Milwaukee Newspaper Guild

Jenn Amur has been named to the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s Executive Board.

Current board members picked Amur, a JSOnline producer, to fill Journal Sentinel copy editor John Schumacher’s seat as an at-large board member. Schumacher has been appointed treasurer, to replace former deputy business editor Bob Helbig, who left in last fall’s buyout but agreed to remain in office during the transition to a new treasurer.

Both the Schumacher and Amur appointments take effect Feb. 1 and last until the next membership meeting, when Guild members will have an opportunity to vote on filling the seats through the Sept. 30 end of the board term. The date of that meeting has not been set, but will be in the first quarter of this year.

Amur has served as the Guild’s human rights coordinator since October.

The board also named investigative reporter Gina Barton as Good & Welfare Committee chair.

Barton replaces Amy Rabideau Silvers, a metro reporter who left the newspaper this week to take another job. Silvers, a former board member, was the first person to chair the committee, created last spring.

John Schumacher is on track to become the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s next treasurer.

The Guild’s Executive Board has picked Schumacher, a Journal Sentinel copy editor, to succeed Bob Helbig in the treasurer’s post, effective Feb. 1. Helbig, a former deputy business editor, took a buyout last fall but remained a Guild member and agreed to continue in office during the transition to a new treasurer.

Schumacher was elected as an at-large board member in September and later was appointed as health and safety coordinator. He previously served as a steward.

His appointment as treasurer will last until the next membership meeting. At that time, Guild members will vote on filling the treasurer’s post through the Sept. 30 end of Helbig’s term. If Schumacher is elected, the membership also will vote on filling his board seat for the remainder of the term. That meeting has not been set but likely will be in the first quarter of 2012.

Helbig is a former local president who has been our longest-serving treasurer, racking up nearly eight years in three non-consecutive stints. His most recent tour of duty started in May, when he traded his at-large board seat with then-Treasurer Amy Hetzner, a former metro reporter who later took a buyout.

Mary-Liz Shaw will be the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild’s new second-in-command.

The local’s members elected Shaw, a Journal Sentinel feature writer, as 1st vice president, in charge of contract enforcement, for a one-year term starting Oct. 1. She succeeds metro reporter Meg Kissinger, who chose not to seek a third term. Shaw is a steward and a member of our Good & Welfare Committee.

Guild members also chose metro reporter Annysa Johnson as secretary. Johnson, a steward, succeeds metro reporter Erin Richards, who also decided not to run for a third term.

Also joining the board as at-large members are page designer Zeina Makky and copy editor John Schumacher. Makky chairs our Communications Committee, and both she and Schumacher are stewards. They succeed PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter Tom Kertscher, who chose not to run for a fourth term, and metro reporter Amy Hetzner, who left in the buyout.

Members re-elected sportswriter Tom Silverstein, to his second term as president; copy editor Karen Samelson, to her fourth full term as 2nd vice president, in charge of membership and mobilizing; deputy business editor Bob Helbig as treasurer, a job he has held for a record seven full terms and two partial terms in three stints over the past 20 years; and feature writer Jan Uebelherr as an at-large board member, for a fifth full non-consecutive term.

In other action at our annual meeting Tuesday, members:

• Approved bylaws changes to formalize the Good & Welfare Committee as a standing committee; give the board the option of naming a human rights coordinator, instead of a Human Rights Committee; and eliminate the Organizing Committee as a standing committee, providing instead for the president to name a committee to help if an organizing drive starts.

• Renewed the rebate provision that keeps our dues at 1% of pay.

Milwaukee Newspaper Guild members approved a job trade between two Executive Board members at Tuesday’s membership meeting.

Amy Hetzner, a metro reporter, stepped down as treasurer, after about five years in that job. Former president Bob Helbig, a deputy business editor who served as treasurer for a record seven years in two prior stints, was elected to serve the four months remaining in Hetzner’s term.

That left a vacancy in Helbig’s seat as an at-large board member. Hetzner was elected to fill that position.

In other recent leadership moves:

• The board has named business reporter Kathleen Gallagher as benefits coordinator. Gallagher is now our point person on health care, 401(k) accounts, pensions and other fringe benefits. The post was previously vacant.
• Metro reporter Amy Rabideau Silvers has been appointed to chair the local’s newest committee, the Good & Welfare Committee. Silvers and her committee members — metro reporter  Gina Barton, page designer Nick Lujero and feature writers Mary-Liz Shaw and Jan Uebelherr — provide support to colleagues facing life changes, from the death of a parent to the birth of a child.