Public Radio in Mid America
Board of Directors Meeting
November 20, 2019
Called to Order: 2:30 pm Eastern Time via conference call
Present: Paul Maassen, president Dan Skinner Myrna Johnson Neenah Ellis, secretary Regina Dean Nico Leone joined at 3:12pm Steve Schramm – excused Richard Miles – not present
Treasurer’s Report
Regina Dean says she will step down when her term is over in May. The board needs to decide how to replace her.
Super-Regional Recap
Maassen says the regional orgs will look at the structure of the super-regional conference and use Bronfman’s retirement as an opportunity to re-think/update/freshen the conference. A concensus that we should continue annual conferences.
President Maassen reports that Georgette Bronfman, Executive Director of Eastern Region Public Radio (ERPM) is retiring effective December 31, 2019. She is the event coordinator for the super-regional.
NPR Board Meeting/Compact
Two things came out of the board meeting. The compact discussion. V 3.1 has come out and sent to stations. A comment period is in place and the board will vote, maybe by phone, maybe by the end of the year. Feedback from stations seems to be: let’s move forward and do something. There is still some concern about how hard it will hit some stations.
New president Lansing is early in his tenure. Seems passionate about the journalism mission and about increasing diversity.
PRIMA Spring Meeting in May
Options for locations under discussion include Milwaukee and Kansas City. WMOT, Murfreesboro, TN throwing its hat in the ring to be considered. They may have connections to funding. A new manager at the station. They have not been PRIMA members. Maassen will discuss with them.
Think about what we want to have in the spring PRIMA meeting.
Next call December 18, 2019.