Back in February, I got an email from one of my favorite people with an odd request. Kristie Williams, our event coordinator at the Missouri Press Association, had seen what can only be described as "the kids' table:" me, my friend Mary, who owns the Jackson County Advocate, and my friend Ethan, who is the editor of the Bowling Green Times. Emailing all of us, she asked if we would provide fresh legs to the Show Me Press Association board.
While Kristie has known me forever and saw me at countless Show Me meetings over the years with my family, she didn't know exactly how much Show Me Press was a family affair. Years ago, the regional press associations for central and northeastern Missouri were floundering. My great-grandfather, Les Simpson, and one of his friends got together — why not combine them?
There's no way to describe something that stretches from Kansas City to Hannibal, so it was given the name Show Me. When I told Granny about Kristie's email back in February, she immediately jumped in to make sure I knew the story (of course I knew the story). But we're proud of our family projects, and while Show Me would be important regardless, the family tie makes it personal. Because it's personal, we have to put in the work to make sure it succeeds. There's no other option.
And well, next year I'll be its president.
Show Me has struggled to bring attendees to that annual meeting in recent years, so one of my jobs for next year will be to figure out why. I have a few hypotheses, but I'm setting a goal to contact all members and find out the real reasons.
To my childhood it was a weekend-long summer trip to the Lake of the Ozarks where my cousins and I ran loose on a familiar hotel property, but as I'm older now, it's a day of meetings (in a different hotel) that are a chance to connect, hold workshops and share ideas.
This year, the board (filled out by two old hats at the Show Me Board, Buck and Sandy, who were glad for the relief to show up) put together a program that included two workshops by my first editor at the Columbia Missourian, Scott Swafford, and a forum for the Republican candidates for state auditor.
Scott taught two workshops, one on news writing — a new workshop subject for him, although it certainly didn't seem like it — and one on local election coverage, which is his particular expertise.
Catching up with Scott is always fun.
I was on the panel for the auditor candidates. The main topic I wanted to to know about was their views on the accessibility of the services of the auditor's office to smaller communities. Small government bodies — small cities, fire districts, road districts, some schools — don't always have the money to have a financial professional on staff, so their annual independent audits are the only in depth look at their finances. But that doesn't catch everything, and it doesn't catch performance. Petitioned audits are so expensive for small cities that they're seen as the absoute last resort, so by the time the state auditor is brought in, the problem is almost always out of control. If there were oversight earlier, communities could save both money and, well, the headache of all the drama.
The answers I got mostly told me that some of the candidates were unfamiliar with small communities, not understanding that independent audits are required, and that their responses were not tied down to practicality — no matter how much government waste your clear up, the state auditor's office isn't going to be able to audit everyone all the time.
I also asked about what programs they would like to see audited, which got both typical (medicaid) and interesting (the state social services and public safety departments) responses, and what specific changes they would make in the office compared to the current auditor, Nicole Galloway, a Democrat.
On the panel with Scott Swafford and Carol Stark, Missouri Press Association president.
I'm going to go ahead and mention that, in what felt bizarre for an auditor's race, David Wasinger apparently took a page out of Eric Greitens' 2016 Missouri Press Association debate playbook, and instead of answering the questions that were asked, spent all of his time each time railing against the fact that Nicole Galloway "is a liberal Democrat" or "career politicians." In a personal interview setting, I would have cut him off and pressed my question. Honestly, I think evading questions — especially questions that aren't even challenging your own beliefs or policies — that way is rude, not only to the interviewer, but to the constituents who don't get to know the answer. Another odd, tone deaf moment was when the Saundra McDowell, the only woman running for the office, said something that might have been a joke (it came out a little flat to be taken as one) where she seemed to state that she was a better mom than Nicole Galloway because she has more kids.
Here's a story from the The Jefferson City News-Tribune (which features a GREAT shot of the back of my head) about the forum. I know a few other papers are holding on to the audio/notes to write closer to the primary, while others just wanted to hear what was said to inform their future coverage.
I really enjoyed being on the panel — as a few people pointed out, I'm usually asking questions when we have politicians in, anyway. I think Show Me is going to use this as a model for future packed primaries, because it went well.
And yes, after the day's schedule was over, the board met and I ended up as president for 2019. Or, like I said when my uncle, John, was Show-Me President when I was in middle school (and I put in my Twitter bio), the Press-ident.