In the May 2013 elections, OWAA members elected three members to the board of directors: Brent Frazee (Missouri), Colleen Miniuk-Sperry (Arizona) and Paul A. Smith (Wisconsin). All three Active members will take their board seats on Sept. 16 in conjunction with the 2013 OWAA annual conference in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Brent Frazee of Parkville, Mo., has been the outdoors editor for The Kansas City Star for 33 years. During that time, he’s won more than 50 national, regional and state awards for his writing and photography. After graduating with honors from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he started his career in 1974 with the Woodstock (Ill.) Daily Sentinel. From there, he moved on to the Racine (Wis.) Journal, where he was an assistant sports editor. There, he started his outdoor writing career. Frazee has been married to Jana, since 1973, and they have three adult children — Becky, Jenny and Scott. They live on a lake in a Kansas City suburb with their two best buds, their Labs Zoey and June.
Colleen Miniuk-Sperry is a full-time outdoor photographer and writer whose publication credits include National Geographic calendars, AAA Highroads, Mushing Magazine, Smith-Southwestern calendars, as well as Arizona Highways magazine, calendars and books and many other outlets. In late 2011, she co-authored and published the awardwinning guidebook, “Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers.” A passionate educator and speaker, she serves as a photography instructor for Arizona Highway Photography Workshops, Becoming an Outdoor Woman, Through Each Others Eyes, various Arizona-based camera clubs, and private workshops. From 2007-09, she served as secretary on the Arizona Highways Photography Workshops Board of Directors.
Paul A. Smith has worked as an outdoors writer for daily newspapers in Wisconsin since 1994. He has also worked as a freelance writer and photographer for state, regional and national publications for 20 years. He is currently employed as outdoors editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a position he’s held since 2008. Smith holds a B.S. in biology, natural science and conservation from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and studied journalism and photojournalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He has served as a director of the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers and is past president of the Wisconsin Outdoor Communicators Association.
In addition, members passed three amendments: (1) a change to the OWAA Bylaws, for the purpose of assuring compliance with Internal Revenue Code requirements for nonprofit tax-exempt public charities and to permit use of Madson fellowships as a membership recruiting tool; (2) a technical correction to the membership criteria change that was approved in 2012; (3) a OWAA Bylaws change to more clearly permit students to be Associate or Active Members, permit secondary students to be Student Members, and delete course of study requirements for all Student Members. ◊
OWAA elects three new board members, approves ballot measures
