WBCR-LP 97.7FM, Great Barrington Community Radio

Minutes: Programming Committee (PC) meeting 9/4/07

Minutes taken by F. Tolopko

In attendance: Ananda Timpane, Dan White, Todd Lewis, Frank Tolopko, Ben Shalles, Nick Ring, Deborah Alecson, Larry Bronstein

Agenda items in lightface, minutes italicized

1.    House-keeping

∑ Minutes Accepted
∑ Agenda Prioritized and accepted
∑ Online Program Listing Edits Christy said to send them to her for now.
∑ Online Calendars Issue Integration involves a technical issue (gmail) that Ben will discuss with Asa Hardcastle
∑ Program Descriptions Dan will make collate new program descriptions. Ananda will then forward to K. Skelton. (The new program guide is not a PC concern. Karen will be directed to Board of Directors president Jan for feedback.)

2a.    Programs/Programmers

∑ Israel-Palestine Forum (7/17/07) On-going effort. Deborah and Larry B. have made contacts and will report back in 1 month. N. Ring agreed to join their committee. Issue of sponsorship of the forum yet to be decided.
∑ Healers Connect (8/7/07) (Commercial speech issue): Tabled
∑ The Aquarian Hour (8/21/07) Sponsor of show has been absent for 9 consecutive shows. PC voted unanimously to assess 2 violation points.  Ananda to contact sponsor via email. No further action taken.
∑ Story Time Access Code (8/24/07) The studio trashedӔ (Sept. 2/3) was discussed. Programmer contacted (finally) by Todd and invited to the next PC meeting. PC agreed that 9 pts., for multiple violations, could be assessed. Final disposition will await the programmers presentation.
∑ Caribbean Beats (8/27/07) Ben assisted the programmer in FTPing their show into the automation folder
∑ Nick added an item: Possible self-promotion on the ғJumping Off show. Ananda tasked with communicating same to Ina and Esu and inviting them to next PC meeting. They will attend.

2b.  Schedule catch up/touch up Last minute changes to the Fall schedule were discussed and approved.

3.    Self Promotion Policy, (Todd, 6/5/07) Tabled: Todd preparing draft for future discussion.

4.    Policy Comprehension Quiz Review (Nick, 6/19/07) Tabled: Nick will complete draft of the quiz in September. He also volunteered to grade the exam after it is taken by the programming community.

(Item 7): Discussion of the process in becoming a WBCR programmer and the time frame involved. Suggestions and ideas, in writing, should be forwarded to the PC by Oct. 1. Todd will seek volunteers, after October 1, to assist in producing a flyer.

Todd reported that all new programmer training will be completed by Oct. 1.

5.    Programmer/Programming Committee/Day Captain Communication Flow,  (Ananda, 6/19/07) Ananda developed and presented a communication/action flow diagram which diagrammed the process of dealing with policy violations. The PC critiqued the process and diagram. Ananda will update the diagram for the next PC meeting.

6.    Listener Comment Line, (Ananda, 7/17/07) Tabled

7.    New Programmer Training/Better Preparation, (Frank, 7/17/07) Discussed as part of Item 4. The idea of revamping the training and application process was discussed, but with no resolution. Tabled for further discussion.

8.    Anonymity v. Accountability, (7/17/07)

Motion on the table for discussion: Change station policy to require all programmers or program sponsors to provide their real name in a manner accessible by the community.

Tabled the motion. But there was discussion and a non-binding straw poll of members that any change of policy would not be effective until the programming term beginning in Februrary.

9.    Accuracy in Reporting/Opinion Programs, (Jan Seward, 8/7/07) Tabled

10.  Language, guidelines, hate speech and sensitivity working group, (Nick, 8/7/07) N. Ring, working group of one, has contacted various grassroots organizations and will report on his findings at a later time. Nick will do some research on the issues and report back in October. Todd will contact the Volunteer Committee for volunteers.

11.  Blast Email Protocol, (8/10/07) Tabled

12.  Cap on Voting Committee Members (Todd, 8/18/07) Genesis of the discussion was the concern that the new volunteer requirements might draw too many volunteers to the PC and make its deliberations too unwieldy. After discussion the PC voted unanimously to cap membership at 11 members as of the October/February programming term. The motion was amended to revisit the cap after the first term.

13.  Old Violation Reports, (Ananda, 8/20/07) Old violation reports were reviewed and were discarded by vote of the PC. They were deemed to be outdated and unenforceable.

14.  Peer Review, (Ananda, 8/21/07) Tabled

→ Posted by atimpane on 09/04/2007 at 11:56 AM. Filed under "minutes".