HOPKINS NAMED VCOG PRESIDENT
Dr. W. Wat Hopkins, an associate professor at Virginia Tech, has been elected president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.
Hopkins, a member of the state’s FOI Advisory Council, succeeds Paul McMasters of Manassas, the First Amendment Ombudsman at the Arlington-based Freedom Forum.
Hopkins teaches communication in Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. He is serving his second four-year term on the FOI Advisory Council, an appointee of House Speaker William J. Howell.
For the past four years, he also served as VCOG’s vice president. He is also a member and former chairman of the Montgomery County School Board.
Hopkins is editor of Communication Law and Policy, the scholarly research journal of the Law Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
He specializes in free-speech issues and is editor and co-author of the textbook Communication and the Law.
He holds advanced degrees from the University of North Carolina and is a member of the Supreme Court Historical Society, the Society of Professional Journalists and the ACLU.
Dorothy Abernathy of Richmond, Associated Press bureau chief, was elected VCOG vice president. Re-elected Nov. 16 at the coalition board’s annual meeting were Ed Jones, editor of the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, as secretary; and Harry Hammitt, editor and publisher of Access Reports in Lynchburg, as treasurer.
WEB SITE VISITS
OpenGovVa.Org had a record number of visitors Nov. 4, with more than 20,000 hits and more than 16,000 pages viewed. Overall, our online visits for the month of November were second only to March, when the legislature was in session.
The site recorded more than 108,000 hits in November, with more than 33,000 pages viewed.
For the first 11 months of 2006, the site registered more than 1.1 million hits, with 268,000 pages viewed.
The site was redesigned with a number of new features added in November 2005. The new site was made possible by a grant from the the National Freedom of Information Coalition and provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
HAMMITT RELEASES WHITE PAPER FOR NFOIC
Harry Hammitt, VCOG treasurer and editor and publisher of Access Reports, issued a white paper released to commemorate VCOG’s 2006 annual conference. Written in conjunction with the National Freedom of Information Coalition, “Federal Controls on State Information Disclosure: FERPA, HIPAA and DPPA” explores the relationship between these federal laws and state FOI laws. The paper served as a basis for a conference panel of the same topic.
This is the second paper Hammitt has written for NFOIC. The first was on the privatization of government, and a third paper is due in 2007 on mediation models for resolving FOI disputes.
RUSH ELECTED VCOG DIRECTOR
Tonda Rush, an attorney and consultant in Arlington and former CEO of the National Newspaper Association, was elected to VCOG’s 23-member board of directors.
She succeeds Connie Houston of Vienna, a former president of the League of Women Voters.
Rush, president of American PressWorks, now manages the Washington office of the NAA. She represents newspaper clients in matters involving postal affairs, public policy, business regulation and issues generally affecting small media. She is a published writer and frequent lecturer on media law, the economics of journalism and the importance of newspapers in developing community.
Rush is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law and the William Allen White School of Journalism.
VCOG’s former pro bono counsel, she was elected Nov. 17 at the coalition’s annual membership meeting.
TODD NAMED TO BOARD
Jesse E. Todd Jr., editor of the editorial page of the (Newport News) Daily Press, recently was appointed to represent the Virginia Press Association on VCOG’s board of directors.
VPA and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters are charter members of the coalition. Each has five seats on the 23-member board.
Todd has been with the Daily Press for three decades. Prior to becoming editorial editor in 2001, he oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of Congress, the military, the General Assembly and the environment.
A Hampton native, he holds degrees from Boston University and the College of William and Mary.
Todd succeeds Marvin Lake, Virginian Pilot public editor.
SUPPORT THE COALITION
If you value our work, please consider becoming a Coalition member. Individual memberships are just $30 a year; for non-profit groups, dues are $110. Check our Web site for other membership categories.
Membership is open to any individual or organization that supports easy access to public meetings and government records.
WELCOME ABOARD
A big welcome to our newest members: Jim Brady, Vienna; Jack R. Wilson III, Richmond; Grassroots Solutions; and Lawyers Weekly.