The Portland Dispatch Journalism Club
Serving the entire Portland Metro Area in Oregon & Washington
The OR/WA Journalism Club & Its Out-lying Chapters Will begin Meeting in September, 2006 Start Recruiting Your Local Chapter Members!
The central OR/WA Club Chapter will begin meeting in the Portland Area on Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 9 P.M. at a location to be announced. Eric Smith will serve as the Club's Chief Advisor. Additional Advisors and Student Officers will be selected in the first few club meetings.
Additional out-lying chapters of the OR/WA Journalism Club may meet separately at any time they choose in their own communities to work on their assigned sections of the Club's Newspaper & News Site. If you live in an outlying area, far away from Portland Metro Area, you can still participate by building a local Chapter among like-minded home school students in your community. All Chapters of the Journalism Club will coordinate their activities via the club's web site, iChat and the various club forums on-line.
Tuition for Journalism Club Membership will be $180 per semester for each student ages 12 to 20. NACHJC Affiliation, which is included in this fee,($30 per student) will allow each club member to participate in NACHJC's national Lovejoy Awards competitions, member forums, news and photo wire service and other benefits. Additional fund raising through ad sales and appeals to family and friends for journalism mission support will divided up to members to cover publishing and web site development costs.
Portland Area Chapters:
Vancouver, WA — Eric Smith, egs@tds.net
Gresham, OR — Gregg Harris, gregg@hofcc.org
If you have a Christian Home School Journalism Club or Writer's Club in your area, please send your contact information to info@nachjc.org. We will be happy to list your club or study group on our website Roster, free of charge.
If your club would like to affiliate with NACHJC and enjoy the access to our Forums, Wire Service and our annual Lovejoy Awards, simply download our Affiliation Application Form and email the completed from back to us at info@nachjc.org or mail it to NACHJC, c/o Noble Institute, 2229 S.E. Burnside Street, #3, 97930. Thanks.
Why Does the World Need Christian Journalists?
According to Joel Belz, Founder of World Magazine, the national Christian news weekly, “NACHJC’s goal is to help home-schooling parents raise up godly young journalists who will in turn bring godly character and journalistic competence to the work of the “watchdog press.” In light of the culture wars raging today, Belz adds,
“NACHJC deserves broad participation and support.”
Gregg Harris, Director of NACHJC explains, “A free press is like a watch dog. It barks out a warning whenever danger is near. By exposing corruption and incompetence in government, business, and religion, citizens are able to make more informed decisions to improve their lives and communities.” Harris adds that the new media of web sites, blogs, video podcasts and audio podcasts present an urgent need to train Christian young people as journalists so that they can make use of these new technologies safely and responsibly. Competence and character are crucial to journalistic effectiveness.
NACH Journalism Club Culture
Christian Home School Journalism Clubs, as the name implies, are different from other academic clubs. The culture of our club is important to their godly mission. Spread out across wide geographic areas, working in close-knit teams, managed by parents who normally lack personal journalism experience, certain guidelines must apply:
Christian: NACHJC affiliates serve the evangelical Christian community with a safe and effective opportunity to study and practice journalism for the glory of God among like-minded students and parents. While all who desire to become Christian are welcome to do so, only self-professing Christian students are allowed to join the clubs.
Home School: All club members must be actively home schooling and may not be enrolled in public or private schools for more than 60% of their education for the current year. Club activities and schedules assume that all participates have the flexibility of a home schooling family to meet during regular school hours.
Journalism Club: Journalism involves the researching and reporting of news through print and photographic media. Though writers of all kinds are welcome to join the club, it is not merely a writer's group. It is a news and opinion publishing group with a special interest in serving the public with accurate news and information.
In Addition to the Definition of Our Name, the Follow Values Apply:
A Delight Directed Study: The power and genius of any academic club is its ability to create and atmosphere of enthusiasm for excellence among its members. Therefore, it is crucial that all club members participate because they personally want to do so, and not because of any coercion from parents or from friends.
Age Integration: Older club members will be responsible to mentor, manage and edit the works of younger club members. Younger members will be responsible to serve as assistants and sidekicks to older club members.
Parental Oversight: Club Member Parents are responsible to provide oversight as Club Advisors and to host local chapter work sessions in their homes as needed.
Undistracted Work Teams: In order to maintain high productivity as young journalists, and to protect the integrity and reputation of all our members, club members are required to "team up" as work teams only in ways that are above reproach morally and respectful of the wishes of each club member's parents. Work Teams should therefore be comprised of three or more like-minded club members, of varying ages, and/or of the same gender. Noticeably pairing up into couples during journalism club activities is not condoned.