General Membership Meeting Minutes 1.21.09
Present: Linda Kennedy, Eddie Kennedy, Donn Henry, Fidel Hidalgo, Steve Cutting, Rikk Degres, Dana Prescott, Bob Gutowski, Andy Sewell, Tony Shannon, David Beyer.
The meeting was opened with introductions.
Minutes of the December General Membership meeting were accepted as written.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Fund Raising: Meeting was cancelled due to weather conditions. The Next meeting is scheduled for January 25th, 2pm at the Yellow Sofa, Northampton.
Promotions: Working on the new schedule flyer. A member will be at the Programming Committee meeting to review the draft schedule with Liaisons on a routine schedule for the remainder of this year with proposed printing dates in April, July and September. Would like the flyer to match the ‘wall schedule’ in the studio as well as what appears on the website. Planning to contact public access TV in Amherst, Easthampton and Northampton to see if we can arrange for them to stream our broadcast while they do their community announcements. Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 18 prior to GM Meeting.
Tech: Recommending that the machine that transfers information to the transmitter needs to have a backup. Staff need to be retrained on use of the automation software so everyone is using it correctly – working on that now. Also need to get a ‘window box’ for automation – approximately $200. The request for new equipment will be brought to the next Board of Directors Meeting for appropriation. Eventually there will be a request of Music Collective Liaison to review what is in automation.
Programming: Both Co-Coordinators were absent from the meeting so no report was made. At least one of the Co-Coordinators needs to participate in the General Membership Meetings.
Treasurer: A meeting took place with former bookkeeper Bob Gardner, Tony Shannon and Andy Sewell to transfer the records and review the accounts. The plan now is to use Quick Books for non-profits for the bookkeeping. Tony will take responsibility for accounts receivable and Andy will handle accounts payable. There are less than 5 outstanding pledges from last fall’s pledge drive. They will report monthly to the Board and an annual budget projection will be developed. Balance is approximately $6,000.
VOTING FOR BOARD VACANCIES:
Those present who are members in good standing (8) voted unanimously to accept both nominated candidates for Board – Andy Sewell and Diana Coryat. Congratulations and welcome to our two new Board Members.
GRIEVANCE AND MEDIATION COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT: None of the VFR members who have shown an interest in serving on this committee were present at the meeting. They are Bush I Harvey, Katherine Kendall, Strongoak, Alan Vogel, and Keely Malone. The will be sent an email on behalf of the Board requesting that they attend the next Board Meeting in February.
LOCAL SHOW UNDERWRITING: Andy Sewell reported on the progress of a proposed policy for local show underwriting. The proposal will be on the Board agenda for February and presented at the February General Membership Meeting.
WESTERN MASS INDYMEDIA PROPOSAL: This proposal was shared on the discussion board in December. The proposal received a unanimous vote of acceptance. David Beyer will contact Bill Weye to see when they can begin.
TRAINING DAYS UPDATE: Unfortunately only Andy, Linda and Eddie showed up for the training session on the first Sunday in January. However they did have very good conversation. Another training date like this one will be scheduled. It was agreed that programmers who participate in these training events can count them as their 2 hours of volunteer time once a quarter.
SIGN-OFF LANGUAGE: Bob Gutowski reported that no specific sign-off language is required. We do have to do “WXOJ-LP Northampton” at the top of the hour.
VOLUNTEERISM – POINTS OF CONTACT: It was agreed that a Points of Contact list should be developed and put up in the Studio reception area. It would include all Liaisons, Andy for Promotions, Shawn for Fund Raising, Eric and Andy for Techs, etc. Linda will produce a working draft and bring it to the Board of Directors Meeting in February. Tony shared the Volunteer Hours Report from all the collectives. Nothing has been reported from the Education and Social Issues Collective. Again, this will be brought to the Board of Directors Meeting in February. It was suggested that staffing the Studio Reception area during the day – accomplishing studio administration tasks might also be considered for volunteer timed. A contact person would also need to be identified.
OPERATIONS COMMITTEE: After some discussion it was agreed that members of this committee should be identified from our present standing committees (ie heads of each committee), identify a volunteer point person, one for finance, and one for admin. This will be brought to the Board meeting in February also.
Respectfully submitted
Linda Kennedy, Clerk
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