Be a Mentor

I was flattered to be invited by two University of Nebraska at Kearney instructors to talk to their classes this week.

I taught some journalism classes in the mid-1990s as a substitute – news writing once and an intro class twice – and it confirmed what I already knew was true. I was not born with a teaching gene. I just didn’t feel as if I had enough to say for an entire semester, particularly in a classroom setting.

However, speaking to an advanced public relations class about photography and to a news writing class about the importance of adding content such as information boxes, graphics, video and photo galleries to stories reminded me that I do know a few things worth sharing.

The PR teacher said his students are working in teams of two on projects to promote the 2013 centennial of the Lincoln Highway – now Highway 30 as it runs through Nebraska, including Kearney. Part of their assignments for web content, brochures and media kits is to provide photos, including people photos.

He said students often are too shy to work with people and will turn in photos of empty rooms or of people from way, way, way across the room.

So, I spent  an hour Tuesday morning showing examples of photos I’ve had published in the Kearney Hub, and talking about composition, fill flash and using a tripod for video.

The Thursday night class was shown some of my work in print and on the website with multiple parts. We looked at info boxes, photo galleries and videos, for which I shot the images and interviews and the Hub video specialist did the editing.

In both classes, the students seemed interested in what I had to say and acted as if they actually were learning something. They asked thoughtful questions.

It was an ego booster for me. I still felt very old, having received my journalism degree from the same campus, then Kearney State College, more than 34 years ago.

It made me think of the important mentors I’ve had in my professional life, starting with my first college journalism teacher Glennis Nagel. She now does news bureau and publications work at UNK. She spoke well of Nebraska Press Women and the National Federation of Press Women when I was a college student and she continues as an active member of both.

There have been many editors and Press Women friends over the year who have made positive impressions on me as a journalist, photographer and person. Some planted seeds of encouragement, some taught me hands-on skills, and some just let me bend their ears when frustration and fatigue threatened to overwhelm me.

I hope the budding professional communicators I met this week are as fortunate as I’ve been to constantly have mentors in my life. It’s from them that I truly received my higher, ongoing education.

 

 

A Chocolate Distraction

When the email notice arrived a few weeks ago from President Ruth Brown that our annual Nebraska Press Women winter board meeting would be at a place called The Chocolate Bar in Grand Island, my first thought was: That could be a distraction.

Our lives are filled with so many distractions today it’s amazing that we can complete a thought. We have noise at work and the siren call of all our electronic devices.

It’s almost as if some people can’t stand the sound of silence or the companionship of an uninterrupted thought.

On the other hand, being too alone and too focused on work or other projects is not healthy. Then, a distraction of some kind, especially with friends, is good.

Today’s NPW board meeting at The Chocolate Bar fell in the middle on the good-to-bad distraction measuring stick.

The coffee shop that also features desserts, chocolate candies, and soup, salad, sandwich and wrap lunch items, smelled wonderful when I walked in for a 10 a.m. finance committee meeting.

Ruth and NPW Vice President Bette Pore already had hot drinks to nurse through our meeting. I was surprised that there were only a few times when I noticed the other patrons coming into the business.

 We moved on to lunch as the rest of the board members arrived around noon. We just enjoyed a good visit as we ate – the roasted pepper soup and barbecued beef panini were fantastic. 

Ruth treated everyone to dessert. I tried to go as healthy as is possible in a place specializing in sweet treats, taking a free piece of chocolate chip cookie that the bakers had unsuccessfully tried to color pink for Valentine’s Day and a piece of dark chocolate candy.

For the next two hours, we really accomplished a lot of NPW business. It helped, I’m sure, that we had a table in the back corner where none of us could look up and gaze at the displays of chocolates and rainbow cake under glass.

Several of us stayed a little longer to visit after the meeting adjourned. We also stopped by an art gallery and a used bookstore in the same block as The Chocolate Bar.

The entire day was a wonderful distraction for all of us who, each in her own way, have too many responsibilities and projects in our lives that are making demands on our time, attention and focus.

Did I mention that the dark chocolate candy was to die for?

Listening to Cranes

I  just finished scooping tons – I really do think it was tons – of heavy, wet snow from my driveway. 

 The blizzard that rolled through Colorado, Nebraska and northern Kansas over the past few days was forecast to dump 8 to 12 inches of snow in the Kearney area. Our total is more like 6 inches, thanks to relatively warm temperatures that gave us rain most of Friday instead of snow.

We do need the moisture in a winter with only one other snowstorm, in  late November, but plenty of record-setting warm temperatures. It was in the high 50s and 60s on Wednesday and Thursday.

I accept that scooping snow is one of the jobs that came with home ownership. I know that Mother Nature will rain and snow on my roof at times, break tree branches with wind and throw baseball-size  hail at my windows.

Because so many Nebraskans grow food, weather is a really big deal here. It’s critical to our livelihoods. If farmers can’t plant seeds on time in a too-wet spring, there will be no corn or soybeans to harvest in the fall or at least less productive crops to harvest.

If orchard or garden plants are severely damaged by a late frost, there will be no fruits and vegetables that year. If hail pounds grain or garden crops down to the nub, that’s a year’s production gone in a few minutes, no matter how great the growing season is from then on.

If a cow drops her calf on the cold, wet ground in the middle of a blizzard where a rancher can’t step in to help, well, that mama can’t have another calf for a year.

Those things happen. It comes with the territory in choosing to live and work in the Great Plains.

An unusual choice was made by 1,000 or so sandhill cranes last fall as they flew over Nebraska from breeding grounds in northern Canada, Alaska and even Siberia to their usual wintering grounds in south Texas.

They decided to stay here all winter for the first time. No one knows why.

Some may have flown at least part way to Texas, determined that drought had severely damaged their food supply and came back to feast on the  harvested grain fields along the Central Platte River where more than 500,000 sandhill cranes stop for six weeks on their annual spring migration north.

The first of the spring migrators will start arriving around Valentine’s Day. It’s been nice to see cranes in the fields and hear them call as they fly over this January and early February.

The overwintering cranes did fine during our winter storm. They would have roosted on the river and soon will return to the fields to look for food not covered by snow. 

It’s a risk they took by staying all winter and a risk cranes take every year by stopping in south-central Nebraska before our winter ends.

People also choose paths – migration routes - in their lives, knowing they must live with the highs and lows that come from those decisions. There always will be tasks we don’t like, such as scooping snow or hunkering down on a river when the north wind blows, but we make the best of it.

A poem I like is posted on my refrigerator door. A line in “My Symphony” by William Henry Channing advises to “listen to stars and birds.”

 

I’ve already done that in 2012, thanks to some sandhill cranes who decided to spend the winter along the Platte River. I can’t wait to hear the symphony of crane songs grow bigger, bolder and more incredible over the next two months.

 

 

An Eloquent Exit

There are many things to admire about Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Her recovery from the terrible injuries she suffered a year ago during an assassination attempt at a meet-and-greet with her constituents in Tucson has been remarkable. It was an event made more terrible because six people died and 13 other innocent victims were wounded.

Although her body remains weak and her speech is halting, it’s clear even to those of us who don’t know her that her spirit has remained strong. No matter where you’re from or your political persuasion, you had to be touched this week by a video in which she talked about why she was resigning from the House of Representatives and by the ceremony at which she made it official.

A House friend and colleague read her resignation letter.  Giffords’ husband and others probably helped write it, but I’m confident that she approved every word.

I loved that this woman who has brought people together out of concern for her health and admiration of her spirit chose to include a message of reconciliation in the first paragraph of that letter.

“I always fought for what I thought was right. But never did I question the character of those with whom I disagreed. Never did I let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals.”

Her words reminded me of a similar message within the National Federation of Press Women Code of Ethics that is recited at every annual conference. The pledge is to uphold the right of communicators to express unpopular opinions as well as the right to agree with the majority.

I also admire Giffords for deciding to step down, not only so she can focus on her recovery, but also because she believes her district’s residents deserve to elect a representative who can give 100 percent to the job now.

We all can  name dozens of people – elected or appointed officials, athletes and other entertainers, regular folks who have jobs requiring physical stamina, sharp minds and passion – who stay too long.

They will be remembered more for leaving only when their health, skills or public opinion left them no other option than for the time when they were at the top of their game or the height of their popularity.

I’m not a gambler, but I bet that we see Gabrielle Giffords as a public service role model in the future, whether or not that includes being re-elected to the House of Representatives.

For now and forever, she will be known for her temporary, but eloquent exit.

 

Not Just The Camera

I bought a new camera on Friday. I don’t really need a new camera. The new automatic Canon Power Shot SX40 is similar in to my current SX20 in most ways, except one.

 The SX40 has a longer zoom. So when is longer long enough? For most of the photography I do for work or pleasure, my now-old-as-of-Friday camera is perfectly fine.

But as the sandhill crane migration season approaches in Nebraska’s Central Platte Valley, I remember wishing last year that I had a longer lens.

You’d think that with 600,000 cranes in the valley each spring for about six weeks, it would easy to get good photos. I did OK last year, especially on the morning I was in a field blind.

However, photographers are like anyone else with a passion. We always think we can do better. We believe that one great, even perfect, image is just a day or a longer lens away.

I almost cancelled my camera order after being told by a repairman on  Thursday that my 25-year-old water softner was dead and needs replacing. Then I remembered the words of  a Hub copy editor who knows that I don’t spend a lot on entertainment, fine dining or the latest fashions. As I was deciding whether to order the camera, she ha said, ”Buy it. You only live once.”

I’m looking at the new camera in anticipation of seeing what it can do. All I’ve done so far is charge the rechargeable battery and attach the camera strap.

A new camera means I’ll likely hear a common back-handed compliment given to photographers by people who like their work: Wow, you must have a really great camera.

Yes, the right tool is vital to producing a quality product. However, I’ve never been told that I must write well because I have a great pen or word processor.

I’d never tell talented page or ad designers that they must have great pagination programs.

I know that great results in journalism, art, public relations or any creative endeavor are possible only when talented, imaginative, creative people are using the good tools.

I hope to be amazed and delighted with what my new camera can do. But I’ll give myself some credit too by remembering that it’s not just the camera.

Roots and Wings

I’m sitting in the basement fellowship hall/Sunday school classrooms area of Pleasant View Christian Church out in the country near the south-central Nebraska family farm where I grew up and where my brother Glen still lives.

There are many female voices in the background because we’re having a baby shower for my niece, who is opening her gifts now. We’ve done the typical baby shower activities, introduced ourselves, played a few games, taken family group photos, ate cake.

This is not my kind of activity. It never has been, although I always appreciated the importance of such events in our small farming community. This really was a neighborhood, church and community extended family that provided very important roots in my life.

I wrote in my Kearney Hub column this week about being one of “the twins” as a child at church, at school and when around family. Lisa, who the 2011 NFPW conference pre-tour folks met in September, and I are fraternal twins.

That was a blessing. While we were “the twins” or “the Potter twins,” we weren’t expected to be alike in every way. That’s often the case with identical twins. We don’t look alike and always have had different personalities and interests.

Maybe it’s because of my twin experience that I try to be extra sensitive about not putting labels on groups of people as if they all agreed on everything. That’s true about people living in certain parts of the country, or enjoying similar activities, or excelling in the same professions.

It’s also true about people who join professional organizations like NFPW. We must remember to appreciate every member as a special individual as we join together to share common needs and interests.

Lisa and I knew that our parents, extended family and friends appreciated and encouraged our differences. They knew we were individuals who probably would go down different paths as adults.

She has been a wife, teacher and mother since we graduated from college. I’ve been a full-time journalist at three different Nebraska newspapers.

So, I associate this church and the surrounding farming area with giving me both roots and wings. What a blessing that has been in my life.

A Better Brain

Most of us at our “certain age” worry that we’re not as smart as we used to be. When my short-term memory betrays me, when I can’t match a face and a name or when it seems to take forever to speak a word that’s on the tip of my tongue, it makes me feel and seem less intelligent.

So despite my usual reluctance to read anything that sounds like it was written by a self-help guru, I was intrigued this week by the Newsweek cover that promised a story about “31 ways to get smarter-faster.”

I appreciated the overall message that doing things that are good for us in general – eating healthy, exercising, getting adequate rest – are good for our brains. That includes regularly turning down the noise in our lives to  “zone out,” day dream, stop and think, and enjoy relaxing activities.

I’d add networking into the prescription, which is one of the best things offered through NFPW and our state affiliates. Doesn’t it feel great to get on the phone or have face-to-face time with a friend who understands the special stresses of being a professional communicator?

Finding time for any of those “good-for-me” activities is difficult, especially for folks who are juggling work and family responsibilities. But it’s important.

I was pleased that the Newsweek list of 31 ways to get smarter includes several things I’m doing.

No. 1. Play word games. Don’t all writers do that every day?

No. 3. Take taekwondo (or dance or do some other exercise-activity). I’ve been doing taekwondo for nine years and also work out regularly at home on my elliptical.

No. 11. Eat dark chocolate. I love that!

No. 24. Write by hand. I fill one or two reporter’s notebooks a month.

No. 26. Zone out. And I thought that was something I do that was cause for worry. I guess it depends on not overdoing it.

No. 31. Get out of town. I’m ready to make plans to attend the NFPW board meeting in Idaho Falls in April and go to the 2012 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., next September. 

That tip says there’s great value for the mind, body and soul in taking walks, drives in the country, and enjoying nature close to home.

My job as an agriculture and natural resources writer gives me regular opportunities to do that. I photographed a bald eagle and hawk south of the Platte River on my way back to Kearney Thursday from an interview at Lexington.

I always feel better after I’ve worked out or spent time in nature, but I’m not convinced those activities give me a smarter brain. I’m content to know they make me a better me.

 

Happy Anniversary NFPW

I’m starting the celebration a day early, on New Year’s Eve.

I’m not talking about the new year, but NFPW’s 75th anniversary year. People who know me well, or even a little bit, know that I’m not a big fan of open houses, receptions, weddings or big celebrations. However, I’m looking forward to NFPW’s anniversary, which will be acknowledged throughout the year and celebrated in some way during the 2012 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., Sept. 20-22.

The opening part of our history on the “About Us” page of the www.nfpw.org website says: It was May 6, 1937, when 39 women from seven states gathered at the Chicago Women’s Club to turn their vision into reality.

They formed the National Federation of Presswomen (yes, then it was one word) and set forth their goals: “To provide a means of communication between woman writers nationally; make possible the expression of a common voice in matters of national interest to press women, and otherwise advance the professional standards of press women.”

Talk about goals that pass the test of time. Professional communications have changed greatly in 75 years, in technology and focus, but those goals remain and also extend to the men who have been and continue to be members.

NFPW Secretary Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas of Illinois posted on Facebook Friday a note recognizing the much longer history of her affiliate and its crucial role in giving birth to other affiliates and the national organization.

She wrote that NFPW was founded by Helen Miller Malloch, the 20th president of the Illinois Woman Press Association.

“Malloch was wise beyond her vision of the alliance of women writers, which took on its form in NFPW. Originally started when IWPA sought to get copyright legislation through Congress, Malloch recognized the benefits and strength women would attain through membership of the larger organization, including the professional recognition brought from the national contest,” Marianne wrote.

The benefits and strengths Malloch and the 38 other NFPW founders saw possible remain today.

I worry that social media and new communications technologies give us fewer reasons to network face-to-face at meetings and conferences, or take the time for more personal forms of communication, such as a phone call, old-fashioned hand-written note or “doing lunch.” But those same advances allow us to reach out to a broader audience and more new members, if we still use the personal touch.

So, as you hang your new 2012 calendar on Sunday, take a minute to wish NFPW a great start to a milestone year. And please circle Sept. 20-22 as a reminder to come to Scottsdale where we can celebrate together.

We haven’t made specific plans yet. But I assume there will be cake!

Home for Christmas

Happy holidays to everyone on this sunny Christmas morning in Nebraska.

I’ll be headed to my Kearney church soon, after stopping by my mom’s retirement apartment to help set up for Sunday dinner. It will just be her, my oldest brother and sister-in-law, and me, so we’re keeping it simple.

My farmer brother and some of his children and grandchildren plan to come to Kearney this afternoon to see Mom. My twin sister and her family from North Platte, who the 2011 NFPW convention Prairie Pre-tour folks met, are with her in-laws today and will come to Kearney sometime next week.

I went home for Christmas last night to Christmas Eve service at Pleasant View Christian Church around the corner from our farm where I grew up. It’s  12 miles from Wilcox, where I went to school K-12.  Wilcox and the other nearby towns all have populations of 350 or less.

I’ve spent the majority of my Christmas Eves in that small wood-framed church that was built in 1948, and I take Mom every Dec. 24 when the weather and road conditions are safe. The congregation will celebrate its centennial in 2012.

There were four generations of my family in the pews last night – Mom, my brother, his two girls, and two granddaughters with a third arriving in March. Both sets of my grandparents attended the church at one time, which makes five generations, and most of the other families who still attend regularly have a similar legacy there.

It was a traditional service for Pleasant View: the lighting of the advent candles, “O Holy Night” sung by tenor Ken Meyers, communion, readings as if characters from the stable were writing home to family and friends about their experience, and a circle of people around the sanctuary, each holding a candle and singing “Silent Night.”

There are too few children right now to put on a program or play, as we did when I was a Sunday school kid, but two little girls said their “pieces” and introduced the letter theme for the readings by adults.

No Christmas Eve seems right without spending that precious hour at Pleasant View. No party, no parade, no grand pageant at a mega-church could compare.

Plus, none of those places probably send you home with the traditional decorated brown paper sack that holds an orange, a candy cane, some chocolate candy and peanuts in the shell.

Buffett is Boss

You may have heard that Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is buying the Omaha World-Herald Co. for $200 million. It’s the  investment by the Oracle of Omaha  in a hometown-based business.

What you may not realize is that I and a handful of other Nebraska and Iowa Press Women work for other daily and weekly newspapers owned by the company. That includes the Kearney Hub (me), Grand Island Independent (Teri Hahn, Bette Pore) and the Council Bluffs Non-Pareil (Marsha Hoffman).

The World-Herald company started buying small dailies and weeklies in the mid-1980s and now owns all of the dailies along I-80 in Nebraska from the Missouri River to the Wyoming state line except the Lincoln Journal-Star.

A World-Herald News Service was started a few years ago. In addition to the company-owned newspapers, service membership includes the Norfolk Daily News (Mary Pat Finn-Hoag) in northeast Nebraska.

The deal is all but done, although there still will be a vote to approve the sale on Tuesday by the 275 employees and retirees who own World-Herald stock.

The Nov. 30 announcement in Omaha was a surprise even to my Kearney Hub publisher, who was among the local newspaper executives summoned to “an important meeting” less than 24 hours in advance.

Buffett indicated that he had business and sentimental reasons for buying the newspaper company. “I wouldn’t do it if I thought this was doomed to some sort of extinction,” he said, calling it a reasonable investment decision.

“There is no question it is affected by the fact that I am extremely bullish on Omaha, Nebraska,” he added.

Buffett discussed the challenges faced by newspapers, including the needs to charge for information posted online and to control costs.

OWH Publisher Terry Kroeger, who was the Hub’s business manager when I started as regional editor in Kearney 25 years ago, said company officials had been wrestling with long-term financial issues after taking steps to resolve short-term financial problems in 2008 and 2009. Like many newspaper companies, those measures included job cuts, pay and retirement benefit cuts for remaining employees that haven’t yet been restored, and belt-tightening in general.

So, is having Warren Buffett as my new boss – he plans to be a silent leader and leave the day-to-day management up to the folks already doing that – a Christmas present?

I don’t expect a Christmas bonus in my paycheck, but it is comforting to have the financial foundation of Berkshire Hathaway behind the company and a person who appreciates newspapers on the top of the letterhead.

Acknowledging that newspapers never will be the same as in the past, Buffett said, “There are still a lot of things newspapers can do better than any other media. They not only can be sustained, but are important.”

I do share one small, but important personality trait with my new boss, who said, “I’m not comfortable without an honest-to-God newspaper in my hand.”