Reports to the BoD monthly meeting reports: July 2006

Reports to the WORT Board of Directors Monthly Meeting

July 2006

Staff reports

Music Director

Sybil Augustine

VOLUNTEERS
On-air: Jon Arnold has stepped down from the Vortex, a monthly broadcast of music recorded live in our community. So we have one hour from 11pm-midnight to fill one Friday a month. I contacted the F.O.M.M.
8-11 rock host this month and he filled the additional hour, and the Programming Committee will discuss a replacement at our next meeting. I am also working with the Monday classical women's hosts to recruit one
or more new participants, and looking forward to a meeting to discuss with our classical programmers what impact changes at WPR might/should/will have on our programming. I've been trying some different things I learned this year in Portland and at stations in Vancouver to streamline tracking and music review and to deal with volunteer issues and off-air volunteerism (which is related to tracking and music reviews.) It's apparent that some of these techniques will work for us here and others won't, and to require participation in off-air activities from our DJs would mean a "climate change" here that needs to come from an agreement between the Board, staff, and volunteers all together. I've also been dealing with several difficult volunteer issues as of late, such as people forgetting to show up for their program, hosts receiving music intended for WORT at their home addresses, and complaints about on-air content from listeners. And I, too, have been helping to revise programmer self-review forms and recruiting for new members for the Programming Committee.

Off-air: I've been very busy working with both old and new volunteers to go through music that's been donated or sent and is piling up because it didn't catch anyone's interest immediately. Robin and Kevin, two
knowledgable music lovers (who don't have their own shows) are very willing and diligent in searching through these CDs for obvious rejects, adds, duplicates, singles and non-music stuff, and categorizing things for others to review. So the downstairs is getting cleaner and more organized every day, and Robin is not an intern so he fully expects to be here when I do have another intern next semester so we shouldn't have the cycle of falling behind and catching up with new releases during the busy times.

MUSIC LIBRARY
Another project that I've been able to make headway on is culling and reorganizing in the music library. There will now be review of recent CDs removed from the current section before putting them in the permanent library, so that DJs will have a better memory of what CDs they actually liked and used before they (the CDs!) get too old. In response to a lengthy dialogue on the Rock programmers' list, I see the need for better use of our existing library shelving to keep our collection manageable until we are ready to begin using more digital
media for storage of music. So I took a day off tracking and worked with Longku, our Wednesday librarian, to diagram the library and pinpoint areas where shelving could be added or reconfigured. I met with Norm to
get his input and I've contacted a carpentry volunteer so work on these improvements should begin soon.

MISC.:
helping out some with the GRC, mainly the Saturday night concert venue booking, talent and publicity.

-I've copied all my masters for forms and memos, and added some structure and narrative as well as a table of contents to my music department handbook. I try to work on that a little bit every week as tasks come up, to explain how the job is done.

-I'm penning the next direct mail letter for WORT, with guidance and input from Jim and past solicitations.

-I've been having some computer trouble in terms of printing and saving documents, which I mention here because many folks think that we can easily add printers, mailing lists, audio archives, etc. to our system but the fact is that when you try to get too complicated, things that we depend on begin to fail. So be wary of counting too much on transferring work to computers in order to save time, because it doesn't always work this way. That being said, I've been talking with Tom about audio archives of music shows being made accessible to the public via our web site and I'm very excited about this way to expose more people to the programming we already do, and the increased fundraising potential that this makes possible.

VACATION/COMP TIME
One reason I've been able to catch up on some of these things is that I haven't taken a week of vacation since last December. I didn't go to Austin in March (but may go to the NYC convention in November) and since
GRC is right here, no trip is involved in my plans for July either. I'm trying to time it well so I don't lose these good volunteers and so things aren't too hectic, but that's difficult when more than one person is away on vacation already, which is common during the summer. I'm trying to set up a week or two away before September rolls around, though.

Listener Sponsor Development Director

Jim Goronson

SUMMER 2006 PLEDGE CRUISE

The goal of $15,000 in pledges was reached at 2PM on Saturday June 4th thanks to inspired pledge-rapping by Tropical Riddims host F.R.P. and crew (and everyone before them). The "Cruise" hence lasted for 4 1/2 days. The fulfillment rate has been incredible--so far we have received and processed $13,431 in donations--a rate of 89.5% (ok let's round that up to 90%).

SPRING 2006 PILOT

The Spring Radio Pilot newsletter was mailed to 3,156 people in the last week of May and so far has yielded 48 donations totalling $2,600.

JULY 1ST "RHYTHM & BOOMS" HOUSE PARTY

This event launching WORT's new Major Donor Campaign was a success on a few different levels. Here's a breakdown of donations received: $1,700 from our sponsors for the event (including a $250 matching gift pledge from Lincoln Financial that we haven't received yet), $1,240 from folks who sent in donations with their RSVPs, and $1,065 in donations received at the event itself. A total of $4,005 in donations. Meanwhile I think that we had excellent volunteer participation at the event and Dolores and Frank Emspak were most gracious hosts. It was a fun party, about 60 people turned up, and it seemed that a good time was had by all (hopefully). The Fundraising Committee (which collectively did a great job of planning the entire event including outstanding logistics coordination by Maggie) will be having a re-cap of this event at our next meeting and will talk about how we can make the next WORT house party even better as well as how to best cultivate significant giving relationships with our major donor candidates.

WINTER 2006 PLEDGE DRIVE

With all pledges processed for the "Wide World of WORT/World Wide WORT" drove the total amount pledged is $98,268. We have received $90,045 in pledge fulfillments--a fulfillment rate of 92%.

WINTER 2006 PILOT

The Winter Radio Pilot was mailed to 3,014 people in mid-February and we have received 137 donations totalling $7,229.

DECEMBER 2005 DIRECT MAILING

We received 112 donations totalling $9,220.

FALL 2005 PLEDGE DRIVE

With all pledges processed from the drive the total (revised) amount pledged is $110,671. We have received $102,073 in pledge payments--a fulfillment rate of 92%. The revised pledge total reflects new autogive pledges in accordance with WORT accounting practices (counting only half of the yearly total of any given autogive pledge).

GRC-11

I am co-facilitating the "Pledge Drives 101" workshop with Janet Lee Zahn from WYCE in Grand Rapids, MI and am facilitating "Organizing Pledge Pitching Training Workshops" with remote help from Ayleen Crotty from KBOO in Portland, OR (the creator of this great workshop). I also am the tacit adult beverage coordinator (obtainer) for the party on Saturday night.

COMMUNITY SHARES OF WISCONSIN

I've been actively participating in CSW's Private Campaign Development committee in recents weeks. We are focused on getting worksite coordinators ready for their fall workplace giving campaign.

I am also a member of CSW's annual Celebration Dinner planning committee with Glenn Mitroff and Peaches Lacey.

JULY 2006 DIRECT MAILING

Next direct mail is in the works will be mailed to 2,621 people in the next week or so.

FALL 2006 PLEDGE DRIVE

Our "Crashing the Ether" fall pledge drive is scheduled for Wednesday October 11th through Tuesday October 24th. It will begin with "A Musical Offering" at 5AM. I am working with an artist from Firecracker Studios for the pledge drive artwork. WORT hats (baseball-style caps) will be the featured new premium--more details soon!

GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING CONFERENCE

I'm attending this fundraising conference in Berkeley, CA on August 4th and 5th. Following this conference I will be taking a small vacation in northern California visiting very good friends and am returning to Madison on August 10th.

BUSINESS and FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT

Maggie Weiser (interim)

UPCOMING EVENTS
*Willy Street Fair**
The fair is scheduled for September 16 and 17. WORT will host the Underground Stage on Sunday the 17th. I am working with Dave Zero (Dave Stanowski, former host of Hootenanny), who is helping with selecting
bands, booking, schedule, etc. Almost all the bands are booked, and some contracts have already been submitted. WSF committee met again this month to discuss stage schedules and promotional materials.

*WORT Birthday Party*
Our Birthday Party is scheduled for Saturday, December 2nd at the High Noon Saloon!

*_EVENTS:_*
*R&B House Party*
See Jim’s report for more details on this event. Jim and I worked with the Fundraising committee on this new event. Although the fireworks were cancelled, a fun time was had, and WORT staff, board, volunteers, and
supporters mingled the night away, sustained by lovely eats and drinks.

*First Tuesdays Reggae Night*
The Cardinal Bar benefit continues to be successful. We are very grateful to the club, as well as Supa Ranks and FRP for continuing to facilitate this monthly fundraiser. This month, the event fell on the 4^th of July, and despite competition from other activities and performances, $300 was raised for WORT.

*_OTHER PROJECTS:
We are gearing up for the Grassroots Radio Conference, where I will be co-facilitating an underwriting discussion with Raechel. I plan to attend some workshops, as well as help with logistics and whatever else needs doing. I will also be involved in getting supplies and equipment ready for the GRC social event on July 29th at Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts.

GRANTS:
The A.J. Muste Memorial Institution has granted WORT $1,500 to bring a delegation from Radio Victoria to Madison. We hoped the delegation would be able to attend the Grassroots Radio Conference, but issues
surrounding visas and international travel prevent them from getting to Madison in time for that. The Sister Station committee will make a recommendation for an alternative dates and programs.

I attended a DCAVS workshop on grant writing on 7-19-06.

EVENTS COMMITTEE:
The Events Committee met on July 13^th . (see Events report).

UNDERWRITING:
*Per Peter’s request, I have begun the process of putting all underwriting contract information for 2006 into a chart. Although the chart is incomplete, I have attached a copy for your viewing pleasure. I will continue to work on this project, and will try to improve on it, so it will be complete and up-to-date when Raechel returns.

Operations

Norm Stockwell

The Finance Committee did not meet this month. After a short time we will be looking at preliminary Yr-end numbers. We will be putting funds in our investment portfolio as the CDs come due this month. Annual audit
fieldwork will take place in mid-August, with final numbers coming in late-Fall.

The Engineering Committee met earlier this month and discussed and planned various projects (see Eng Comm Report). We have gotten the Building evaluated by a structural engineer & architect; a report will
be discussed tonite.

Our Sister-Radio station group received a grant to bring two youth fromEl Salvador to Madison later this year. We will be meeting soon to begin planning this event.

Plans are underway for an exciting Grassroots Radio Conference later this week, with many exciting workshops and events – see for details (or to register or volunteer).

Our coverage of the Mexican presidential elections was well received across community radio land. The CapTimes also devoted some ink to the topic this past Saturday.

Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator

Glenn Mitroff

I am leaving for Germany on July 12^th, returning on July 28^th for the Grassroots Radio Conference. Since I started at WORT nearly 7 years ago, this will be the longest vacation that I have taken and the first major summer vacation. This is the first time abroad for Dan. It has been 22 years since I last visited Germany. We will be connecting with long time friends and three former WORT volunteers—Axelle Mangeant from Belgium, and Inga Meyer & Alex Heusener from Germany. We are very excited!

Since the June 21^st Board meeting…

I have spent a lot of time working on continuing arrangements for the busy outreach season and for making arrangements for smooth coverage of my duties while I am gone. I have been working with Irre, our half time volunteer intern from Sweden. I have also been busy recruiting and training receptionists. Just one shift (Wed. 5-8pm) remains open. I have been working on arrangements for the Community Shares of Wisconsin 35^th anniversary celebration in September, particularly with making arrangements for an Access Hours show and finding a WORT volunteer to take photos at the event.

Outreach Events:

6/25 Blues Society Picnic—Peaches Lacey took WORT lit & a banner and DJ’d

7/1 Rhythm & Booms Fundraiser at the Emspaks—I helped line up volunteers and gather WORT lit, banner, etc. Unfortunately, I had a prior out of town commitment, so could not assist with the event.

7/8 & 7/9 Outreach Awards Banquet—WORT had an ad in the program book. Laura Gutknecht was honored as “Woman of the Year”

Magic Picnic—As part of our promotional exchange, WORT had two of our 2ft x 10 ft banners displayed on both Saturday and Sunday and had an info table.

7/15 & 7/16: La Fete de Marquette—A first time festival in the future site of Madison’s Central Park. As part of a promotional exchange, we will have a banner displayed and get a free table and chairs inside the main tent. Norm will take the banners and info. Info will be self serve, except for times when WORT volunteers or staff will step behind the table to assist. Feel free to help out if you want to sit a few minutes at the festival.

7/27-7/30: Grassroots Radio Conference—I worked with Nathan & Tom to get the volunteer shifts posted to our web site. Nathan is monitoring the sign ups. I will return to Madison from Germany on the evening of July 27^th. I am planning to attend as much of the GRC as my jet lagged body will allow.

7/29 Farmers Market on the Square—I found out today, that the volunteer that I had arranged to staff our monthly shift was not available. I arranged for Mifflin Coop to find a volunteer to cover our shift as a trade for one of their future shifts.

7/29 Fiesta Hispana—I worked up a script for our promotional exchange announcement which I believe the Promos are recording tonight. ENPA volunteers translated the script and recorded a Spanish promo. Norm will distribute a banner and lit (including our mission statement in Spanish) to ENPA volunteers to take to the festival.

7/29 Atwood Summerfest—The festival has been moved back a week because many of Atwood’s volunteers and staff participate in the AIDS ride. We are unable to participate with the Boutique, CD & record sale due to hosting the Grassroots Radio Conference that same weekend. We are doing a promotional exchange and will have a banner displayed at the festival. We also will be included in the July 27 ad in Isthmus.

8/12 Great Taste of the Midwest—We have a full cadre of WORT volunteers for this event. I sent Mark Morrison, the GT Volunteer Coordinator the contact info for all of the WORT volunteers so that he can send confirmation materials via email.

8/12 Savor the Summer—This is a new festival for us to participate in. Our logo will be on their program and cookbooks and we hope to have a banner displayed. Possibly we will have a small booth, mostly or entirely informational. Our Pachyderm Parade volunteers may be promoting their show in the kids tent.

8/20 Triangle Ethnic Fest—We will have our color logo prominently displayed in the program booklet and get the prime location for our tent as last year will be information only due to traditionally low sales at this event.

8/26 & 8/27 Orton Park Festival—We will set up the WORT Boutique and CD & record sale. Our exchange ad in Maximum Ink will feature our booth at the festival. (Africa fest is scheduled for the same weekend, but because it is happening on the same weekend as our major involvement with the Orton Park Festival, I have decided not to try to organize a promotional exchange for an information table. Instead I have passed the info on to Maggie as the event organizers for Africa Fest have sometimes purchased underwriting.)

News and Public Affairs Facilitator

Nathan Moore

I’ve been out of the office a good deal since the last Board meeting, including the second half of my vacation at the end of June and several days of personal leave, taking care of Lisa following her knee surgery.

Grassroots Radio Conference 11
This has kept me extremely busy, and explains why this Board report will be relatively short. The conference starts the day after the Board meeting, and between bouts of exhaustion, I’m totally excited about it. For a taste of what I/we’ve been up to in terms of planning, check out .

Programming Committee
• See Brett’s report (soon to be submitted).
• I’ve been helping out, trying to shepherd the second draft of the Programmer Self-Review process through. Since the last meeting, I updated the document to incorporate the latest edits, and have passed around some 25 copies to long-time volunteers. If you’d like to have input on this document, let me know and I’ll send you a copy.• I’ve been doing a bit of light PC recruitment to replace our soon-to-depart members.

Equipment
• Laura Gutknecht tells me that Das Schuh should be in good working order by the first week of August.
• The iRiver mp3 recorders are now set up, color coded, and available for use by WORT reporters. So far, they have met with good success, though the more technically inclined reporters have fewer issues with them.

Staffing
• In Our Backyard has a few new volunteers, including Will Goode, Nora Mattson, and John Maynard. Kim Compton has returned to us from a hiatus. Two people have expressed interest in IOBY for fall.
• Jonathan Walton has taken over the permanent engineer shift for Tuesdays APA/Dem Now.
• Steve Zelaznik has been a terrific floater engineer for APA shifts this summer.
• Several members of the Science show have learned how to do engineering, after getting down to just one active collective member who felt comfortable behind the board. In general, that program has been operating very well as a collective lately.
• Third World View has been a little light on summer volunteers and will be a focus of my post-GRC recruitment efforts.
• Sharon Maynard will be stepping down as a Radio Lit engineer at the end of August.

Pacifica National Program
Norm and I participated in a national conference call about the development of a daily national Pacifica program for election-season this fall. We’ll have a follow-up face-to-face meeting at GRC. I’d like WORT’s news department to be involved in some way with this effort.

Public File
In compliance with FCC regulations, I updated our Public File on July 10th

Committee Reports: July 2006

EXECUTIVE

No report

Finance

Annie Courtney

The Finance Committee will not meet in July or August. The next scheduled meeting is Thur, Sept 14 at 4:00.

ENGINEERING

Norm Stockwell

Old Business

· Tower climb date – July 25 9:00am (need to adjust 5/8 wave, remove bad yagi on rotor, take photos from top)

· Building 2nd story assessment - Potter Lawson report soon

· Content Depot update - on hold indefinitely (their problem at PRSS)

· Web switch status - done & working

· Das Shoe status - Laura has begun wiring, need to look into mic/mute switch

· MCR upgrade (Neotek) status - wood coming first week of Aug.

· Equipment database status - on hold

· Power increase app status - FCC has it, probably 3 months or so.

· Trans rack re-arrangement date - no rush, Dave D-W available to help

· Air conditioning upgrade at XMTR – Dan working on plan/estimate

· GrassRoots Radio Conference – July 27-30, need tech volunteers

· Streaming remote plans - 7/29/06 – Cipher Zone show 10-1pm using laptop.

· PTFP Status – no news. 186 total applications – we were only radio app in Wisconsin

New Business

· Digital EAS – report from SBE mtg attended by Laura

· Broadband cellphone remote broadcasts - report from SBE mtg attended by Laura

· Looking for a Gentner tool – sent out e-mail request

· Master clock system - need to find master clock system, tied to gps – looking for options.

PROGRAMMING

Brett Lemke

7/13/2006; call to order at 6:00PM

Proposal of additional Spanish Language programming brought to the committee’s attention. We will all keep this on our minds and have further discussion in the August meeting after the GRC.

Agenda and Minutes from this and last meeting approved with modification to the order. Communications from the public addressed concerns regarding drops, equipment, and organization of the library. A temporary solution has been reached for space, as we will utilize the front shelf directly in front of the staircase and consider further expansion.

Results of past and current communications have led and will translate to the self-review and Probationary program review. After modifying wording, the rating system, and adding a few questions, the Self-Review was approved by the committee as was the Probationary Program Review. Jump to the need for a GRC Panel.

Nathan (confirmed) along with Dan Jaffee volunteered to work at the panel, with potential for extra members to help expand the PC demonstration. Four or so committee gave non-committal answers as to when they could help, but pledged solid interest. More on this at the meeting regarding who will be fielding questions and giving demonstrations. I will follow up to the list after the board meeting regarding the volunteers on the PC panel.

Programming Schedule change not confirmed as of yet to be reviewed by the board at the 7/26 meeting. Clarification needed by the committee from Nathan and the board on status of studio improvements and repairs, space issues, etc. before final approval.

Chair Election: Ryan Parks will stand in for the interim at a term of no longer than four months, rotating with another willing member as the committee chair until a permanent replacement can be found after the changing of the guard. Next meeting time will be proposed through the listserv, as we could not come to consensus due to scheduling. Staff reports delayed due to understandable lack of staffers (It was 8:35PM), as was setting of the next meeting date; Adjourn 8:39.

Citizen’s Advisory Board (CAB)

Glenn Mitroff

The CAB has not met since the last meeting. The CAB next meets on Tuesday, Sept. 5th at 6:30pm.

FUNDRAISING

Jane Richard

No report

EVENTS

Brett Lemke

7/13/2006; Lobby @ 5:00PM

Taken from Maggie’s notes as the chair of the committee; I arrived 5:15 due to a work conflict, and was filled in after the meeting.

A Re-cap of the Rhythm and Booms Party –It was well-attended and things went smoothly. The fireworks were re-scheduled for the following night, as the weather was less than desirable.

Willy St. Fair Update - there will be an Underground Stage; the proposed lineup includes: The Arge, Supa Ranks and His Rock Stone High Power, 357 String Band, Awesome Car Funmaker, The Dials, Cyn Cyn and the Pons -Volunteer sign-ups and MCs

WORT Birthday Party - High Noon Saloon reserved for Dec. 2; more discussion at the next meeting.

Preliminary options for involvement discussed, stress on volunteer signups and flyering / postering to bring people down to the shows and increase station morale in the community.

Next meeting Scheduled for 8/24/2006, 5:30PM, subject to change.

MCOC

Glenn Mitroff

The Marketing Communications and Outreach Committee has not met since the last Board meeting. The next MCOC meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 8th at 5pm.

Personnel: Did not meet

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE: Did not meet

BYLAWS: Did not meet

Sister Station Radio Project Ad Hoc Committee: Did not meet