Advisory Board members give every way they can

		SJMC Advisory Board Richard G. Ballantine Publisher The Durango Herald Brent Boyer ('02) City editor Steamboat Pilot & Today Del Brinkman Dean emeritus SJMC Mary Brown Retired director of marketing Colorado Lottery Gary Burandt Executive director ICOM Colleen Conant Retired publisher Boulder Daily Camera Sue Deans (MA '75) Editor Boulder Daily Camera James "Jimmy" de Castro President AOL Interactive Services Rich Clarkson Rich Clarkson and Associates Robert H. Giles Curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism Harvard University John Haile Principal Inside Out Media Partners John E. Holden ('48) Former owner Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald Marilyn Hogan President and CEO Colorado Broadcasters Association Phillip H. Karsh ('57) Retired co-chairman Karsh & Hagan Communications Inc. Lauren Lehman Senior vice president Lehman Communication Corp. Douglas S. Looney ('63) Retired senior writer Sports Illustrated Randy Miller President, publisher and editor Colorado Daily Ed Otte Executive director Colorado Press Association Dan Pacheco ('94) New-products manager The Bakersfield Californian Ann Penny President KYSL-FM Robert W. "Bill" Spencer Jr. Editor The Fort Morgan Times John Temple Editor, president and publisher Rocky Mountain News William H. Weintraub Retired vice president of marketing Coors John B. Winsor President Winsor Communications

By Doug Looney ('63)

Doug Looney

It's an odd group, the 24-member Advisory Board for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Members have wildly dissimilar backgrounds in all flavors of journalism. They come with a full range of attitudes, from the sometimes bombastic and self-important, to those who are so quiet and humble that they won't park their car in an available parking place out of concern that someone more important with more urgent business might need it.

Advice is the Board's only product. It has no authority to tell anybody to do anything, for which Dean Paul Voakes is eternally grateful. Its decisions bind nobody.

But the tie that does bind the Board members is affection for the SJMC. Not a single member wants to run the School; every single member just wants it to get better every year. The Board members are yoked, at core, by philanthropy. And philanthropy, like the members, comes in many stripes.

Of course, philanthropy means money to most people. Some Board members hate it and get sweaty hands when the subject surfaces. They stare at the floor and mumble. Others love it. When a person feels the warm glow of satisfaction from writing a check to the SJMC that doesn't bounce, it's one of life's rich pleasures.

Former board chairman John Winsor and his spouse, Tish, have given until their hair must hurt. They have contributed mightily to support of the School's Center for Environmental Journalism and its Center for Religion, Media and Culture, as well as to strategic planning. Jack Holden ('48), another Board member, and his wife, Peggy, have thrown money at remodeling projections around the SJMC and into a superb lecture series. Member Rich Clarkson has established photographic displays and a gallery, as well as giving photojournalism students grand opportunities to learn more. And on and on.

Good people with good hearts and good intentions.

But philanthropy also can show itself in ways having nothing to do with checkbooks. A key philanthropic contribution is enthusiastic involvement with the SJMC. Simply showing up counts. Board members appear at commencements, panel discussions and lectures. Some work on encouraging others to join with us to help move the SJMC forward. Others host gatherings in their homes and offices. Some send thank-you notes – terribly old-fashioned but hugely important. Some serve on other boards and committees around the campus, positions where they can put forth good words on behalf of the SJMC. Some teach at the SJMC as adjuncts. Recently, Board members have participated in a project bent on figuring out where the School wants to go and how it plans to get there.

So are all the Board members fully engaged and making contributions? Good gracious, no. But all of them have, in their own way, a philanthropic gene – or else they wouldn't show up for anything. They do. So there's hope for them.

The idea is for folks on the Board – as well as legions who have connections with the SJMC and who care about it – to define philanthropy however they wish, then act. Giving time and money is a spectacular philanthropic recipe for helping the SJMC to achieve and soar.

SJMC Advisory Board members hear different drummers. For some the beat is faint, but for most it is strong and insistent. Philanthropy is one of the few virtues, Thoreau wrote, that is "sufficiently appreciated by mankind." Indeed, to be appreciated for helping the School progress is a reward of sweeping dimension.

Douglas S. Looney is chairman of the SJMC Advisory Board.