July 23, 2007
16 July 2007
In attendance: Brendt Rioux (General Manager), Mike Clancy (Board), Alex Sergay (Chief Engineer), Joy (Board), Chaz Berret (Board), Kristin Sumrall (Board), Mike Perini (Board)
Agenda approved unanimously
Last meeting’s minutes approved unanimously
Next meeting set for August 13th
- The renovation swing space in the student wood shop has room for roughly 40 cubicles; we have requested six. These will be used primarily for Exec Staff but could also be used for the fundraiser. The storage space will be 7.5 feet tall- unfortunately our library shelves are eight feet tall. We have recently been notified that they expect the station's wiring to run through the IT closet near the Thompson St. stairs rather than the closet in Prod B that we currently use. Since we have already done the wiring for the station, it seems unnecessary for us to use the other closet.
- The Programming, Music, and GM offices will lose a few feet when the new conference room is constructed (in place of Annex A). There will also be new motion sensing light switches.
- It seems that the best way to move stuff out of Annex A will be to get everything into boxes so that the rest of the job merely involves picking up and moving. The boxes and moving labor will be provided for moving everything out, but not for moving it back in. We get to keep a certain amount of swing space and storage area even after the renovation. It is likely that we will need new shelving and furniture, but we will receive no help in buying or moving it.
- The air conditioning has been fixed, much to the relief of the station.
- The new budget has been prepared by Brendt and Chaz and distributed for overview by the board. The budget from 2005-06 was used as a guide since the 2006-07 budget was lost in a Quicken crash.
- A few departments and expenses no longer exist on this budget (e.g. News Department and “Remote Expenses”), so those expenses have been eliminated. A new category, “Shelving and Furniture,” has ben added with a budget of $2500 in order to cover the expenses of rebuilding livable station areas after renovations.
- The budget for web costs has not been set at this point because we have so many uncertain charges to account for. The exact amount owed to Sound Exchange is unclear. Likewise, royalty charges appear to be rising.
- The exact amount raised during fundraiser, as well as the amount that we will need to spend on it next year, are both unclear. That figure will stay budgeted at the previous level.
- Since the total budget amount is not listed and a few expenses have yet to be determined, the budget will be finalized at the next meeting.
- The Fall Concert, scheduled for Welcome Week in late August, will take place on Sept. 1st or 2nd. The headlining act is Sunburned Hand of the Man. Additional opening acts will include Graveyards, a free jazz project featuring Wolf Eyes’ John Olsen, and Odd Cloud. Sunburned’s booking agent is hesitant to commit right now, but the deal appears quite likely to go through. The Neutral Zone is willing to offer us an operating budget of $1000. UMMA is also likely to help us fund the concert, since they have been extremely generous in the past.
- Jandek has demanded a 200-400 person venue with inclined seating. Perhaps the Rackham Auditorium, Arthur Miller Theater, or the RC Theater would be appropriate. This will likely be the Winter concert, tentatively scheduled for February or March.
- The transmitter went off recently without the proper procedures being taken. The DJ responsible has been corrected about the necessary measures.
- A campus library is selling off CDs, but we need to buy them in blocks of 100 without searching them first. Brendt is willing to filter through them, so it seems like a good bet that we will find some good additions to the library.
Posted by cberret at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2007
4 June 2007
In Attendance:Brendt Rioux (GM), Mike Clancy (board), Chaz Berret (board), Geoff Perrin (board), Mike Perini (board), Evan Eustace (board), Joy (board)
Call to order
Agenda approved
Last month’s minutes approved
Next meeting set for July 9
- Evan will be leaving in the Fall, so his seat will be up for election along with Chaz and Kristin’s student seats.
- Renovation update: there is a huge skylight in the woodshop. It is believed that the station will begin renovation in November. Brendt proposes that we establish a schedule for the move. It is reasonable to begin as soon as possible by getting rid of everything that is unnecessary or simply junk. The annexes present an interesting problem in terms of assessing what is junk.
- There is still a great deal of work remaining from the most recent fundraiser. Meg is working on it as we speak. Many of the checks have not been processed, some of the bills have not been sent, and people are still complaining that they have not received their premia. The balance of the gifts account is just above $20,000. We will need to transfer it to the SOAS account soon.
- The heat in the studio is unbearable. Apparently persistent calls to ‘plant’ will make them more likely to fix it.
- The Neutral Zone wants to have a teen show in the fall. Just to test the idea out, we might give them an hour long slot for news, music, etc.
- (Tom Bray has requested that this topic, despite being absent from the meeting's discussion, be added to the record) Tom spoke with Shari Fox in UM's Development office, and a former UM student and DJ has voiced plans to leave around $30,000 in an endowment for WCBN. The catch: she's only about 50, so it will be a while before we get anything, and she is earmarking it to support sports programming. The endowment would generate about $1200 a year, disbursed quarterly.
Motion to adjourn. Unanimous approval. Meeting closed.
Posted by cberret at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2007
Board of Directors
4/30/07
In attendance: Jen Herard (GM), Jason Voss (board), Mike Clancy (board), Jeff (not-yet-board), Tom Bray (board), Chaz Berret (board), Mike Perini (board), Kristin Sumrall (board), Brendt Rioux (board), Jeffrey Carey (not board)
Agenda approved unanimously
Last month’s meeting minutes approved
Next month’s meeting scheduled for June 4th
When most of the money from fundraiser has come in, we will shift it to the SOAS account. We still have not determined what went wrong with the multiple credit card charges.
We have been given an estimate of $4300 to update the electronic infrastructure of the station. It is a huge mess right now. They claim that they can do it without running any new conduits. Each office will have CAT 5E ethernet and it will be terminated in the office behind Prod B. This way the entire network will be internal. This can be done either before or after renovation. There is a possibility that there will be extra expenses, so the motion should account for up to $5000.
Tom moves to approve an expenditure of up to $5000 for ITCOM updates. Unanimously approved.
Alex wishes to buy a new mixer ($1500) and a program called Serrato Scratch ($1500) for Prod A, which allows in-studio DJs to scratch with mp3 files. The DJs who currently do live shows already use the software, so this would be a useful upgrade. Alex also needs to buy various and sundry audio supplies, including a new CD player for Prod A that matches the ones we use in FM. The mixer rack has already been approved at the board,
Tom moves for Alex to use the rest of his budget for the year as detailed above and as he sees fit. Unanimously approved.
Tom wishes to begin a partnership with the Bentley Library involving Reel Live Music archives. They have some empty shelf space and some people to help us digitize it. Tom is going to talk to them about it and no one can think of any reason not to.
There was an incident two weeks ago in which a DJ engaged in a potential act of sexual harassment. The exec staff decided that there should be a zero tolerance policy, and he received a warning from the General Manager. The DJ was seriously offended and requested that the warning be revoked. This DJ would need to come before the board to appeal it. Kristin believes that the overall station policy should be drafted and reviewed at the board. Tom and Mike believe that the University’s policy is de facto our policy, so this simply may not be an issue that is up for discussion. The official University policy will be reviewed by Kristin and presented at the next meeting so the board can be better informed before any proposals are made.
The new exec staff has been determined already. Rachel Silveri will be the new program director, making the summer schedule with the help of Sarah Stedman. Ben Yee will be development director. Brendt will continue to be music director with Jeffrey, then Bill Corrigan will replace one of them in the Fall. Patrick Dieter will be the new Assistant GM. Tyler Dancer will be the training coordinator.
Jeffrey Carey and Brendt Rioux are running for the General Manager next year. The regular procedures seem incredibly unnecessary considering that Jeffrey endorses Brendt and is running because it is necessary for there to be a plurality of candidates. An eyes-closed, hand-raising vote was conducted and Brendt was elected.
Tom motions to adjourn, unanimous approval.
Posted by cberret at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2007
Board of Directors
3-19-07
In attendance: Jen Herard (GM), Alex Sergay (Chief Engineer), Kristin Summrall (Board), Mike Clancy (Board), Evan Eustace (Board), Chaz Berret (Board), Steve Schuster (Sports Director)
Call to order
Last meeting’s minutes approved
Next month’s meeting set for April 30
o At next month’s meeting, the General Manager election will be held. The newest board members will be elected by that time, so they will be able to vote for the new GM.
o The sports department is here to ask for funds. The Michigan hockey team is going to Denver for a tournament and they need money.
o Kristin moves to approve an expenditure of up to $1500 for the Sports Department so that they may cover the hockey team tournament in Denver. Chaz seconds the motion. Unanimous approval.
o Lenny’s seat will be filled by Mike Perini. Mike Clancy spoke to the VP of Communications, Julie Peterson, and they decided that Mike Perini would be a good candidate. Everyone on the board agrees that he is a good choice.
o Since Tom Bray is interested in giving up his seat, there has been some talk of inviting Mars to take Tom’s seat rather than Lenny’s, as we originally planned. Mike believes that it would be good to keep Tom around as long as possible, especially since it will be important to have his help as the renovations approach.
o Renovation update: a lot of stuff has been moved from the wood shop recently; demolitions will begin soon. The timeline is still very uncertain, but we know that we aren’t among the first steps (possibly as late as stage 3), so there is no imminent concern. Alex says that we still do not know whether the sports office will be finished by the time we need to move the studio there. We also do not know whether we will be able to coordinate our re-carpeting with their re-carpeting. Mike does not think that it will be difficult to schedule the two at the same time. The sound quality standards for the new studio can be met by installing extra vents, so this is not as immediate or threatening a concern as we originally thought. The station offices need to have their IT networking structure updated; Alex needs special approval for this since it will almost certainly exceed $1000, but this will need to be an e-mail vote when the issue arises.
o The balance in the gift account after fundraiser is $7,284.89; that only accounts for credit card donations, since mail-outs were only sent last week. The total was well over $27,000, so only ¼ of the money has ben received.
o Premia CDs – the Down Home Show and Radio Rama Lama assembled CDs that were all public domain; Brian Tomsic got permission from the labels. The Pan-African Heartbeat CD has been edited down to only ‘creative commons’ tracks. Mike has gone to the UM lawyers, who believe that in all likelihood the distribution of premia CDs is a violation of copyright law. They have been given our policy, but have not yet gotten back to us about any specific problems.
o Soundexchange, the company who manages our streaming service, does not regularly send us bills, but rather insists that we remember to send the $500 annual fee. Mike believes that we owe them for both this year and last year. It is also possible that we owe them extra money for rate increases and underpayment of recent bills. Mike is going to investigate.
Brendt moves to end the meeting, Evan seconds, unanimous approval.
Posted by cberret at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2007
Board of Directors
2/19/07
In attendance: Jen Herard (GM), Brendt Rioux (board), Mike Clancy (board), Chaz Berret (board), Jason Voss (board), Kristin Summrall (board), Julia Weinert (not board, observing), Jesse Johnston (not board), Meg Marotte (not board), Mars (not board).
Next meeting set for Monday, March 19th.
o Mike has e-mailed Julie Peterson, the woman who will appoint the next staff BOD seat. She has not responded. Michigan Radio is also a possible place to look. Tom is also looking to give up his seat, so we will need to find yet another staff member. The only people that Jen can think of are Saramin Grosky and Arwulf. It is also possible to simply put on a special election in April for that seat along with the others.
o Mike received a notice from the project manager (of renovation) saying that the design can be adjusted for the sound-proofing level that we need. Mike says that more sound diffusers can be added if necessary. It seems that we simply won’t know if the sound level is adequate until after renovation is finished. The project manager says that the plans are within radio sound level standards, but Mike believes that it can be lower. They are not willing to change their design.
o Meg on fundraiser: there was a problem with the U-M gift database, so we used our own database. Alex and Meg will have to add everything by hand. The total was roughly $23,000, but should be a bit higher after some others from the Fall are added. Some people were charged multiple times (up to 13), but we were quick to resolve the problem. Before fundraiser, the gift account had $2,000, which will be transferred later.
o Tom gave the impression that he and Mike could go and talk to the lawyers about issues surrounding promo CDs. Though a policy was instituted last year to end the use of promo CDs as premia, there was a perceived lack of notification for DJs. Jen responded by allowing CDs to be given away, but only after the track list is approved by a review policy. The best thing to do at this stage is to bring our current policy to the lawyer and see if it is sufficient.
o Brendt moves to approve the exec staff policy on premia CDs, as presented in Jen’s e-mail last week:
• The only promotional CDs that will be allowed are those whose tracks are accompanied by expressed written consent from the copyright holders OR those whose tracks are within public domain (meaning that they are currently not protected by copyright). Furthermore, DJs must submit the track listings of their CD (along with written consent when need be) to the development director for approval by the date that she requests (in advance of fundraiser), otherwise they will not be considered as promotional items.
• In favor: Chaz, Jason, Brendt, Mike
• Abstain: Kristin.
Motion Passes
Since we are billed once a year by some law firm in Washington, we might as well use their consultation.
o Jason moves to end the meeting, Chaz seconds. Motion passes unanimously
Posted by cberret at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2007
1/22/07
In attendance: Jen Herard (GM), Alex Sergay (Chief Engineer), Jason Voss (BOD), Brendt Rioux (BOD), Kristin Summrall (BOD), Mike Clancy (BOD), Tom Bray (BOD), Chaz Berret (BOD), Evan Eustice (BOD), Meg Marotte (Development Director).
Next meeting set for February 19th
• Exec staff made a list of features that are wanted for the new website.
• Alex will get the station’s money back from the organization that we hired to make our new fundraiser database six months ago. Mike knows some people in housing that might be able to help us. For this year’s fundraiser, phone shift workers will have to enter information into the database and then process the transaction through a separate form. This avoids the security problems that necessitated the reworking of the database.
• Alex and Jason have implemented some of the changes for the website. Alex is working on some other things right now, the most important of which is a more attractive fundraiser page before the fundraiser, itself, happens.
• Tony has done a great deal of work for the station already, the website deal notwithstanding, so Alex proposes that he should receive some sort of stipend. The work that Alex and Jason have done could best be described as ‘nibbling’ at the problem, so the website reworking is still very necessary. Kristin knows someone who is very interested in helping with the web work free of charge – and he is coming. (Alex and Kristin’s friend leave to discuss the webpage)
• Renovation update: the HVAC is actually rated at the level we requested. Mike is fairly certain, but it has not been confirmed yet. It is likely that renovation will be delayed until Winter next year (’08).
• It will probably cost $10,000 to re-carpet the station during renovation. When the renovation bid is negotiated, we will have that contractor do our carpet at the same time. The area covered will be from the lobby back to FM. We need to make sure the sports office is the first area that they renovate.
• Mars will be late because she has another meeting at 7, but she is not officially on the board yet. Lenny has resigned, but we need the Vice President of Communications to appoint a new member. Mars can be appointed despite the fact that she is not in that department of the university. Julie Peterson is now the interim VP of Communications. Mike can talk to her and recommend Mars. Appointed seats have no end of term.
• Tom is intending to vacate his board seat some time soon, perhaps before the next election. He wants the staff to begin looking for someone to replace him.
• Fundraiser will take place from Feb 9-18. Premia items will be more expensive this year, but there will also be lower expense items to compensate. DJs are no longer allowed to give away premia with copyrights due to the severe liability it presents.
• We will be able to accept donations and hand out premia during WCBN Movie Night at PJ’s. The guy running the place, John, has been really accommodating. Showing these movies is technically illegal – but since we’re not doing it on campus, it isn’t our problem, but the bar’s. This is not an ethical crisis, though, since the owner is fully aware of the liability.
• Jason hopes that we can begin to phase out the made up word ‘premia’ for fundraiser gifts. Apparently this has been a topic for the past five years. We don’t make enough money on sweatshirts, so the donation level will have to go up. Hats are also a low-yield item, as well as anything with embroidery.
Motion to adjourn passed unanimously.
Posted by cberret at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
Board of Directors
11/20/06
In attendance: Jen Herard (GM), Jason Voss (BOD), Alex Sergay (Chief Engineer), Chaz Berret (Asst. GM, BOD), Evan Eustace (BOD), Mars, Kristin Sumrall (BOD), Brendt Rioux (BOD),
Agenda approved unanimously
Previous meeting minutes approved unanimously
Next meeting set for December 11th
o Alex has submitted a timeline of what will be done at what point in time during the move. An issue of concern is that we will need to move shelves to the storage area and perhaps build new ones. The ‘swing space’ may not be wheelchair accessible, which is a problem for Dan, a handicapped DJ.
o Renovation has been pushed back a few months already, and will perhaps be pushed back even further. Alex has requested some changes to their plans, including the removal of large clocks in each room which seem unnecessary. Tom is pushing for sound limits to be set so that the building air conditioner doesn’t cause background noise on the air.
o Mars is going to replace Lenny on the Board. The station constitution says that missing two consecutive meetings without prior notification is sufficient for expulsion.
o Jen has talked to a few web design firms to look at our options for rebuilding the WCBN website. The quotes we have received thus far are:
o Tony Audas - $100/hr
o Michigan Integrated Solutions - $90/hr, but different services can range from $60/hr to $120/hr.
o Sites and Sounds - $100/hr, don’t do PHP
o JK Impact - $120/hr, doesn’t usually do by hour, but instead creates a budget to work from
o Budget resources for the project are $400 for website maintenance and a $3000 contingency fund.
o Exec Staff and BOD members need to come up with a list of features that we want to see on the new web site. For one design firm, a ranked list of these features is submitted and they do what they can with the time and resources we allot. Adaptability is the biggest issue since so much of our information tends to be out of date. We need to look into resources within the University. The division that used to do web design just closed. The School of Information is another option. We also need to make sure that the website is sustainable and maintainable in the future using University resources. Alex also notes that we will likely opt for open source software. (Mike Clancy just arrived) This will ensure that we are using standardized, easily maintained technology.
o The next Exec Staff meeting will have a (serious) brainstorming session about the features wanted for the new website.
o Brendt needs to delete the 30 hours of voice mails in the music office account. Mike has kindly instructed him how.
o Mike has more news on the renovations. They have made some changes to the blueprints. We need new carpet everywhere except the sports office and Prod A. New carpet is not covered in renovation budget, but we should reallyreplace it ourselves while we have the chance. The raised floor in the yellow library room can be removed to get more space for storage. The production studios need to have quiet ventilation systems, as Alex mentioned, and the contractors are not being helpful. Alex is going to go talk directly to them. Since we are not going to have another chance to renovate for a long time, it might make sense to just pay the difference and make sure that we get what we need. Since the grant is from the state, there are certain things that they simply can and can’t do; if it turns out that they cannot ensure the noise standards we want, making a deal where we pay part is far better than being stuck with a noisy studio.
Brendt moves to close the meeting. Unanimous approval. Meeting closed.
Posted by cberret at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
