What’s most important to you about the Society of Professional Journalists? For me, it’s the community and the advocacy. As your candidate for President-Elect, I’d like to hear what members value most, and that’s why I’ve created a brief survey. You’ll get a snapshot of the results so far after rating the SPJ missions that matter to you, so you’ll see how your responses compare with others. Take it with friends!

I’ll be sharing survey responses, as well as my own SPJ values, during the Excellence in Journalism Conference using the Twitter hashtag #futureofSPJ — and I encourage you to do so, too.

SPJ has made enormous strides serving and representing our members. The new communities of interest, networking and job search opportunities are reasons to stay involved. And the good news is that SPJ is becoming even more popular. After years of declining membership amid the turmoil in our profession, our membership roll has been steadily growing this year. We’re back above 7,000 members strong, and we want to keep up the momentum. This will help SPJ serve you better and give heft to our advocacy, whether we’re battling for a free press in the statehouses or in Washington.

I believe our society — in both senses of the word — has reached a critical crossroad. As the largest, most broad-based journalism organization, our voice has become more important than ever as we push back against forces that would limit our access to public information and elected politicians. We also need to do a better job of explaining journalism best practices and why our work is important to the American public. As your president, I will work to strengthen our ties with other journalism groups nationally and internationally to keep up the good fight.