RTDNA Canada Message from the President
RTDNA Canada held its annual board meeting and AGM on June 18th, and I’m pleased to announce the RTDNA Canada board members listed below have been reelected for 2020/2021. There are open positions, so if you are interested in volunteering, I would love to hear from you.
The RTDNA Board for 2020/2021 is:
Executive Committee:
- Fiona Conway, President and International Representative
- Corey Bellamy, VP – Social and Digital
- George Browne, VP – Business Development
- Joanne MacDonald, Business Manager
- Ian Koenigsfest, Past President
Directors:
- Beatrice Politi, Conference Co-Chair
- Jonathan Whitten, Conference Co-Chair
- Joanne McPherson, Sponsorship Chair
- Karen Mitchell, Awards Committee Co-Chair
- Joe Olafson, Awards Committee Co-Chair
- Dan Appleby, Atlantic Region Co-Chair
- Rhonda Brown, Atlantic Region Co-Chair
- Ron Kronstein, Central Region Co-Chair
- Owen Leitch, Central Region Co-Chair
- Tim Parent, Prairies Region Co-Chair
- Kathryn Stewart, West Region Co-Chair
- Peter Wagner, West Region Co-Chair
Congratulations to the board, and I thank you all once again for your valuable contributions to RTDNA Canada.
2020 Annual Bear
We hosted the annual bear pit meeting with news leaders via a virtual conference on Friday, June 19th. It was a candid and informed discussion, and I want to thank the news leaders for their participation.
Thanks to Ward Smith of Global News, Wendy Freeman of CTV News, Dave Budge of Rogers Communications, and Brodie Fenlon of CBC News for taking the time to discuss top of mind issues facing their organizations today, and for making commitments to improving their newsrooms to better reflect racial diversity. Thank you to Farah Nasser for moderating and leading the discussion.
Coming Up:
Our work ahead for 2020 is to review the awards program, including the naming of new awards to recognize diversity in our industry. Karen Mitchell is chair of the Awards Committee, and Hudson Mack has agreed to assist with this project. We will also begin designing a badly needed new website. Corey Bellamy is heading up this project, and if you want to participate, please let us know.
The planning for our annual conference for 2021 has begun, and whether we meet in person or virtually, we will still be here to recognize and support our members and the important work they do every day. In the meantime, we will be hosting virtual panel discussions through to the end of the year on matters relevant to our member organizations. The is a lot to learn from the COVID-19 experience, and we have seen terrific innovation and important reporting during this time. Our next awards season will showcase a lot of great work!
If you have a suggestion for a webinar or panel discussion – please let us know.
Thank you for being a member and for your support.
Regards,
Fiona Conway, President RTDNA Canada