RIAS alumni group meets online for reunion after Fall 2018 program
Twelve American journalists who took part in a RIAS program to Germany in 2018 reconnected for a virtual online reunion on Saturday from locations across the United States in three different time zones.
Determined not to let the coronavirus crisis get in the way, the 12 Americans from the fall of 2018 group came together for a virtual meeting on Zoom for more than two hours.
They shared stories of how they and their TV or radio stations or media outlets are dealing with the Covid-19 lockdown and how they have been in the 18 months since their two-week tour of Brussels, Cologne, Mainz and Berlin in September 2018.
The group that bonded so well during the RIAS program in Europe has stayed in contact over the last 18 months through their WhatsApp group — sharing news of career moves, important stories they were working on, their travels and some of their family developments among lots of other things.
Some of the fall 2018 alumni had taken part in RIAS alumni gatherings in Washington DC, New York and in Berlin — as well as at the annual RTDNA EIJ convention in San Antonio, Texas in 2019.
There was a longing, nevertheless, to connect again as a group.
“We should do a virtual HH (happy hour) soon,” Latese Clark in Washington DC suggested recently. The idea caught on fire and all 12 members of their group quickly agreed to take part. One member of the group, Justin Campbell, had his smartphone camera set up on the dashboard of his car as he drove around in Florida. Another member, Kane Faranbaugh, apologized for missing the first half hour of the reunion because he admitted he got the 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) start confused with his Central Standard Time (CST) home base in Illinois.
Alongside Latese Clark, members of the virtual reunion included: Jessica Prater (CNN New York), Bonnie North (public radio in Canton, New York), Gitzel Puente (KJRH TV, Tulsa, Oklahoma), Carol McKinley (freelance ABC, CBS Littleton, Colorado), Judith Synderman (freelance Washington DC), Kenya Woodard (CTTV, Tampa, Florida), Andrew Lapin (Editor, Detroit Jewish News), Justin Campbell (WJXT TV, Jacksonville, Florida), Bryan Weakland (MSNBC, New York), Kane Faranbaugh (Voice of America, Midwest, Illinois).
The alumni talked about the different stages of lockdowns and reopenings in their parts of the country as well as the impact that the coronavirus crisis was having on their work — many have been working in home office for much of the last two months. They also shared their experiences about the economic havoc being caused by the pandemic and the shutting of businesses in their cities and states.
They all shared fond memories of their RIAS trip to Germany and alumni gatherings that some have attended since. There will hopefully be a big RIAS alumni reunion in Berlin with about 30 participants in the fall of 2021 around the time of the next scheduled German election and many said they hoped to take part in that.
