PRIMA BOARD MEETING
MAY 19, 2021
Meeting convenes at 2:30 pm
In attendance:
PAUL MAASSEN
STEVE SCHRAMM
NEENAH ELLIS
REGINA DEAN
DAN SKINNER
NICO LEONE
MYRNA JOHNSON
RICHARD MILES – LATE
Meeting begins at 2:45 CT
Super Regional registration is open. Fee is $500. Active link is being sent to all board members. Second staff member for $250. Early bird check-in September 25.
(Our membership is $200 per year. )
Keynote speaker proposed by Neenah Ellis is Barack Obama. She and Paul will write the invitation letter, get it approved by PRRO and submit to Obama org.
Backup plans – Trevor Noah, The Daily Show. He was at the NPR weekend in Washington. He was a Fresh Air guest and Danny Miller might help.
Steven Colbert also came up. John Batiste could help us get in touch (from NOLA)
Dave Chappelle –
We probably have 10k to offer.
Myrna – is there someone from Denver?
Super Regional conference details:
There will be a pre-conference GM workshop. Karen Mathes and John Hess.
Sessions: a committee is being formulated that will be composed of members from different. Paul will be on the committee. Steve Schramm and Neenah Ellis volunteer to be on the committee. Paul will continue to take volunteers.
If there is anyone in the membership, they can be nominated as well.
Keith Woods will present and talk about diversity.
CPB will offer some scholarships. There may be others.
Update from the last NPR board meeting by Nico Leone. Podcast subscription conversation has begun. The board has a desire to work with the regionals.
Board election coming up. There are three “petition candidates.” Two of the candidates are PRIMA members but not nominated by the org. They seem to have concerns – they seem to want more diversity of station size (more smaller stations) and a greater variety of opinions expressed in meetings. There is some concern around transparency of the board member nomination process. “We are not being heard.”
Nico suggests that we should learn what their desires and concerns are. Not endorsements but understanding. Two of the stations are budgets under 3 million and the other one has a rural listenership.
Paul says there are no real open sessions, little opportunity for stations that are not board members to interact with the NPR board. He and Nico have talked to LaFontaine Oliver about it.
This is a good opportunity to help facilitate a deeper discussion on this issue.
Minutes submitted by PRIMA Secretary, Neenah Ellis