Sometime in early summer this year, the IJNR staff started kicking around an idea: What if we held a gathering just for alumni? What would it look like? Would anyone come? Where would we host it? How would we pay for it?

While alumni programs were something that we’d organized a few times in our history, it had been many years since the last one, and we knew this one would need to look different to meet the current needs of journalists. And who better to tell us what they need than the journalists themselves?

So while we hustled to pull together funding and line up accommodations, we put the call out to our alumni, inviting session proposals and hoping for enough interest to warrant holding the event.

The response was overwhelming: What journalists need is each other.

They need the opportunity to share challenges and victories; to brainstorm new approaches to old stories; to talk about funding models, digital media and nonprofit newsrooms; to teach and learn and revitalize one another.

Held in Montana last month, our Climate Journalism Alumni Forum was an inspiring whirlwind, part think tank, part summer camp. Throughout two days of journalist-led sessions, the 40-person group talked shop and grappled with some of the toughest challenges facing journalism today – and also swam in Flathead Lake, shared meals and stories, and even enjoyed a cameo appearance by a resident black bear.

This forum was a step outside our traditional offerings, but it was incredibly rewarding and fruitful. (Stay tuned for the tips, techniques and take-homes that emerged from this event!) The feedback from participants has been resoundingly positive, which we’re taking as a clear sign that we need to host similar events more often.

We’re forever grateful for the energy and dedication – and good humor! – that journalists bring to our programs, and we’re excited to spend more time gathering our community in the name of better journalism.

Please consider pitching in to make sure programs like this – along with our institutes, workshops, reporting grants and mentoring – can continue well into the future.

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