Minutes
Western State Public Radio Board of Directors
Conference Call
3/4/09

Attendance: Stankavich, Holp, Hess, Mara, Schwartz

The Conference with DEI

We need to decide quickly whether we will do a conference or a meeting at the DEI event in San Diego in July, or will we continue to plan for a separate WSPR conference in November 2009.

Schwartz suggested that we send out a poll within our membership to see if managers are planning on going to PRDMC regardless of whether they plan on attending WSPR. Stankavich replied that DEI needed to know this week and there was no time for another poll.

Mara asked how does attending the PRDMC instead of WSPR pencil out for expenses?  An individual conference attendee could save money if they attended both conferences for the price of only one conference.

Hess asked how many of our board member stations are looking at restricted travel for FY 2010.  3 out of 5 managers on the board are looking at restricted travel for FY 2010.

Big exposure for a conference is on the room guarantee, if we over estimate the # of rooms that we need, we would have to pay for the extra rooms. Schwartz suggested that we negotiate with a hotel to have the option to cancel the contract within 30 days of the conference.

Consensus was to decline DEI’s offer for this year, but will entertain looking at a joint conference planning with DEI for PRDMC in 2010.

Fall 2009 WSPR Conference

Does WSPR hold an annual meeting in 2009? The consensus was to move forward with planning an annual conference in Portland , Oregon for November 2 and 3 and 4th, 2009.  It was moved by Schwartz, seconded by Mara to move forward on the conference planning.  The Board approved unanimously.

Looking at Portland , downtown Hilton room costs are $159.00 per night. Stankavich asked whether we move forward with the Hilton or do some comparisons with other hotels.  Holp suggested looking at the Mariott in Portland to compare rates and terms. If we can reduce the rate of the rooms we might have a better chance of getting managers to attend. Holp and Stankavich will email on criteria for the conference to get competing bids from hotels.

Stankavich suggested that he contact Steve Bass at OPB and see if they have any special hotel contacts, he will negotiate further with the Hilton and Karen will check on the Mariott.  We will meet again in a few weeks and decide on the hotel and start discussing the conference agenda.

Vivian Schiller meeting at IMA

Stankavich and Schwartz met with Vivian Schiller and some of her V.P’s at the IMA Conference in Atlanta .  It was unclear at the meeting whether NPR wanted to go forward with a joint website design with stations.   It was made clear through a follow-up email that NPR is open for a lot of discussion on this project and they don’t want to close any doors or opportunities that could provide benefits for stations with a partnership.

Both Stankavich and Schwartz felt encouraged by the feedback that we have gotten on this issue from NPR.  It is time now to begin specifying a plan to move forward.  Schwartz suggested that the general principles of an agreement needed to be worked out with NPR on this project.

What does this mean and how do we do it? 

Mara suggested that looking from a content perspective makes sense.  We should also be looking at our identity as a brand, both locally and nationally.  There is concern that NPR/local stations brands might collide, we are not sure whether local stations have the expertise to integrate and allow discrete brands to co-exist.  How will local stations identity or brand play out in the marketplace? 

Schwartz suggested that the time for consensus on this issue has passed and we must move forward to get something done.  Given that our focus has been news oriented, local stations have already made their choice on identity, that being news and NPR.  Realistically how do we want this on-line partnership to look?

We should be looking at attaining a seamless identity with NPR/local stations on-line as we have a seamless experience for the listener on-air.  We need to let our experience of coming together as a network in the early 70’s form our experience as we come together to form a seamless website between local/national content providers.

A model suggestion is NPR music on-line. Thirteen stations got together to form a partnership with NPR to highlight national and local music content, creating a better experience for listeners on-line.

Next board meeting to be determined.

Meeting adjourned 11:00 a.m. MST