Student Media Board
MINUTES

REGULAR MEETING
April 9, 2007 • 6:30 p.m.
Student Senate chambers

CALL TO ORDER

MEMBERS PRESENT: Joe Humphries, Simon Huleatt, Brandon Wright, Keitris Weathersbe, Tyler Dukes, Michael Sumner, Will Quick

MEMBERS ABSENT: Patrick Ewing, Jacqueline Indula, Lauren Gould, Christine Dipietro, Steve McCreery, Adam Compton

OTHERS PRESENT: Bradley Wilson, Jamie Gilbert, Josh Harrell

OLD BUSINESS

1. The minutes from Feb. 21 were approved by unanimous consent after a motion by Tyler Dukes and a second by Brandon Wright. CLICK HERE.
2. The minutes from March 1 were approved by unanimous consent after a motion by Brandon Wright and a second by Michael Sumner. CLICK HERE.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Joe Wright and Hannah Richardson were hired as editors of Windhover after a unanimous vote and a motion made by Brandon Wright and a second by Tyler Dukes.
2. Bradley began with an update on the current status of the budget. He pointed out that all the media outlets have failed to spend their payroll money simply due to not filling open positions which has caused more stress on the remaining staff members. He pointed out that students need to spend the monies they are allocated. He also noted that the Technician appears to be behind in advertising income, but that March and April are big months. WKNC is behind in income because Wolfpack Sports Marketing monies have not come in. Agromeck is behind in income because of slow sales and lack of advertising income.
   
   He continued with a reminder of the budget process and how it began with brainstorming and visionary thinking, not tied to money, back in January and reviewed the material given to the Board members in their packets.
   
   He asked all Board members to write down things they would like to see the Student Media do that are not currently being done. Responses included a student television station, a conservative publication, more student programs on WKNC, distribution of more copies of Windhover, more coverage of intramural sports in the Technician and have the Technician go to two days per week during the summer. The group had some discussion. Bradley and Jamie talked about the progress of student television with three things holding it back: (1) the hiring of a full-time adviser; (2) access to a channel with students having final say over content; and (3) adequte space. It is realistic to expect the Technician to go to two days per week next summer and that has been discussed. All other projects are long-term, but all are viable.
   
   Then he went over the summary and explained how to read that chart, particularly the part at the bottom that showed what percentage of fees each media outlet was using and what percentage of their budget was fees. In particular, he noted that, again, the Technician is using no direct fee monies, but that 65 percent of fee monies were going to fund "general administration" which included professional staff salaries but also SCJ and long-term projects that benefit everyone such as server upgrades, camera equipment, etc.
   
   Each leader went through his or her individual budget to point out changes.
   • In Agromeck, the budget includes the New Student Directory and the Career Center Guide, but otherwise reflects a decline in anticipated expenses and income due to declining sales.
   • Americana's budget has been cut, but the New Media Initiative is included under general administration and will include the hiring of at least three students to push forward new media initiatives such as the successful "88.1 Seconds of Technician" now as a podcast and on WKNC.
   • The Nubian Message staff tried to combine some positions to reflect the work actually being done and so that people got paid for work being done. This included making the managing editor responsible for news and ensuring that all section editors write stories for each issue.
   • The Technician budget included the creation of a world and nation page which the staff had major reservations about including, but saw it as an opportunity to expand campus content since the minimum page count would be 10 pages instead of eight, meaning there would be at least one more page of campus news in each issue. CLICK HERE to read more notes on this issue. It also included some travel budget for non-sports coverage and paying the editor for 12 monts, not 10.
   • The Windhover budget included the distribution of 3,000 copies, up 500 from this year.
   • The WKNC budget included a bunch of new engineering equipment, including the ability to do remote broadcasts from anywhere on campus which should facilitate more student-oriented programming. It also included the creation of a sports director primarily responsible for and accountable for the airing of women's basketball and baseball games.
   • The general administration budget included SCJ, new media initiative and only state-mandated increases for professional staff.
   • The overall budget reflects the need to use about $80,000 out of reserve for operational needs.
   • Bradley again reminded everyone of the importance of thinking big, but being realistic as well as spending monies that are budgeted wisely and efficiently. He noted that the top goal on which all Student Media would be focused next year would be recruitment and retention of student staff. He noted that the budget was due to Mike Giancola Friday and that there would likely be some changes based on final formulas received from the Budget Office. He noted that the Budget Office just sent him the materials today and the budget was due Friday.

CLICK HERE for draft of budget

The budget was approved by unanimous consent after a motion by Michael Sumner and second Brandon Wright.

3. Deadline progress. CLICK HERE.
4. Announcements
   • Windhover reception is Wednesday, April 18 in the Craft Center.
   • The end-of-the-year Student Media BBQ will be at 7 p.m. on Harris Field.
   • SCJ is hosting a panel discussion, "Permission to Speak Freely? Media Coverage of the War in Iraq" Sunday, April 22 at 6 p.m. in Stewart Theatre. It's free.

REPORTS

1. Agromeck, Brandon Wright, editor • CLICK HERE
2. Americana, no editor • NO REPORT
3. Nubian Message, Keitris Weathersbe, editor • CLICK HERE
4. Technician, Tyler Dukes, editor • CLICK HERE
5. Windhover, Lauren Gould, editor • CLICK HERE
6. WKNC 88.1fm, Brian Ware, general manager • CLICK HERE
7. Production schedule for 2007-2008 (PDF) • CLICK HERE
8. Budget progress (PDF) • CLICK HERE

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

ADJOURN

AGROMECK
Submitted by Brandon Wright, editor

Awards & Recognitions

We received Gold Circle awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association this week. The awards are from the 2006 book but the staff should feel good about these awards.

• First place in caption writing for yearbooks - Nathan Bullen and William Alligood
• Second place in organizations or Greeks spread for a yearbook - Thomas Cox and William Alligood
• Third place for yearbook sports action photograph - William Alligood
• Third place in yearbook presentation - Austin Dowd and Curtis Martin
• Certificate of merit for yearbook sports spread - Nick Pironio
• Certificate of merit for organization or Greek writing in a yearbook - Cynthia Rouf
• Certificate of merit for yearbook feature photo - Daniel Joe

Staff recruitment/retention

Now that I am hired as editor again for next year, my managing editor and I can start talking about next year's recruitment and retention. As I stated in my interview, it is imperative that we be organized from day one so that we actually look like a publication that knows what it is doing. We lost a lot of people this year due to the lack of organization from the top down. We have recently had several new staff members come into the office who have really shown interest. We want to strive to make them feel a part of the team so that we will have them for next year.

Also, the way that the staff is broken down for next year will provide everyone to get paid for the work they do. We have had problems this year with staff getting paid salary positions and not coming through for us. This will also help solve the budget problem in this area.

Budget

We saw that we are not using our payroll line as much as we should. This means that people are either not getting paid for what they do for lack of coming into fill out paysheets or that editors with salary pay are doing the majority of the work. It is a combination of both aspects but more so the aspect of editors doing the work.

Leadership classes

Since our last board meeting, I have taken one LDS class. The class, "Working with Diverse Populations," was the most interesting class I have taken this semester. The class talked about starting with yourself before looking at the rest of the world and judging. We discussed such topics as the LGBT center on campus and the increase in the Hispanic population their needs. I would recommend this class to anyone. It really stimulates thoughts and ideas on how to deal with diversity issues.

Production schedule

The story is still the same if not worse now. We have 17 days of school left with about half of the book left to produce. After our last staff meeting, I feel that the staff had a reality check and we should start seeing a daily progress. Mary Beth and I will take on the project of completing the academic section while the other staff members work ahead on coverage before school ends. Once school ends, there is no more getting photos or getting stories so we have to focus on that first. The design can be done as soon as the coverage is done but not before. This will be a true test for the staff, but I feel that this is a great book so far and the staff knows that and does not want to see it fail now.

Advertising

To date, we have sold 176 books. We have seen some increase in sales over the last two months. We are in the process now of mailing out letters to all 2,530 graduating seniors. We hope that this will spur some sales growth.

AMERICANA
No editor

NO REPORT

NUBIAN MESSAGE
Submitted by Keitris Weathersbe, editor

Budget

No deviations made

Staff development/Updates

The Nubian Message was represented at this year's African American visitation day. There, several high school students attending N.C. State in the fall expressed interest in joining the staff. They have been added to the Nubian Message e-mail list for updates.

No new staff members have been hired or terminated since the last board report.

Al McArthur is making preparations to take over as editor the day after the last day of classes. Current staff members and I are creating a plan to assist Al in the transition. Staff awards (certificates) will be giving to the staff during our last staff meeting for their work this year.

TECHNICIAN
Submitted by M.Tyler Dukes, editor

Budget

According to the figures generated March 1, we're still down in terms of income and expenditures. We've had some issues in the past weeks with having quite of bit of unspent funds, which come mostly from payroll. Some of this is from positions we budgeted for that were never filled, but the majority of it comes from story and photo count which is below what we budgeted for last year.

As a result, Bradley Wilson, Josh Harrell and I have had some valuable discussions about what to do about next year's budget. They've adjusted some of our plans and have come up with what I believe is a great plan for next year to avoid ending the year with a great deal of unspent expenditures.

Please review the budget and feel free to ask questions.

Staff Recruitment/Retention

I've lost two more section editors, Sports Editor Tanner Kroeger and Features Editor Kassie Gordon. We've hired their replacements and are in the process of training them now. The only good thing about this is that the people filling in the gaps will hold leadership positions next year, so they are getting a jump start on training for the upcoming term.

Josh Harrell has hired his new staff and notified them all Monday after an application process. They will be working in the office as much as possible over the coming weeks to get acclimated to everything. The old guard here will also be handing over the reins gradually toward the end of the month. We plan to let some the new editors become increasingly more involved in making the decisions, planning and running the paper. This will help the transition a great deal.

Production Schedule/Goals

This is my biggest area of disappointment for the past month. We are not meeting our 80 percent goal of meeting the 1 a.m. deadline and we've actually backtracked quite a bit in our efforts to meet our midnight goal. The only thing I can think to do is push harder in the remaining month of my tenure to meet deadline consistently. I hope to return to last semester's trends of meeting the 80 percent goal for the month of April.

Leadership Classes

In place of leadership classes for this month, I attended the Institute for Political Journalism conference, which took place over the course of three days. I visited sessions about covering politics in new media, business journalism and bias. I also got a chance to network with other student journalists from around the nation.

Monthly Training

Former Technician Managing Editor Patrick Clarke came in this month to spend a few hours with the designers to talk about the elements of good design. Design staff members critiqued newspapers - college and professional - from all over the nation to see what worked and what didn't. I really think some of the newer designers benefited from the session in that they were able to broaden their experience in terms of design.

Dick Reavis, an assistant professor in the English department, spent time in the newsroom for four days over the course of two weeks. He was involved in the editorial critiques of the newspaper, editorial discussions and also sat down with writers to critique their work before it went to the paper. We also spent time with him discussing how our paper works to give him a better understanding of our process. Hhis time spent here was valuable. He challenged us quite a bit and I think every staff member that worked with him gained something different.

Five of our staff members, including next year's editor, managing editor and news editor, attended the Institute for Political Journalism conference in early April in downtown Raleigh. The conference brought together students from a variety of different colleges from around the nation and focused mainly on covering politics in broadcast and in print.

Board Reform

I'm happy to inform you that the student body approved our new constitution during the spring election by 86 percent! That means the new board will consist of professionals, academics and a student majority that can provide responsible accountability for Student Media.

This is been in the works for a long time now and I'd really to thank members of the sitting board for all their help in getting this reform passed. It's my belief that next year's editors will be much better situated with the new board.

Other Projects

After months of planning and work, we've finally rolled out "88.1 Seconds of Technician" to audiences of WKNC 88.1 FM and the Technician. The program is a collaboration between the staff of the radio station and the newspaper that delivers listeners campus headlines in less than 90 seconds.

Staff at the Technician write and compile the copy and hand it off to a WKNC staff member to voice it. That staff member gives the mp3 file to the Technician staff, which produces a podcast, complete with photos of the day.

WKNC plays the program on the air several times throughout the day. Users can also subscribe to the podcast with iTunes, or any other podcasting program, to automatically download the daily show as it is posted every night.

Get more information at www.technicianonline.com/podcasting

World and Nation page creation

Mission statement: The World & Nation page will consist of international and national news content that is of direct interest to N.C. State students. It will feature content that Technician employees cannot physically provide for their readers — not because of lack of planning. The page will consist of timely news stories, photos and alt copy, not feature or sports stories.

Location of AP material:

• All AP copy will be restricted to the World & Nation page.
• AP photos will also be restricted to the page, except in cases where a visual is needed in case of an emergency that Technician photographers could not physically cover. AP photo can run in the paper on pages other than the World & National page only when Technician photographers are denied access to an important event, or if we are unable to obtain the photo because of the time allowed between hearing of the story and the actual event. These two exceptions will be the same for using AP photos for sports events.
• The editor will approve all uses of Associated Press content.

Example: During President Bush's trip to the Triangle, the Technician requested access to the event the day before he visited, despite knowing about it days before. By the it was too late to confirm media passes.In a case such as this, Technician could not run an AP photo, because we failed in planning for the event. If we were denied access after requesting in a timely fashion, then we could use an AP photo.

World & Nation editor: The World & Nation editor will be responsible for pulling AP copy and visuals from the AP's wire on a daily basis as per his or her job description which will be finalized this summer. The editor will serve as an assistant news editor who may receive a pay bonus for producing original content for the section — not simply pulled from AP sources.

Follow-up stories: In the case of a national or international story that could affect NCSU students, but occurs very late or at the end of the business day, the Technician should run an AP story on the World & Nation page, then a follow-up story the next day on how it affects students. After business hours a writer will not be able to gather local experts to discuss the impact on students, but it is still important to get the story out in a timely manner.

State news: Technician should be producing content on state news on its own, not relying on AP copy. We have the resources and physical ability to cover news in North Carolina that would affect NCSU students, therefore AP copy will not be needed.

WINDHOVER
Submitted by Lauren Gould, editor

Budget

No deviations from the budget have been made at this time.

Production schedule

CD's were made by Triple Disc and mailed to Theo Davis to be included in the book. Book has been printed and press checks went well with staff members attending. Books should be arriving shortly. Reception date is Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at the Craft Center.  Further arrangements are being made for the reception at this time.

Web site

We are working on the Web site component to the book. The Web site will allow readers of the book to access further information. The Web site will be done and released on the day of the reception when the book will also be released.

We are also working on a history of Windhover to be included on the Web site. This history will include a cover photograph of each past Windhover, names of every editor, and links to further information including awards the publication has won.

Staff recruitment/retention

At least three interested students have come forth and expressed sincere interest in becoming the editor for 2007-2008. Since Windhover did not have potential editorial candidates at the time of the election, a press release was made to the campus specifically asking for Windhover editorial candidates, and the board will meet Monday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. to interview and hire the new editor(s).

WKNC
Submitted by Brian Ware, outgoing general manager

General

WKNC is still on the air with no reported problems of engineering. The engineers are getting closer to starting the final process of wiring the closed production studio and this should be taking place very soon. Steve McCreery, the general manager for 2007-2008, has been meeting with station employees discussing his plans for hiring the next year's Board of Directors. He made the announcement of the new board members on April 2 at the final staff meeting of the semester and his first official day as General Manager.

WKNC and Technician have partnered for "88.1 Seconds of Technician" that went online April 2.

To prepare entries for the College Broadcasters Inc. award contest, WKNC will be hosting a contest of our own seeking submissions from our staff for Best Air Check, Best Promo, Best Liner and Sweeper and other categories.

Budget

WKNC sponsorships are still on the rise as we have several donor announcements running. WKNC is also still partnered with the Irish pub Tir Na Nog for the "Local Band, Local Brew" events that are held every Thursday evening at Tir Na Nog.

Training

The spring WKNC training class is almost finished. Their final training class was March 22 at the WKNC studios. After this class was complete the trainees took their written operator's exams on March 29. They also their board tests the week of March 25. We expected all 22 members of the training class to pass without any problems. Program Director Chanon Smith and I are planning on offering a production training class open to all staff members during the month of April.

Station Outreach

Station adviser Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Smith and I met with nine students from Eastern Carolina University on March 23 to advise them on station operation. I met with a student from University of North Carolina Charlotte to discuss station operation on March 24. Head Daytime Music Director Scott Ingles has been working with a student intern from Broughton High School teaching her about station operation.

Promotions

WKNC just got finished with a week long promotion for the opening of the East Wing of D.H. Hill Library. A volunteer from WKNC represented the station throughout the week long opening. WKNC is also partnering with 206 Partners for the free year radio promotion to be executed in the coming months.

UPDATE: DEADLINE PROGRESS

MAJOR OBJECTIVE

To produce an annual (school year) calendar of deadlines and publication dates for all media while (1) educating students about the importance of meeting deadlines; (2) establishing consequences for failure to meet those deadline; and (3) learning how to plan so that major deadlines are broken into manageable pieces that can be delegated among staff members.

Technician

PLAN: The Technician staff will deliver the paper to the News & Observer by FTP on or before 1 a.m. 80 percent of the time in the fall and spring semesters as determined by the times logged by the N&O staff. If the staff exceeds this goal in any given month, the editor and managing editor will receive a 'bonus' which they can distribute as they see fit. If the staff falls below 80 percent of on time delivery in any given month, the editor and managing editor will receive a penalty equal to $50 for every five percent below goal. Editors may also choose to hold other staff members accountable for missing deadlines.

PROGRESS (as of March 30, 2007):

Semester	Met goal (midnight)	Met deadline (1 a.m.)
Summer 2005	40%	100%
Fall 2005	23%	75%
Spring 2006	17%	68%
Summer 2006	40%	100%
Fall 2006	3%	84%
Spring 2007	14%	75%

Agromeck

PLAN: If the staff meets or exceeds this goal for any given deadline, the editor, managing editor and photo editor may receive a 'bonus' of no more than $75/each which they can distribute as they see fit. If the staff fails to meet its deadline, the editor, managing editor and photo editor will only be paid a percentage of their monthly salary equal to the percentage of the deadline met. The editors may also choose to hold other staff members accountable for missing deadlines.

PROGRESS:

Due	Pages due	Submitted	Date submitted	Percentage
Sept. 22	16	0	—	0%
Oct. 27	24	0	—	0%
Nov. 17	40	0	—	0%
Dec. 8	20	74	Dec. 17	74%
Jan. 19	0	15	Jan. 19
Jan. 26	36	0	—	0%
Feb. 23	32	30	March 2	94%
March 23	32	32	March 29	100%
April 20	32
May 16	168

 

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