Executive Director's Message

Exciting Times Ahead for NAMME!

Feeling heady off of a grandly successful Annual Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC, we're excited about our new space, new fellowships, new board members and new programs!

13th Annual Conference

Toni Laws

Record attendance, stellar surroundings and superb speakers, panels and sessions were the hallmark of NAMME's 13th Annual Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC July 11-13. From the kick-off session moderated by Betty Cortina of Latina Ventures to the closing Wine and Cheese reception, the conference received high marks from all who attended getting, an overall 4.7 rating out of 5. Popular highlights were the Thursday morning sessions devoted to Technology, with a show-and-tell component and live broadcast with tech guru Mario Armstrong.

Highlights, Slides and Handouts of many of the sessions will be made available on the website after the move. Next year's conference will be held July 10-12 at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC at the same conference rate of $199/night. Also, through August, we are offering a pre-early bird conference registration fee of $300!

We are grateful to our major sponsors: Lockheed Martin, Daimler Chrysler Corporation, The Associated Press, News Corporation, Daimler Chrysler Financial Services, The New York Times, NABEF and the Washington Tourism Bureau for their generous support

NAMME Move

After ten years of sharing space at NAA, NAMME has moved to Gannett Headquarters. NAMME's new address:
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean VA 22107

NAMME's new phone numbers:
Toni Laws, Executive Director - 703/854-7178
Nancy Osborn, Administrative Manager - 703/854-7179
Carolyn Terry, Program Director - 703/854-7180
Fax - 703/854-7181

Thanks to the enormous support and generosity of the Gannett Company and leadership, NAMME now enjoys expanded space and access to services that will bring increased efficiencies and productivity. Thank you!

New NAMME Board Members

NAMME welcomes five new members to its Board of Directors. They are:

DIGBY A. SOLOMON DIEZ, President and CEO, HOY
DOUGLAS V. HOLLOWAY, President Cable Investments, NBC Universal
NIHAL MEHTA, Co-Founder & CEO, ipsh!
CAROL TERAKAWA, Executive Director of Sales, Yahoo!
J. WENDY THOMPSON , Vice President, Telemundo Station Group

Their addition demonstrates NAMME's continued commitment to reflect in its members and leadership the full diversity of media platforms, media disciplines, as well as racial, ethnic, gender and cultural groups.

New Fellowships

Thanks to the generosity of the Gannett Foundation and DaimlerChrysler Corporation, several fellowships will be made available to attend NAMME's Leadership Development Institute. The upcoming Leadership Development Institute, sponsored by the McClatchy Company, will be held October 9-12 at the Raleigh News and Observer in Raleigh, NC. Six Fellowships, (4 Print and 2 Broadcast ) will be supported through the Gannett Foundation grant and an additional two LIDAC Broadcast Fellowships, will be supported by DaimlerChrysler.

Application deadlines for LDI and the fellowships are September 1, 2006.

New Programs

In September NAMME will launch NAMMeSeminars as a way of extending NAMME's respected quality training through monthly electronic seminars. The seminars will feature top-notch speakers showcased in our Annual Conferences and Leadership Institutes. Among the featured speakers will be:

Wrise Booker, President, Reid Dugger Consulting
Peggy Duncan, Personal Productivity Expert
Doug Harris, Managing Director and Owner, The Kaleidoscope Group
Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, Professor, Harvard Business School and many more

We see these seminars as a way of maintaining a connection with NAMME members beyond our annual signature events and hope that those of you who have benefited from their insights will spread the word to others about the quality and value of the information they have to share and encourage them to register.

Each NAMMeSeminar will be an hour in length and available at the value price of $89 per seminar. More detailed information regarding the date for each session is coming soon.

In October NAMME will launch its NAMMePlacements Career Center. This will expand upon our existing job posting service to include a resume database, passive search capability and enhanced support services like interviewing techniques, power resumes, and the latest strategies to power up your job search. Look for more details soon on that new service!

NAMME's reason for existence is to propel managers and executives of color into the leadership ranks of media organizations and to help them to be ready when the opportunity presents itself. All of these new efforts move us closer to making this vision a reality.

Yours in Diversity,