National Press Club in History: YOU are making history!

May you live in interesting times.

That old ironic curse is never more relevant than in the year 2020. Of course, journalists thrive in “interesting times,” but the first six months of this year have been remarkable.

Since the Club suspended in-service activities March 16, we have not had a chance to gather in the Reliable Source to exchange stories about what is happening to us and to the country.

The Club’s History and Heritage Team wants to collect your stories of how you have been coping during this tumultuous year so that we have a historic record preserved in the Club’s archives. Think of things that people writing the Club’s history and journalism history in 50 years will want to know about this transformative moment.

We will be collecting the accounts of what has been happening in the Club as President Mike Freedman, the Board of Governors, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, Executive Director Bill McCarren and the staff have worked to keep it engaged in its mission of being a news source, a help to journalists and a beacon of press freedom. I encourage the staff to provide submissions.

You can tell us:

- How have you changed your reporting techniques to reflect the threat of the coronavirus? What changes have you made in interviewing people and keeping up with sources? If you are working remotely after your office has closed, how has that changed the quality of your journalism?

- How have you covered the Black Lives Matter protests? Were you in in Lafayette Square for the protest and the Trump administration’s effort to clear the park for his photo op?

- Do you have any stories on how the police, demonstrators or counter-demonstrators have attacked you while you were doing your job as a journalist?-

- How has your ability to write about the 2020 election changed?

- As the economy has crashed, how has your organization survived? And, if you were furloughed or laid off, how have you coped and what do you see as your options? Are you part of new forms of news media that are emerging during this time?

Send you accounts to me at [email protected]. I will put them together in a folder that will be included in the Club’s archives for future historians to find. Make sure your name and Club number are on them.

In the end, we will have an account of this historic era as seen through the eyes and lives of the National Press Club and its members.

Gil Klein is chair of the History and Heritage Team and the author of the recently published book, “Tales from the National Press Club.”