NOTES
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 • 7 p.m.
Room 201, Witherspoon Student Center
Members Present: Henry Allen, Kathryn Glaser, Cordera Guion, Alanna Howard, Molly Matty, Patrick Neal, Dean Phillips, Jim Rothschild, Paul Ruddle, Katherine Trapp, Laura Wilkinson
Members Absent: Michael Biesecker (unexcused), Siddharth Gandra (unexcused), Kenneth Hertling (excused), Paul McCauley (unexcused), Victoria Melbourne (unexcused), Ronilyn Osborne (excused), William Stronach (unexcused), Chandler Thompson
Others Present: Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Maurizo Lewis (Wolf TV), Olivia Pope (Business Office)
CALL TO ORDER at 7:10 p.m. by Vice Chair Henry Allen. QUORUM was NOT present.
NEW BUSINESS
- Approval of minutes from January 2012 board meeting. Minutes were not approved due to lack of quorum.
- Budget update. While we were budgeted to be in the red by about $58,000 this budget year, we are now projecting about half that amount largely due to money not spent on salaries for the systems administrator and production assistant positions.
- Patrick outlined Student Media’s priorities for the 2012-2013 budget. The first priority is to bring salaries for the professional staff in line with comparable positions at the University. This may require some positions to be reclassified.
- A second priority concerns the less-than-ideal conditions at the WKNC transmitter site on the 10th floor of D.H. Hill Library. To prolong the life of the existing transmitter and prepare the space for the eventual purchase of an HD transmitter, we need to wall off the site and add climate control. Patrick and WKNC Consulting Engineer Will Patnaud are waiting on a cost estimate for the project.
- A third priority is better security and maintenance of the Student Media servers. The board discussed how to balance the protection of content with the need to house the data in a better environment than its current location in Witherspoon. Moving the servers (all except WKNC) to an off-site but still on-campus server environment would prevent failures like the one in November that caused the paper not to print. Should we have concerns over data integrity in an off-site location, we would be contacting legal counsel, not IT.
- We also plan to adjust advertising rates with the intent of increasing local and national rates to generate additional advertising revenue and allow for a decrease campus and student rates.
- Update on hiring of systems administrator and production assistant. Patrick reported the hiring committee has selected finalist candidates for the systems administrator position and on campus interviews are scheduled.
REPORTS
Agromeck (CLICK HERE)
Business Office (CLICK HERE)
Nubian Message (CLICK HERE)
Society for Collegiate Journalists (CLICK HERE)
Technician (CLICK HERE)
Windhover (CLICK HERE)
WKNC (CLICK HERE)
Wolf TV (CLICK HERE)
REPORT UPDATES
Jamie Lynn reported on behalf of adviser Martha Collins that SCJ is accepting applications for new members. Essays and one letter of recommendation are due February 23 at noon. Meeting time moved to Sundays at 8 p.m. and attendance has improved greatly! The group would like to host a movie screening this month, but the cinema has limited availability, so we’ll see. Regarding Sunshine Week March 11-17, the SCJ chapter is considering a possible panel or round table discussion. There is also interest in a field trip to the N.C. Open Government Coalition’s Sunshine Day at Elon University.
Molly reported WKNC had $4,235 in ticket sales for Double Barrel Benefit 9. Combined with merchandise sales and table fees from the DBB Day Party and Market, the event raised a combined more than $5,600 for station operations.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Student Media Board of Directors may adjourn into executive session to discuss matters of litigation, potential litigation or personnel.
ADJOURN at 8:13 p.m.
TEXT OF REPORTS
Agromeck
submitted by Kathryn Glaser, editor
Personnel — Nothing new to report.
Coverage — Krispy Kreme Challenge and Double Barrel Benefit are the two things that happened recently that we have really been focusing on. We have been working hard to finish overdue sports profiles.
Deadlines — We have a deadline next week, February 17. It is one of our biggest deadlines thus far. Pages are coming along well and I do not think we should have any issues.
Marketing – The final count on senior portraits is 591, which is a good number for us. We have also sold books. We will be receiving senior portraits the last week in February so we will have a rather quick turnaround for the final deadline on March 15.
Business Office
submitted by Ronilyn Osborne, business office manager
Revenue — We are starting to see signs of the spring advertising boost and we have specials running with most of the media right now to help bring in even more revenue.
Technician — We are pushing forward with the spring living guide. Mr. Larson’s COM 316 class has agreed to write the stories for the living guide.
Agromeck — We have the ads in from the national agency and have a few senior ads coming in from parents. Abby Howe, one of the office assistants, has been working with Kathryn to help promote senior portraits and book sales.
Nubian Message — Sierra Moraven attended our most recent sales training, as she is interested in becoming a sales representative concentrating on Nubian Message. I have kept in contact with her and she is expecting to join our sales team in March. We have a Black History Month special running for Nubian in February to get advertisers to buy an ad in all four issues this month.
Wolf TV — We have had a few companies interested in running PSA type ads on Wolf TV and we are trying to find ways to make money on these requests.
WKNC — We are working to increase our sales for spots during the women’s basketball games and the baseball games. We are also working on securing some of our larger clients on new contracts for the new year such as the Carolina Roller Girls.
Personnel — Sales representatives are now required to submit a weekly progress report to both Krystal and myself to show what clients they have reached out to and what sales they have closed.
Training — A sales training is planned for Friday, February 3. Krystal will present the challenger series on how to become a more effective sales rep, followed by a scavenger hunt. We are also having Mike Hartel, from Curtis Media, come as a guest speaker to another sales meeting on February 9. He will bring his top sales rep with him to give us tips and advice. We are all looking forward to his visit.
Updates — The new online method of scheduling classified ads is still doing great and is still proving to bring in more revenue than the previous method.
Nubian Message
submitted by C.J. Guion, editor
Revenue — As it was mentioned in the Nubian Message board report last month, we have already met the revenue projections for the entire year, but we are continuing to work with the business office towards increasing those numbers.
Expenditures — There are no expenditures out of the ordinary that I am aware of at this time.
Personnel — N/A
Training — New Student Media Director Patrick Neal has been hosting various training sessions which has been open for any of the Nubian Message staff members to attend.
Technology — For the most part everything is working that we are using.
Coverage — Nubian Message has been doing a pretty good job of keeping our stories relevant to the N.C. State community. During a weekly meeting with Patrick, the idea came up about bringing in diverse selection of media folks outside the community to come in for training sessions, and from there the idea to have a Diversity in the Media forum. This event is scheduled for February 29 at 7 p.m. in the Washington Sankofa Room of Witherspoon. Patrick has already lined up several commitments for the panel, and the event be will Student Media sponsored. We are planning to get the business office to design an ad that will run in Nubian Message and possibly the Technician. We are hoping to get a good turnout.
Deadlines — The active staff members have been doing a pretty good job of getting everything turned in on time, and we are coming out each week on time.
Ethical/Legal Issues — There are no ethical issues to report.
Society for Collegiate Journalists
submitted by Sarah Tudor, president
NO REPORT
Technician
submitted by Laura Wilkinson, editor
Personnel — Recruitment has been up and each section has plenty of personnel.
Content — We’ve begun a new section – The Fifth – that runs once a week. It’s a humor section, and for the most part it’s been well received.
Training — Winter retreat went well. Everyone turned in reflections to me last night so I will take notes on what they found useful and what they did not like.
Patrick has updated the training calendar and we have seen a steady trickle of staff taking advantage of the sessions. Chris Boucher, former deputy news editor, has been coming in each week to help as a writing coach as well.
Technology — The television in the newsroom is useless because we no longer have the parts needed to hook it up to the computer. We still don’t have cable – I’m upset about it.
Deadlines — We’ve been missing deadline approximately 1.5/5 days a week – I’ve already talked to the editors about this issue, and the rate is slowly beginning to improve. I also sent a strongly-worded email out to all the writers about the importance of turning stories in early and communicating issues ahead of time instead of at 9 p.m.
Ethics/Legal Issues — Two weekends ago the managing editor was logged into the Technician Twitter account on his laptop, and a friend of his roommate sent a derogatory tweet from the account, not knowing the account wasn’t a personal one. The tweet: I think I might be gay. Thirty-three seconds after it was put out there, the managing editor found out about the misuse of the account and deleted the tweet, but it had already been retweeted and a screenshot of the message was floating around the Twitterverse. Taylor apologized on Twitter, but the damage was done.
The director of the GLBT Center came to the office two days later and talked to Taylor and I about the incident. I also met up with an upset student later in the week to discuss the issue.
Windhover
submitted by Alanna Howard, editor
Revenue — No changes.
Events — Everything for the Feb. 19 Open Mic Night is ready to go. We are currently printing posters and distributing them across campus.
Expenditures — We recently bought typefaces for $450 and will be paying around $40 to print posters for the Open Mic Night.
Personnel — There have been no staff changes. Applications for editor are now open and although no one has applied I am in talks with two possible editors. Martha and I have discussed a first-choice option and several back-up options.
Training — None since the meeting with Britt.
Technology — None. Windhover has asked for a new computer next year, but no changes will happen this year.
Coverage — Posters all over main and Centennial campus and in area coffee shops.
Deadlines — Our final deadline for copy is Feb. 15. The designers have until March 14 to send the book to Theo Davis and the books are due back by April 13 for our release party on April 16.
WKNC
submitted by Molly Matty, general manager
Revenue — Non-fee income (money in the bank), as of January 31, 2012: $20,869.07
- Regular donor announcements — $7,925
- Tir Na nOg — $7,250
- Promotions/Live Nation — $1,790
- Benefit Concerts — $1,019
- Wolfpack Sports — $1,950
- Merchandise Sales — $890.86
- Other — $44.21
We will soon have a lot more in here as we are selling merchandise that we traded for sponsorships, and Double Barrel Benefit Tickets.
Expenditures — We recently purchased the unit to fix the line from Witherspoon to the Library. It has not been delivered or installed. Recently we purchased 50 T-shirts with 88.1 WKNC on them as “evergreen” shirts. They are selling like hot cakes! We will easily make this money up.
Personnel — Discussion with staff member using WKNC to promote their own music was held. So far, no further issues have come up. She is forced to co-host and have routine air-break checks.
Alex Sanchez has recently been hired as a WKNC staff photographer. I need to discuss the limit to how much he can earn as a Student Media leader and our entry-level position.
We will be shifting around our engineering staff to allow Charlie Townsend, currently “assistant engineer” to get paid. This will keep John Jernigan our Chief Engineer, and move Austin Page to “assistant engineer.” In addition to that, we will be making some volunteer positions paid in the next fiscal year. These positions include: Deputy Promotions Assistant for On and Off-Campus Affairs and Librarian.
I will soon begin hiring for Assistant Music Director (daytime) and Deputy Promotions Assistant for Off-Campus Affairs. I may have to find a new Chainsaw music director as well, as I have not seen hide nor hair of our current one for a month.
Training — We are in the midst of the spring training class. There is more collaboration and opportunities to use time to build morale and involvement.
Technology — AudioVault has been saving files in a different format making them very slow (about 2-3 times the time recorded). Trouble-shooting for this has not fully begun.
Dreamhost went down, bringing our website with it. This was apparently a planned outage, and systems were restored to normal.
Talk of building a house for our transmitter has begun. I have only been copied in e-mails and not able to attend meetings. Patrick, Jamie, and our engineers are mow knowledgeable in this endeavor.
Legal — No legal issues to discuss, that I am aware of.
Coverage — This is an extremely busy time of the year for us as Double Barrel Benefit 9 approaches. DBB9 is the ninth annual fundraiser, featuring eight local artists over a two night concert. The event will be February 3 and 4 at the Pour House Music Hall in downtown Raleigh. This event was reviewed in the Independent Weekly quite well. For the first time, DBB will feature a Day Party and Market, which will host about 25 local artists and businesses as well as seven local bands. I’m personally really excited to open up our coverage to not only local music, but also local art. The day party has become a lot bigger than initially planned! The vendors are paying $25 to have a table, so we are making money from this event as well. You will have an update of how the event went TONIGHT.
Album reviews and “pick of the weeks” have been fairly consistent in Technician. Yay, collaboration!
Deadlines — Being met either by the person who is supposed to, or by me.
Wolf TV
submitted by Kenny Hertling, station manager
Revenue — Are we meeting revenue projections? Why or why not? How many books/ads/sponsorships have we sold? N/A.
Personnel — Significant staff changes- None. How many people are on staff? I have had very few people come to the meetings this semester, but I am cracking down on participation.
Training — What training has the staff undergone since the last Board meeting? No, I unfortunately grew ill during the last minute, but a new date is being scheduled. Was the training effective? Why/why not? N/A. Who conducted the training? N/A.
Technology — Are there any problems with technology? None. Is the hardware/software being used adequate? If not, why not? And what would be better? Yes. How are we working to function in a technologically sophisticated environment? We have twitter, facebook, and a website that is updated as often as possible.
Coverage — What is the staff doing to cover campus activities or to maintain its focus on the N.C. State campus? The staff has come up with several ideas on their own and turned them into me so that they can become stories such as “The J-spot” and “study abroad fair.”
Deadlines — What challenges has the staff had meeting deadlines? The staff do not exactly have a challenge meeting deadlines, but I do set responsible deadlines for the amount of work that they have to do. In a quantifiable manner, how is the staff doing meeting deadlines? The staff is meeting their deadlines usually.
Ethics/Legal issues — None.