1_home

The President's Perspective

Greetings,

Welcome to the newly revamped on line home of The Association of Black Media Workers...take some time to interact with the website, and then, join us as a member!

As we celebrate our past accomplishments, I am excited as we look to the future. I see a strong, bright vision for ABMW, focused around some very clear goals:

-Revamping the structure of ABMW, to put a cornerstone in place with an infrastructure, and strategic plan that will serve this organization over the next several years.

-Improving our outreach, with the addition of the Morgan State University Association of Black Journalists, our student chapter coming on line in the fall of 2008. I am also excited about working towards the creation of an ABMW Media Workshop, for high school students in Baltimore City Public Schools, specifically designed to expose them to the many opportunities in journalism, and the media.

-Increasing our ABMW Scholarship Fund, to serve more deserving students, with much needed resources. I believe we can bolster our scholarship fund, and our operating budget with improved fund-raising events, including, an annual ABMW Golf Classic.

I believe these achievable goals are an extension of the vision DeWayne Wickham, and others had in mind when they created the Association of Black Media Workers years ago. Although the role of the "Media Worker" has changed over the years, we honor the legacy of our founders by maintaining the original name of the organization that they created...that vision made this organization one of the founding chapters of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Enjoy our website, and come back often for an update on the exciting work we're doing in Baltimore.

Sincerely,

Troy Johnson

President, Association of Black Media Workers

The Purpose of the ABMW

The purpose of the ABMW shall be to bring about the union of blacks in the media in metropolitan Baltimore, dedicated to truth and excellence in the news and full equality in the industry in order:

A. To expand and balance the media's coverage of the black community and the black experience;
B. To actively seek out and identify job opportunities for black media professionals and to serve as a network for such opportunities;
C. To assist black media professionals in upgrading their skills for upward mobility toward managerial and supervisory positions;
D. To encourage students to identify careers in journalism;
E. To work with high schools to identify potential black media professionals at an early stage;
F. To sensitize the majority-owned media to institutional racism;
G. To award scholarships and internships to black students;
H. To be an exemplary group of professionals that honors excellence and outstanding achievement among black media professionals;
I. To encourage journalism schools to recruit and appoint black professors;
J. To strengthen the ties between blacks who work in the majority-owned media and blacks who work in the black-owned media;
K. To do other activities as are permitted to non-profit corporations by Section 501 (3) (c) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, and the rulings and regulations there under.