offering the camp to KPA members first, but the camp will
also be advertised to the general public.
Member papers have until July 3 to register an employee to attend
the boot camp. The fees can be billed or deducted from KPS
advertising checks to the papers.
For more information, contact KPA Executive Director David T.
Thompson at (800) 264-5721.
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