The President in Vegas!

The PABJ President that is.....Here's a few Vegas moments shared by Monique Oliver.

More Vegas!

Through a good friend of NABJ, who would prefer to be known only as "NewsDiva01", here are more pics of NABJ 2007 in Vegas!

Melanie at NABJ 2007

PABJ Parliamentarian Melanie Burney shares her NABJ 2007 with the chapter:

A Big NABJ for PABJ!

Childress & Wilkerson elected to NABJ Leadership
By overwhelming vote, PABJ's Deidre Childress was elected NABJ Secretary, replacing outgoing NABJ Secretary/PABJ Member Sarah Glover. The vote was said to be 333 to 236. Share your good wishes & ideas with Deidre at dchildress@phillynews.com

Also, PABJ Member and Mt. Laurel, NJ resident Caleb Wilkerson was formally installed as NABJ Region 1 Director at this year's convention.

PABJ in Action at NABJ 2007.
Outgoing NABJ Board Members Sarah Glover & Melanie Burney celebrated their outgoing with a board announcment that NABJ has gone from a deficit of $468,249 last year to a projected surplus this year of $100,215. TABJ student Renita Burns served as web reporter for the NABJ Student Online Project. PABJ VP Denise James served as a mentor of the student NABJ news broadcasts, Member Sia Nyorkor produced the "good-bye" video package for outgoing NABJ President Bryan Monroe, PABJ Secretary Manny Smith & Member Pharoah Cranston co-produced three NABJ plenary sessions including the candidate forums with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Philadelphia native & longtime WRC-TV anchor Jim Vance inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame.

NABJ in Philly 2011
NABJ's board annnounced that Philadelphia will host NABJ's National Convention in 2011! Thanks to the special efforts of Melanie Burney, Sarah Glover, and Deidre Childress for bringing another convention home!

On the agenda Thursday

*Official opening ceremony
*Panel of prominent journalists on covering the upcoming Presidential election.
*Conversation with Hillary Clinton
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See that mist coming from that palm tree? That's how desert folks keep cool, mini fans that spray a cool mist of water. A good idea that we should import.

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The all-day pool party over at the Flamingo. More cool than it looks, maybe we picked the wrong hotel to host the convention?

Wednesday Wrap-Up

In the convention program book, the first day of programming is noted as "Chapter Day" or by the "Super Workshops", but NABJ veterans know that first days are more for re-connecting and renewing friendships with old friends and colleagues, and making new plans to hang out with them for the week, promises to keep in touch, and for some, planting new seeds of romance.

There's never enough attention placed on those behind-the-scenes folks who plan the events and keep the convention going. This year, many of them are PABJ Members like Sarah Glover and Melanie Burney, outgoing NABJ Board members keeping the "ship" steered in the right direction. Denise James is one of the student project leaders again this year, Sia Nyorkor is producing a video package for one of the award events, and Pharoah Cranston and I are co-producing the Imus and Obama events, along with producing some online elements for both.

Unfortunately, that means an early bedtime for me, but for YOU it means behind the scenes access from the Hillary Session and Opening Ceremony, and a peek at the Career Fair. See you then. Don't forget to leave your coverage comments in the section below!
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More PABJ Sightings include:

Monique Oliver, Denise Clay, Germaine Edwards, fmr. TABJ Member Chantee Lans, Elmer Smith, WCAU's Monique Braxton, KYW's Cesar Aldama, and more
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Las Vegas Monorail arriving at the Convention Station. For only 9 bucks, best way to see and get around town

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Its just too cool to be able to see the desert & mountain ranges from the hotel room. Glad the AC is working!

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PABJ Member Pharoah Cranston checks email at the Free Sprint Tech. Lounge. Actually its a tech lounge/train station. Pretty cool!

More Frequent Updates...

Should start to kick in now. Had to work out a few technical glitches, plus Momma Nature kicked in some kinks of her own with the changes in time zones.

Lots' o PABJ People right here in town, Sarah, Sia, Denise, Pharoah...and more.

More of the story in pictures to follow. More complete update later.
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Arrived 30 mins early into Vegas. See US Airways can be a good airlinej

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So...I THOUGHT I would be leaving from Newark, but flight plans have changed. Now rushing to JFK for a direct flight that hopefully takes off from there.

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We're departing from Newark Airport....connecting via Pittsburgh...then on to Vegas. Who knew the road to "Sin City" went through the "Steel City"?

And we're off.....

Our trek to Vegas will go by way of NYC, so we'll start early this morning, 5:52 am to be exact. We'll wrap up things at the office before heading west.

Meet our new friend.....

The one that will offer frequent updates from the NABJ Conv. in Vegas beginning Tuesday. Stay tuned Sssshhhhh! Quiet for now, his keyboard needs to rest....