Board Agenda

Members present: Selby Lo, Laura Kenny, Peyton Holland, Laura Laurene, Bob Ashley, Dean Phillips, John Clark, Phil Zachary, Al McArthur, Mary Beth Hamrick, Josh Harrell, Joe Wright, Hanna Richardson, Steve McCreery, Bobby Mills, Bradley Wilson

Others present: Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Martha Collins, Fred Eaker, John Cooper Elias

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

Budget — There are no deviations to the budget except the possibility of paying a
joint photo editor for Technician and Agromeck $350/month. Last year's printing bill was paid out of this year's budget because it came in after the deadline. This might impact the budget if we move to spring delivery this year and have two printing bills to pay in one year.

Personnel — We began the year with only two returning staff members, myself and John Cooper Elias, the former sports editor. We recruited new staff members at all orientation sessions as well as at events such as Cates Crawl, Convocation and the Student Media Open House. The response has not been as good as we expected, however, there are a few promising new staff members.

Our weekly staff meetings with the new members not only serve as a way to give out assignments, but also as an avenue to train the new writers and designers as they are working on their assignments. Also, we planned a training session for new designers to become acquainted with InDesign.

Coop and I realize this is going to be a difficult project that will take
much work from everyone because of the size of our staff and the
circumstances under which this book began production. We will work hard to motivate and continue growing our staff. The Agromeck staff is dedicated to continuing the tradition of excellence with the 2007-2008 book.

Production Schedule — Coop and I have been working on a ladder for the “Year in Review.” Because of the nature of this particular book, there will not be a finalized ladder until production is almost complete. We are working toward finalizing the 16 pages for the first deadline on Sept. 21.

Al McArthur, editor (eic@nubian.ncsu.edu)
Kishea Phillips, managing editor (reallyg034@yahoo.com)

Staff Recruitment/Retention — Since July 2007, eight students have been hired as writers, layout editor or circulation manager. We are still hiring for the positions writer and photographer. We have scheduled an open house for mid-to-late October.

Production Schedule — We are continuing the weekly schedule: every Wednesday, excluding weeks following holidays or student breaks. Our first issue of the year was available on Aug. 29, on schedule. The next issue is scheduled for Sept. 12.

Public Relations — We co-sponsored program in accordance with the African American Culture Center and the Association of Black Culture Centers to welcome new African-American students, faculty and staff to the African-American community here at North Carolina State University. To celebrate the first issue of the Nubian Message that came out Nov. 30, 1992, the Nubian Message will be reprinting old articles and spotlighting past editors and their accomplishments in and out of the editor's chair.

Training/Development — Staff training will take place once every month, focusing on the areas of copy editing and article coverage. Dick Reavis has also agree to offer one on one help for writers who wanted it.

With a new staff taking over, this group has seen some transition difficulties. But the editors under me are showing a lot of promise and are continually surprising me with the things they've been able to do already this year.

Budget — We hired a photo editor, to relieve some of the duties we had placed on Laura White, our managing editor. Since we do not have a place in our budget for such a position, we were able to joint hire Josh Lawson with the Agromeck.

One of our major problems over the summer was dealing with payroll. Laura and I struggled to enforce deadlines for editors and writers for turning in their timesheets. This resulted in us having to pay people well outside of the time period in which they're supposed to get paid. We're getting better at this, after learning where we went wrong during the summer and getting help from the section editors.

Recruitment/Retention — Throughout the summer's New Student Orientation sessions, Technician staff members worked along with other members of Student Media to recruit freshmen through attendance at organization fairs and by passing out our Orientation Guide. At each Orientation session, we had two people passing out the Orientation Guides which were stuffed with "Join the Team" fliers. We think this helped get people's attention early on in the process before we met with students later at the organization fair. The most successful sign-up period predictably came from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences sections, and dropped off as the sessions went on.

All new employees must take the Technician class that we started last year. We also required the writers who joined in the spring semester, who did not take the class last year, to take it this year. On the first day of the class, last Wednesday, we had 42 students turn out.

The trouble with last year is that even though we had a large class, we were only able to keep a select few. We will be enforcing more communication and partnerships between each writer, photographer and designer with his or her corresponding editor.

Another problem from last year that has leaked over is the retention of editors. Since initially hiring this group last May, we have already lost three editors: Danny Boemermann, visuals editor, Megan Roberts, viewpoint editor, and Colleen Forcina, deputy news editor. The visuals editor was split in half, as we decided to create design co-editors in Matt Wilson and Helen Dear. Matt Walton and Anne Rudisill have stepped into the viewpoint and deputy news roles respectively. I’m still unsure as to why people keep resigning. My assumption is that a culture has been created where it’s OK to quit, and I honestly don't know what to do about it.

Training/Morale — The editorial board took its annual trip to Manteo the weekend before school started, and by most accounts it was a success. Though several editors were there for their second — in one case even third — time, the majority were on their first staff retreat. We covered a variety of ethical issues that we could face this year and did some in-depth planning to prepare for coverage this fall. Each editor is responsible for a portion of this year's Technician class, and they worked on planning their lessons for that class as well as figuring out the best ways to connect with the new writers.

I had the opportunity to attend the Management Seminar for College Newspaper Editors in Athens, Ga. at the end of July. Nearly 60 editors were at the conference, and I made a lot of connections with students in the same position I'm in to whom I can turn for thoughts and advice throughout the year. We worked together to come up with new ideas for our Web site and how to improve our publications. Various presenters from newspapers, magazines and media groups spoke and gave a professional perspective. We also had the opportunity to spend a day at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and see how a major metro daily functions.

I personally have worked hard on learning how to manage a staff that is much different than last year's. I had formed a certain style of leadership last year that I had found effective in getting results, but I've found this year that a much different style is needed. We're working with a young, but very talented, staff that could be prone to burnouts. Laura and I are keeping a constant gauge on the moods and stress levels of our editors. The individual weekly meetings I've instituted with each of the section editors has been a success so far, as they've been able to more comfortably communicate their problems to me and we are able to work out a solution together.

Technology — Last year's editor, Tyler Dukes, has filled the role of our online editor — though unfortunately it is an unpaid position at this time. Through a number of ideas that I learned during my trip to Georgia, and plans Tyler has had for the Web site, we are looking to add content to our expanding Web site. We are revamping our blog section, as we are starting a football blog for the Boston College weekend Sept. 9. A science & tech blog should be starting later this month, as well as an arts and entertainment blog. We are using George Washington University's student newspaper's blog site as a model, as we hope to make the new section the first of many changes to the Web site this year.

Upcoming events/changes — Besides the Technician class, monthly training sessions will begin this month with a photographers training class. Student Media-wide training classes will begin next month.

We are also looking to finalize the redesign of the Viewpoint page. We hope to premiere it in the next two weeks after getting input from past Technician designers, current staff and advisors. Helen and Matt worked hard over the summer to come up with a new design and have been tweaking it ever since.

Ethical issues — In the July 19 column titled "Alcohol class insulting," columnist Trevor Hooten used the News & Observer as a source for his story without citing it. Not only did he not cite his source, but the information he got from his source was incorrect. He wrote that the AlcoholEdu class costs $80,000, as the News & Observer had it, when it actually costs the school $26,000. After publishing the story without thoroughly checking it, I apologized to Chris Austin, of Student Health Services who heads the program, for not appropriately teaching our columnists to do research for their stories. He understood and we talked about ways to avoid this in the future. I met with Trevor about the importance of research and knocked his next column off the budget until he talked to an NCSU representative for his primary source. Bradley and I also sent a letter to Paul Cousins explaining the situation and our response to it.

In the Aug. 23 article titled "Student life to receive facelift," Brittany Truchon's primary source of information was Thomas Stafford, the vice chancellor for student affairs. But the problem was that Stafford did not even speak at the meeting that Brittany got her information from. The source was actually Tom Skolnicki, the University's landscape architect. While Skolnicki was speaking, Brittany got confused by the first name and assumed Stafford was speaking. Stafford sent me an e-mail the day the story was published asking for a correction. Brittany was convinced it was Stafford the whole time until she actually played the recording for me. We researched it and found it was Skolnicki. I called both and apologized and told them where we went wrong. I talked to Brittany about the importance of talking to each of your sources, not just taking what they say from a meeting. She also sent both of them a letter of apology and of what she learned from the situation.

In April, Windhover hired four designers: Becca Mayfield, senior; Nicole Kraieski, senior; Iowana Balasa, senior; Lena Bondar, junior. We will also be using the eyes of volunteer readers to help sort through literary submissions as well as the advice of Kelly Reed of WKNC for the audio aspect of the magazine.

No purchases have been made from the budget. However, we are preparing our advertising schedule and will soon be distributing the first ads requesting submissions. Our advertising strategy for the entire semester includes fliers/posters, postcards, an ad before movies in Witherspoon, displays on the free expression tunnel and WKNC audio ads.

This year, our Web site will play a greater role in the development of the magazine. We will use the website for advertising, updates, teasers and as a means of displaying submissions not included in the magazine itself. We will release Windhover online either at the same time or the day before the physical book is released. The site will include not only literary and visual submissions, but audio files as well.

WKNC Budget — Our budget is pacing on track for the year. About 17 percent of it has been spent through 17 percent of the fiscal year. Slight modifications will be discussed this week (week of Sept. 10) by me and engineering to re-evaluate the engineering repair and supply budgets. The repair budget was cut back significantly and has already been overspent due to a large one-time repair expense of an audio processor.

Staff Recruitment & Assignments — WKNC implemented its first summer training program, a shortened version of our fall and spring programs, and we recruited and trained two dozen students to become deejays as well as to fill other positions. This shortened version of the program was a success, and as a result, our upcoming fall and spring training programs will follow this model. This will allow students to more quickly become involved in the radio station.

One result of our summer program was that WKNC now has two librarians who have been doing an excellent job organizing our music library, something that has been needed for several years.

A new position that was added at my request and filled is that of public affairs director. This paid position is responsible for reaching out to campus organizations in the effort to secure ties between them and WKNC, and to help promote certain non-profit events that they are associated with. This is also helping bring an overall local and university sound
to WKNC, something that has been lacking.

Another new position at WKNC is operation manager, who, among other duties, assists the program director.

We now have two production personnel. Also, stressing to the staff that WKNC is not just a station for deejays, everyone is encouraged, and some are even required, to learn audio production skills and produce elements for the radio station. Besides helping keep the station sounding fresh, learning radio production goes a long way in empowering those students
who participate in it. A major step that is way overdue is the production of updated imaging elements.

Technology, Equipment, Etc. — The one computer that is responsible for running the most vital programs crucial to WKNC’s operation (Selector, Linker, AVRPS, and AV Scheduler) was finally replaced by a newer model. It had been used for nearly five years and was the least powerful computer in the radio station, causing many headaches including frequent crashes and the inability to be remotely accessed.

After approximately two years of being dormant, WKNC now has its main production room up and running. This now gives us two fully-operational audio production rooms.

WKNC’s Web site (wknc.org) has a new and more visually-appealing look that is also more promotional-friendly, allowing us to promote multiple events at one time.

WKNC Music — As of April 1, 2007, a large number of non- FCC compliant songs were deleted from Audiovault. Also, other songs were either deleted or moved to more appropriate dayparts so that the sound of the daytime format is more consistent with what it is supposed to be.

WKNC’s music scheduling program, Selector, is now being used to its fuller potential, and music directors are learning more about the program through customer service and training than has been learned in quite some time. The result is less music scheduling conflicts and more proper song rotation, among other benefits. There is still quite a lot more to learn about the programs, and the music directors are encouraged to make sure their successors are taught very specifically how to use the software.

WKNC Promotions — A major (and long overdue) purchase this year is the new WKNC banners. 2,000 linear feet of plastic banners means that wherever we are, we will be seen. Station logo visibility was nearly non-existent before now.
Now, when we are at an event – large or small – we can confidently display our logo many times over without fear of losing a banner.

As it pertains to revenue: We are now asking for money (in the form of donor announcements) to properly promote large events. In the past, WKNC has been happy to promote non-charity events for free, nearly free, or merely in exchange for tickets to give away on air. We are no longer ‘giving it away.’ Every money-making event that we promote now comes with a price tag. This will go a long way in 1) teaching the staff that there is more value in WKNC than they perhaps believe, and 2) exceeding our revenue goals.

Shack-a-thon: WKNC will participate in this fall Brickyard event, not as a paying participant, but as a media sponsor. We are temporarily securing an live remote system so that we can broadcast live at various times throughout the event. This will create excitement for the event, introduce revenue-generating opportunities for WKNC, and bring more market wide attention to NC State's Habitat for Humanity than has ever previously happened throughout this five-day event.

"The State of the Radio Station" is good, is improving, but still has a way to go for WKNC to live up to its fullest potential.

After a solid panel discussion of news coverage of the war in Iraq on April 22 with panelists Melanie Sill (executive editor of The Raleigh News & Observer), Jay Price (war reporter for The Raleigh News & Observer), Mohamed Ali (whose family lives in Iraq and who used to live in Iraq with them) and Major Jeff Robertson (who fought in Iraq and is with NCSU ROTC), SCJ is planning how it can be involved in National Freedom of Speech Week Oct. 15-21. We will be planning a few events of how we can coincide with this national week with things such as mock budget meetings or handing out copies of the First Amendment.

The Society for Collegiate Journalists is also reviewing the applications of its two latest applicants and hopes to make a further recruiting push to help maintain the membership needed to organize successful events that raise awareness about journalism on campus.

Hannah Richardson, Windhover co-editor in chief and Technician staff writer, and Kyle Robb, WKNC program director, were accepted as new members at a Sept. 5 meeting of SCJ. An induction ceremony will be held in the coming weeks.