Hello and welcome journalism friends!

SPJ: Your never-ending story

The fall semester of 2009 sets a record for our humble chapter of SPJ.

Jaw-dropping numbers of students come to meetings, and almost everyone is extremely involved with committees. To say that I am proud and excited to be president is a severe understatement. Our chapter is amazing! A big thanks to everyone!

As you may or may not know, SPJ UT Austin is hosting the 2010 Region 8 Convention. Our theme is "how to save journalism." We'll be hosting the event at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin on March 5 and 6.

We are in the continual process of raising the funds necessary to host this massive event, and it is hard work balancing school and SPJ right now. I think it is safe to say this is the largest event our student chapter has ever worked on, and since Austin doesn't have a professional chapter, it is just us.

We've held bake sales, sent out donor packets, and applied for on-campus funding. If you have any fundraising suggestions, please e-mail us at spjaustin@gmail.com. The hope and plan is that our convention will be the best and biggest yet, so register and come to Austin where you can network with other journalists and learn how the experts are planning to save journalism.

Also, please keep checking our site for up-to-date convention information. We've been having some problems with our web software, but on days it cooperates, we will be posting. You can also check out our blog for information. We'll be writing lots more after finals are over.

Thanks and looking foward to meeting you at the convention March 5 and 6,

Jessi Propst

President SPJ UT Austin