Staff Reports: WORT Board of Directors October Meeting

Music Director/Sybil Augustine

VOLUNTEERS
- Working with Robin Lee on his internship and Nicole Bunge as work-study for fall semester, we prepared music for the pledge drive and organized promos and tickets for premiums. They handled things while I was away for two weeks at the end of September.
- Still working on a music volunteer newsletter with both assistants which will have updates and info about changes in the music library, the self evaluation process, and more.
- Working with the Personnel Committee to propose language about volunteer hours off-air and working on the quality and mission of music shows shows for the handbook.
- Working with the Promos to tighten up their writing and keep announcements shorter.
- Assisting with the pledge drive in general.

MUSIC LIBRARY/COLLECTION
- Had some shelves re-built and expanded to accomodate current music and all local music. More shelves are forthcoming, to ease the press of archived music in several areas.
- Following up on the culling of recent new releases before they are put back into the archive, and also culling things from the archives that aren't needed.
- Got lots of backlog reviewed and cleared up downstairs; some were premiums or browse shelf, some went to record sale or giveaways.
- Downstairs area was cleaned and reorganized; space made for cardboard recycling and paper storage, and a desk set up with a computer as a work area for interns.
- A template for a new playlist was submitted to a number of volunteers to get their feedback. We're waiting for changes to be implemented so we can test it further.
- I was invited to start reporting Folk music to the Americana Music Association charts. This can help get us more good music in the Folk, Bluegrass and Country music genres.

MISC.
- Met with the Personnel Committee to receive my evaluation summary and info. Need to update my work plan for the coming year.
- Met with representatives from the Overture Center about their upcoming schedule and promotions/underwriting with WORT.
- Am organizing my panel for the CMJ conference, for which I get free attendance. I also used miles to book my flight and am staying with a friend, so costs will be low.
- Am consulting with Maggie and the Events Committee about music for the WORT Birthday party.

My priority projects and concerns right now are:

* Getting music shows archived on our site so people can listen anytime
* Getting the web-based playlists tweaked and implemented
* Building the rest of the shelves in the music library
* Informing of/showing people the system for checking out CDs to cull from our library
* Continuing to archive or get rid of magazines and old paperwork downstairs
* Developing a good flyer for all genres to have a promo piece we can give out at concerts
* Getting more music volunteers to promote their shows via radio highlights, recorded promos
* Getting the word out about these current projects/changes via a music newsletter
* Getting oriented to my duties as a Board member and staff representative!

Listener Sponsor Development Director/Jim Goronson

FALL 2006 PLEDGE DRIVE
OK, let's all pat ourselves on the collective back, as it were. The HIGHLY preliminary total for "Crashing the Ether" is around $103,000. We hit our goal of $100,000 at the end of Democracy Now! when Nathan told Amy Goodman on the air that we were about to hit the goal--leading Amy to engage in very inspired pledge rapping in the last ten minutes of DN!--there were at least three "grand slams" with everyone in the building taking pledges.

So far the LSDD office has processed $30,000 in credit card/check/cash donations. As usual our Listener Sponsors are quickly fulfilling their pledges with piles of money coming in the mail on a daily basis. Grainne Svendsen and Lisa Nunez are doing a fine job of processing the donations.

FALL 2006 NEWSLETTER
So far we've processed 19 donations totalling $895 and there is a BIG stack of donations resulting from the mailing that are waiting to be processed. This includes a check for $1000 from one of our major donors (speaking of which):

MAJOR DONOR CAMPAIGN
See Fund Raising Committee report

AUGUST 2006 DIRECT MAILING
So far we've received and processed 81 donations totalling $5,336 with a small stack of donations from the mailing that are waiting to be processed.

BUSINESS and FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR--Events/Maggie Weiser

For the duration of the Jobshare arrangement, Raechel and I will submit separate reports relating to our areas of coordination. I will report on events and pledge drive related business, and Raechel will report on underwriting and grant business.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*WORT / WYOU Halloween Blood Drive!
I am working with the Red Cross and WYOU to plan a Halloween blood drive at the Orpheum on Monday, October 30th. 12-6pm. We have begun scheduling donors and volunteers, but still need a lot more donors. Tom created a link to the sign-ups on WORT's home page. Promos, press releases, flyers, and calendar adds have been created, and distributed. WYOU will be showing the film "Buckystein" in the theater throughout the day. We will have some of the Buckystein crew on site to decorate the space, and dress volunteers in costumes!

If you would like to schedule a donation appointment for that day, or get involved in some other way, go to the "donate blood" link from WORT's homepage. Or contact me.

*WORT Birthday Party *
Our 31st Birthday Party is scheduled for Saturday, December 2nd at the High Noon Saloon! I am working on finalizing the entertainment, obtaining event sponsors, and coordinating the creation of promotional materials.

EVENTS:

*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, on October 3rd, $241 was raised for WORT at this event. The next reggae night will occur on Tuesday, November 7th.

EVENTS COMMITTEE:
The Events Committee met on Monday, October 9th.
The Events Commitee is helping to plan and execute WORT's 31st birthday party!

BUSINESS and FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT/Raechel Pundsack

On this, the last day of the Drive, I'll keep my report very brief... Like other staff, I've been mostly focused on Pledge Drive tasks lately. Helping Maggie confirm and pickup food, covering wknd staffing needs, auditting folders, facillitating premia acquisition, general tidying and volunteer help, etc.

Fundraising: Met October 5th - see Jane's report. Next mtg: Thursday, November 9th at 3pm.

Grants:
- Received notice of $1,000 Arts Challenge Initiative Grant award: submitted appropriate paperwork.
- Worked with Nathan and Norm on the application for a $6,000 Media Justice Fund grant administered by the Wisconsin Community Fund.
- Attended CSW training on 9/28 with famed fundraiser Tracy Gary. Brought info to share with Jim & other staff
- Exploring the possibility of a Meriter Community Partnership grant.

Underwriting:
Have been busy with events underwriting announcement contracts, responding to seasonally high inquiry load, tracking down past due accounts & contacting lapsed and/or renewing underwriters. Helped Sybil with log scheduling & generation during her vacation. Ran several station announcements pertaining to CSW, phone answering, etc.

After the Drive my main priorities will be to further acquaint myself with and update the new underwriter database.

Underwriting Traffic:
Overture (6)
Mad Symphony Orchestra (2)
Riverside and Pabst Theaters
Platypus Advertising
TAP/IT new works
Studio Jewelers - $1560, seasonal contract
Community Pharmacy - $1872, renewal
Just Coffee - $1500, renewal
Heartland Credit Union - $3120, renewal
Rainbow Books - $1685, renewal
Bongo Video - $1560, renewal
Harmony Bar - $1685, renewal

Info sent:
Pavlov's Pizza
Capital Kids
Oregon Firefighters
Century 21
Froth House Cafe
Supreme Sports
Chris Kammerer
Enlightning Real Estate
Aurthur Richardson
Jump River Cheese

Operations/Norm Stockwell

The Finance Committee met earlier this month & continued to plan funds allocations and work for future meetings.

The Engineering Committee met earlier this month and discuss the status of several projects. The "Content Depot" system *may* start being implemented on November 1st.

The new "Space-The FinalFrontier" Committee met and further reviewed the WYOU co-location proposal and other space assessment tasks. Work will continue.

Our Sister-Radio station group did not meet.

A live remote from the Union Theatre went well, as did a live show with Mel & Floyd in the large studio. Pledge drive wraps up Tuesday.

Laura is attending the Wisconsin Broadcasters Assn Engineering Conferece this week.

I will be gone for about two weeks in the middle of November to attend the World Association of Community Broadcasters meetings in Amman Jordan.

Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator/Glenn Mitroff

Needless to say, most of the past month has been consumed by preparations for and execution of the pledge drive. This has included writing scripts for promos (phone answerers, premium pickup), assisting with training sessions and solicitations for pledge folder auditors, lining up and working with pledge phone answerers (email notices, phone and email reminders, contacting programmers to assist with recruitment, orienting phone answerers), a bit of pledge rapping, and assisting with assorted pledge drive needs.

Prior to the drive:
On Sept. 25th, I attended a meeting of non-profits to work with the UW and Edgewood to set the standards for working with those institutions in offering service learning opportunities.

On Sept. 26th, I gave a tour to faculty and students of Horizon High School, a sobriety based private school. (Today, students from the school staffed our pledge phones from Noon-2pm.)

On Sept. 27th, I attended the Community Shares 35th anniversary celebration. I worked a shift to count towards WORT’s volunteer hours with CSW.

On Oct. 3rd, the CAB met. The next meeting was scheduled for Nov. 7th. Realizing that it might not be a great idea to try to meet on election day, the meeting is in the process of being rescheduled.

On Oct. 6th, I gave a presentation to a communications class at Edgewood College.

On Oct. 10th, I gave a tour to three Korean teachers visiting Madison.

On Oct. 10th, the PROM met. (See Peter’s notes.)

News and Public Affairs Facilitator/Nathan Moore

/// Given the pledge drive and everything else in my schedule, I have not had sufficient time to come up with a new draft of my action item regarding WORT's policy on production for national programs. I ask that this be deferred to November's Board meeting. ///

Though not an Action Item at this stage, I have an agenda item for discussion and possible action regarding the federal government’s recently passed law allowing torture and denying Habeas Corpus to non-citizens. See the last item in this report.

STAFFING
Esty Dinur and I formed a mini-hiring committee and finally made a decision for a host to replace Dan Jaffee’s former “A Public Affair” slot on Tuesdays. We settled on Chris Dols, a young guy, who is very connected with campus & community organizing efforts. I’ll be training him over the next couple weeks, & his first show will be October 31.

ARBITRONS
We received our third annual Arbitron numbers a month or two ago. I have run the numbers and have printed a lot of figures, but I have not yet had time to crunch these numbers and draft up a report. I'll hopefully have something ready in the next few weeks. I think this third report sufficiently evens out some of the anomalies that had shown up in single Arbitron reports. Initially, I think I can recommend that we not get any more Arbitrons for a few years, & instead use that money for other types of audience research.

ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE – Nov. 7
Given this midterm election season, we’ll be doing wall-to-wall election night coverage from 8pm until (hopefully) midnight, with headline drop-ins after that. I’ll be confirming that with the night DJs in the next day or two. I’m mustering a bunch of folks for this effort. Laura Miller has agreed to co-produce the evening newscast with me. I’ll be asking the En Nuestro Patio crew for their participation soon.

LOCAL ELECTIONS COVERAGE
I’m working with four or five WORT reporters & producers as a sort of mini-collective to coordinate coverage of issues and races for the Nov. 7 ballot. Though we’ve already done a good deal of coverage, this group will coordinate to make sure that we cover everything sufficiently, and no single item to the exclusion of all the others.

NATIONAL ELECTIONS COVERAGE
Beginning Wednesday, October 25 and running through Election Day, we’ll be pre-empting the second half of the BBC to run a national Pacifica program called “Informed Dissent”. The program is a primer on elections, current issues, the meaning of democracy, and the problems of our system. The theme music is a little annoying - sounds a little bit like Earth, Wind, and Fire. But otherwise, the production value of the program is very good.

PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
• See Brett’s report (soon to be submitted).
• I put together a census report for the committee to ascertain Madison/Dane County’s Latino & Spanish-as-a-first language population. The committee has been discussing Spanish language programming & our community service.
• Sybil will be the PC facilitator for the next month.
• I suggested we all get together for a PC retreat in early January. Other PC members thought that was a decent idea. I’ll organize it.
• I gave a report from the Pacifica National Board, including Pacifica’s motion on Habeas Corpus, following Bush’s recent signing into law the bill that officially eliminates habeas corpus for non-citizens and makes legal many torture techniques. I asked if the PC would support me bringing this text to the Board for WORT to pass a similar motion. They supported this. See “Pacifica National Board” item below for more info.

WORKSTUDY
I hired a new workstudy - Claudette Torbey - and she's been very good. She is primarily working on creating and populating a web-based news sourcebook for WORT reporters. She's also burning CD requests and helping me with news department recruitment.

NEWS BLOCK MARKETING
I've been working with the three marketing interns from UW on ways to market the evening news block & the station as a whole. They’re bringing a really good, fresh eye to our marketing strategy, & are very energetic, do-it-yourself oriented folks. I've been pleased with their ideas & the materials they’re producing. We’re already beginning to carry out some of these.

WCF GRANT
I helped write a grant for WI Community Fund money to draft a media resource book. A significant portion of this book would be information about producing your own grassroots media, which would be based largely on the WORT News training manual that I already use.

NEWS WORKSHOPS
I organized two workshops for new news volunteers – writing for radio (led by Kat Cisar) and improving interviewing skills (led by me). Both were pretty well attended and received. I have three more workshops scheduled for next week, and am trying to figure out how to find time to organize them.

PLEDGE DRIVE
I did all the usual stuff I do with pledge drives: organized pledge rappers, audited some folders, did a few food pick-ups, did a fair amount of pledge rapping myself, coordinated news premiums, etc, etc, etc.

PACIFICA NATIONAL BOARD
As you know, I'm on the PNB now, and spent hours upon hours in meetings in Berkeley, CA a couple weekends ago. Things of interest to the WORT Board:

1. Free Speech Radio News is on a track for integration back into the Pacifica fold in the next year or so.

2. Fees for the Affiliates Program have increased significantly this year, but the program also has a budget for the first time. There will be a half-time assistant to Ursula Ruedenberg, the Affiliates Coordinator, and there's another $25k earmarked for outreach efforts.

3. The 30-min daily Spanish language national newscast is being well-received by the stations that air it. WORT has only aired it once when ENPA needed a fill-in show.

4. The PNB passed a resolution opposing the U.S. Congress's new law that effectively eliminates Habeas Corpus for non-citizens. The PNB resolution calls on sister stations to do all they can to educate and organize about this issue - that is, the slippery slope to outright police state. I want WORT to engage in such efforts, as well. I’m attaching the text of their resolution. Perhaps we can draft and adopt something along similar lines?

Text of Pacifica's position on new U.S. law denying Habeas Corpus:
Passed unanimously, October 1, 2006
Whereas the Senate, in passing S. 3930, has given President Bush extraordinary and chilling power to indefinitely detain and try prisoners in the so-called war on terror,

And whereas the legislation strips non-citizen detainees of the habeas corpus right to challenge their own detention and permits use of coercive interrogation tactics such as stripping, hooding, hypothermia, and other objectionable techniques;

And whereas, the bill immunizes US officials from prosecution for torturing detainees whom the military and CIA captured before the end of last year;

And whereas, this legislation undermines fundamental constitutional provisions and the Bill of Rights, embraces police state methods, and continues the decay of American democracy;

Therefore, the Pacifica Foundation empowers its Executive Director, in consultation with the organization’s counsel, to use the resources of the foundation to educate and inform the public on the dangers of this legislation, specifically including:

-- the airing of a public statement about the issue on the five sister stations of the Pacifica Network as soon as possible
-- a press conference announcing Pacifica's viewpoint and intentions
-- consistent on-air coverage of the issue, including on air announcements of any legal proceedings in signal areas regarding this issue
- where appropriate, developing educational alliances with journalists and legal organizations that are addressing this issue
-- filing amicus briefs in any relevant suits, and
-- any other appropriate measures that are consistent with Pacifica's historic mission.

The Pacifica National Board also requests that the Executive Director, on a regular basis, collect reports from station managers and/or program directors on what local stations are doing concerning this issue, and report to the PNB at each meeting on what is being done at both the National and local levels.