Update 6/24/08
6/24/08 Dear CJOGer: Over the past four-and-a-half years, CJOG has worked with and for you in the fight for open government. We've hit a few secrecy bumps along the way but we’ve have many successes: new and high levels of coordination and communication, the development of new research tools, and, with the establishment of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a genuinely effective journalism voice on open government issues. We’ve been a part of making Sunshine Week, the national open government dialogue, a success. Now, it's time to wind down CJOG's operations. To put it simply, we’re out of money, and the prospects for another year or two of operations are not bright. We'll be closing the doors on the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government over the next few months, merging its essential functions into the existing structures of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Sunshine in Government Initiative. I’ve been working with Lucy Dalglish at the Reporters Committee and Rick Blum with the Sunshine in Government Initiative on a transition plan to continue the essential functions of CJOG and to ensure there will be someone inside the Beltway who can work with your organization on access issues. Over the next several months, the CJOG Web site (www.cjog.net) will keep posting updates on open government news. During that time, SGI will begin posting federal open government developments on its Web site (www.sunshineingovernment.org). The National Freedom of Information Coalition will do the same for state FOI issues on its Web site (www.nfoic.org). You can find additional reports on both state and federal access issues at the Reporters Committee site, (www.rcfp.org). CJOG's research and legislative monitoring activities will be picked up by SGI, which hopes to add a fellow or research associate to help with for this task. The Reporters Committee will continue to provide support on legal and court-related matters and will be working closely with SGI on federal legislative and agency regulation issues. And both are working on ways to pick up CJOG’s coordinating role so your organization and others will remain in the information loop and will have a continuing contact here in Washington. Both Rick and Lucy promise to answer your e-mails or phone calls if your organization has a special problem. Rick's e-mail is rblum@sunshineingovernment.org, Lucy's is ldalglish@reporterscommittee.org, and both can be reached at 703-807-2100. And I’ll continue to be available, at pweitzel@cjog.net, to help on an informal basis. Thank you for your support of CJOG and your efforts on behalf of open government. We've built a solid response structure and some strong momentum. Let's keep up the good fight. Pete
