We are reaching out for your help with hosting our first in-person conference since 2019. We emailed once before during summer, but you may not have received it from our KEMPA email address or, like us, you receive a LOT of emails!

Our student journalists have been working hard over the last couple of years despite the many obstacles they faced. The Kettle Moraine Press Association (KEMPA) wants to support them with engaging sessions that can inspire them to continue pursuing their goals in the new normal. 

This is where you and your expertise come in. KEMPA welcomes you to submit one or more proposals for the annual Scholastic Journalism Conference, to be held at UW-Whitewater on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022 this year.  We are grateful to be able to return to an in-person conference – finally! – so our theme will be Back to Basics. We’d like sessions both for students and for advisers. We welcome sessions that focus on any aspect of journalism, including advising, photography, writing, newspaper, magazine, yearbook, online publishing, advertising and more.

However, we cannot hold this conference without amazing educators and professionals like yourself. Please help us give our student journalists an enriching conference experience by presenting at the conference. And don’t worry if you’ve never presented: everyone has something valuable to share, no matter their experience level and our student journalists are GREAT audience members.

This year, we are adjusting the schedule due to the number of schools who have difficulties finding transportation. The opening session will begin at 9:30 a.m. with awards and announcements. Then we will have a keynote speaker from 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. After that, each of the two sessions will last 45 minutes, starting at 10:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.  Advisers and presenters at 11:30 a.m. will take part in the yearly KEMPA meeting, including awards presentations, elections and announcements.  

Our students will be so excited to see you there. If you are interested, please fill out this Google Form to indicate your session title, description,  intended audience, technology needs, and preferred time slot (if any). Presenters have the choice of receiving a modest stipend or donating it to KEMPA.  If you think a co-worker at your organization would be a good addition, please feel free to forward this email to them. We’d love to have them!

We’d love to hear from you by September 9. We know this is a bit last minute, but we are confident now that this conference will be taking place and are grateful to you for considering helping our members.

Sincerely,

Beth Marshall and Danielle Olejniczak, 

KEMPA Fall Conference Co-Directors