It didn’t take much time for investigative journalist and keynote speaker Richard Ross to quiet the convention guests in the grand salon at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis on the evening of April 25. The lights dimmed as Ross described the images of juvenile delinquents at various detention centers. Student journalists and fellow congregators absorbed the facts and got new perspectives on how to start their own movement.

The images on the screen were evident and so were the students who arrived from every corner of the globe to see them. But less evident were the years of planning and effort that had made it possible. The local team of the Journalism Education Association has been planning the Spring National High School Journalism Convention for two years: from its earliest stages to its first day, when Ross took the stage.

“It’s been about six months since we’ve started gearing up for it, but all of it really happens in the last three weeks,” said Rachel West, Local Write-off chair.

The convention is coordinated by the JEA and NSPA local and national committees. The local team consists of about 15 people and their job is to act as “local experts.” When West attended last years convention in San Antonio, Texas, she was able to seek for judges and professional photographers for this year’s convention. Her current job is to offers answers as far as who to contact when dealing with write-off contests.

“It’s been really smooth and I know [conventions are] not always like that; I have been stressed in the sense that I want to do a good job,” West said.

On the other hand, the national committee’s job is to organize where the speakers of the convention go. The headquarters staff of JEA organized all the scheduling, room assignments and also created the program booklet.

“The national committee does things that take place at every convention and the local team is responsible for things specific to that location,” said Sarah Nichols, Vice President of the JEA local committee. “For example, the t-shirts are something that the local team designs, sells. [They also] orchestrate the whole distribution process.”

According to Local Committee Chairman Don Bott, although the three weeks leading up to the convention are the busiest, the entire experience of organizing the convention is highly rewarding. Bott realizes that he promotes the journalistic conversation through his constant presence around the booths, classrooms and event halls at the convention.

“I don’t really understand this stress thing that people talk about. This is where I want to be and this is what I want to do,” Bott said. “Things are moving fast and that’s okay, isn’t it? If people tell you that there is a bad thing called stress, just tell them you disagree because you’re stronger than that.”