El Planeta Editor Is First Latina Panelist on “Beat the Press”

Congratulations to Marcela Garcia, editor of El Planeta, who made Boston history tonight by becoming the first Latina panelist on the WGBH’s show “Beat the Press” – a PBS show about the media. You can also watch it on the show’s Web site or download the podcast on iTunes.

AAJA-NY’s Scrabble for Cheaters Fundraiser

NAHJ members are invited to attend AAJA-NY’s Scrabble for Cheaters fundraiser.

From the event organizers:

On Saturday, October 3, AAJA-NY will be holding the fundraiser Scrabble For Cheaters at Plus Lounge (Slate – 21st St btw 5th & 6th Avenue). You might be wondering how exactly this tournament of verbal smarts and fraudulence will work. Here’s a rundown:

There will be ‘cheats’ available for purchase such as trading out a letter for $5 to inventing a word (with a definition of course) for $30! One will also be able to consult the dictionary for $20 and so forth.

And of course as this event is an AAJA fundraiser there will be 100 points available to anyone who puts down ‘AAJANY’.

Tickets for the event are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. All proceeds will benefit AAJA-NY. More ticketing information to follow.

The whole tournament will be about having fun and of course ‘pure’ scrabble will be played tournament-style also.

Scrabble for Cheaters will begin at 2pm at Plus Lounge (housed in Slate) on 21st Street.

We are hoping that this will be AAJA-NY’s biggest fundraiser ever and that you can help us achieve this success. Please feel free to invite family and friends, the more the merrier.

Happy hour prices on drinks & food will be available from an amazing kitchen throughout the event as you play or simply attend to offer support!

Happy hour drink specials are $4 beer draft and domestic, $4 well, $5 house wines, $6 house martinis.

For the winners of each tournament there will be the right to house a trophy for a year, huge bragging rights and a feel good factor for runners up also.

Let the cheating begin!

Screening of Soy Andina

The VOCES Latino Heritage Network of The New York Times Company invites NAHJ members to attend a screening of the documentary Soy Andina. The event will be held on Sept. 16 at TheTimesCenter (242 West 41st Street).

A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. The screening starts at 6:45 p.m.

Please e-mail me (nahjregion2@gmail.com) if you’re interested in attending and didn’t receive a copy of the invitation I sent out. The invite included RSVP and additional information.

Welcome to Region 2 – Let’s Get to Work!

Fellow Region 2 members,

I’m very excited to be working for and with you over the next two years as Region 2 Director.

Diego Ribadeneira and our former regional directors have done a great job. I hope to continue building on what they have done.

I’ve spoken with some of you and will be reaching out to others, but I also encourage you to let me know if there’s anything you would like to see done with regard to our region or NAHJ as a whole. I have ideas, but I really want to get input from members to see what you would like.

Currently, I’m working with local members here in the Boston area to put together a training workshop on multimedia. I’ll be looking into setting up a similar workshop in New York for sometime in 2010. Additionally, NAHJ is developing some events at the regional level.

As student members make up a large percentage of our membership, I will be working with journalism programs to develop resources for student members.

I plan on working with the Latino Sports Media Association (a few regional members are founders) to help continue the work they started.

However, my primary goal is to develop resources and training that will serve as many members in this region as possible.

Also, NAHJ has launched its “Count Me In” fundraising campaign. Anything you can give to help is greatly appreciated.

I know many members would like being involved in NAHJ to mean more than going to the convention once a year (which is something less of us are getting to do given the state of our industry). I hope to provide more opportunities to make this a reality.

If you’re on Facebook, become a fan of Region 2.

I’ll be posting all e-mails as well as some additional content here, so check back regularly!