By Leah Clark, The Monitor
The announcement of NABJ’s new executive director at the start of the 50th anniversary convention welcomed Elise Durham but also took veteran members by surprise, stirring a mixture of responses.
“It was clear from the beginning that there was really no timeline or any other very important details that I unfortunately can’t get into,” Amir Vera, NABJ’s vice president-digital, said. “So this wasn’t a political issue. It was more of a process issue, and I don’t think it was fair to the candidates involved.”
On July 24, Vera put forth a failed motion in a personnel committee meeting to halt the executive director search. Vera said he believes the number of board positions that are up for election should have been a factor in the search’s timing.
He also said he believes, as an outgoing board member, he should not have been involved.
“The majority of the board could be different by the time the week ends,” Vera said.
Following Vera’s motion, eight NABJ Board of Directors election candidates posted a joint letter to the current board asking to halt the executive director search until after the election. Roland Martin, a candidate for vice president-digital who signed the letter, was disappointed at the process.
“I have known Elise for years, longtime member. My issue has nothing to do with her. The fundamental problem that I have is this entire process has been trash,” Martin said. “Our executive director, our president, our board have grossly failed to communicate to the membership… I participated in previous executive director searches, and I can tell you this is without a doubt the most secretive that we’ve had.”
The NABJ Strategic Planning Committee wrote an official statement to the board for a search firm in June. According to its chair, Sheila Brooks, Lemon said he would take the statement into consideration.
Brooks said in her experience, including two NABJ executive director searches, the committees worked with the board and search firm to find the best candidates.
“I believe an executive search firm has the credentials, the experience, the expertise to identify the right type of leader that our organization needs. Someone that not only knows about journalism, but someone who is a fundraiser. We’ve been under attack like everyone else with DEI and loss of funding.”
Brooks said publicly sharing the hiring process would have quelled a lot of the concerns and theories among members. Despite her concerns with the process that she calls “unfortunate,” Brooks said she wishes Durham the best as she takes on the position.
In a Tuesday evening press conference, Lemon said he felt it was important to complete the process, so Durham can meet with media executives, partners and organizations to start raising funds and strategize ahead of next year.
Former NABJ President Bob Butler said Lemon’s reasoning for hiring Durham before the convention should have cleared up most member concerns.
“A lot of it has to do with getting ready for Atlanta, and you want to have your executive director on the floor of the career fair talking to your partners,” Butler said. “Most of these companies do their budgets in the third and fourth quarter, and for some companies, we’re in the third quarter. So you want them to include you in the budget. It makes perfect sense to have her here to do that kind of networking with our partners.”
Butler said he believes there was no reason for the search to wait, seeing as the Constitution gives the board the authority to hire an executive director.
“Now, because this is an election year, that may be part of why we’re seeing this kind of reaction, but all the people complaining about the search and the process, they don’t have a role in hiring the ED,” Butler said. “The executive board hires the ED, and it’s their decision and their prerogative on how they do that. So anybody who’s complaining about process and lack of transparency, they don’t have standing.”
Butler said he has never seen an executive director search with this much opposition. According to NABJ founder Joe Davidson, there have been controversies in the past, but this is “significantly more contentious and troublesome” than he expected.
“For most members, this isn’t an issue,” Davidson said. “This is an issue for a number of very serious members who are particularly well informed about the governance of NABJ. For the most part, the majority of members I don’t think this issue is going to distract from or complicate this convention.
“In the end, I’m sure that the members will pull together,” he said.
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