December 2006 Staff Reports to the Board

Music Director

Sybil Augustine

It's been a busy month, but I'll have a little time off while the record labels sleep. My assistant Robin and my work-study person Nicole have been just wonderful at helping with projects from gigantic to infinitesimal. Nicole's work study award is at an end but she is interested in continuing to volunteer until her work exchange program takes her far away to Japan. :'(

On to this month's activities....
Music/Programming:
- We held a small but effective music sorting party on Dec. 5th and got rid of a lot of older things that needed reviewing
- I converted and compiled MP3s of promos for events at the Overture Center and emailed them to staff (Anna Hahm) per their request. I'm also having all the promos they did this year converted and archived on discs to free up space on our hard drives
- I'm participating in a digital music delivery service that has stand-alone players, where music is automatically downloaded to our account. But, I'm not ready to tell people they can submit music this way yet, as there are still glitches in the system
- I compiled a list of programming considerations, possible rotating or shared time slots, and a 'wish list' of hosts and genres for WORT II programming grid and shared it at our last Programming Committee meeting
- My program "Psychoacoustics" had our 15th Anniversary live remote broadcast, which went very well once the stream was established. A brief de-briefing followed, and Laura will draw up a worksheet for preparing and troubleshooting live remotes
- We compiled and distributed lists of Lost & Found CDs in WORT's library or possession Lost CDs will get back to their DJ owners; lost WORT CDs may be returned to the station; and CDs that we only have cases for & no discs may be replaced with burned copies by DJs who have those same CDs
- I'm looking over playlists with an eye towards the programmers doing self-reviews, and helping to revise the evaluation tool
- I'm coordinating "best of 2006" programming and promotion among music hosts
- Created a WORT "MySpace" account to raise our profile among music lovers, who may then start listening to our webstream

Volunteers:
- Met with Lucille and Linda regarding their taking over & continuing the Best of Gospel time slot after Jonnie O
- Met with DJ Trini and Glenn regarding promotion of community organizations and businesses on Panafrica
- Coordinating lots of promos, subs and specials for the holidays
- Nice piece in The Onion lauding WORT, especially Back to the Country, Friday on My Mind, and Strictly Jazz Sounds
- Created bright green warning labels for FCC-prohibited content & posted them prominently around the station
- Meeting with Cipher Zone folks regarding recruitment and training for the collective
- Updated volunteer voting list, phone list and emergency sub lists
- Trained volunteers in burning CDs, recording promos, etc

Staff:
- Updated staff's quarterly planning document
- Established online ordering account for office supplies with our regular supplier
- Assisted in updates for our technical and other emergencies studio handbook

Misc:
-Have cleaned up and organized a lot of stuff in the music department area downstairs, some of which isn't really music or WORT-related but sort of fell in my lap (e.g. photos from concerts, misc. cassette tapes, promotional and archive items )
-Following up on suggestions from WORT programmers & members of the public (Darlene from Mad Folk Music Society, Lucy & Steve at the Barrymore) I requested & received a screening copy of "Before the Music Dies," a film about current issues in the music industry such as commercialism & the plight of independent artists. It looked good on their web site, but however, after seeing the film I don't recommend that WORT become involved in a screening; mainly because they say a lot about how badly commercial radio treats artists & caters to big corporations, but at no point in the film do they even mention noncommercial or community radio as an alternative. The script kind of falls apart towards the end & it doesn't really seem to come to any conclusions about what folks can do to change things "before the music dies."
-Assisted with trivia, logistics & cleanup for the WORT Birthday Parties at High Noon & the Cardinal Bar
-I'm willing & available to serve on the permanent N&PA Facilitator hiring committee if need be

Listener Sponsor Development Director

Jim Goronson

FALL 2006 PLEDGE DRIVE
With all paid and unpaid pledges entered (except for a few new Autogive pledgers who haven't returned their paperwork yet) the total for "Crashing the Ether" is $104,047.

So far the LSDD office has processed $92,972.50 in credit card/check/cash donations--a fulfillment rate of 89%. Once again I suggest that everyone take pause upon reading this to acknowledge the tremendously loyal and enthusiastic listeners we have. I'm sending out a reminder letter to the 250 or so folks who have not fulfilled their pledges yet this week (just in time for the holidayz). Grainne Svendsen and Lisa Nunez did a FABULOUS job of processing the donations and will be hired again for the winter pledge drive.

FALL 2006 NEWSLETTER
So far we've received and processed 82 donations totaling $6,576.

MAJOR DONOR CAMPAIGN
“Phase 1” of the plan was to send a targeted written appeal to supporters who’ve given at least $250 in one shot, asking them simply to consider raising their contribution for 2006. We believe that a personal touch will make our plea stand out from all the others people will be getting at the end of the year. We’d like each board member to personalize about 10 of the letters with a note and to sign with his/her name.
--I can report that this approach has been quite successful as so far we have received 8 donations totaling $5,050 from the letters that all of you signed that were mailed on Dec. 1st.

The Fundraising Committee is planning on having another Major Donor house party in March or April and will address its planning at our next meeting in early January.

AUGUST 2006 DIRECT MAILING
So far we've received and processed 94 donations totaling $6,756.

DECEMBER 2006 DIRECT MAILING
With small stacks of donations now arriving on a daily basis and so far we’ve processed 26 donations=$2,170.

WINTER 2007 PLEDGE DRIVE
The dates for the Winter '07 drive are Thursday February 15 through Wednesday Feb. 28th. The theme has not been established yet but will have something do to with WORT being an "Oasis of Truth". Robin Good is the artist for this pledge drive.

BUSINESS and FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT
Raechel Pundsack

Helped Glenn with Outreach Assistant funding proposal. Working ahead on underwriting, logs and general housekeeping in order to take vacation time from 12/26 -1/2.

Fundraising: Met November 9th - see Jane's report. Next mtg: Thursday, January 4th at 3pm.

Grants:
- Awaiting word on our application for a $6,000 Media Justice Fund grant--hoping to hear by the end of the month
- Working with Lea Zeldin of Healthwriters on a Meriter Community Partnership grant application.

Underwriting:
- Working with Overture Center to meet new tracking requirements; providing airtimes and MP3s of all of their announcements. Submitted next three months of contracts and potential scripts for their review
- Working with Nathan to get updated Underwriting information/links on new WORT website.

Underwriting Traffic:	Outreach/Info sent:
Overture (4) Studio Jewelers Capitol Kids Orange Tree Imports	Eco Painting WI DOT CTC and Associates	The Shop Consulting Studio Paran Lakeside Fibers Mermaid Cafe

Business Development Report
Maggie Weiser

EVENTS:
WORT Birthday Party:
Our 31st Birthday Party was held on Saturday, December 2nd at the High Noon Saloon. It was a lot of fun, featuring delicious cake from Carl's Cakes, and great music from The Sean Michael Dargan Threesome, Tongue n' Groove, and The Rousers. Norm put together a digital slideshow that was shown between musical acts, and featured pictures of volunteers from throughout WORT history. We involved the audience with some WORT trivia questions and fun prizes. With help from a few business sponsors, and the many people who attended the party, we raised $1,164.60 at this event. I have completed all follow-up on this event, including thank-you notes, thank-you promos, and ticket sale collection.

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 fund-raising event . This month, on December 5th, they added another band, and billed it as sort of a second birthday party, and $370.00 was raised for WORT at this event. The next reggae night will occur on February 6th, after a one-month break from this monthly event.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
I have now been working at WORT for almost a year & have had the opportunity to coordinate all of WORT's annual fundraising events. I am now reviewing the success of these events, and brainstorming ways to improve upon them.
Our next fundraising event, the WORT Bowl-A-Thon will take place in April. The date and venue will be determined soon. WORT Annual Meeting: I will be helping to coordinate food and beverages for the annual meeting on February 11th.

EVENTS COMMITTEE:
The Events Committee will meet on Monday, January 8th. We plan to discuss spring events, including Bowl-A-Thon and the WORT Block Party.

PLEDGE DRIVES:
I am working on ways to make the food donation aspect of pledge drives smoother next time around. I am also brainstorming new businesses to ask for food donations.

I hope you all have a good holiday, or non-holiday, or just a nice couple of weeks!

Operations

Norm Stockwell

The Finance Committee met earlier this month and conducted a 6-month review of the budget. A presentation will be made tonight. Audit work is complete, and final year-end reports to funders & regulatory agencies are underway. The completed Audit will be presented to the new board in March.

Staff met to further review positions & budget needs, & is making recos regarding several part-time positions. An interim News Facil is also being sought, with a full-time permanent hiring process beginning as well.

I had my personnel review earlier this month.

The Engineering Committee met earlier this month and discussed the status of several projects and the job duties for the "Chief Engineer/Chief Operator" position. The "Content Depot" is beginning to be implemented. It still has some glitches (not at our end).

The new "Space-The Final Frontier" Committee met in November and further reviewed various space assessment tasks. We hope to make a space visit shortly. Other work will continue.

Our Sister-Radio station group did not meet.

Elections Committee has begun gearing-up for the Annual Meeting (Feb. 11th at the Senior Center - 4-6pm). See timetable at bottom of this report.

A live remote from the Glass Nickel went well, after a few initial false starts. The Internet streaming connection performed flawlessly. We also participated in an International Migrants' Day broadcast on Dec 18th, organized by UNESCO and others. Details at www.radio18-12.net

Laura and I will be attending the Media Reform Conference in early January. I may also be gone for a little over a week in the middle of January to attend the World Social Forum in Nairobi. But it is not confirmed.

======== Election timetable===========
November 8: 1st available date to post notice of elections: can be done anytime in the next week or 2 (Norm/Jane)
November 15: Board meeting
December 1: Board application packets are available at station. Interested candidates call & request packet by mail/pick-up
During the month of December - Staff establishes list of eligible voters that have worked at least 5 hrs per mo for 3 consecutive months between July - Dec 2006.
December 20: Board meeting
December 31: draft voter list must be posted in the station: STAFF
January 10: Post notice of Annual Meeting including any proposed by-law amendments (Norm/Jane) & Certification of voter list by Vice-President (Richardson)
January 12: Ballots are available from Staff at Station to eligible voters who register (sign-in). Board candidate bios/applications are available in lobby at station & on website as pdf files.
January 17: Board meeting
February 9: any mailed ballots must be in the station by 5:00pm
Feb 11: ANNUAL MEETING: all "absentee" ballots due by 4:00 p.m. Candidates make short presentations. Those present at meeting complete their ballots. Votes counted by Elections Committee plus one. Winners announced. Short meeting of New Board follows.

Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator

Glenn Mitroff

Since the last Board meeting, I have been busy meeting with and giving tours to a number of prospective volunteers. In the past few weeks, 3 new volunteers have gotten trained as receptionists. These new volunteers have filled the Friday 4-6pm opening, a three month opening from January thru March, and some short term receptionist openings for December & January. In addition to the great loss we are experiencing with Nathan’s departure, we will also be saying goodbye to Lisa Moore in early January as our Wednesday evening receptionist.

In November and December I wrote and submitted, by mail and on-line, graduate school references to three schools for a long time volunteers.

I have been working on the process of establishing the Voter List for the 2007 Annual Meeting. Tom Christie helped with annual maintenance of the database and various steps needed to accomplish this task. I have also been making necessary updates in the database. The list has been circulated amongst the staff for verification of whether or not volunteers qualify to vote under the WORT bylaws. Next comes the process of making sure that we don’t unintentionally leave anyone off of the list. (We’ve made the list, now we need to check it thrice!). I plan to post a preliminary list by the end of this week, so that volunteers can review the list before the final posting in the station on January 10th.

In November I was elected as the President of Dane County Administrators of Volunteer Services (DCAVS) for 2007. I am attaching DCAVS’ affiliate report to the Wisconsin Volunteer Coordinators Association (WVCA) to give you an overview of the ongoing training that I have participated in over the course of the past year. I am registered for the Professional Development Training Series co hosted by DCAVS and the United Way Volunteer Center. This series consists of six monthly sessions (3 ½ hours each) from January through June—excellent training for just $75!

OUTREACH

I have been working closely with PROM Committee member Lynn Pophal, providing feedback on designs which intern Laura Ferguson is designing for genre fliers (rock, folk, world, hip hop, classical) and bookmarks. I have talked with staff at Rainbow Books and A Room of One’s Own about distributing these bookmarks in January. Thanks to Sybil, Norm and other staff and volunteers for also providing feedback on these materials. We are planning to do some sort of display at the WORT Annual Meeting to show off these new materials.

On December 2nd, WORT had a table at the Fair Trade Holiday Festival as part of our promotional exchange. This was the first time that we had sold items at this festival, and I was happy with the response to our fair trade tee-shirts from El Salvador (Marlys design) and our union made in the U.S. hemp hats and tee-shirts. I also handed out free Marlys stickers and made many good connections. Sales amounted to $315. I would like to do this again next year, and will work harder to get volunteers to help out since it got to be a long work day for me since our birthday party was that evening.

I have registered for WORT to participate in the Government and Non-profit Volunteer and Career Fair at the UW on January 31st.

I participated in Community Shares of Wisconsin’s on-line survey about co-marketing by member agencies.

With input from staff, I developed a proposal for an LTE Outreach Assistant to help with events involving sales during our busy May to September season.

I sent a packet of newsletters including our schedule grid and program notes to a teacher in Oregon, WI who wants her students to explore diversity in music by listening to WORT, then writing a letter to a dj whose program they have listened to.

Group Tours

On Dec. 8th, I gave a tour to three high school students (Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) attending high schools in Madison and Monona for an academic year.

On Dec. 14th I gave a tour to a Cub Scout troupe (6 & 7 year olds), attended by nearly the entire troupe & many parents. These first graders have been studying communications and were very excited about coming to WORT.

News and Public Affairs Facilitator

Nathan Moore

As you know, I’ll be leaving quite soon. My last day on payroll is Jan. 12, but I’m trying to use a few of my vast bank of comp hours late that week. Methinks my last full day in the office will be Tuesday, Jan. 9. So this may be my final Board report.

Staffing

• The News & Public Affairs Facilitator is leaving in January (sad face.)

• Steve Zelaznik (Tues IOBY producer) will be taking a job as the News Director at KDNK in Carbondale, CO. As such, I’ve slated two replacements to co-produce on Tuesdays: Emily Ehlers (currently the Tuesday news block engineer) & Claudette Torbey (news workstudy and IOBY reporter this semester). They’re in training now.

• KP Whaley will be out of town through most of January, but will return to Madison until at least summer 2007.

• Due to schedule conflicts, we’re losing Jonathan Walton as our Tuesday APA engineer. I’m trying to figure out a way to plug him into our grid.

• Martin Alvarado will be returning to engineer the Friday 8:00 Buzz in January.

Arbitrons

I spent a lot of time digesting the Arbitrons and preparing a report that regular people can read and understand. I’ll make copies for Board members who want copies.

Website

Lincoln Theiler did great work getting the structure of the site up and running, and in editing pages throughout the site construction process. I’ve spent a number of hours over the past month gathering and uploading content for the site. It’s in beta-test phase right now, and I expect it to go live on Thursday. I’d also like to applaud Tom for getting a working version of our news & public affairs audio archive ready to go in time for the launch.

Interim News Facilitator Hiring Committee

The Committee consists of one staff member (me) and the members of the Personnel Committee. I’ve been working with the group to convene a time to conduct interviews and make our selection. The holidays definitely make this more complicated. By Dec 21 (the application close date), we will have posted the position opening for 11 days. The deadline to ensure consideration of applications is Thu, Dec 21 at 2pm – moved up from the original posting of 5pm. (That said, I’m sure we’ll try to be flexible if an application comes in between 2:00pm and 5:00pm.) We should give a couple weeks notice prior to expected start date, and if I’m going to help train the interim, the start date must be on or near Jan. 4. So the hiring committee is going to *attempt* to analyze & pare down applications 2-4pm, conduct interviews 4-6pm, discuss and make a decision that night or by teleconference the next day, if need be. Obviously, this is a very tight timeline, but if we can pull it off, it’ll be for the best.

Programming Committee

• See my report (soon to be submitted).

News Block Marketing

The marketing interns will complete their project in January with the first week of the semester. They will be providing a finished marketing plan, based on their work and building on Alex Heusener’s plan, as well as a “brand ambassador kit”, and bike shop and coffee shop marketing kits. They’ll tie up the last bit of the project during the first week of UW classes in January with postering and flyering on campus

Letters of Recommendation
Lots of people are applying to grad schools, jobs, etc., and I’ve been particularly busy with letters of recommendation these last few weeks.