Congratulations to SPJ DePaul for receiving $500 from a November Chapter Grant to help fund their upcoming program, Twitter for Journalists with Mark S. Luckie. The manager of journalism at Twitter, Luckie will visit the campus in late January to do multiple sessions depending on experience levels.

Here’s what SPJ DePaul had to say about the program:

A Knight study released in late 2011 showed that only one in four high school journalism students get any online media training before starting college. Even fewer know Twitter. This training would help our younger members get the fundamentals they need and learn how to use the medium in a professional, ethical manner.

The advanced training would help our more experienced student members learn how to embed Twitter into not only their reporting but also how to use Twitter’s API (application programming interface) to build social media tools into their blogs and websites.

Sounds like a great program! Congratulations again!

And for the rest of you chapter leaders out there – don’t forget your chapter can also receive $500 to fund a unique, creative program. The next Chapter Grant deadline is Dec. 5, so hurry and apply today!

Received this great info from April Dudash of the recently refreshed North Carolina Pro chapter:

Seventeen reporters and editors from the North Carolina Triangle area met Nov. 7 in Raleigh to kickstart the N.C. SPJ Pro Chapter.

Special guest SPJ President-Elect and public records expert Dave Cuillier spoke to the group about soft and hard tactics to use when trying to gain access to public records.

He recommended that journalists carve out an hour a week to submit public records requests.

“If half of those work out, that’s 26 kick-butt stories,” Cuillier said.

Other meeting participants included Brian Eckert, Region 2 director, Frank Barrows, president of the Charlotte Pro Chapter, and adviser Bobby Hayes and two students representing the High Point University Student Chapter.