If iron sharpens iron, the Hawaii Community Foundation's upcoming leadership conference will help ensure that leaders of Hawaii's nonprofit organizations are run by some of the sharpest tools in the shed.

The foundation “;has been sponsoring the conference as a service to Hawaii's nonprofit leaders since 2003,”; said Kalowena Komeiji, director of communications.

This year's board of directors leadership conference is titled “;Breaking Boardom”; and includes sessions on governance and board accountability; a social media boot camp featuring national and local luminaries in the field; fundraising; strategizing for tough times; a presentation of the 2009 Hawaii Giving Study by Ward Research; and a keynote speech by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Reservations for the Feb. 16 event at the Hawaii Convention Center cost $80 through Friday and $100 thereafter. Limited travel scholarships are available for neighbor island nonprofits. Registration can be completed online at www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org.

National post for BJ Whitman

  Longtime Hawaii public relations professional Barbara “;BJ”; Whitman has been named to the national Public Relations Society of America as a director-at-large for a two-year term. Three others from Hawaii have served on the national PRSA board, but “;I'm the first woman,”; she said.

She is “;really excited. PRSA has been a passion of mine from the moment I joined,”; she said. “;It is a great career-builder, and I look forward to advancing the profession and the professional at the national level.”;

National board members have four meetings a year on the mainland, have monthly phone calls and are assigned tasks, so employers have to support their participation.

“;Since I'm the employer, I approved,”; Whitman laughed. Long the director of public relations for Sheraton Hotels in Waikiki and later a vice president at Communications-Pacific, she now runs her own shop, BJW Public Relations.

Media Council fires back

The back-and-forth between Media Council Hawaii and the owners of KHNL-TV, KGMB-TV and KFVE-TV with the Federal Communications Commission continued yesterday with a media council filing to the FCC.

MCH attorneys at the Institute for Public Representation asked that the commission deny the stations' request for confidential treatment of documents pertaining to their shared services agreement. As is common in such communications, the attorneys made point-by-point arguments that such confidentiality is not in the public interest, and noted that “;many viewers in Honolulu cannot receive the signals operated by (the stations) because of the change in tower location. Because of the detrimental impact of these agreements, persons residing in the service area of the stations should have access to the complete documents governing the joint operations.”;

The filing also contained a resolution from the Democratic Party of Hawaii urging the FCC and the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice to “;investigate and prohibit the combined management structure”; of the stations.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Reach her by e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).