Kodjak hands Club gavel to Freedman

The new National Press Club President, Mike Freedman, presents "10 Days in a Madhouse," a book by the first female investigative journalist, Nellie Bly, as a gift to the outgoing president, Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, at the Jan. 15 general membership meeting. Photo: Danny Selnick

 

Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak wrapped up her National Press Club presidency and handed the gavel to Mike Freedman at the Club’s general membership meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15.

Kodjak, investigations editor at the Associated Press, served for one year, as is typical for a Club president. Freedman, a longtime radio journalist who was general manager for CBS Radio and managing editor for broadcast at UPI, was elected president in December. His inaugural dinner is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 18.

“It’s been a busy, exciting and sometimes maddening but, really, just a fun year,” Kodjak said at the membership meeting.

Among the highlights of the Club year that Kodjak reviewed was Night Out for Austin Tice. The event involved more than 100 restaurants across the country donating part of their proceeds on May 2 to a fund for information leading to the return of Tice, a journalist who has been missing in Syria since 2012.

Later in the summer, the Club sponsored a Capitol Hill lobbying day in which Club members visited every lawmaker’s office to advocate for Tice’s situation to be a diplomatic policy priority.

Debra Tice, Austin’s mother, attended the membership meeting.

“We’re going to keep working to get Austin home safely,” Kodjak said.

During the presidential transition, Freedman presented Kodjak with a book by Nellie Bly, "10 Days in a Madhouse." Bly was the first female investigative reporter.

Prior to his election as president, Freedman served as Club vice president. He led the committee that wrote the five-year strategic plan approved at the October general membership meeting. The plan focuses on strengthening membership services.

“The National Press Club is an indispensable platform to educate, to inspire, to empower and to protect,” said Freedman, a professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus and lecturer at George Washington University. “I ask that we all join together over the next year to follow Alison’s lead and use it to those ends.”

In other business at the meeting:

Membership

The Club had its best recruiting year ever, gaining 522 new members. The total Club membership as of December was 2,979, up from 2,831 in 2018. The number of journalist members is 1,516, an increase from 1,325 in 2018, while communicator membership dropped slightly to 1,313 from 1,352 in 2018. The number of young members, those 36 and younger, rose to 330 from 280 in 2018.

Finances

The Club is expected to show a profit of between $500,000 and $600,000 for 2019. It has $5 million in cash-on-hand and $8.5 million in a long-term fund established after the sale of a Norman Rockwell painting in 2015.

Dues increase $1 per month

At the October general membership meeting, the Club approved a dues increase of $1 per month. It went into effect this month.