Dateline: July 28, 2005

Clarendon will host WTPA next summer

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Clarendon will play host to the state’s largest regional group of newspapermen next summer when the West Texas Press Association holds its 76th annual convention here.

Incoming WTPA convention chairman and Enterprise publisher Roger Estlack made the announcement Saturday during last week’s gathering of the group in San Angelo and said the 2006 event will give the association a taste of the Old West.

“We’re going to model this convention on one the WTPA held in Ft. Davis three years ago,” said Estlack, who is also the WTPA’s first vice president. “That year proved you don’t have to have a big convention center to have a successful convention, and we’re confident that we can put on a program that everyone will enjoy and remember.”

The three-day event will be held July 20, 21, and 22; and the program will feature entertainment and seminars suitable for the interests of the community journalists in the WTPA. Tentative plans call for a golf tournament, a Chuckwagon supper on the courthouse square, a WTPA night at the Sandell Drive-In, seminars and banquet on the campus of Clarendon College, and the annual better newspaper contest awards brunch.

The WTPA annual convention brings together members and their families for outstanding programs, information, and activities.

“I’ve attended several press conventions over the last ten years,” Estlack said, “but the WTPA event is different in that it’s more like a big family reunion every year. People bring their entire families, and it’s not uncommon for us to have three generations in several families in attendance.”

The West Texas Press Association was organized in 1926, and it is considered the “largest regional association in the world” because of its vast geographic area. The Association is composed of weekly, semi-weekly and small daily newspapers in the great West Texas area with Ft. Davis, Ft. Stockton, Hondo, Gatesville, Perryton, Vernon, Burkburnett, Decatur, and Burleson being the fringe area cities.

In 1993, membership was extended to Eastern New Mexico newspapers, and several are now regular members. In addition to newspaper members, representatives from companies that are in businesses related to the newspaper field hold associate membership.

“Clarendon has much to offer groups like WTPA,” Estlack said. “Several local officials have already expressed support for the 2006 convention, and we intend to make the event a showcase for what is good and unique about Donley County.”

In other WTPA news this past weekend, The Clarendon Enterprise received first place in Photography, second place in Editorials, and third place in Special Sections in Division D of the 2004 Better Newspaper Contest.

The Eldorado Success was the Sweepstakes-winning paper in Division D this year.

Enterprise Web Master and Co-Editor Ashlee Estlack received one of the WTPA’s two Bob Craig Memorial Scholarships in the amount of $1,000. The scholarship is named for the former publisher of the Hamlin Herald, who died in 1981, and is matched by Texas Press Association.