VCOG Bulletin Board, January 2012

It's been tough, but VCOG has said farewell to five members of the board of directors in the past five months.

In August, Ed Reams, who was an appointee of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, stepped down when he took a new position at a Milwaukee TV station. Reams had been vice president for news at WHSV in Harrisonburg.

Waldo Jaquith, the brains behind Richmond Sunlight and the current creator of Virginia Decoded, stepped down in November to accept a job with the White House. Though he will stay in Charlottesville, Jaquith is now charged with developing the administration's Ethics.gov initiative.

Three longtime VCOG board members left at the end of the year when their terms expired. These were:

• Founding member Harry Hammitt, who publishes Access Reports from Lynchburg and also works at the State Department in D.C.;

• Matt Paxton, appointee of the Virginia Press Association and the publisher of the News-Gazette in Lexington; and

• Lee Albright, the retiree from Montebello whose simple FOIA request for fish hatchery records led to the implosion and reorganization of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

VCOG was well served by all five men. We thank them for all of their contributions, and wish them well in their careers and endeavors.

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VCOG welcomes its newest member to the board of directors: Jeff Lester, the news editor of The Coalfield Progress, has been appointed by the Virginia Press Association to fill the seat of Matt Paxton, who stepped down at the end of December. Lester is a product of Glade Spring and has been with the paper since 1990.

Welcome, Jeff!