MINUTES

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 • 7 p.m.
Witherspoon Student Center • Student Senate Chambers • Room 201

Join us at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the Witherspoon Student Center for cookies in the break room for a little social time.

CALL TO ORDER
PRESENT: Paul McCauley, Dao Xuan Nguyen, John Bullard, Kristen Paese, Henry Allen, Jim Rothschild, Dean Phillips, Susannah Brinkley, Mario Terry, Amanda Wilkins, Mollie Mohr, Thomas Anderson, Andrea Mason, Caleb Van Voorhis, Kelly Hook, Bradley Wilson, Krystal Pittman, Martha Collins, Tyler Dukes, Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Alex Sanchez, Marisa Akers, Keiran Moreira, Brandon Wright
ABSENT: Denise Gonzales Crisp, Michael Biesecker, Louise M. Bannon, Stephanie Edwards

OLD BUSINESS

• Approval of minutes — the minutes were approved with no objections

NEW BUSINESS

• Appointment of a secretary — Henry Allen agreed to be the secretary for this meeting.
• Student Media business office: an overview — Andrea Mason (CLICK HEREfor presentation)
  • Andrea, Krystal and Bradley started with an explanation of where Student Media fits in the University hierarchy and some functions of accounting and how we are a part of a big bureaucracy.
  • Andrea discussed what each staff member in the business offices does.
  • They discussed a downward trend in income and that there would be no fee increases in the near future.
  • Bradley said it would be three years before real trouble arises because we have been good stewards of our money and have a reserve we an use in the short-term.
  • Solutions: improving the website for increased revenue; asking for substantial donations from outside companies particularly when looking at funding publications like Windhover; working with decision-making alumni; soliciting ads from African-American local businesses
• National convention review — Susannah Brinkley
  • The students who attended the national convention, Marisa Akers, Susannah Brinkley, Keiran Moreira and Alex Sanchez reviewed their experiences at the national convention. CLICK HERE for slideshow of images in Louisville.
  • They discussed the awards the Agromeck, Windhover, WKNC and Technician won. CLICK HERE
  • They discussed the classes they attended and what they learned. CLICK HERE
  • And Bradley discussed how well all North Carolina colleges and universities did. CLICK HERE

REPORT UPDATES

Agromeck — Susannah submitted an in-depth report as follows.

TRAINING — Photo Editor Marisa Akers and I attended the Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Association in Louisville, Ky. at the end of October. We both attended sessions on leadership, writing, photography, design, yearbook and marketing, and will share more of that at tonight’s board meeting.

AWARDS — The 2009 Agromeck (John Cooper Elias, editor) took home a Pacemaker Award, and the 2011 edition won a Best in Show Award at the Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Association in Louisville, Ky.

REVENUE — We have sold two 2011 yearbooks. Rick Loper, CEO at College Publications and our national ad sales rep, has sold 10.5 pages of ads, and is aiming for 16 pages. This is up from previous years. Additionally, Promotions Manager Amanda Corbett has sold one eighth-page senior ad.

PROMOTIONS — Corbett and I have been working to market senior portraits, which will take place Nov. 16 to 19. We have utilized e-mail, Facebook and WKNC PSAs to market them. We have asked entry-level staff members to help man a marketing table during portraits, in which we will conduct four drawings (one per day) for a free eighth-page senior ad, distribute information about senior ads and book sales/distribution in April.Corbett made general Agromeck ads for the Wolfline buses, Technician display boxes, the Technician and LCD screens across campus. She is also marketing group senior ads. Clubs, teams and Greek groups can purchase one ad for all of their graduates. We dubbed senior ads as a whole, “Grad Ads.” Ad rep TJ Roux is coordinating group shots for the index. He contacted student groups to let them know we will take them for free, or they may submit their own.

THE WEB — Photo Editor Marisa Akers and Technician Photo Editor Sarah Tudor are keeping up the “Photo of the Week” award, and Sports Editor Brent Kitchen is set to launch a slideshow of October sports by the end of the week. We also worked on a slideshow of the chancellor’s installation at the end of October, which can be viewed on the website.The website is also our primary marketing and informational tool for senior portraits, senior ads and book sales, which direct users to our portals. Corbett and Roux are also utilizing Facebook and Twitter to market the book.

TECHNOLOGY— Brian King has been working to help me with some increasing problems with Adobe InDesign on one of the iMacs in the office, and he has promised to install a new version of the operating system soon to help it run more smoothly.

COVERAGE — We are still planning two to four events per week, while still maintaining a focus on sports coverage with around three to four per month. At the end of the September pages, we broke even with exactly six months of coverage and we are now approximately halfway through our allotted 352 pages. We could cut down on coverage to save room for later months, senior portraits, senior ads and commercial ads, but we expect coverage to die down a bit in December and January.We are planning some more alternative story packages, including a “Top 20 classes to take at N.C. State” package for the spring semester and a Homecoming package for November.

DEADLINES— We made our deadline of 36 pages Oct. 13, but according to the plant, we are two pages behind schedule. The hiring of a new design editor will help that. The next deadline is Nov. 19, and we are to send 48 (50 including the missing two) pages to the plant.The staggered deadline schedule is still working to allow extra time for indexing and revisions before pages are sent to the plant, but I am working on improving the deadline stress level.

Windhover — Mollie encouraged everyone to attend Open Mic Night on Nov. 21.

WKNC — Tommy said they had completed most of the recording for the WKNC compilation CD and were exploring avenues for funding.

Wolf TV — Caleb said staff participation was down probably due to the end-of-the-semester academic crunch. He said they were finishing the promotions for the senior class.

SCJ — Martha Collins reported that the Society for Collegiate Journalists will be hosting a panel discussion on free speech at the Presidents’ Roundtable at 7 p.m. tomorrow night (Nov. 10) in the Student Senate chambers.

ADJOURN

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

REPORTS

Agromeck
Submitted by Susannah Brinkley

NO REPORT

Nubian Message
Submitted by Mario Terry

Revenue:  The Nubian Message prints 750 copies per week according to the production schedule. The last two issues of the semester, Nov. 10 and 17, will contain ads from Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoke Research. Earlier in the semester we printed an extra batch of papers forcing us to go over budget. This problem was solved through careful review of the rest of the production calendar and a decision to skip one of the future dates. We skipped the issue scheduled to be on stands Oct. 27, now the budget is balanced.

Personnel: Since last month, there has not been a enormous staff change, however, we have managed to keep the committed staff members, who all have contributed so much to the paper since I’ve been editor. In addition, retention has been the most effective. I have recruited three new staff members on a volunteer basis.

Training:  As mentioned in the previous board report, I’m currently enrolled in English 214 (Intro. to Editing). Thus far, I’ve been able to aid the Nubian Message staff in presenting a “message” that’s able to reach the N.C. State University community professionally.  Furthermore, I have required the staff, as part of their job description, to meet with the writing coach, Tyler Dukes, regularly. In regard, to that requirement all paid staff members are required to write a monthly reflection paper describing their training experience. The staff is aware of these conditions and the many training opportunities available. Additionally, staff members interested in photography are required to meet and train with the Technician photo editor.

Coverage: The Nubian Message has continued to maintain a strong readership.  The twitter account is still in use, and it can be correlated to an increase in coverage. The committed staff members have continued to hand out papers. Since the aforementioned methods of increasing and maintaining coverage proves effective, I plan to continue these efforts. Krystal Pittman will receive the past few copies of the Nubian Message to archive and document the left-overs.

Deadlines: In regard to last month, we ran into a few internal problems stemming from a communication error. In an effort to fix this that problem, I have found the root cause and discussed possible solutions in the staff meetings. I’ve added two extra people: one to assist with the layout process, and one to just put out the papers. The previous implementation of internal and external staff liaisons, in an effort to minimize confusion among the Nubian Message staff and the staff of other student media outlets, has been proven successful, therefore I will continue to enforce this method of communication.

Technician
Submitted by Amanda Wilkins

Personnel: There have been no significant changes to the staff, except for the Viewpoint section. Five staff members left the after Fall Break. Copy editors are in place and last least one has been working every night. Recruitment is slow, but we are gaining interest. There have been no developments in the search for a Viewpoint or design editor, though there are staff members who look promising for the design position. Six time sheets have not bee processed from last semester because of no reflections. Seven time sheets have not bee processed from this semester because of no reflections. Two time sheets were late. Four time sheets have not been processed due to erroneous circumstances.

Training: Training consisted of LDS classes, leadership training classes offered by the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service, and seminars on ledes, copyright, captioning, the best camera is the one you have with you and making great audio. The latter two programs were popular with the staff. Outside opportunities included the Society for Professional Journalists’ seminar in Chapel Hill on “New Media Skills for a New Media Age,” and WRAL’s on-sight program on “Breaking into Journalism.” Tyler Dukes is doing a great job arranging training. Biko Tushinde has developed a training guide for staff members to learn how to work with College Publisher.

Technology: Student Media hired Brian King as the new computer technician. He is catching up with all of the computer and will be updating all of the computers’ software soon. He has also been managing charging the batteries for the cameras and making sure all the camera gear is accounted for at the end of the week.

Coverage: It has been busy month as far as coverage. The provost search is in full swing, the chancellor was installed and the election happened. The Technician ran a full week of chancellor coverage and looked at the past, recent past and other aspects of the chancellor’s life. The University’s Strategic Plan is in development and we have been watching that closely.

Deadlines: Deadline is still an issue. Our success is mixed. We met deadline for a solid week and then we started missing it here and there. It has never been excess of 15 minutes on most occasions. Though most sections contribute to missing deadline, sports has been the biggest issue. Biko is monitoring their production to pinpoint why, though the reason for sports coming in late seem to be because late interviews and poor planning.

Ethics/Legal issues: Corrections are up online and printed in print edition in a timely fashion. There have been no legal issues.

Windhover
Submitted by Mollie Mohr

Windhover’s most recent activity has been: publicizing the Open Mic Night and a call for submissions.

Meeting with the Advisory Board committee has been beneficial for the publicity of Windhover. Having student, other Student Media advisers and past editor influence on how to promote the book has been immensely helpful. Ideas were generated such as: making T-shirts, PechaKucha nights, craft nights, online publicity (Twitter, Facebook, ads on WKNC, NCSU Alumnae, and other home page sites).

Posters for submissions have been made and distributed across campus — a huge reason for these screen-printed posters is to reach a larger group of students on campus. Posts have been hung in most major buildings on campus (including Centennial campus). Posters have also been made advertising Open Mic Night on Nov. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Caldwell Lounge. Book marks will also be distributed by the end of the following week.

The Literary Selection Committee (prose and poetry) have been helpful throughout this promotion process by hanging posters, writing on white boards in classrooms, talking to professors, grad students, classrooms, etc. Both groups (of 5-7 people each) are a relatively good representation of year and majors/masters, making it a great mix. One of the committee members showed up interested in our meeting as a grad student in Economics and Agriculture, and he found out about the selection committee through the Technician. This is encouraging to know that Student Media groups are collaborating and the efforts of allowing students to have access in the production process of Windhover is successful!

We have been planning for our Fourth Annual Open Mic Night, an evening of reading and musical performance. I have contacted people who read/performed last year as well as those who have submitted this year.

After English club made an announcement for submissions and posters have been distributed, I have been getting a good number of literary and visual submissions that I hope will continue into December.

Facebook: Submit to Windhover Event: 172 attending

Our staff is beginning to plan advertising strategies for the upcoming months. One idea that we are excited about is: PechaKucha nights. This is basically an open mic night for designers, where people can gather and share their visual work. The idea behind PechaKucha 20×20 nights is that there is a presentation of 20 images for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images. This is a fun, informal gathering for those creative people that want to display their work whether it be photography, videography, etc. These PechaKucha groups are happening in more than 230 cities around the world, and there is a Raleigh group that I plan on getting in touch with to gather more information. The craft center is excited about potentially hosting these fun events. I hope to continue to plan for the PechaKucha nights by getting word out about what they are and how to get involved (hopefully through public service announcements on WKNC and the Web site, posters, etc.)

WKNC
Submitted by Thomas Anderson

Revenue: Non-fee income (money in the bank), as of Oct. 31: $12,094.06
Tir Na Nog — $4,500
Regular donor announcements — $4,438
Benefit Concerts — $809
Promotions — $800
Live Nation — $1,385
Merchandise Sales —  $124
Other — $38.06

We seem to be on a fairly even track towards our projected budget. Always room for more, though. I still think that there are many potential sponsors who would jump at our cheap underwriting offers.

Expenditures: We will need to find a way to pay for the ~$1,000 cost of production for the compilation we plan to release in February. The event with which the compilation will be in conjunction raised, last year, over $7,000, and we expect a similar turnout.

Personnel: We have made several significant hires: co-Underground Music Directors Christophe Bequet and Isaiah Coleman, Deputy Off-Campus Promotions Assistant William Lampe and Personnel Director Erwin Lewis.

With women’s basketball right around the corner, we will need several new board operators to fill the need.

Our Daytime department will be undergoing another face-lift. We expect to hire three assistant daytime music directors. [Applications were due by Nov. 5, and we will make the hires as soon as we can.]

Training: Our paid staff has, in conjunction with the recently enforced training requirements, attended a variety of training sessions, ranging from photography to “good interviewing.” The staff response has been all positive. I will bring up, at the next WKNC Board of Directors meeting, the pertinence of planning in-house training (or course made available to the rest of Student Media, as well).

Technology: Thanks to our smart, though sometimes thinly-spread, engineering team, both of our in-studio turntables are tracking at 100% again. One still hisses when played over the air, but it can still be used to mix upon. The hiss is not a problem with the turntable itself, but rather it is an issue within the control board.

Our production microphones continue to be spotty at times; this is a point that corrects itself occasionally, but I’d like to make it a priority to fully repair or replace the usual suspects.

To re-iterate from the last report, I do want to further look into obtaining a WiFi card for our Comrex remote broadcast device. It is frustrating to depend on wireless routers for live remote abilities.

Coverage: Our public affairs department continues to make strides in coverage of campus and area events. We have improved coverage of campus by writing and producing more on-campus public service announcements.  I would like to solicit ideas from the board regarding making this service more widely known across campus.

Deadlines: We have had, as always, slight issues with late time sheets. I would like to discuss the nature of the current compensation policy. I did not ask it be added to the agenda, mainly because I only seek understanding of the policy and not a change, per se.

The following quantitative analysis was prepared by Jamie Lynn Gilbert:

We had $640 in late time sheets processed for the 7/9 pay date, which was the last date to process anything from the 2009-2010 fiscal year. From the 7/23 pay date on, we have $1,050 in late time sheets. We have paid $13,997.04 in payroll from 7/9-10/29. Excusing the 7/9 “catch up” pay date, that means roughly 7.5 percent of time sheets are turned in late.

I have been lax in defining what a “late” time sheet, and hence need to be more strict in doing so.

Ethical/Legal Issues: Jamie found out on Nov. 4 that we are missing one T-shirt from Double Barrel Benefit 7. It cannot be stated with absolute certainty that it was stolen, but that seems to be a reasonable explanation, as inventory was taken soon before the CBI conference. Big groups of people have a tendency to occasionally operate outside of what is expected. So it’s not surprising that a shirt may have been stolen. But it still is not only professionally questionable, but personally hurtful that a theft from my office is possible.

The continuous task of minimizing FCC violations remains ever before us.

Wolf TV
Submitted by Caleb Van Voorhis

NO REPORT

Business Office
Submitted by Andrea Mason

Revenue – Week 11, we made money! Our sales have gone up and we are now $5,000 in the hole compared to last year this time when we were $34,000 down compared to budgeted income projections.

Personnel — We now have six ad reps now, five office assistants, and three people on design team

Training — Mike Hartell from 96 Rock came to our training this month. He gave a presentation on the importance of knowing the process of making a sale and the attitude needed to do so. Also, past managers from the Business Office came to answer questions for us and support us with advice. The training was effective. Everyone loved Mike and took away some good points and strategies

Coverage — The ad reps seek out cliental whose audience is geared towards students. (Staff and faculty being a great bonus!) This help keep the paper about the students. However, WKNC is geared towards a different audience, so we have to approach different clients in different ways.

Deadlines — Some clients think it is okay to send in ads the day before or think they can change the date last minute. We do our best to remind them of the deadline. The staff does great with deadlines, but we cannot control last-minute clients.

Ethics/Legal issues — We have had issues getting Arts NC State ads in the paper numerous times and sometimes there are broken links so they have looked unprofessional. This is due to issues on many levels of the Technician. However, we have sorted things out with Mark Tulbert, and he is now being properly taken care of.

Budget update: CLICK HERE

Society for Collegiate Journalists
Submitted by May Chung, president

The Society for Collegiate Journalists has faced some challenges in October, mostly involving dwindling member participation. The group had an open forum to talk about this opposition, and the general body felt overwhelmed about the amount of events (Constitution Day, Banned Book Week) that SCJ has put on since the beginning of the semester. Changes to improve this included moving the panel to a later date (see below), assigning a meeting time an hour early, and discussing about possibly revoking membership.

SCJ decided to move its panel discussion on Freedom of Religion in conjunction to Freedom of Speech to the beginning of the spring semester. The organization is planning the panel, but has decided on a general date and location. They have also signed Anna Bigelow, associate professor of the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, to serve as a moderator.

In October, SCJ also held its annual induction night at Mitch’s Tavern to great success. Even with complications, it is evident that SCJ has built a tight community, and the members feel comfortable with one another. It is uplifting to see members come together and enjoy each other’s company even though the organization spans across different realms of Student Media.

Additionally, SCJ member Alanna Howard was elected to be Historian, and she has updated the website faithfully.