The autumn meeting of the UJF Council, held in Helsinki, has decided to start work on creating a new members’ panel. The Helsinki Region Journalists (HRJ) member association submitted a proposal to the Council for the union to establish such a group, through which it can gather valuable information about the needs and views of its various member groups. The members’ panel aims to engage members in union activities, support retention and provide an accessible opportunity for members to get involved. The UJF is already involved in setting up a national journalists' panel in collaboration with higher education institutions specialising in communications and the Finnish Society for Media and Communication Research. The purpose of the panel is to bring together a wide range of media professionals to respond to various research surveys. This will enable high-quality research into the current state of journalism and promote public debate about it. In contrast, the members’ panel proposed by HRJ would be the union's own internal tool. Preparatory work will examine how it would be organised and implemented technically. Support for cooperation between member associations The union has offered its member associations incentive funding to encourage collaboration across association boundaries, for instance for joint events and training. This funding has now been made permanent. In total, nearly 40 events have been organised with the incentive funding during the two pilot years. Thirteen of the union's associations and almost 800 members have participated in these events. Avainsanat: council journalism journalist UJF