Some comments on reading the WFCR Advisory Committee minutes
of
First, these committees have never posted minutes before,
and doing so seems a significant opening.
Maybe our Task Force, through getting paper minutes of the AdCom and
posting them ourselves, and our public observation of the closed nature of the
Foundation Board, has encouraged the station to do this. If so, that's progress!
Notes on the AdCom meeting (quoted sections come from the minutes):
"Program
changes and responses – small group unhappy, but no editorials, letters to
editor" indicates premature complacency because the later 3/5 board
meeting noted "difficulty."
Secondly, the station obviously pays attention to editorials and letters
to the editor, which did indeed appear subsequently.
"Combined
board more active, fits with CPB’s 2006 proposed guidelines for improved
governance structure, more engagement with broad community" – we should
find these CPB 2006 guidelines, might be interesting for us; we are wanting
"more engagement with the community" indeed!
"…May
meeting when the merger would be discussed" This is about the merger of the AdCom
and the F-Board. We were there at the
May meeting but did not hear any real discussion and no vote was taken on it.
"Response
of Latino community to Tertulia changes led to meeting between community
members, Sharon Fross, UMass Vice Provost for Outreach; Helen Barrington, WFCR
Program Director; and Martin Miller - decision to keep to 2 hours of this
program seen as real service to Latino community" "Meeting provided good opening with
Latino community, and communication will continue between two groups" Question: is
communication indeed continuing, or not?
"As
scale of station grows, nature of audience changes -
how we serve underserved communities must change with it – needs ongoing
consideration and study" Yes it does, though we didn't see any evidence of
this consideration and study at the June 4 meeting.
Notes
on the F-Board meeting:
"A
search committee consisting of 2-3 WFCR staff and two members of the latino community, one from the UMass faculty, will be
assisting in hiring the new reporter and finding a replacement host for
"Tertulia". Wonder who these
members are and who decided that they represent the Latino community?
"Program
changes were difficult. There were about 360 complaints. About half of the
complaints came from people who are current WFCR donors."
"WNNZ
AM operating at 50,000 watts during the day will replace WPNI 1430 AM which is
in the process of being sold. WNNZ will reach into the
"The
mission of the WFCR Foundation is to guarantee WFCR’s future as a premier
public media organization by enhancing financial support, promoting community
interest, and providing advice and recommendations to station management and
its license holders." If they want
to promote community interest, why are they resistant to US who want the same
thing? And, what
recommendations? At the June 4
meeting, they just sat and listened – offering no advice, taking no votes other
than the vote to adjourn.
They
considered merging the AdCom and the F-board but took no action either then or
at the June 4 meeting about it.
"Capital
Campaign Revenue through FY06 $508,989.70 – Expenses – $339,808.86." Wow, does this mean that it cost them $339K
to raise $508K? If so the donors should
be very unhappy! 67% fundraising cost,
so for every dollar raised only 33 cents went toward the project,
and 67 cents to fundraising expenses??
"Sandy
Pearson noted the important components of where we are now with a new board
representing the community;…" Here is the claim that the board represents
the community. However in the June 4 we
saw only white skin and no obviously Latino names. The board selects itself.
------------------------
A
note on the June 4 meeting: Does anybody
think it strange that there was no mention at all of our WFCR Democracy Task
Force, or of the three town meeting resolutions?