Minutes
Western State Public Radio Board of Directors
Conference Call
September 8, 20008

In attendance: Jon Schwartz, Karen Holp, Paul Stankavich, John Hess and Beth Warren.

I. Update on NPR/Local website initiative:

Jon Schwartz and Paul Stankavich along with our pro-bono consultant Mark Fuerst, have spoken to four stations (KJZZ, OPB, KSKA and KQED) about joining the board’s on-going discussion on creating a better NPR website interface with local stations. There was agreement with these stations that the status quo was not working. All four stations have agreed to join the on-going discussions.

The next step in this process is to schedule a tele-conference with representatives from these four stations, the WSPR board and NPR to examine what the limits of cooperation might be and to explore how the philosophy of cooperation can be achieved. Mark Fuerst will arrange a guest from Sun Microsystems to share how they brought ownership together to agree on the mlb.com site.

The WSPR board expressed an interest in supporting the development of better integration and aggregation of content with NPR on the web, much like we have on radio today. We hope to recruit a willing group of stations to work with us and NPR to develop a more useful national website.

Jon Schwartz will notify the WSPR board when the next meeting will take place.

II. NPR Consult at WSPR Conference:

Chairman Stankavich relayed to the board his discussions with Frank Lanzone regarding the recently concluded NPR consult with the California Public Radio group, approximately 15 stations from California attended the consultation with NPR. Overall, the CA group was willing to engage with NPR’s and we were told that there was good conversation.

The board wants our consultation with NPR to be at a very high level. To this end, we would like to get information from NPR about the “New Deal” proposal sent out to WSPR membership well in advance of our Nov. 5th conference. How do we do this? Chairman Stankavich will draft an overview memo to be presented to the membership. We will use Survey Monkey to determine what WSPR members think are the burning issues. This information will be presented to NPR ahead of the conference with the expectation that NPR will prepare information to directly address WSPR member’s concerns. [Note: Subsequent to this Board meeting, Dana Rehm sent all A-Reps a memo outlining the consultation’s intentions and WSPR will use that as a basis for forming the survey.]

III. WSPR List Serve:

Karen Holp and John Stark reviewed the WSPR list serve to update for new members and members who have left WSPR. Karen added more information on joining the WSPR list serve on our WSPR homepage. The board agreed that a policy should be discussed at the November meeting regarding access to the WSPR list serve. The board agreed to recommend that only paying members should have access to the list serve. A motion will be brought before the member ship at our annual meeting for adoption.

Two seats on the WSPR board are up for election this year, treasurer and at-large. A nominating committee consisting of board members John Hess, Beth Warren and WSPR member and Past President, Ron Kramer was formed. They will present a slate of candidates to be voted upon by the membership at the annual meeting.

V. Conference update:

As of 9/8, 33 people have registered for this fall’s conference, 13 non-station attendees and 20 station attendees. This number is right on pace with previous conference registration.

Respectfully submitted: John Hess- Secretary, WSPR