Jan. 15, 2008 • 7 p.m.
Student Media conference area, Witherspoon Student Center, third floor

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was convened at 7:03 p.m. by Peyton Holland, chairperson

MEMBERS PRESENT: Selby Lo, Peyton Holland, Laura Laurene, Vincent Sheehan, Laura Kenny, Bob Ashley, Dean Phillips, John Clark, Sherry O’Neal, Phil Zachary, Al McArthur, Hannah Richardson, Mary Beth Hamrick, Josh Harrell, Steve McCreery, Bradley Wilson

MEMBERS ABSENT: John Napoli, Joe Wright

OTHERS PRESENT: John Jernigan, WKNC student engineer; Keisha Phillips, Nubian Message managing editor, Fred Eaker, Jamie Lynn Gilbert

OLD BUSINESSS

1. Approval of minutes of Nov. 6, 2007. The minutes were approved with no objections and no amendments.
2. Creation of Technician Advisory Board; update on Nubian Message Advisory Board Josh Harrell said he appreciated the comments of the Technician Advisory Board especially since many of their comments were more effective coming from outside sources. Al said the Advisory Board gave him a lot of feedback that they will use to improve the paper. Bradley told Bob Ashley how much he appreciated the Herald-Sun staff participating. Bob said his staff members all reported having a good time.

NEW BUSINESSS

1. Corrections Policy CLICK HERE — Approved with no objections. Bob asked why the 5 p.m. deadlines was in there. Bradley and Josh said it coincided with the letters to the editor deadline, but certainly the staff would try to get corrections in the paper even if they came in after that as long as they had time to validate the information.
2. Grades and full-time status update CLICK HERE (CLICK HERE for policy) — Bradley just pointed out the number of students with above-average grade point averages, particularly the exceptional performance of the Technician staff. Of the 60 students who were identified as being in violation of policy, 11 had graduated, 17 were subsequently found to be in compliance, 25 were offered the opportunity to develop a work plan but did not do so and were terminated. Only seven developed work plans.
3. Budget amendment CLICK HERE — Bradley reviewed the packet of information sent to Board members over the holidays. While he said he expects us to end the year about $80,000 in the red this year, he has worked with all the students, particularly the Technician staff, to cut where possible. He said advertising income shortfall was one major reason for the shortfall. A second reason was student leaders not following the budget and paying for unbudgeted items, particularly too many stories and photos. An emphasis needs to be made on having salaried staff members produce more material and then following the budget. A third reason was accounting confusion in the accounts receivable office of the University. Because of personnel changes, collections do not seem to be happening appropriately. Krystal is working with that staff to clear things up. We also have about $100,000 in outstanding ad monies not collected. We will be going after businesses who owe us money and turning collections over the attorney general’s office as appropriate.
4. WKNC employment issues — Steve discussed one of his employees who wanted to serve as a board operator but already served in another position on staff. Bradley clarified that Student Media Compensation Policy in accordance with state federal laws and University policy make it not acceptable to pay a person twice for the same job. However, it is acceptable for a person to assume more than one entry-level job, writing a story and taking pictures, for example. In short, this means that any student who (a) is an ad sales representative/director; (b) has administrative responsibilities; (c) is an executive editor/manager; or (d) is a top Technician editor may NOT hold any other position within that media. Job descriptions should be detailed in each staff manual.
5. The Board agreed to amend the agenda to include discussion of compliance with the standing rules of the Board regarding attendance. Bob moved and Selby seconded the removal of John Napoli for lack of attendance. Student Body President Bobby Mills will be informed of the vacancy and asked to fill it.

REPORTS

1. 1. Agromeck CLICK HERE
   2. Americana CLICK HERE
   3. The Nubian Message CLICK HERE Al said there would be no paper this week because of lack of content. He said he was working on developing better communication with the writers, managing editor and editor so this didn’t happen again. He said he was going to set up training for the section editors so they were better equipped to fill their sections. And he said he wanted to train their writers so they have a passion for writing. Bradley said he would check to see if they could run a four-page paper as four pages is better than no pages. [It is possible to print a four-page tabloid according to Al at Triangle Web.]
   4. Technician CLICK HERE
   5. Windhover CLICK HERE Hannah said they had a meeting with Theo Davis Printing tomorrow to work out details. Sherry said the staff might look into working with the communications department in CALS for CD duplication.
   6. WKNC 88.1fm CLICK HERE Steve discussed the sales operation with the Board, particularly the question, “Why aren’t we (WKNC) making the money we could be making?” He said there was no real system in place to sell this radio station. We’re not asking for money the right way. What we need, he said, was a full-time, non-student, radio-savvy sales manager. You can’t sell this radio station like you sell the newspaper. The station is way undervalued inside Student Media. Phil suggested exploring combination of daily media: Technician + WKNC. You have a very captive audience that need to be spoken to in a unique way. He said people do need proper training, and that he is always looking for people with real media sales training. He emphasized that the media should work together. Focus on the real niche: the campus. Students just aren’t using other media, but they turn to the campus media to find out what’s going on on campus. The campus is a captive group of people. WKNC has a bonus with reaching people outside the campus. He said WKNC’s best story is what you do to reach the campus market. Lay claim to all those 40,000 consumers (students, faculty, staff) on campus. Put together a consolidated media effort. John Clark said the staff should said the media as one entity. Used an integrated promotional approach regardless of whether it’s the radio station or printed newspaper, we can give them a chance to reach the businesses. He also emphasized getting sales experience in online media would prove very valuable after college. Sherry asked if we were doing things like text messaging people to remind them when WKNC shows air, etc. Fred said he would look into setting up such systems.
   7. Society for Collegiate Journalists CLICK HERE
   8. Budget update CLICK HERE

Notes:

• Bradley said he would try to have a first draft of the budget at the February meeting.
• He also said the March 11 meeting would be long. With no objection from the Board, especially given discussion of the role of the business office in serving all media, the Board would also be charged with hiring the student business manager this year.
• The candidate forum for all candidates for senior leadership positions is March 10 at 7 p.m. in the Talley Student Center Walnut Room. It does expedite the hiring process if Board members come to the forum to hear what the candidates have to say outside the pressures of the Board meeting.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Student Media Advisory Board may adjourn into executive session to discuss matters of litigation, potential litigation or personnel.

ADJOURN

REPORTS
Due by Jan. 11 at noon

AGROMECK
(submitted by Mary Beth Hamrick, editor)

Budget
In our weekly meeting with Bradley during the first week of December, we cut more than $20,000 from our budget. The original budget was $67,265.92 and the amended budget is $47,380.92.

Personnel
At the end of the semester we had a staff of about 10 who consistently came in to work on the book during the final deadline. Hopefully those staff members will continue to show dedication to the Agromeck. We had a staff meeting the Tuesday before school started and attendance was low. For the next deadline, we have a workday scheduled this Sunday (Jan 13) and Coop and I expect a better turnout. Since the last meeting, we have added two members to our editorial staff. Bryant Robbins, a freshman, has been hired as our design editor. From the beginning of last semester, he
has been of great help and has shown dedication and a desire to learn. He has also expressed a desire to continue in a leadership role next year. Stephen Bateman, a junior, has been hired as our photo editor. The addition of these two has already proven to be a good decision.

Deadlines
Since the last board meeting, the deadline has met two deadlines. We had a 40-page deadline on Nov. 30 and a 16-page deadline on Dec. 14. Both these deadlines were met and extra pages were sent. We are working on another 16-page deadline due on Jan. 25. Visit us online at ncsu.edu/agromeck. The Web site has been updated with the names of people in the book, and we had a poster around campus with those names on it as well.

Sales
We’ve sold 17 books. The final ad deadline is Jan. 18. As of Dec. 31, we have realized $25,216.62 in non-fee income, including book sales and advertising.

TOP

AMERICANA

NO REPORT

TOP

NUBIAN MESSAGE
(Submitted by Al McArthur, editor)

Staff recruitment/retention
The Nubian Message has 22 people on staff. The staff is avidly recruiting students to join the staff. We will also be recruiting freshman during the spring visitation days.

Budget
As of yet the Nubian Message has not received any money from ads sold during the fall semester. Action is being taken to obtain these monies. We are over budget on the payroll and my staff and I are working to clarify this problem.

Deadline progress
The staff has been meeting deadlines pretty consistently. No significant problems.

Staff development
Staff awards have been given monthly. The section that shows the most improvement and remains consistent will be recognized and awarded. One-on-one training will take place one Friday a month, focusing on the areas of AP style and copy editing lead by Dick Reavis. Also, to provide the staff with a sense of “family,” we will continue to participate in social outings as a staff. This will occur once a month, following staff meetings.

TOP

TECHNICIAN
(submitted by Josh Harrell, editor)

Budget

See separate documents

Recruitment/Retention

As I had laid out in my plan for this year when I became editor, I reopened each editor position on the editorial board at the end of the fall semester. This served a number of purposes and was encouraging on a number of fronts. Several people applied for such high-up positions as news editor, Viewpoint editor and photo editor, and competition was created helping me find the most qualified candidate. The news staff ended up staying the same; Alison Harman and Maggie Luckadoo swapped positions and are now features editor and deputy features editor respectively; Zach Moser-Katz is now viewpoint editor; Helen Dear is the chief design editor; Langdon Morris is the new deputy sports editor; and Rob Fisher took over as photo editor. I was encouraged by the amount of applicants, showing that despite a couple people who had quit early in year, there is still a large amount of students who want to be a part of the editorial board.
This also helped in going over the goals of each editor, as everyone had to re-apply. I was able to talk to them individually about the job they’ve done this past semester and what I would like to see from them this semester.

Advisory Board

We held our first advisory board meeting in December, with experts from around the Triangle weighing in on all things Technician. Most of the comments were encouraging, and the group gave us a number of tips that should help us this semester. I was joined by Laura White, my managing editor and several section editors in representing Technician at the meeting. The board emphasized the importance of starting a beat system and the need for a diversity of content. Through the beat system, stronger reporting will come as you develop relationships with your sources. We had started a preliminary beat system in the news section at the time of this meeting, and we worked on further developing it at our beginning of semester training session.

Training

The editors held a pre-semester training session at the Arboretum where we covered a number of issues. From how to correct our mistakes and expanding the beat system, to planning special coverage in the spring, the editors seemed to take a lot from it. They also planned out training sessions for each section’s staff, each month — something that was missing from last semester. You will have updates on each of those in the following board reports.

Ethical issues

You all received the email from Tony Stevenson, a member of the Chapel Hill group Gathering Eagles, who claimed he was misquoted in saying that his group is “pro-troop, pro-America and pro-war.” He disputed the pro-war label, saying that he had said “pro-victory.” After discussing the situation with him and the reporter Megan Peters, I decided to correct the quote, add an editor’s note to the story and publish a correction. I talked to Anthony, told him what I had done, and talked over our usual methods for these kinds of situations.

We had a couple occurrences of misspelling of names during the fall semester, and are looking back on them now and seeing how we could have avoided the mistake. We made an effort to contact each individual and apologize for the error. This is something we’ll keep a close eye on this semester.

TOP

WINDHOVER
(submitted by Joe Wright and Hannah Richardson, co-editors)

The Windhover team has been reviewing estimates from the printer and the designers are mastering the overall layout of the book. We have decided on a final book design and layout and are very excited about what we view to be several novel ideas.

We have set the production schedule for the semester with designers and readers. At this point all literary and visual submissions have been sorted through. There are many definite entries for both categories as well as several “maybes” yet to be decided depending on production space. We have also begun production of the audio component of the magazine. We have been very impressed with a plethora of literary and audio submissions surpassing what anyone expected.

On a note of catching up, the open mic event was a huge success. We had well over double the attendance we expected. After the event we had many people come up to us and nearly beg for us to hold another one.

TOP

WKNC
(submitted by Steve McCreery, general manager)

We announced last week that our 5th annual Double Barrel Benefit Concert will be held Feb. 1-2 at the Pour House in downtown Raleigh. This has become a signature event for WKNC, and has moved to this new venue for the first time since it began. Pour House is a larger venue, which will give WKNC the potential to make approximately $4,000 (sell-out price). All profits from ticket and merchandise sales will go straight to WKNC’s bottom line.

The winter 2007 edition of NC State Alumni Magazine features a nice eight-page spread on WKNC, including interviews with current and former employees, historical and new photos and an overall history of NC State’s various radio stations over the years.

Sessions@KNC is a live music recording project. The idea is to bring primarily North Carolina-based bands into the WKNC studios, have them play live on air and record their performance. The recordings will be digitally mixed and mastered by WKNC staff. The band will retain full rights of the recordings and license them under Creative Commons. In exchange for the recording, the band will grant WKNC the right to play the recordings on air, include them on compilation CDs and distribute them though Internet music services affiliated with Creative Commons such as Jamendo – all in compliance with the recording’s Creative Commons license. The station’s weekly local music program, The Local Beat, already features in-studio performances and interviews and will be the primary generator of Sessions@KNC material. To assist WKNC, Red Hat provided WKNC with a grant to purchase the necessary recording equipment.

In December WKNC engineer John Jernigan and Jamie Gilbert met with Danielle Gardner, president of Hawkstream Radio, and representatives from University of North Carolina Wilmington about beginning to stream a new Internet radio station at UNCW. We had previously met with Gardner about this endeavor. John made a presentation to the group about the technical aspects of streaming.

WKNC’s spring recruitment training classes begin on Jan. 28. This will again take the new format of a shortened 4-week program (versus the previous 8-week format). Applications will be taken until Jan. 23, or whenever we reach our limit of 30 students. Students can enroll either in person or by stopping by or calling the WKNC office.

TOP

Society for Collegiate Journalists
(submitted by Clark Leonard, president)

SCJ is accepting applications for membership through Jan. 16. We are hoping to receive a good amount of interest so that we can have more active members to help plan our events. We will be having a meeting this Friday to discuss our new applicants and to plan for our events next month to raise awareness about journalism, including a pie a journalist event and setting up some boards for free expression in the Brickyard. We will also be electing a new vice president in the near future, as Nate Bullen has graduated.

BUDGET UPDATE

As you can see from the attached documentation:

• Technician sales are showing a downward trend (income is projected to be between $375,000 and $383,000, budgeted at $417,000).
• Technician spending is exceeding budgeted allocations (expected to be in excess of $424,000 if spending continues at the present rate while budgeted for $380,481).
• Agromeck book sales are down.
• Agromeck advertising income is lower than expected.

To that end, we are requesting amendment of the budgets of these two media as follows.

Technician

EXPENSES	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Total	$380,481.94	$349,354.21
INCOME	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Total	$417,157.70	$382,515.20

Agromeck

EXPENSE	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Total	$67,265.92	$47,167.25
INCOME	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Total	$67,265.92	$47,380.92

Technician

EXPENSE	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Personnel	$132,016.51	$112,787.40
Supplies	$10,680.11	$7,680.11
Staff Dvlp/Travel	$15,227.56	$6,337.56
Current services	$217,730.00	$215,248.00
Fixed charges	$3,452.34	$3,301.13
Capital outlay	$0	$0
Grant	$7,000.00	$4,000.00
Total	$386,106.51	$349,354.21
INCOME	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Advertising	$417,157.70	$382,515.20
Student Fees	$0	$0
Total	$417,157.70	$382,515.20

Agromeck

EXPENSE	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Personnel	$29,078.50	$24,097.87
Supplies	$6,628.00	$3,900.00
Staff Dvlp/Travel	$4,302.56	$3,302.56
Current services	$30,408.56	$15,106.00
Fixed charges	$1,150.86	$760.82
Capital outlay	$0	$0
Other	$0	$0
Total	$67,265.92	$47,167.25
INCOME	Original Budget	Amended Budget
Sales	$11,385.00	$5,500.00
Advertising	$38,000.00	$24,000.00
Student Fees	$17,880.92	$17,880.92
Total	$67,265.92	$47,380.92

CLICK HERE for PDF of income/expense progress as of Dec. 31, 2007.

GRADES

We analyzed the grades and status of the current students on payroll and working as volunteers. As we’ve been watching the potential impact of a grade policy, here’s how Student Media came out for the fall of 2007.

• We had 276 students in our student records, including volunteers. It took Jamie about seven hours to check grades using the online Student Information System. It took us both another five hours to analyze the data.
• There were 81 people (29%) with greater than a 3.500 GPA for the semester, up from 61 people last fall (also 29%).
• There were 22 people with a 4.000 GPA for the semester (up from 8 last fall) and of them 13 have an overall GPA of 4.00.
• There were 172 people (62%) with greater than a 3.000 GPA fulfilling one of the requirements for the Society for Collegiate Journalists (61% last year).
• There were 26 people (9 percent) with below a 2.000 for the semester (23 last fall). All of these will require work plans at the very least in accordance with Student Media policy.
• There were 7 people with below a 2.000 cumulative (down from 14 last fall). All of these will require work plans at the very least in accordance with Student Media policy.

Of the student leaders who are specifically targeted by the campus-wide policy :

• Two had below a 2.5 for the semester.
• No students leaders had below a 2.5 cumulative.

So, according to the campus-wide plan, only two students would have been affected. Two of our student leaders had a 4.000 for the semester and one had a 4.00 cumulative. Both work for WKNC.

Fall 2007	Cumulative	Semester	Number people
Average	3.13	3.13
Low	0.79	0.17
High	4.00	4.00
Agromeck	3.06	3.08	15
Nubian Message	3.00	3.16	22
Technician	3.21	3.14	142
WKNC	3.00	3.07	86

Hours being taken in spring 2008

	Average	High	Low	# not full-time
Agromeck	14.80	18	12	0
Nubian Message	12.86	19	0	3
Technician	13.17	20	0	24
WKNC	11.59	18	0	2
Overall	14.043	18	0	6

Most recent semester Grade Point Average

	Average	High	Low	#<2.500
Agromeck	3.08	3.69	2.31	2
Nubian Message	3.16	4.00	0.94	2
Technician	3.14	4.00	0.50	22
WKNC	3.07	4.00	0.17	20
Overall	3.13	4.00	0.17	47

Overall Grade Point Average

	Average	High	Low	#<2.500
Agromeck	3.06	3.66	2.33	2
Nubian Message	3.00	3.80	2.16	4
Technician	3.21	4.00	2.00	14
WKNC	3.00	4.00	0.79	18
Overall	3.13	4.00	0.79	39

STUDENT LEADERS (all appointed positions)

	Average Overall GPA	#<2.500	# not full-time
Overall	3.22	2	5
	(3.336 in fall 2006)

STUDENT LEADERS (only leaders appointed by the Board)

	Average Overall GPA	#<2.500	# not full-time
Overall	3.27	0	0
	(3.139 in fall 2006)

Total number of work plans required: 48