At its June 20 meeting during our annual conference in San Antonio, the IRE Board of Directors will consider modifying the policy that bans entries in the IRE Awards if a Board member has been involved with a story at any level.

IRE currently has one of the strictest such policies of any journalism contest. Under the policy, any involvement by a board member makes a story ineligible. In addition to writing, reporting, editing and producing, this has been interpreted to include senior editors who helped provide direction or did a final read on a project.

The policy was designed ...

We are now accepting applications for candidates for the IRE Board of Directors. Below you'll find an article written for the current IRE Journal by Board member Sarah Cohen explaining more about what it means to serve on IRE's Board, and details on how to file. If you have questions, you can contact me at mark@ire.org. If you're interested in running, make sure you get your name to John by May 3 to make sure you're on the first absentee ballots.  Submit your declaration of candidacy to IRE membership coordinator John Green at jgreen ...

IRE members elected seven new directors to the IRE board on Saturday evening at the organization's annual conference in Boston.

The newly elected members are: Manny Garcia of El Nuevo Herald, Sarah Cohen of Duke University, Mc Nelly Torres of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Rob Cribb of The Toronto Star, Stuart Watson of WCNC-Charlotte, Ellen Gabler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Andrew Donohue of VoiceofSanDiego.org.

Executive committee members were chosen by the board after the meeting. They are: David Cay Johnston, president; Andrew Donohue, vice president; Sarah Cohen, secretary; Lea Thompson, treasurer; and Mc Nelly ...

Tomorrow, May 22^nd is the last day to request an absentee ballot to vote in our 2012 BOD elections.

If you are unable to attend our 2012 conference in Boston, and your membership is current to 7/1/12, then you can vote for your favorite candidate via absentee ballot.

Candidates and their statements can be viewed here http://ire.org/about/board-directors/elections/candidates/

Requests for absentee ballots should be submitted to ballots@ire.org  Please include the complete address where you would like your ballot sent.