Avery says, awesome year, everyone!

Summer Show Applications out 5/6, due 5/13, program most likely starting 5/20

Students responsible for finding their own replacements for shows during finals week. Please avoid emailing the whole staff listserv, this uses up our email quota.

Pledge drive is still happening, just quietly. Please take 2 packets to personally give to people who will donate, use your powers of persuasion!
Ben is here!
Ben: New pledge drive strategy has been challenging. Two ads in the Hartford Advocate, designed by Virgil. We still need pitching on air, even though there are no phone banks, this pledge drive is different but not less intense, everyone needs to be personally involved in getting people to donate. If you do want to get together a phone bank, Ben will help you organize that if you need training. Ideally recruit one or two people to answer the phone. Check out donation policies if you work for a largish employer, consider donating yourself! Spam your email contacts. NB, if you’re using incentives, be very clear about what you are actually offering.

Elections!
Only fully fledged staffers may vote.
Two minute timed speeches, since so many people are running. If you are running for multiple positions, you may make one speech for all, or multiple speeches. If you want to be a write-in, you won’t be able to speak.
Ballots distributed.
Speeches given.
One write in for music director.
Questions from the staff – two questions for each position.

Leave ballots on the way out, ice cream awaits!
Check your packet, make sure everything is in there before you leave.

Congrats to our graduating seniors on the board and in the staff! And thanks to all who are moving on.
Awards! – Prize is a t-shirt!

Most Service Hours – Psychedelic Rick! Bryan Skowera! Bill Dennert!
Anniversaries – 3 staff members with 5 years!, 4 staff members with 15!
Best Promo – Leif with “Lucy”, runner-up to trainee Ellen Lesser
Most New Releases – Bill Revill

Thanks everyone, great year!

Live Show meeting feedback – talk to Adam W or Avery if you know of anyone who you think should perform. There will be another meeting next week on Tues at 4.

Apparently someone has never signed the log for his show. Is he even doing it? Adam will look into this.

BREAKING NEWS: WE WON A PIZZA PARTY!!! May 7^th. Thank you, Issy, for collecting our award.

Tabling for Usdan – We have enough volunteers, can store the stock in the WSA conference, and keep the money in mail boxes. Bring stickers to sell for a dollar.

Mailing is almost ready to go out, we have 5 or 6 more promos but we need more.
Every board member should make one. Contest for best promo. Issy will send out email. Remind people to talk about it on air. Communicate more with staff.

Some issues with email listserver.

Manic Productions – Pick 5 shows for ticket giveaways.

Advocate party! – Music Directors have cars! Meet up at 6 at the station, to be back at least by 9.

Commencement and Reunion Open House plan – Virgil will make sure we are on the event schedule, Ben will find the contact. Avery will talk to Rob about Red & Black catering.

Scan all the posters/letters of intent for Election Projection! Someone should moderate it – Avery. She will bring the quacker. Virgil will make a ballot. Katherine will send out an email about the scanning, say that they can send their poster directly, mention that tech director is open, and that everyone will have to make a minute speech. If you are running for multiple positions, multiple speeches.

Awards for people who have done exemplary service for the station, and for 5 year anniversaries. Avery will contact Sam to ask where the information from last year is.

Still need to move the records to the Goodwill.  Katherine will email the people who need service hours seeing if any of them can drive the van/help load and figure out a day to do that. Fun opportunity to go to Goodwill!

Jesse and Avery will be at COL dinner next week. Cap’n Cohen will take the helm.

Cardinal Printing traded us underwriting to print our letter, and they folded it and put in envelopes!

Grateful Dead talk – the poster is “groovy”.  April 30^th. Mickey will make the promo tomorrow. Interview with John is all set up. Mad props to Mickey!!
Megapolis was super cool, highly recommended, future WESU kids should volunteer to get in for free. You get to meet cool people.

Advocate Party – Thurs 25^th 6-9pm – should we plan our own dance?
Need a driver, will ask Cathy for a van.

Advocate Ad – It looks great, Virgil is a champ.

Boldy James/Gifted Higgz – Dan DJ’d for the opener, excellent job. Many enthusiastic fans, much stage presence. Best sausage fest. Peak attendance of maybe 80? Mickey had a strange interaction with PSafe about checking IDs. Seemed like they weren’t made aware that the event was open to the public. Mickey will follow up on why this was.
Should get a blurb about it for the site, there was a dude filming, so maybe we can get some footage from him.

Congrats on the Concert Series!!! In the future, Mickey recommends one concert a semester, so that we can really focus on promoting and working on it. Does limit ability to cater to diverse tastes, so the board would have to make sure to be aware of representing this diversity either within one varied line up or over time.

Psychedelic Grateful Dead lecture – Speaker is now in touch with Uncle John, Mickey is working on getting a phone call to make a promo. They will be making their own poster, we might need to make a black and white flyer. They are mostly working through CFA so it’s unclear how much publicity they need us to do.

Featured DJ from the music director’s blog should go onto the main page.

Record Fair follow up – All music from the fair is still at the top of the stairs because we need to get rid of it. Organizing party to put it in a van and take it to Goodwill.

Student Leadership Award – Izzy is going anyways, so she will represent us.
Live Radio Show meeting – next Tuesday at 4. Piers is in! Adam W will do a wesleying post.

Pledge drive – We should tell everyone when the packets come up. They will include a letter, a program guide, and a thing you can mail off for a tshirt, plus an addressed envelope. Need to get everyone to play the promos.
Look into sending out bulk mailing using Wesleyan’s status as a non-profit.

Tabling for shirts in Usdan – new for $15, old for $10. Avery will talk to Frank at SALD. Once we get the table we can organize staffing.

Can we get some publicity in the Argus? They apparently want an actual story, so let’s use the Advocate award, and also our new style pledge drive. We can also share this with local news outlets.

Issues with previewing posts on the website, Dan will look into it.

New campus engagement news letter for students, could be a good PR opportunity for us, recruitment tool, etc. Email Ben or Cathy with content.

So much interest in the board! Katherine will send out an email discouraging people from running for two many positions. We need to clear some space for letters of intent. Or people could put them on the studio bulletin board.

ICE CREAM PARTY – Ben will talk to the ICE CREAM MAN. Make a promo saying ‘PLEASE GIVE US MONEY FOR ICE CREAM’, maybe work out underwriting with him.

The Boy Scouts cancelled on us!

WesFest – Direct interested pre-frosh to look around the station, ask DJs with prefrosh to bring their pre-frosh. Could put a sign on the door saying “Welcome Prefrosh” etc.

Commencement Open House- Figure out who to contact to make sure we are in the book, since this has been an issue in the past. Avery will ask Red & Black about sandwiches and coffee.

Nicholas Msall from Aural Wes wants to see if we can put a stream on Aural Wes. Dan will email Nick about working this out.

SHOFCO is doing an audiobook recording project. We could offer our studio for recording.  Could get a little crazy with scheduling, but we could give them a mobile recording facility.

Hartford Advocate ad – Virgil has some designs, should direct people to donate, rather than “become a member”. We also need to have an option on the website to say that people decided to donate based on the ad.
We are Mad Men.

Mickey will be sending out an email with the posters, still waiting on the openers. Dan is texting will right now. We could get a DJ. Freestyle collective?

Send the Trainee Army to put up posters, preferably before Thursday at 12.

David Whitney (frosh) will be learning to live stream to take up the Live Stream mantle when Mickey leaves.

UPDATE: Will confirms that he will be the opener.

Mickey will make the promo tonight.

Boy Scouts! Coming on Monday! They should absolutely do a station drop/promo.

Wed 24^th – 7^th Graders from Oddfellows will be coming to record poetry.

Argus News Radio – previously, they haven’t had to go through training but now they want to, which is good. Ben and Adam suggest that they get to count their production work for the Argus as internships.  Maybe just one internship required.

Elections – You can run for multiple positions. Katherine will send out an email about this, reminding people to post letters of intent.

LIVE SHOW – Have a meeting ,reserve a space (CFA Hall, hopefully, or the CHAPEL). Gage interest, put out a Wesleying post saying email Avery.  25^th/26^th.

Pledge Drive!: Trainees should know that it is an opportunity to make promos. Adam and Issy will organize together. Send out an all staff email to remind people to make and play them.
Not clear how far Ben is on the packet, Avery will be in contact.

Skyler Cummings knows how to screen-printing. Katherine will email him about the process so we can do this in the future.
It would be great to sell shirts at tables to students. Maybe see if we can get them a little cheaper for students. Another service hour opportunity.
Sell shirts at WesFest.

Changes to the Code of Conduct – Click through version for DJs to sign?

Thanks to everyone for helping out at the Record Fair, it went really well. More vendors than before, and more money than before! Major props to Lee and Mickey, and thanks to Cathy for the van, and others who lent vehicles.

Zammuto show was fantastic, thanks for helping and coming out.

Boldy James show next weekend in the WestCo Courtyard, should be really cool! Outdoor and at night! Renegade! Friday, 9:30 – 11:30.
Postering help needed this week. If you are interested, email events[at]wesufm[dot]org for the files.

Dark Star: A Psychedelic Lecture – 8pm Tuesday, April 30^th, look out for an awesome promo. Guarenteed to blow your mind.

Remember to talk up the events on air.

Revisions to the Code of Conduct are done, the final version has gone out, let us know if you have any concerns.
There is one new section (12), at the very end. List of different types of incidents and who to call. If you are interacting with kids, policy for reporting suspected child abuse. There will be a specific training for people who work regularly with kids. It will also be up in the studio on the bulletin board, and will eventually be on the website.

Training – Before the next staff meeting (May the 4^th (be with you!)) is Tips and Tricks, panel discussion of DJs for the new trainees. Email personnel[ar]wesufm[dot] if you want to be on the panel.

WesFest Activities fair – We have a table to talk up WESU to prefrosh, email kcohen[at]wesleyan[dot]edu if you want to take an hour long shift.
Facebook – the smaller WESU page is being deleted, a message will go out saying to switch to the larger one. Email vtaylor[at]weselyan[dot]edu.

Board Elections are coming up, at the next board meeting. To declare candidacy, you need to post a letter of intent on the bulletin board at the station saying what you are running for. Do this 2 weeks before the final meeting. If you have questions about what any of the positions entail, email the board member concerned.

Megapolis – 19^th -12^th, Mickey and Avery will be presenting, tickets still available, and there are opportunities to volunteer in exchange for a free pass. Contact Avery if you are thinking of going.

Pledge Drive – Non-Traditional pledge drive, less on-air pitching, more mailings. We have cool packets. Mention donations on air, take a few packets to give out. Hopefully each DJ can get at least 3 people to pledge, or work with Ben to figure out an appropriate goal and a plan to make it happen. Thinking of new creative ways to get donations.

Thanks to Cathy, we have money to put two ads in the Hartford Advocate to thank people for voting for us and ask for donations.

Ice Cream Social for the final meeting of the season (but you have to earn us some money to buy ice cream!)

May 11th – Middletown Remix festival on Main St. should be fun. There will be a PSA about it soon.

Idea to end the year with a WESU version of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me/Prairie Home Companion. One hour live show, with professors, DJs, music. Contact the board with ideas.

RECORD FAIR – Food Trucks? Lee Berman is going to be busy at 4, but we can get two university vans, need certified van drivers over 20. Jesse is already certified. Email staff for volunteers. Mickey will get back to us on other help needed.
Hang up the posters!
Play the promos!
Downtown flyer-ing, contact Quentin. Also a good service opportunity.
Get together a press release for local blogs.
Update will go out to the listserv with all the different service hour opportunities.
Lee has sold more tables than we have, we need 5 more tables.

Hartford Advocate – We have $350 for an ad, good opportunity to solicit donations, possibly give them some underwriting in exchange for a second ad.
Cathy sent us a nice note.

We need to include a policy on reporting neglect/abuse of children into our Code of Conduct, and those working directly with kids need to go through brief training on it.

Staff Meeting on Sunday – seems like generally people want the meeting time to remain at 6.
We talk about the Code of Conduct briefly.
Let people know about upcoming board elections, what the various positions entail, and that they need to put a letter of intent on the bulletin board.

WesFest Activities Fair – April 19^th 11 am – 2 pm, can’t play any music, need a sign and maybe some stickers to give away, sign in sheet. Ask for volunteers to do hour long shifts. Cap’n Kohen will ko-ordinate.

Tunein – Ben M & Ben N – Meeting of the Bens. They have cool tools for analyzing listenership, give us many new unique listeners. Are happy to ad a donate now button to our stream, and are willing to work with us on an announcement soliciting donations. Made clear that we need to stay renegade, they are cool with this. Could be a really good revenue stream for us.

Training -  Adam W has the email list, got people for the Sunday training slot.

EriQ is DJ of the month.

Office of Community Service wants a blurb about what our group does by next Tuesday for promotion.

Pledge Drive – Ben has many punny ideas. BRAINSTORM. Find ex-DJs and board members on facebook for monies. Working with DJs to set appropriate personal fundraising goals.

Ice Cream Social after last staff meeting. Dave could take an awesome group photo, for postertity.
Board organized live show, bringing on old DJs, professors, musical acts?
Someone cool as a replacement Carl Kassel.
Recognize people who have been doing the show for super long, most service hours, best attendance, etc. Could be a service hour!

Happy Spring!

Mickey parades all of his exploits from SXSW: got spots/Station ID from Mac DeMarco, maybe also The Flaming Lips.

Events calendar is here! Adam Wechsler designed them, they are various colors. Let’s all hang this stuff up as soon as possible.

Day of Zammuto event: someone(s) can help Mickey with streaming? Daniel Nass will be there!

Record Fair: Virgil is making the event on FB as we speak. [5:52: Virgil has completed the FB event and has invited folks. Check this ya’ll.]

Wesleying Posts for Adam Isaacson:

Zammuto Concert on Thursday afternoon (include disclaimer that non-students must register)

Record Fair post later

TuneIn talk (Mickey):

Talks of developing longer-term relationship

How to fix specs: have our events calendar on website? Minimizing ads?

They want to continue to liaise with us — we are guinea pigs for their college programming work (KEXP had a TuneIn banner, which sucks because KEXP rocks)

[I missed the first two paragraphs of this conversation, so it’s not exactly clear what we’re discussing regarding TuneIn]

What relationship ought we to have with corporate entities?

Ben M. says as long as it doesn’t compromise our values, we should have fruitful relationships — insofar as they benefit and do not exploit us.

They don’t seem too displeased with our minimal plugging during Stepkids show.

Ben M. is happy to talk to them? HOW HAPPY ARE YOU, BEN?

Mickey: Katherine, How would you feel about being a TuneIn contact?

Katherine: … [TBD]

If TuneIn needs to know who’s going to be around ASAP, Ben will be around this summer. Otherwise, we’ll wait for the fall to figure this out.

Ben M.: An alternative to the TuneIn service would be to have our own app. Is this feasible?

Shelving!

Lee Berman has (finally) agreed to step up and help us with the shelving project, which CC birthed (and strewn with

Kathy Lechowicz has agreed to fund/approve a work-study position! Folding stuff, checking messages, this person will be put to good use and will relieve Ben of administrative, bureaucratic burden.

Development position: Vice President has absorbed development/fundraising duties.

Spring Fundraising Campaign:

From what angle should we approach this thang?

Silent pledge drive? Or could we call it a “Freeform Pledge Drive”? In which we have several models to offer our staff, and marketing it to our stakeholders/donors as an effort to be a gentler fundraising — we will interrupt programming as little as possible.

Avery has put together a fundraising draft letter. It resembles a zine.

Other successful tactics: WESU Bunny (if you don’t donate, we’ll kill this adorable radio bunny), etc. Caveat: if this doesn’t work, we’ll have to fall back on heavy on-air promotion.

Still a good idea to pass 3 envelopes on to each DJ, whose job it is to spread among fans/friends/family.

The mailing is going out this week: program guide, Avery’s W-Zine-S-U, and other docs?

Let’s encourage — aka pressure — staff to try and raise $100 particularly if they haven’t raised money before. This is a better way to corral occasional/novice DJ pledgers. “Find three sponsors!”

What would a “WESU Membership” entail? Program guide, something more?

Automatic renewal…targeting parents of students who would be gone after four years. But it is rare for parents to continue donating once their children have graduated.

Special mailings? Other ways to deal with fundraising infrastructurally. Automatic renewal would require a reorientation of thinking about our services and our fundraising programs. Right now our zine and our package focuses on personal touch. Before we go further, we should enlist someone to embark on a longer-term project and do research on fundraising: IZZY! Thanks for volunteering.

Acteva (Activa? Activia?) could include a “do you want to be a return donor?” Yadda, yadda, etc.

April 2: Middletown Remix Advisory Committee Meeting at 5 at Nora’s Cupcakes

Unsurprisingly, Mickey volunteers.

Ben M. reminds us that we should be strategizing about next year’s board. Keep eyes and ears open for interest. Let’s bring this up at the next staff meeting, because there are only two meetings left this year.

Training starts this Sunday evening. Thursday is a week behind. Five sessions should suffice. (Will it end May 5?) David Bauer will be Sunday instructor. Adam Wechsler will send out message soliciting staff instructors shortly. DO THIS, YO.

First homework assignment: identify shows whose content you’d like to imitate

Second assignment: Get your hands on an internship

Third assignment: Content/programming review?

Fourth assignment: Record evergreen show?

Code of Conduct needs to be approved by supermajority at staff meeting. In the meantime, Adam can make changes to handbook.

DJ Spotlight?

Meeting adjourned.

F-Bomb dropped on Synthesis. Dave Bauer destroyed them. They were unhappy.
Events with Mickey!
- Ian MacKaye – Mickey has a recording to edit into an hour long special to run over spring break. Will send the unedited version to Ian.
Went really well, was very well attended by both Wes and not Wes people.

- Report back to TuneIn on the Stepkids show.

- Need a student opener for Zammuto. Zain doesn’t have demos, the Japanese are also willing. Either way, Neo Sora will be on bass.
- Sent out an email asking for help planning for all the post-break events. Also a meeting to talk about Eclectic’s hosting band.
- Although we don’t actually have the venue confirmed, we’ll hopefully know by tomorrow and possibly by the end of the week. we should try to start promoting asap, maybe come up with a poster before break, Promos can wait till we know where it will be.

- Reach out to press outlets and get us included in calendars.

- Record Fair – need to reach out to food vendors.
- Virgil will come up with posters over break.

- Grateful Dead lecture – April 30^th -  sounds amazing

- Boldy James on April 12^th, in the WestCo Courtyard
There’s another festival happening in WestCo the next day, we could potentially link our show in with that, depending on how together they really are.

Program Guide should be here at the end of the week! Most will be sent out as part of the “pledge drive.”

WESU should in future be a presenter at IBS, because it is way too corporate right now.

Fundraising Committee met yesterday, decided:
- We will send out packets in the mail. Explore the option of having different personalized packets for different kinds of programming.
- Avery will work on the content over break and then put it on a google doc.
- Emails will be sent out to different groups of people, past donors, alums etc. This will require a lot of data entry, instead of phone banking.

Changes to the Code of Conduct:
- No one has emailed back comments. If we hear back from people before break, we can meet about it the first week after break in time to incorporate it into training and discuss it in the April Break.
- Send out another email with bullet points of changes.

Adam is working on emails to Pangaea and other listservs.

Hartford Advocate – problems with scheduling.
What about taking our own picture? Dave could take it!
A few people could go to Real Artways.

Hugo Chavez died

Facebook consolidation – Some difficulties getting rid of WESU Fm the person, but Virgil will do it on Friday. Need to rethink the way WESU operates on facebook, in connection with the pledge drive. Need to figure out how to get more content creators.
Programming Council – group to listen to shows and offer constructive criticism, possibly suggesting all the first years.

Documenting the reviews could be helpful for training. Critiquing shows used to be part of training.