No excuses...

Just an apology for the delay in posting. As promised, here's my report from the Guild Sector Conference (essentially the Guild convention) in Providence, R.I.:


I went to The Newspaper Guild's sector conference in Providence, and, instead of a lousy T-shirt, I ended up getting elected the western regional vice president of the Guild.

Granted, I was elected by acclamation, which is a polite way of saying there was no opposition, that nobody else wanted the job. But I was encouraged to run for the post by some of the people I respect most in the Guild, including both of the candidates for president.


Along with no opposition, there's also no pay. But this is an important position at a critical time for newspapers and for The Newspaper Guild. The West, and particularly the Bay Area, are on the leading edge of change in the media industry, and part of my role will be to present that perspective to the rest of the Guild's leadership.

While changes such as the loss of classified advertising to Craig's List and readers to a variety of online sources slammed us first, I think we'll also be where the answers to those challenges are developed. We're not only the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, we're the prospectors.


But enough about me. Plenty of other things happened at the convention -- and almost all of them involved politics. The race for president between incumbent Linda Foley and challenger and secretary treasurer Bernie Lunzer colored just about everything.

Supporters of Lunzer and his slate hung their convention badges on yellow "A Stronger Guild" lanyards. Backers of Foley sported blue "Team Guild" buttons. Leaflets, stickers and various other campaign items were distributed. Lunzer held a fundraiser in a local restaurant. Foley held a lunch in a downtown hotel. Many clandestine meetings were held in hallways, hotel rooms and restaurants as people plotted.

And while there were a few confrontations and arguments, and a lot of discomfort among convention attendees who like both candidates or are striving to stay neutral, most of the disagreement was tempered with respect. Or maybe it was the beer and cocktails. After all, we're all Guild members first.

Not all the politics were Guild-related. For more than 30 years, the Providence Newspaper Guild has put on the annual Follies -- an event where they mock local politicians and events a la Saturday Night Live. It's a big deal -- attended by most of the state's politicos and power-brokers and filling a cheesy banquet hall with 1,200 people. Humor's never captured well in rewritten accounts, so I won't even try. Let's just say it was funny. And there were two political celebrity sightings:

-- Sen. John Kerry, who did a long standup routine that ended when his endorsement of Obama went on too long, and Clinton supporters started chanting: Hill-a-ry, Hill-a-ry.

-- Chelsea Clinton, who showed up before the show to work the crowd days before the Rhode Island primary. Chelsea was also spotted at the conference hotel, where she stayed, but did not attend the convention.

Another highlight of the convention was the reception given master organizer/mobilizer Carl Hall's presentation on the One Big Bang drive in the East Bay. Fellow delegates were so moved that, without solicitation, they pledged to give about $3,200 to help support the campaign.