City Club’s September 3 Dinner Program:

Candidates Forum: Pierce County Executive 

6 pm University of Puget Sound, Wheelock Student Center Rotunda

$23 for members and $30 for non members (includes wine social and dinner)

City Club of Tacoma’s September 3 dinner program will feature a forum of all four candidates for Pierce County Executive: County Councilmen Shawn Bunney and Calvin Goings, Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan, and County Auditor Pat McCarthy. The forum will be moderated by members of the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County. This City Club meeting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Wheelock Student Center Rotunda on the campus of the University of Puget Sound. 

In November 2006 Pierce County voters approved Charter Amendment No. 3, which provides that the election of all county officials, except judges and the prosecuting attorney, be conducted using instant runoff voting, now referred to as ranked choice voting. Thus, there will be no primary election for the county executive race. 

The public is invited to the forum, during which each of the candidates will speak briefly and then take questions from the audience.  

Thanks to Roger McLennan for coordinating this program.

September 17 Lunch Program
The Journalist’s Emotions:
Clearing Away a Major Roadblock to Good Reporting
Landmark Convention Center, 47 St. Helens Ave., Noon

Reporters and photographers have long been first on the scene of disasters and tragic events. Yet the news industry took little notice of what the medical profession was learning about emotional trauma—a condition that affects and impairs people subjected to unexpected horrific shocks. That began to change a decade ago when the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington started asking how knowledge gained from war veterans, child survivors of violence, victims of sexual assault, and others might be used to train and support journalists. The Dart Center’s founding director, Roger Simpson, PhD, will be our September luncheon speaker.

Dr. Simpson, lead author of Covering Violence: A Guide to Ethical Reporting about Victims and Trauma, will explain how the news industry put this topic on its agenda and what has been learned in the past decade. The center is the leading global organization promoting trauma education and training for journalists and journalism students. As a result of its work, many of the world’s leading news organizations have changed their approach to training and support of those they assign to the front lines of violence and tragedy.

A professor of communication at the UW, Dr. Simpson holds the Dart Professorship in Journalism and Trauma. Join us for an optimistic forecast of better journalism even in a time when the news media are facing exceptional pressures.

Thanks to Evonne Agnello for coordinating this program.