Notes on the WFCR Advisory Committee/WFCR Foundation Board meeting, 9/10/07, and a comment on the new WFCR listener survey.

Karl Moore and Roger Conant attended for our Task Force and were acknowledged (and thanked) for attending. Both spoke. Karl asked a question and was answered, by Martin Miller. (In June, questions from us were not allowed.)

A quorum (of 9) was not present, so the meeting could not take any official action. Even the vote to adjourn was illegal, really. The minutes of the 6/4/07 meeting were passed out but could not be officially approved. These draft minutes are on our website (http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/files/Advisory_Minutes_2007_06_04_draft.pdf) Our Task Force attendance, and our comments, were noted in these minutes. Since the WFCR website posts minutes but only the most recent (and approved) ones, our website is the only place where old minutes are archived publicly (http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/governance.html#minutes)

The By-laws of the WFCR Foundation were up for a major revision, but since there was no quorum, that could not be discussed or approved, and that will take place via telephone conference call. Highlights: (1) Apparently the Advisory Committee will be merged into the Foundation Board; (2) Advice on "programming" is added to the Board's purpose; (3) States that the 5 colleges "are especially interested in the cultural, education, and public service value of the station's mission and services." (4) Membership is increased to [not more than] 25, including one each from the 5 colleges; (5) Vacancies will be posted on WFCR's website, and instructions for nominations also; (6) Meetings will be held in March, June, September, and December; they will be open to the public, and each agenda will include an opportunity for the public to make comments. Executive sessions may be held. Minutes of the open part of the meeting will be posted on the website after approval; (7) Dates, times, and locations for all Board meetings will be posted on the website, published in WFCR's publications, and announced on-air; (8) Board actions can be taken without a meeting if written consent is given by a majority of members - a big change since previously written consent was required of ALL members; (9) The 5 college representatives become a subcommittee of the Board; (10) Explicitly sets the goal of a Board which reflects the diverse community WFCR serves - geographically, ethnically, and culturally.

Roger and Karl have copies of the By-laws showing all the proposed changes in detail. In Roger's opinion most of these are quite positive changes, especially 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10. Frequently the rationale stated was "openness and transparency." Since the discussion of the bylaw changes was intended to take place in the open meeting which we attended, we should be entitled to take place (as listeners) on the conference call where they will be discussed.

A spreadsheet was passed out showing audience and contribution statistics for fiscal year 2007, and is on our website

(http://justiceandpeace.net/WFCRdemocracy/files/audience_2007_09_10.pdf)

Massachusetts has 60% of the listeners and gives 75% of the contributions; Connecticut has 36% and gives 24%. Vermont and New York, just a little.

An interesting power point presentation was given showing audience trends, for example that the audience has risen more or less steadily and has doubled over the last 20 years. The most interesting slide, showing Friday-Saturday-Sunday evening statistics for 2007 (after the Saturday Night Folk Music Massacre) showed that Friday and Sunday were mostly unaffected, but Saturday night listenership dropped drastically, about 30 or 40 percent. Though there were other modest drops (10% or so) in other slides, this was by far the largest drop in listeners shown in any of the slides.

Karl asked, what about this proposed bilingual reporter, mentioned many months ago as evidence of reaching out to Spanish-speaking listeners? Answer: nobody hired yet, couldn't find anybody qualified, had to water down the job description, getting approvals from UMass for the new description. National search.

Very recently the WFCR website has added a listener survey - on the home page under "listener input" (or http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e25p3pe1f5zgxigz/a013kf6giby7m/greeting) This may be a result of our suggesting it to Martin Miller some months back in our consistent urging for more community input to the station.

The allowance of Karl's question at the meeting, the proposed Board changes, and the listeners' survey, all seem like very positive and cooperative moves on the part of the station. None of these changes came about until our Task Force got together and started agitating for more openness and transparency, and more public input. The direction is good!

Now the question is: will we be allowed to see the results of the survey? Will the station be open to that extent?