February 2026 Gleanings
Deadline for Torch of Light, Lava Tube nominations nears, member happenings and more!
Calling all BIPC members! You can get involved by joining committees to help us plan events, offering feedback and, of course, helping us sponsor scholarships for journalism and communications students. We're continuing our programs to promote openness in government and grow new journalists to keep us informed.
What's going on? This issue showcases board member highlights. We'd like to include more of you! Please send a blurb and photo to info@bigislandpressclub.org
Don't forget your dues! Only $25 annually and just $5 for students. We're in the midst of a webpage revamp, so our Givebutter charity site is filling in. Log on to https://givebutter.com/BIPCmembership for our simplified signup process.
Important deadlines:
Torch of Light/Lava Tube nominations due March 1
Send nominations to: nclauer@gmail.com
Scholarship application deadline April 30
https://forms.gle/op1VrdytXhMrVAKQ9
Our monthly board meetings are continuing at 9 a.m. the first Saturday of every month via Zoom, and all BIPC members can attend our next one at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 7, by using this link: https://zoom.us/j/93755775071 . Questions? Contact info@bigislandpressclub.org
Civil Beat listening session
It’s 2026, and the Press Club is off to a great start. In February, President Maya-Lin Green joined Vice President and veteran journalist Kevin Dayton, along with Director and longtime PR professional Ross Wilson, for a community listening session in Kona hosted by Civil Beat Editor-in-Chief Amy Pyle and her newsroom team. The gathering was one of three sessions held across Hawaiʻi Island to hear directly from residents about the issues they feel deserve deeper coverage. Conversation touched on tourism’s impacts, I.C.E’s recent presence in Hawaiʻi, water resource management, senior housing, coral restoration, climate adaptation science and more. Insights from these sessions will help guide Civil Beat’s expanding news presence across Hawaiʻi.
See what else our board members have been up to…
Student Civic Engagement and Advocacy on Oʻahu
Immediate Past President Tiffany Edwards Hunt brought five eighth-grade students to the Secondary Schools Conference, where they learned about civic engagement, bill writing, bill tracking and the legislative process. Hunt later returned to Oʻahu and lobbied on behalf of the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association. She continues to serve as the student activities coordinator at Keaʻau Middle School, where she teaches a leadership elective and supports student engagement in civic life.
Teaching in the Arabian Peninsula
Director John Atwell is teaching in the United Arab Emirates and plans to return to Hawaii in March. In between and after classes, he has enjoyed an overnight desert excursion with his wife (during which he ate camel and smoked a hookah for the first time), a Linkin Park concert, a Rod Stewart concert, the famous Formula One Grand Prix and the Beetlejuice musical. (It's not all sand, dates and hummus.) He also has continued lecturing on national security issues and criminology for Hawaiʻi Community College (virtually, while out in the sands of the Arabian peninsula), juggling two editorial jobs and writing for the Hawaiʻi Tribune Herald.
Serving Community and Preserving Environmental History
Former Treasurer Robert “Bob” Duerr has been actively engaged in community service as the Hāmākua commissioner on the Hawaiʻi County Game Management Advisory Commission (GMAC), a member of the East Hawaiʻi Fisher Working Group and a board member of the Wailoa River Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Through his work with GMAC, Bob is collecting and reviewing fiscal and audit data related to the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which, together with other outdoor funding sources, totals approximately $20 million annually.
In addition to his civic work, Bob is researching and writing Nature’s Dance, the story of Marjorie Spock, whose federal lawsuit helped inspire Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which played a foundational role in the birth of the modern environmental movement.
Honoring Hawaiian History in London
Board Member Ross Wilson Jr. traveled with a Kona-based delegation, including representatives from Historic Kailua Village, Huliheʻe Palace, Ahuʻena Heiau, Inc. and Kaulana Nā Pua hula hālau, to London for the opening of the British Museum’s Hawaiʻi: A Kingdom Crossing Oceans exhibition on January 15. The exhibition features artifacts from Kamakahonu, Kealakekua and Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau on Hawaiʻi Island, including the famed feathered cape of Kamehameha the Great, and was honored with oli, hoʻokupu and hula presented by Kaulana Nā Pua under the direction of Kumu Hula Pelena Keeling. Wilson also shared video of the exhibit with Hawaiʻi News Now, which aired statewide on the day of the exhibition’s opening.
Seeking nominations for Torch of Light and Lava Tube awards
Do you know someone especially deserving of the BIPC Torch of Light or Lava Tube awards? Here's your chance to put in nominations, based on actions -- positive or negative -- individuals or groups conducted in 2025, furthering or inhibiting the public's right to know.
The Torch of Light award is given to an individual or entity for illuminating the public’s right to know, while the Lava Tube dishonor is given for a lack of communication and keeping the public in the dark.
Please email nominations and your reasoning on why they deserve the award to one of the BIPC board members listed at the end of this newsletter. All nominators are kept confidential. We'll be discussing the nominations at the March 7 BIPC Board meeting, so please submit nominations as soon as you can, so they can get a good airing by the board.
As it has for past 29 years, the 59-year-old press club announces the awards yearly on March 16, Freedom of Information Day, the birthday of James Madison, who was widely regarded as the father of the U.S. Constitution and the leading advocate for openness in government among our founders.
Here are lists of previous honorees and dishonorees to give you an idea. But don't let the list intimidate you. We're open to just about anyone, as long as you can provide a compelling reason why they should be honored or dishonored.
Mahalo to our scholarship supporters
We extend our sincere thank you to Teresa Arbio Barth for her generous annual $1,000 contribution to the Bill Arbio Scholarship, made in honor of her father’s legacy.
Bill Arballo was a founding a member of Big Island Press Club in 1967 and its first president. A former United Press International reporter, he is honored through a scholarship funded by an annual donation of $1,000 from Bill's daughter, Teresa Barth, and her husband, Bill. Arballo died in 2016.
You can help, too! Donate just about any amount to our scholarship foundation to increase student scholarships. https://givebutter.com/bipc-scholarship-foundation-inc
Scholarship application deadline April 30
Rules and application form is here:
https://forms.gle/op1VrdytXhMrVAKQ9
2026 Big Island Press Club Board
Please feel free to contact any board members with your suggestions, or if you wish to volunteer!
President: Maya-Lin Green, education and communications team member, Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center <maya-lin@bigislandpressclub.org>
Vice President: Kevin Dayton, Civil Beat reporter, formerly with Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii Tribune-Herald. <kdayton@civilbeat.org>
Secretary: John Burnett, journalist, Tribune-Herald <jburnett@hawaiitribuneherald.com>
Treasurer: Nancy Cook Lauer, retired journalist, UHH student publications advisor, blogger www.allhawaiinews.com <nclauer@gmail.com>
Immediate Past President: Tiffany Edwards Hunt, former journalist, middle school teacher <newswoman@mac.com>
Director: Patsy Iwasaki, professor, University of Hawaii-Hilo
<piwasaki@hawaii.edu>
Director: John Atwell, former CIA Senior Operations Officer, University of Hawaii-Hilo instructor, columnist, editor <jno.p.atwell@gmail.com>
Director: Peter Serafin. Journalist/writer/broadcaster at Golden Angel Studio. Former editor of Hawaii Island Journal. <peter@goldenangel.org>
Director: Ross Wilson, PR, Current Events rossw@current-events.com
Director Emeritus: Robert Duerr, filmmaker and journalist, Hawaii Fishing News <surf77@me.com>
Board Adjunct: Laila Moiré-Selvage: Founder/Manager at Coconut City Creative, Media Director at Action For Nature laila@bigislandpressclub.org>
