Minutes
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 • 7 p.m.
Riddick 461
CALL TO ORDER.
OLD BUSINESS
- Approval of minutes — CLICK HERE Approval of the Minutes: Denise Gonzales Crisp moved that the minutes
be approved. Laura Frey seconded. The minutes were approved by unanimous consent. - Hiring of Technician editor — The Technician/Nubian Message Advisory board met April 12 to interview candidates Ben Zhou, Biko Tushinde, Maxwell Strickland, Amanda Wilkins and Nathan Hardin for the 2010 – 2011 Technician editor-in-chief.As read by Kelley Brackett, member of the Board and the advisory board. “The advisory board unanimously approved a motion to recommend the hiring of Amanda Wilkins for editor-in-chief and strongly urged that she make efforts to get Nathan Hardin into a Technician leadership position. The advisory board also recommended that Wilkins continue working towards completion of the Visionary Leaders Certificate and attend the Management Seminar for College News Editors, July 25-30, 2010 at Grady College at The University of Georgia.”Present at the advisory board meeting last night were: Kelly Brackett, senior and Student Media Board of Directors member; Andrew Williams, a junior; Spencer Williams, junior; Patrick Clarke, former Technician managing editor; Ben McNeely, former Technician managing editor; John Clark, general manager of wral.com; Bob Ashley, editor of the Durham Herald-Sun; Nancy Wykle, managing editor of the Durham Herald-Sun; Martha Collins, Student Media office manager; Bradley Wilson, Student Media adviser; and Technician staff editors: Kate Shefte, Lauren Blakely, Russell Witham; Technican staff members: Matt Moore, David Mabe, Lauren Blakely, Caitlin Cauley; and other Student Media students: Michele Chandler, Susannah Brinkley, Saja Hindi)Tyler Everett said he thought the Technician editor needed more experience and that experience would provide a better transition. He said he thought it would be difficult for an entry-level photographer to jump to be editor.Kate Shefte said in a couple years Amanda would be a great leader. She said she didn’t think the senior staff would take to this well.Tyler Everett said he didn’t think that he and Kate were in the minority.Michele Chandler said the majority of the time the editor is a writer and that she was just kind of speechless.
Russell Witham said this position is really a leadership position. He said he was a little surprised that one of the more experienced leaders wasn’t selected. He said the person in the position is going to have to get to know the process of putting out a paper. He said some of the staff members are confused by the recommendation, not upset, just confused.
Lauren Blakely said she thought Amanda needed to serve in a leadership position on staff before she could become editor.
Bob Ashley said he thought the student leaders from the Technician staff were “a great group of folks.” He said there were five candidates all of whom had strengths but no one who brought clear senior leadership that would have made this an easier decision. “I’m reasonably confident that a few months from now this will prove to be a good decision.” He said the senior staff members were all sufficiently committed to the paper, that was clear and that the group made what it thought was the best choice. “Youth is not necessarily a deterrent.” He said he really respected what the leaders on the staff had done this semester.
Michele asked if it would be possible to consider co-editors.
Bob said the advisory board discussed that possibility.
Jim Ceresnak, outgoing student body president, said he applauded the five candidates for stepping up but questioned why a board with no staff members voting on it could make this recommendation.
Bob said this was the same process that had been followed for all of the other media. And Bradley reminded the Board that it could choose to follow the advisory board’s recommendation or not but if not would probably would want to interview the candidates.
After the discussion ended, Al called for a vote and the recommendation of the advisory board was approved unanimously.
NEW BUSINESS
- 2010-2011 Budget — The budget was approved unanimously.
- Annual Report and the future of college media summary — Bradley presented some findings presented earlier in the spring at the College Media Advisers convention in New York City. The findings showed that the top problems college media outlets across the nation face are financial and expectations of the student leaders that exceed their ability to perform.
ADJOURN
EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Student Media Advisory Board may adjourn into executive session to discuss matters of litigation, potential litigation or personnel.
REPORTS
AGROMECK
Submitted by Michele Chandler, editor
Deadlines — Our March 12 deadline was successful. We sent all of the pages other than March content, ads and index, and the closing, which we left for the final deadline. On March 26 we went the final pages of the Agromeck, making a total of 344 pages in this year’s book. We are very proud of the publication and look forward to seeing the final product.
Susannah Brinkley, the next editor, plans on having one more deadline before she leaves to study abroad at Prague in May. The date is TBA.
Distribution- Final copies of the Agromeck will be delivered on April 21. Bryant Robbins and I are planning distribution for the book, especially for the seniors who qualify to receive a free copy. We are planning on having a meet-the-staff reception on April 22. There will be several opportunities for seniors, and other students who are interested in purchasing or picking up their copy during Dead Week at a variety of locations. Bryant and I are considering a Brickyard pickup, late night D.H. Hill distribution, and other pick up stations at various locations on campus.
To market the event, we will send e-mails out to students to remind them to pick up their copy of the Agromeck, create a Facebook event, and work with Technician to place house ads in the paper. Our goal is to give 1,000 seniors free yearbooks.
Technology — We received a new iMac, which replaced one of the slower computers in the office that had issues with staying connected to the server and InDesign crashing.
Staff and Training — Since the last meeting, there have been no changes to the staff. Applications have been opened for next year’s senior staff positions and are due on April 14. Positions include assignments editor, photo editor, sports editor, design editor and promotions manager.
There have been no efforts made towards training, which could be a problem for retaining valuable staff members. I hope that the new editors will be present for their first deadline in May to gain some experience with managing deadlines before the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year.
Book Sales — As of now, we have sold 26 copies of this year’s book. Although this is significantly less than last year’s sales, this year we have put a stronger focus on our marketing initiative to reach out to seniors.
NUBIAN MESSAGE
Submitted by Demi Olubanwo, editor
- The Nubian Message is getting ready to wrap up the semester successfully. With three more issues left, we are gradually transitioning to the next year.
- Mario Terry, the candidate for editor-in-chief is in the process of learning the ropes: production schedule, staffing, deadlines and everything else that goes into making the paper. I’m trying to make sure that when his tenure begins in August, he is ready and knowledgeable of the paper.
- He will also being to sit in on my weekly meetings with Bradley as soon as possible so that he can get used to these meetings.
- Our next issue is the Pan-Afrikan issue, our biggest issue of the year. I asked Bradley if it was okay for this issue to be in full color as it was last year and he has approved the request. The issue would cover all the events during the week.
- As far a personnel goes, I have about 3-4 dedicated writers who I can rely on to stick it out to the end of the year. I anticipate that the rest of the staff will be involved for the next issue because it’s our biggest one but just to be safe, I am trying to get contributing writers to cover the week.
- Equipment: We received two new computers in the office last week and so far, everything is running fine without any issues.
TECHNICIAN
Submitted by Russell Witham, Kate Shefte, Lauren Blakely, co-editors
Technician has stabilized during the course of the past month and has seen significant gains in recruitment. Likewise, staff cohesion has developed as a result of the media hailstorm surrounding the Save the Technician campaign.
Staff, alumni and the campus community have rallied around the mission of the paper and ensured its continued service to the campus — this was evidenced by the five applications Technician received for the editor-in-chief position.
Corrections have been a serious concern for the paper this year and the executive editors have recognized their importance in developing and maintaining credibility. Corrections, including those resulting from several significant blunders, have been effectively dealt with during the past month and the Web site has been updated accordingly.
One of the blunders involved an erroneous story about the College of Education, which inappropriately painted its placement efforts in a negative light. After Russell consulted with several administrators in the COE office, the story was rewritten for clarity and factual correctness, rebuilding relations with the college and providing students with accurate information.
Likewise, the paper had several instances of name misspellings this month. After analyzing the problem, Russell held a mini copyeditor-training session for the six staff copyeditors, reinforcing the importance of name checking. Russell, Lauren and Kate will keep track of the effectiveness of this strategy during the remainder of the semester to see if it is effective or needs to be revised by the future editor-in-chief – we will keep that individual aware of our findings.
Apart from individual staff trainings, the executive editors have not, as of yet, organized an entire-staff training for April. Bradley Wilson, Student Media coordinator, will work with them during the remainder of this week to develop a session for one of the last weekends of the semester. Our hope is that the training can be reflective, reinforcing the things the staff has done well and reviewing elements that need work moving forward.
Additionally, we would like to thank the Board of Directors for their direction this semester and assistance in maintaining N.C. State’s daily student newspaper.
Submitted by Helen Dear, editor
Windhover’s at the press, y’all!
The Windhover staff have most recently been focusing their efforts on ensuring the book will be printed correctly, coordinating the production of the audio component, planning for the reception, and discussing how the book will be distributed on campus.
We took Windhover to press on Thursday, March 11, and recently went to Theo Davis printers in Zebulon for a press check. Theo Davis kindly let us watch the cover and one spread be printed so we could make sure they were printed according to our specifications, hopes, and dreams. We caught one mistake — a folio was printed in registration black instead of black black — which the press manager fixed free of charge. It was really exciting to watch the cover be printed and see how whole printing system works. It was overwhelming to see how much paper is actually used in all 2500 books, so it was nice to know we used environmentally-friendly paper. The books were printed on that Thursday and were shipped to a binding facility where the 2500 books will be perfect-bound with PUR binding, a strong glue. Theo Davis will deliver the books to Witherspoon Student Center on the morning of Wednesday, April 14.
Martha Collins assisted Audio Editor Joe Wright and me in sending off Windhover’s audio component to be mass-produced on Monday, April 5. Joe had already burned the master CD with all fourteen audio tracks, which we mailed off to DiscMakers that Tuesday. After consulting with DiscMakers, we found we could purchase 2,500 CDs with a two-color on-disc print job delivered by Friday, April 16, at well under our budget. I was pleased that we could afford as many CDs as books. Theo Davis will provide the round sticky tabs that hold the CDs in the books; the staff and volunteers will assist in putting the CDs in the books on Saturday, April 17.
The staff and I are planning the reception/book release party. I confirmed with George Thomas, Crafts Center director, that we can still hold the reception at the Crafts Center on Sunday, April 18, at 8 p.m. We are planning on beginning the reception at 8 p.m. and allowing guests to snack until 9 p.m., when we will hold an informal Open Mic Night. Bobby Graf has offered to DJ and coordinate audio efforts. Everyone who has a literary or audio piece in Windhover has been asked to perform; we are waiting to hear what our exact lineup will be. We also asked everyone who participated in the fall Open Mic Night to perform at the reception. What snackies we will serve is still up for debate, but we are planning on serving cupcakes, Neomonde hummus & pita, Morning Times coffee, and soda. We are confident we can stay within the budget and still provide excellent snackies.
The design team has designed and produced 100 posters advertising the reception that will be posted all over campus by Thursday, April 8. We also plan on publicizing the reception through various campus-wide e-mail distribution lists, WKNC PSAs, emailing everyone who submitted to Windhover or was involved, and advertisements online (on Student Media and social networking sites). We hope these efforts will reach a broad range of students on campus, but we welcome any suggestions to ensure we reach as many groups as possible. As far as distribution goes, we plan on leaving stacks of books with a small poster explaining what Windhover is (and encouraging them to visit the site!) in the following places:
- DH Hill library (East Wing and Erdhayl-Cloyd Wing, more?)
- Design library
- Talley Student Center, first and second floors
- Witherspoon Student Center, all floors
- Caldwell Lounge
- Distributed among select CHASS students that can hand them out in class (both grad and undergrad)
Again, more suggestions for distribution are welcome!
WKNC
Submitted by Thomas Anderson, general manager
Revenue
Non-fee income (money in the bank), as of April 1, 2010: $36,790.63
Tir Na Nog — $10,150.00
Regular donor announcements — $8,889.60
Benefit Concerts — $6,488.00
Promotions — $2,350.00
Recording Fees — $30.00
Live Nation — $2,093.75
Sports — $5,700.00
Other — $1,089.28 (mostly merchandise sales)
Sponsorship Sales, as of April 1, 2010: $9,222.00
Sponsorship sales for March 2010 totaled just $390, the lowest figure this fiscal year. Our 2010-2011 budget significantly reduced our expectation for sponsorship sales generated through the business office. Unfortunately, the incoming general manager and incoming business office manager failed to meet before the April board meeting to come up with a strategic plan for the remainder of the fiscal year. We still plan to do this, but we have not at this time.
We have completed the Wolfpack Women’s basketball season and have received our final payment from Wolfpack Sports. Baseball is now well underway and will continue to air on 88.1 until May, with the post-season potentially extending into June. Our three-year contract with Wolfpack Sports is up at the end of this year, so the station adviser, General Manager Tommy Anderson and new Personnel Director Nicole Palko are scheduling a meeting with Wolfpack Sports to discuss the upcoming sports season.
We are continuing to explore promotional opportunities with concert promoters like Live Nation and Outback Concerts, which has totaled close to $4,500 in income so far this fiscal year. These contracts are completed through direct contact with the promoters, with the business office only handling the final invoice. We budgeted to raise $2,000 in this category for this budget cycle, so we are exceeding our expectations.
We achieved moderate success with our first WKNC Presents show, which featured Benji Hughes and Skullbuckle at The Pour House on March 12. Through our arrangement with the concert promoter, WKNC alumnus Mikey Perros, we received 10 percent of ticket sales. While this may not represent a significant source of income for WKNC, it is an opportunity we will continue to pursue.
Business Office Manager Krystal Pittman and Station Adviser Jamie Lynn Gilbert are investigating ways to increase WKNC merchandise sales and will complete some meetings before the board meeting.
The idea of staffing a WKNC-oriented sales representative in the business is being investigated. We are planning to run promos on the station for the business office, and we have added and “Advertisement” tab to our home page.
Expenditures — We purchased a new power amplifier to replace one that failed several months ago, and we will be purchasing another one in the near future to replace yet another failure. (A single failure is not necessarily catastrophic, as there are multiple pieces that perform the same collective function.)
Personnel — We have begun the process of filling positions for the summer and fall. (Some positions will be filled for the summer and re-opened in the fall, and some will be filled for the entire year.) Recently filled positions are as follows:
Program Director: Kieran Moreira
Personnel Director: Nicole Palko
Assistant Public Affairs Director: Alison Harman
We have also added several new board operators for sports broadcasts. This has greatly helped the new personnel director in her scheduling. Our music staff continues to improve upon their technical knowledge of scheduling software, and communication between them is better than it has ever been.
For at least the last two years, the paid position of audio resources manager was not included in the official budget. This position was ambiguous in nature; the description was vague, and its duties overlapped with other positions. We decided to terminate the position at the end of the semester. The staff member currently holding the position was very understanding of the change, and will remain on staff.
Training — Our music staff has benefited greatly from the input of Head Music Director Kelly Reid. Training sessions have gone well, and, as mentioned earlier, collective technical knowledge is better than it had been previously. We trained several new board operators fairly quickly and efficiently, as there have been few lapses in procedure.
Technology — Our transmitter was operating at near half power for several weeks due to some equipment failures. Our student engineers, with the help of our consulting engineer, replaced the offending parts, and our transmitter is back to a full 25,000 watts.
We experienced several hours of dead air April 6 due to a problem with the on-air computer. The DJ who noticed the issue contacted our student engineer and was able to reboot the on air computer and resume broadcasting. We have an alert system which is supposed to automatically call and alert several members of the staff in the event of dead air. However, this did not happen. The student engineer inspected this and came to the conclusion that the alert system is “shot.” The on-air computer crashing and the alert system not working are issues that need immediate attention. The student engineer has spoken with our consulting engineer and both are looking into the problems.
Coverage — We have extended our partnership with the Union Activities Board and the Inter-Residence Council, and we will be presenting a live concert Friday, April 9 on Harris Field. Our weekly public affairs show, Eye on the Triangle, continues to cover campus and area news. Our effort to provide promotions in the way of public service announcements to campus organizations, groups, clubs and departments has not yet reached its full potential. We are looking into ways to make this service more known to the entire university community.
Deadlines — Due to extensive communication among the music staff, CD reviews are being turned in well before their add dates (this is a good thing). Because of this, we are able to produce weekly music charts that are compiled monthly and submitted to the College Music Journal. Our charts will likely be featured in the next publication. (By way of interest, our charts are among the best in the nation. Prompt reviews and adds to rotation are at the root of this.)
SOCIETY FOR COLLEGIATE JOURNALISTS
Submitted by Susannah Brinkley, president
NO REPORT
BUSINESS OFFICE
Submitted by Laura Frey
Week Prospects Meetings Contacts Sales8 – 3/1-3/5 6 1 18 $6,545.419 – 3/8-3/12 0 0 10 $10,414.6810 – 3/22-3/26 3 1 9 $10,561.4811– 3/29-3/31 1 1 13 $8,406.0312 – 4/5-4/9 0 0 12 $12,797.31
Revenue — The housing fair was successful this year and we made $10,448.26 for the Housing Guide, which is not included in the sales above for week eight. We had 21 different apartment complexes participate in the housing fair, which is four more than last year. As we come to the end of the year the sales representatives are working hard to reach out to those new and returning clients. Sales this current and past week have really picked up and are expected to remain high as we finish out
this semester.
Training & Staff — In preparation for this summer we have been working on training Andrea so that there will be a smooth transition come May. We are also working with her to organize her staff for the summer and fall. For training, we will hold one final training session/end of the year party to celebrate the success of this semester, to say goodbye to graduating staff, and prepare the returning staff for what is to come.
Technician advertising billed: $266,393.81
Technician projections for collections: $247,746.24
Technician budgeted income to date: $319,656.30
Technician actual expenditures to date: $241,611.68
Nubian Message local advertising sold to date: $660.00
Agromeck local advertising sold to date: $1,000.00
Agromeck total advertising sold to date: $6,325.00
Agromeck book sales to date: 14
WKNC non-fee income to date: $39,431.35
CLICK HERE for a PDF version of the update.
Ad Hoc Committee
CLICK HERE for PDF version of recommendations.
Al McArthur, chair, recognized Saja Hindi who read the recommendations of the ad hoc committee. She said the group met twice but did not have a list of who met or when.
Susannah said she was concerned about equity issues between the media if one media outlet starts paying on one scale and another starts paying on another scale.
Michele said she didn’t come up to work on the media for the money. Saja said a lot of people come up there and don’t even know they’re being paid.
After some discussion on the payroll, Mike Giancola reminded the group that the budget is a plan and usually within line items such as payroll, current services, etc. there is flexibility if things change during the year. Bob said that was normal in most organizations. And Bradley said that’s the way Student Media has operated since he’s been there. If top leaders need to change things they sit down and go over the budget to examine the consequences and make changes as necessary. If other media are impacted then the leaders get together. The changes are reflected in the Board reports.
After some discussion of the summer publication, Krystal said summer publication is good training and a chance for the staff to get their feet wet. Russell said the summer training issues were great but the section editors need to be there. Saja said it was also important that the Web site is used. The summer could also be used as a time to build up some stock features that could be used during the year if needed. Bob asked if we made money during the summer. Krystal said that we made a little.
Andrew Payne asked if the group talked to anyone about increasing awareness of the paper. Saja said the editor should definitely be “out there.” Andrew said the paper plays a very powerful role on campus. Policy can be set for years to come based on what the Technician says. It’s an instrument of change on campus.
Tyler Everett said before the paper could again be respected on campus, the staff was going to have to fix themselves, fix the product and increase reliability. The paper is for the students. Once we produce a quality product, respect and interest will come back. Russell said, however, that people do read the paper. He said the chancellor said it was the first thing he read every day. We know we make mistakes.
Amanda Wilkins said she considered the recommendations when writing her position paper and applying for the job. She applauded the current leadership staff for how hard they worked and said the staff did need to fix itself internally.
Saja said the Board of Directors was a great resource and challenged the members to keep up with everything that was going on at the Technician.
Jamie Lynn Gilbert reminded the group that hiring process was underway for a full-time production assistant that will replace the current graduate student position serving as a writing coach. The person in this position will serve as a writing/production coach to the staff and will work during production hours. However, he reminded the group that as stated in our Constitution and in University policy as well as in the individual’s job description, the students still determine all the content.
Denise asked why the paper hasn’t increased its Web presence more. Lauren said the Web becomes an afterthought. David Mabe said sometimes CP5 is difficult because of random errors and freezes.
Al thanked the group for the discussion.