March 2006 Committee Reports to board

EXECUTIVE: no report
FINANCE: no report
PERSONNEL: no report
MCOC
Glenn Mitroff

The Marketing Communications and Outreach Committee met on March 9th. In attendance were Peter Lipton, Lea Zeldin, Bundy Trinz and Glenn Mitroff. Unable to attend were Alex Gillis, Sharon Maynard and Lynn Pophal.

Promoting WORT programming with genre fliers was discussed further. Glenn will email the music genre lists to ask for suggestions re: images and whether folks know graphic artist who may be able to help. We also want the show hosts to give us a few word description of their shows to include with the schedule info for each genre. Nathan Moore has created a first flier for promoting news shows. Bundy encouraged us as an organization to consider applying for the
Wisconsin Forward Award, and organizational audit process similar to thye Malcolm Baldridge Award. Bundy will bring info to our next meeting (Thursday, April 27, 5:30pm).

Outreach to community groups was discussed. Glenn has contacted the South Metropolitan Planning Council and the East Isthmus Planning Council to see when they would like to schedule us to attend one of their meetings so that we can show them our Powerpoint presentation.
We reviewed the fine print (literally) from the spread sheet of neighborhood groups assembled by Alex Heusener a year ago. Bundy has the file electronically and will work with the format to make it more readable and user-friendly. Bundy plans to have the format reworked by
the end of March. Peter will work up an email templet of info to send out to the neighborhood groups as we begin to contact them.Glenn will order an expandable file folder to keep hard copies of info about the neighborhood groups. Lea suggested the naming our neighborhood project, "Operation Making Contact."
At our next meeting, we will discuss promoting webcasting.

• PROGRAMMING
  Nathan Moore, interim reporter
  
  The committee met on Thursday, March 9.
  
  The Programming Committee has elected Laura Newman to be our new committee chair. This does not require any Board action.
  
  The Program Review Process development stalled due to the pledge drive. Committee members will pick up on it again soon.
  
  Cipher Zone and Friday Democracy Now seem to both be well-received ­ based on anecdotes, listener comments, and pledge drive totals.
  
  Semi-Action Item: Now with webstreaming, some evening rock DJs have complained about having to turn off the webstreaming for the “New Disc at Nine” segment. A programmer suggested not doing the segment in favor of webstreaming. The Committee voted to affirm its commitment to the “New Disc at Nine” segment, but with the provision that DJs may opt to play up to three tracks from several new discs, provided that the total time spent featuring new music is a bare minimum of 20 minutes.
  
  
  ENGINEERING
  Justin Richardson
  
  Committee met on 3/9/2006
  We welcomed two new members to the engineering committee: Brett Lemke and Paul Cargill.
  
  MASTER CONTROL ROOM
  Dave D-W will email Terry O to check the status of the countertop drawings. The committee set a deadline by which we¹d like to have the drawings: April 6. Once we have the drawings we will begin to ³remodel² the room.
  
  CONTENT DEPOT
  New Content Depot equipment will arrive early this summer, perhaps in June?the date is uncertain. In the near future the Depot will send us replacement power supplies (at no charge) for our satellite receivers since ours are failing due to age. Norm convinced them to send the power supplies since this technology will soon be obsolete anyway when the new Content Depot equipment arrives.Recall that the "Content Depot" is basically a system designed to efficiently distribute internet-like files via satellite. This is a project of the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS)
  
  POWER OUTAGE
  We endured a scheduled power outage Tuesday morning 3/6. Computers/servers were shut down and rebooted successfully. This outage was rescheduled from MG&E¹s preferred date one week earlier?during our pledge drive. From the transmitter site, Norm played a CD of prerecorded programming to fill the air during the outage at the station. Jon Miner had some thoughts for future outages:
  Make sure all exit signs have batteries.
  Perhaps install other emergency lights (or lighted exit signs) in rooms with no windows such as the large studio.
  Make sure incoming and outgoing telephone calls are possible.
  
  DIGITAL STATUS (HD) AND SECOND AUDIO PROGRAM (SAP) DISCUSSIONS
  Software upgrades for the exciter continue to be developed. We install them at the transmitter site as they become available.PTFT will read grant applications in April. We may know in June whether we will be funded. There is interest at the station for a SAP but our listening audience at this time would be near zero since HD radios are not yet widespread. If we are funded and receive the SAP equipment we will need to have further discussions in the WORT community about our potential SAP before we can implement it. Also, we still need to determine the best percentage with which to split the bandwidth between our primary channel and secondary channel. Laura continues to research this to discover at what point listeners would begin to notice a diminished quality in the audio stream.
  
  WEBSTREAM ON/OFF SWITCH
  Troubles with the existing switch make it not as easy to use as we had anticipatied. The current (and temporary) work-around is to pull/plug the patch cords when you want the webstream to be off or on. Roman is working on a box that will switch the stream and at the same time turn on a recording that says the webstream is now off. Sybil commented that the new switch should be in a highly visible location and one should be able to easily detect the on/off status of the stream upon entering the studio. The new switch aims to achieve this.
  
  WEBSTREAM LISTSERVE ­ ³streamdisc²
  To efficiently handle the number of emails circulating on the subject, a single listserve can be used for questions/comments about webstreaming for programmers. Only a few staff members and volunteers will receive and respond to the postings: Tom, Sybil, Nathan, Laura, Dave and Norm. After some time we will be able to create a FAQ page on the web for programmers. Once the ³in house² needs are met, we will open up the listserve for listeners¹ questions about accessing the stream from their computer.We will explore some outreach for our webstream such as getting it listed in the iTunes radio directory under community radio and in the Shoutcast directory.
  
  BUILDINGPotter and Lawson have offered a bid for assessing a 2nd story to the building. For $2500 they will provide:
• Structural tests
• Building permits
• Renderings of what the 2nd story would look like

Citizen’s Advisory Board: No report

FUNDRAISING: No report
REGULATORY COMPLIANCE: No report
BYLAWS: No report

EVENTS
Justin Richardson; Notes taken by Katy Tomlinson
Committee met on 3/8/2006

I. New board member on the committee: Brett (brett@maximumink.com)
II. Bowl-A-Thon
a. Postering
i. Outdoor postering doesn¹t need to start until after the 18th of March
ii. Indoor postering should begin immediately.
iii. Some handbills and color flyers are done, ready for committee members to distribute at their favorite coffee shops, work, etc.
iv. Posterboards with signup pad need to be constructed
1. Ralph, Maggie and Justin have volunteered
2. At Lakeside Press Thursday at 6:30 PM to make 25 of them
3. Katy and others will distribute to downtown, Village lanes and so on.
4. Ideas for where: sponsoring businesses, ChaCha, MC Audio, Village Lanes, Exclusive Company, etc.
b. Particulars for this year
i. Party will start at 7 and go til 1 AM
ii. This needs to be added to the flyer still
iii. Scripts for the promos are being made and will run soon, Volannounce as well.
iv. Glenn will come next time to discuss our volunteer needs and to bring a signup sheet
c. Prizes
i. Limit on prizes this year for the good bowlers, perhaps have a system for people to trade up to a much better gift if they get 3
ii. We will use some of the prizes left over from past pledge drives
iii. Maggie¹s going to cold call some restaurants, will ask if they want to donate gift certificates
iv. Ideas from the rest of the group
1. CD Slitters: Brett will look into these, so will Sybill
2. CD Cases: Brett will also look around
3. Wristbands, embroidered. Ralph may look into this
4. Trophies: Ralph will buy these
5. Non-Sweatshop blank T-Shirts with heat transferred logos
6. Work shirts with a WORT patch on them, like a bowling shirt
d. Food
i. Supreme’s on board
1. Two rounds of Pizza at 8:30 and 10:30
2. No lasagna this year
ii. Deli Tray, snacky stuff to start with
iii. Pasqual¹s may be able to donate chips, dips and salsas
iv. Jolly Bob¹s and possibly New Orleans Take Out as the main courses, served in the middle of the pizza deliveries
III. Catch-up on the Block Party
a. 4th Ward Lofts meeting and Streets meeting in early April
b. Then can move on to rentals, like Port a Potties, so on
c. Bands
i. Natty Nation
ii. Bill & Bobbie Malone
iii. Kevin Tubbs Band
iv. Midwesterners
v. Awesome Car Funmaker
vi. Prince Mishkins
vii. Hometown Sweethearts
viii. Rob Dz Experience
IV. Next meeting: Agenda and plan of action
a. Short meeting, oriented only to be for Bowl-A-Thon
b. Sign up Volunteers
c. Split up the Postering
d. Check-In on Prizes: Go through stuff in the basement, find out what we¹ve got
e. MEETING IS 6:30 PM MONDAY MARCH 20th AT WORT, invite your friends!!!

Sister Station Radio Project Ad Hoc Committee