Dear SEJ Member,
The board has accepted two SEJ Bylaws amendment proposals. Please read this information before voting. Ballots will be distributed on Wed. Oct. 21.
SEJ Bylaws Amendment Proposals
1. Shall the Society of Environmental Journalists amend its bylaws to create a student membership category by:
- Revising Article II, Section 1 to specify five membership categories, including Active Member, Associate Member, Academic Member, Honorary Member and Student Member.
- Revising Article II, Section 1(c) to specify that Academic members are those who are full-time faculty at a college, university or other school.
- Adding the following to Article II, Section 1: “E. Student Member. Individuals are eligible to be Student Members if: (1) They are pursuing a college or university degree or a high school diploma, and: (2) in the majority opinion of the Board of Directors or its designee(s), they will contribute to the attainment of the objectives of the Society. Student Members shall have all the rights and privileges of the Society, except that they shall not be entitled to hold office.”
- Revising Article II, Section 2 to delete the names of specific membership categories so that it shall read: “An individual seeking membership in the Society must submit a completed application…”
- Revising Article IV, Section 3 to specify that Academic members are elected by Academic and Student members and adding the following provision: “Student members are entitled to elect only Academic members.”
- Revising Article IV, Section 6 to specify that in the case of a vacancy in the Academic seat on the SEJ Board of Directors, a director shall be elected at the next annual meeting by the Academic and Student members.
2. Shall the Society of Environmental Journalists amend its bylaws to remove all references to gender by replacing all occurrences of “he or she” with “individuals,” “they,” or another gender neutral-term as appropriate?
Click here to view the specific language proposed for all of the above bylaws amendments.
FAQ
What is being proposed?
The SEJ Board of Directors is proposing a new Student membership category that would allow students to join SEJ without regard to any jobs or internships they take in pursuit of a degree. The board is also proposing to remove all gendered language from the SEJ bylaws.
How would the new SEJ Student membership category work?
The new Student membership category proposal would:
Separate students from the Academic category
Support SEJ’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals by enhancing our ability to reach out to prospective student members who are exploring their careers while pursuing a degree
Support SEJ’s 501(c)(3) educational mission and mandate by no longer discriminating against students based on income source as they pursue a degree or diploma
Allow students to join SEJ if they are doing work of any kind, including public relations work, as long as they are pursuing a degree or high school diploma and contribute to the mission of SEJ.
Allow SEJ to forge partnerships with universities that have historically been obstructed by SEJ’s membership policies
Prohibit students from holding office on the SEJ Board of Directors
Allow students to vote only for the Academic board seat
Continue to prohibit all Active, Associate and Academic members from conducting any lobbying and/or PR work on environmental issues
Why is a new student membership category needed now?
SEJ's long-term goal is to become more inclusive and equitable, while fostering a new generation of journalists into an uncertain future. We want to follow in the steps of IRE and other journalism groups by giving students an opportunity to join and benefit from SEJ as an educational organization, especially in the formative stage of their lives when they are determining their career trajectory. We see a student category as providing an opportunity for greater student outreach with immediate financial and other benefits for the organization.
This new student member category is also essential for SEJ as we grapple with funding challenges amid the pandemic. Currently students, who often have little control over their work options, are sometimes in public relations work on environmental issues and are subsequently deemed ineligible for membership. A student category that lifts this restriction will immediately allow SEJ to form partnerships with universities that have thus far been unwilling to work with SEJ because its bylaws bar some of their students access to membership and all the resources membership offers.
How does this proposal differ from the membership policies of other journalism groups?
This policy would put SEJ in line with other journalism groups, including Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Online News Association, the Society for Advancing Business Writing and Editing, Education Writers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists, which provide membership to any student pursuing a degree.
How does a student membership category support SEJ’s educational mission?
Part of SEJ’s mission is to educate the public about environmental issues by supporting journalism. Though the board believes that people who conduct public relations and lobbying don’t fit within that mission, we believe that any student should be able to tap into SEJ’s valuable tools and networks as they explore their careers while they pursue a degree or diploma. As an organization with an educational mission, we think SEJ should quit barring students from joining if they are curious about environmental journalism yet are doing an internship in public relations. Some students study both journalism and public relations simultaneously.
How would a Student membership category promote SEJ’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals?
The future of environmental journalism and environmental justice reporting depends on our profession becoming more diverse. One of SEJ’s top goals is to increase diversity within the organization and in environmental journalism. One way to accomplish that is to reach out to more diverse students and spark their interest in journalism regardless of what they’re studying, where they’re working and how they’re earning income.
What SEJ members would be allowed to conduct public relations work under this proposal?
Students would be allowed to join SEJ regardless of the work they are doing in pursuit of a degree or diploma. They would not be barred from joining SEJ for conducting public relations work. SEJ’s prohibitions on paid PR and lobbying work will continue to apply to all Active, Associate and Academic members. No SEJ member conducting paid PR work would be allowed to hold office or control the organization in any way.
Is this proposal a slippery slope toward allowing people conducting public relations and lobbyists to join and control SEJ?
No. SEJ remains steadfast in its commitment to remain independent and an organization of, by and for journalists. The board supports SEJ’s policy that only those who do not conduct paid public relations and lobbying work qualify for Active, Associate and Academic membership within SEJ. As soon as a Student member has graduated, they would need to apply for a non-student category and will be held to the standards of those categories.
Who supports and doesn’t support this and why?
The SEJ board of Directors approved this by unanimous vote on Oct. 19, 2020.
"It's vital to SEJ's future that our membership rules be as inclusive as possible while also unambiguously affirming our organization's core values of independence, transparency and the unflinching search for truth through journalism. Those rules are so important, in my view, that any significant changes to them should be written directly into the bylaws and presented to the full membership for consideration, which is why I criticized earlier efforts to loosen our group's longstanding ban on paid lobbying and public relations work relating to environmental issues. This time, in my view, the current board is doing this the right way, by making it crystal clear that the looser membership standards would apply only to students, and by asking the full membership to vote on the question. I have read the proposed bylaws revisions carefully and will be an enthusiastic 'yes' vote!"
-- Dan Fagin, NYU Professor and former SEJ president (2003-05)
“I thank the SEJ board seeking out and listening to suggestions of SEJ members through listening sessions, email-blasts and listserv discussions on how to best accommodate our student members and help to grow their ranks, which is vital to SEJ’s present as well as future. A bylaws change creating a new membership category that gives students increased flexibility with positions like internships is a reasonable approach, and I support it.”
-- Jim Bruggers, InsideClimate News reporter and former SEJ president (2000-02)
“As a nearly 30-year SEJ member, a 15-year board member (1998-2013) and a current member of SEJ’s governance committee, I enthusiastically endorse the board’s proposal to amend the SEJ bylaws to create a new Student member category with a narrow exception to SEJ’s general prohibition on members lobbying or doing PR work relating to environmental issues. The proposal would help advance the vital goal of drawing more students into SEJ’s community of journalists while recognizing that the realities of some students’ experience might make them ineligible for membership under our longstanding bedrock principle banning environmental PR & lobbying work by members. Some students’ degree programs or their need to earn tuition money may require them to take on environmental PR or lobbying work; the narrow carve-out proposed in this amendment ensures that such work would not disqualify them for SEJ membership and the professional development benefits it brings. If this amendment passes, however, I believe strongly that the exemption for journalists-in-training should remain a narrow exception to SEJ’s broader ban on environmental lobbying & PR. (Honorary members are also exempt from the ban, but they are few in number and, more importantly, can’t vote and so have no sway over SEJ governance and policy.) This is a foundational principle of our organization, and is at least as vital to our identity and integrity today as it was in 1990. This amendment would be an important step for SEJ, but it should not be a step away from our guiding principles. And if it does pass, I’ve urged board members to include clear language explaining both this new exception and the broader ban on environmental PR & lobbying in its subsequent revision of our membership policies.
“I also endorse the move to remove archaic gendered language from the document!”
-- Peter Thomson, Journalist, Author, Editor & Radio Producer and former board member (1998-2013)
"As a longtime active SEJ member and former board member and president, I enthusiastically support the proposed change in SEJ’s bylaws to create a student member category. To carry on its mission of strengthening the quality, reach and viability of environmental journalism, SEJ needs to make its membership rules as inclusive as possible. But it must do so in a way that doesn’t sacrifice SEJ’s ethos as a community of journalists committed to the pursuit of truth and greater public understanding of complex environmental issues.
In my opinion, this bylaws change meets that test. It allows for greater flexibility in admitting students while maintaining SEJ’s longstanding rule for all other members that they cannot engage in paid public relations or lobbying. With a temporary exemption from that rule, students can thus be introduced to environmental journalism; yet as a result, their role in the governance of SEJ remains limited. To be sure, there’s more than this needed to make SEJ more inclusive, but I hope you’ll agree with me that this is an important first step. I want to thank the board for its leadership and hard work in reaching this point -- and for taking the time to listen to and respond to the concerns of members like myself along the way."
- Tim Wheeler, Associate editor/senior writer, Bay Journal, former SEJ president (2006 - 08)
“I strongly support the board's decision to address the student category issue via a bylaws proposal rather than via a board vote. Alas I will not vote for the proposal. I do not believe that the proposal's primary goal -- enabling students to do paid public relations work -- requires a bylaws amendment. SEJ's bylaws already accommodate student members who wish to or are required to do paid PR: They can do so and remain in good standing by focusing their paid work on topics other than the environment. This minor inconvenience is more than justified by the role membership policies play in safeguarding the integrity of SEJ, which is especially crucial in this time of eroding support for a free, independent press.”
-- Peter Fairley, Energy & Environment Journalism and former VP/programs, VP/membership and board member (2001-2013)
What are the next steps?
The board wants to overhaul all the membership categories and simplify them in our effort to achieve greater equity, diversity and inclusion. That's a huge conversation, but we plan to set that aside while we grapple with the immediate impacts of the pandemic. For now, we need to seek out the most promising funding sources and partnerships to help ensure SEJ remains on sound financial ground as we head into a very uncertain 2021, while taking more time to discuss a more comprehensive revision of the bylaws next year.
The board is planning to overhaul its bylaws in two parts: We are proposing the student category now, and then in December, we'll form a diverse task force composed of board members and non-board SEJ members who will spend early 2021 working on the broader bylaws update. Please reach out to us if you are interested in being a part of this effort.
