Valley Free Radio Board Meeting Agenda 12.6.06

December 6th, 2006 Posted by Bill Baue

MEF, 7:30 â€“ 9:30pm

Executive session 7:30 â€“ 8:00:
Legal affairs â€“ proposals for approach, formulate plan of action to present for approval.

Regular session: 8:00-9:30
1. Questions from non-Board members; prioritize agenda (5 min)
2. Announce and decide upon executive session proposal. (5 min)
3. Set up a procedure to formulate and decide upon new requirements for voting privileges/membership (15 min)
4. Review Jose Tolsonâ€™s questions about organization; propose ways to improve communication and accountability between Board and committess. Delegate questions to committees. (5 min)
5. Studio security: Should records and cdâ€™s be locked away? Formulate proposal (5min)
6. Studio security: Should access to the studio computers be restricted (assignment of passwords)? Should some data and/or computer use be secured? Formulate proposal (5 min)
7. Should there be limits on the amount of data storage space a programmer should be allowed (Eric suggests 1-2gigs)? Or should we just keep adding new memory? (5 min)
8. Approve up to $200 for a sound card for the automation computer? (2min)
9. Addressing African American Collective challenges (20 min)
a. Statistical breakdown survey of VFR? Proposals
b. First steps in outreach & improving relationships - proposals
10. Ground rules progress â€“ GMC (10 min)
11. Draft letter in response to billing from Cathy Santosus (5 min)
12. Response to further gifts from Richard Moody (Ericâ€™s recommendation) (3 min)
13. General mtg agenda (5 min)

Jose Tolsonâ€™s concerns:
1. THE ROLE OF THE BOARD:
I would like some clarification about our role. Often times I do not know who is responsible for what. I feel that many questions get asked but there isn’t a single definitive decisionmaking process. Case in point was the Thanksgiving studio manager schedule/programmer schedule. If I hadn’t asked the question about who was doing what I am not sure what would have happened.

2. ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
I again want to suggest that we draw a visual representation of our structure. I think if we can see the current structure it will be easier to recommend changes to the general membership. I think the general membership would also benefit from seeing our structure outlined.

3. SUPERVISION
I was speaking to a programmer the other night and he mentioned that regardless of our organizational philosophies (collectives vs corporate designs, etc) there needs to be elected persons who ensure that the station is following some type of standards. For instance; it appears that anyone can make a PSA and put it on the air. As far as I can tell, there is no one checking that the VU-levels are correct, that the content is legal, and that the PSA is deleted after it expires.

4. SURVEY OF MEMBERSHIP
I had sent out an email earlier asking if anyone had done a survey of the station membership to identify the areas of concern for them. I have not received any communication back from anyone so I am left to assume that it probably has not. My guess is that a survey could set some objectives for us to think about as we meet and plan for the future. My feeling is that it will also enable the membership to feel a better connection to WXOJ.

5. TRAINING OF MEMBERS
There are quite a lot of ‘untrained’ people at the station; which is natural in a volunteer radio station setting. There are many things about the station that I am learning because of ‘need’. Still, the incident with the keys and the unlocked doors to the station last night is very troubling. Again, it is all related to “What kind of Board are we going to be?”

6. ORGANIZATIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION
At the last general meeting I spoke to Bill Weye about the new email lists he has been creating for the different committees, etc. I asked him if, in the process of creating these lists, so could also consolidate all of them into one long list?. He said that it was possible. So perhaps we can talk about this as well. Especially since there are a few new lists that he has already created.