By April Choi
Voices

AAJA’s executive officers presented their annual awards and answered tough questions from members Thursday, while candidates for elections made speeches in their bids to win the posts of national vice president for print and secretary.

The Chapter of the Year award was presented to the New England chapter, the host of this year’s convention. Shirley Leung, the president of the chapter and Boston Globe assistant managing editor, accepted it and joked that they’ve been waiting for the award since 1998. (AAJA met in Boston in 1997.)

Chapter President of the Year went to Vino Wong of Atlanta who praised his chapter’s hard work and said that the members made the chapter’s accomplishments possible. The ELP Leadership award went to Kim Moy of Yahoo Inc.

Cynthia Wang of the New York chapter was selected as Member of the Year and was praised for her work on the silent auction. She said that despite funding issues and other problems, AAJA will figure it out.

“I believe in AAJA”s mission, I always have,” Wang said. She has attended every convention since 1993.

At the membership meeting, executives were questioned on issues such as the possible cancellation of Voices, AAJA’s financial state, and communication between the leadership and members.

David Oyama of the Wall Street Journal questioned why the ballot was not a secret vote.

“There is no reason for it not to be a secret ballot,” Oyama said. “All we need is the number of ballots and who people voted for, but not who voted for who.”

Funding was also addressed. Sharon Chan spoke about the possibility of the Voices student project being canceled. She said that she didn’t know where the rumors were coming from and that no decision has been made.

Oyama said that when cuts are made, they should be equitable. “If there are cuts, it shouldn’t be just students,” he said.