2019 Meeting Minutes

WSU Board of Student Media
Regular Meeting – Board Minutes
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Board members in attendance: Rachel Sun, Clayton Fincher, Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, Andrew Kalahar, Rachel Wong, James Cole, Benjamin Shors, Lauren Westerfield, Matt Haugen, Richard Miller and Jayce Carral. Staff: K. Denise Boyd and Barbara Merchant.

1. Called to order at 4:16 p.m. by Richard Miller, vice-chair.
2. Minutes from Oct. 30 approved as read.
3. Vote to make the Advertising Manager position a full academic year.
Position duration not specified in the Student Media bylaws, Miller said, so bylaws don’t need to be changed. Motion passed unanimously.

4. Elections
Editor in chief – Candidate Sydney Brown elected unanimously
Advertising manager – Vote no longer needed, as explained in agenda item 3. Fincher will continue in position through spring.
5. Reports
Daily Evergreen editor-in-chief Rachel Sun

This is the last full week of production.
Only 2 issues in December, one of which is commencement issue.
Search for content adviser in progress.
Shors asked about feedback on the Psychology Department article published Nov. 18 in the Daily Evergreen.
Sun described a moderate amount of feedback. Some praised the article, she said, others defended the professor.
Shors suggested an editorial reminding readers of the role that student journalists play on campus. Shors also praised the coverage of diverse groups this semester.
Advertising manager Clayton Fincher
November sales exceeded goals.
December sales within $400 of goals.
Hiring a new account executive.
Use of student advertising fund is lagging. We are continually reaching out to groups to let them know we have funds available.
    Yearbook editor Nia Saunders – no report
    Creative manager Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza
AdForce software is not going to be renewed once the subscription expires in December 2019.
Creative is working well with advertising on getting the paper dummied.
Henry Dien may take over as creative manager.
Staff working on animated house ads.
Fiscal specialist K. Denise Boyd
Anticipated $17,000 year-end deficit.
Overall revenue is down $23K as of October financials.
•    Local retail – up by $8K.
•    Tribune 360 inserts – up by $7K.
•    Local online retail – down by $19K.
•    Classified display – down by $4K.
Expenses down overall, but a few departments that are up.

Haugen asked about reasons for deficit given the new student fee.  Boyd said the numbers are based on average revenue per issue, and those include the slower summer months.  Miller also mentioned large drops in sales of yearbooks and online ads.

6. New Business
Departmental car – Ford Taurus wagon taken to WSU Surplus Stores today – totaled.
Flytedesk – Pending response from Flytedesk.
Content adviser – Committee is setting up interviews, hoping to have the new content adviser on board in Feb/March.
    Merchant praised the diversity of sports coverage.
7. Public comments
None.

8. Adjournment at 5 p.m. until Jan. 29, 2020.

WSU Board of Student Media
Regular Meeting – Board Minutes
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019
Room 123, Murrow East

Board members in attendance: Rachel Sun, Clayton Fincher, Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, Nia Saunders, Andrew Kalahar, Jane McDonald, James Cole, Benjamin Shors, Karen Breese, Lauren Westerfield, Lorena O’English, Matt Haugen, and Richard Miller. Absent: Rachel Wong, Ryan Hiller.

1. Called to order at 4:17 p.m. by Lorena O’English, chair
2. Minutes from September 25 approved with minor corrections
3. Reports

Daily Evergreen editor-in-chief Rachel Sun
Has met with Denise Boyd about budget
Content adviser job is now live
Seeking to replace a copy editor who became Mint editor

Advertising manager Clayton Fincher
$1,588 ahead of goals: $988 left to sell in November and $500 for December
Student ad fund is picking up, and we're looking for ways to attract new groups
Working with Rachel to eliminate errors in ad placement
Working more with Ana Maria and other graphic artists
Overall, ad sales are going well

Yearbook editor Nia Saunders
Trying to get first 24 pages to Cooper Publications by end of week
Thus far, have covered women’s swimming, Greek life, Ferdinand’s, and reopening of Cougar Country
Want to hire another graphics editor

Creative manager Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza
Working on themed house ad
Using a laptop, presented Henry’s Halloween ad GIF, which was shown to the board
Hopes to enter Henry’s ad and Ana Maria’s work in national competitions
Training Henry to possibly take over as creative manager

Fiscal specialist K. Denise Boyd, (presented by Miller)
Anticipated $5,000 deficit at end of year
Current projections are based on fall revenues. Spring revenues could be much lower, due to end of football weekend editions

4. New Business

Ad manager
Interested in making the ad manager position a year-long role
The board will wait until the change is posted, vote on it at the next meeting

Car
It was in an accident. Student who was driving was not hurt
Repairs may cost more than car’s value, but insurance should cover what we paid for the car
We’ll check with the motor pool about finding another used car to buy

Flytedesk
Working with Flytedesk to put rate card online to attract more national advertisers. Contract OK’d by WSU and now back in Flytedesk’s hands

Content Adviser
Job was posted October 18 and will close November 3
A search committee will review applications and set up interviews
The job is 20 hours/week with June and July off

Change in board membership    
The changes discussed at the previous meeting were approved

Other
The next meeting will be November 20, which is a week earlier than usual because of Thanksgiving.
Student leader elections are in November

5. Public comments
None offered

6. Adjournment at 4:53 p.m. until November 20, 2019.

Board of Student Media
Regular Meeting – Board Minutes
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Room 123, Murrow East


1.    Call to order at 4:15 p.m. by Richard Miller, acting chair

2.    Introduction of the 2019-2020 board members

3.    Election of chair and vice chair

•    Lorena O’English elected as chair
•    Richard Miller elected as vice chair

4.    April 24 minutes approved

5.    Presentation by yearbook editor applicant Nia Saunders

•    Hired three staff members, in process of hiring full-time copy editor
•    The theme and page count have been decided
•    Met with Cooper Publications regarding the cover and production
•    Working on organization pictures, orientation, Week of Welcome and Panhellenic coverage
•    We have sold 714 yearbooks so far this year

6.    Election of yearbook editor

•    Nia Saunders elected editor of the Chinook yearbook

7.    Reports

•    Daily Evergreen editor-in-chief Rachel Sun
i.    Hiring additional graphics staff
ii.    Working on several public records requests for investigative stories
iii.    Replacing the photo editor after current editor left

•    Advertising manager Clayton Fincher
i.    August and September sales goals surpassed
ii.    Advertising sales reps are now being paid hourly vs. previous commission rate. Paid on a tiered system based on their success.
iii.    Implementing new CRM that uses Trello to track work flow
iv.    SA Advertising Fund applications are slowly being submitted; we’re distributing flyers at student fairs, and advertising in newspaper
•    Creative manager Ana Maria Mendoza
i.     Creative team has increased from last year. We have seven staff members. Three are training to dummy the paper, and four are graphic designers
ii.    Assigning work each week to designers
iii.    Designing house ads and working on updating the religious directory
•    Fiscal specialist K. Denise Boyd
i.    FY2019 year-end report shows positive balance of $77,905
ii.    Server replacement fund has $22,629 (warranty on current server expires May 2020)
iii.    Total Student Media reserve fund is $85,380. Of that, $4,085 is set aside to pay for FY2019 Adobe Creative Cloud
iv.    August financials project year-end loss of $4,368. These are based on only July-August numbers, so are preliminary. Actual loss expected to be higher.

8.    New Business

•    Alysen Boston left content adviser position over the summer. It’s now temporarily filled by Barbara Merchant. She has already developed a new mentorship program. Merchant has a degree in journalism, has done freelance news writing and editing, and has previously mentored journalism students.
•    Visitor magazine – Miller described the anticipated end of the visitor magazine. That’s because:  
o    FY2019 magazine advertising was far below costs
o    No one applied for the editor position for FY2020
o    Drained the newsroom of talented staff
o    Miller indicated that success could be achieved with a different type of magazine
•    Marketing department – Miller explained the end of the marketing department:
o    The only revenue aspect, photo booth bookings, continued to fall. The few requests came for busy weekends when staff were unavailable
o    A lack of marketing projects left energetic students underemployed
o    The newsroom has a new engagement and social media editor who can take up some of the duties
•    Board membership
o    Question from Miller: We now have a 19-member board, with 12 students and seven faculty/staff. Without the marketing department and visitor magazine, we have 10 students and seven faculty/staff, which reduces the students’ majority. How do we maintain a large student majority?

o    Suggestions from Miller and EIC Rachel Sun: Remove the unfilled Student Affairs staff position – the director is already part of Student Affairs. Add a student-at-large position, chosen by the EIC. We’d then have a 17-member board with six faculty/staff and 11 students. We will publish the proposed changes, and the board will vote at the next meeting.


9.    Public Comments. None given.

10.    Adjournment at 4:47 p.m. until Oct. 30, 2019

Board of Student Media Minutes
Regular Meeting
4:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Room 123, Murrow East




1.    Call to Order

2.    March 27 minutes approved.

3.    Reports

•    Daily Evergreen Editor-in-chief Luke Hudson thanked the group for the exciting opportunities and challenges of serving as editor-in-chief.    
•    Advertising manager Clayton Fincher (No report)
•    Marketing manager Kayla Rott (No report)
•    Yearbook editor Hannah Martian: Yearbook nearly complete (report given by Richard Miller)
•    Visitor Guide editor Latisha Jensen: No report
•    Creative manager Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza: No report
•    Fiscal specialist K. Denise Boyd: Due to a vacant position and an influx of election advertising, we may end the year with a small surplus.


4.    New Business

•    Board Chair Jennifer Murray: Murray is stepping down after this semester to move to a different state.
•    Miller: Temp content adviser hired.
•    Miller: Visitor Magazine is running at a large deficit, and no one has stepped forward to produce it next year. Given those two factors, it will likely be canceled.

5.    Public Comments. None given.

6.    Adjournment until Sept. 25, 2019

Student Media Board Minutes for March 27, 2019
 

I. Call to Order  
Jennifer Murray, board chair, called the meeting to order at 4:20 p.m.  
 
Other members present were: Luke Hudson, Clayton Fincher, Hannah Martin, Latisha Jensen, Veneice Guillory-Lacy, Rachel Wong, Benjamin Shors, Rebecca Goodrich, Karen Breese,
Matt Haugen, and Richard Miller. Board members absent: Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, Matthew Winchell, Christian Shaffer, Kayla Rott, Ella Spillane, Taylor Swanson, Lorena O’English.
Staff: K. Denise Boyd
 

II. Approval of February 27, 2019, minutes
•    Approved with correction of misspelled name
 
III. Election Presentations

Advertising Manager, fall 2019
•    Clayton Fincher gave his presentation to the board
Editor-in-Chief, summer and fall 2019
•     Rachel Sun gave her presentation to the board

Student Media Board elected:
•    Fincher as fall 2019 advertising manager
•    Sun as summer/fall 2019 editor-in-chief


IV. Reports
 
Luke Hudson, editor-in-chief:
•    ASWSU election covered before spring break
•    Student Choice Awards edition will be Friday, March 29
•    Mom’s Weekend edition will be April 12
•    Graduation edition is May 3

Clayton Fincher, advertising manager:
•    Sales goals are continuing to be met and exceeded
•    Student Advertising Funds have been depleted
•    March sales reach $8,000

Kaya Rott, manager, marketing (presentation given by Richard Miller):
•    Printing stickers for branding and promotional materials
•    Difficult to find staff for photo booth bookings
•    Working with newsroom on Student Choice Awards – polling people in person

Hannah Martian, editor, Chinook yearbook:
•    Delivery of the 2018-2019 edition expected at the end of April
•    Cover of the yearbook has been completed
•    Seeking Chinook editor for next year; no applications at this time
 
Latisha Jensen, editor, Visitor Guide:
•    Story guidelines finished
•    Pages being designed
 
Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, manager, creative/graphics:
•    No report

K. Denise Boyd, fiscal specialist:
 
•    Service & Activities Fees: Requesting a total of $253,882
o    Base allocation, $248,882
o    Student Advertising Fund increase, $5,000

•    Chinook yearbook sales – 705 books as of 2/28/2019

New Business
 
Society of Professional Journalists Awards
•    Benjamin Shors – SPJ conference will be held on April 5, 2019, in Spokane and The Daily Evergreen is up for some awards

VI. Public Comments - none
 
VII. Adjournment
 
The meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.
 
Minutes taken by K. Denise Boyd, fiscal specialist

I. Call to Order
Jennifer Murray, board chair, called the meeting to order at 4:15 p.m.

Other members present were: Luke Hudson, Clayton Fincher, Kayla Rott, Benjamin Shors, Rachel Wong, Lorena O’English, Matt Haugen, Matthew Winchell, and Richard Miller. Board members absent: Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, Latisha Jensen, Veneice Guillory-Lacy, Rebecca Goodrich, Karen Breese, Christian Shaffer, Hannah Martian, Ella Spillane, and Taylor Swanson,

II. Approval of Jan. 30, 2019, minutes
•    Approved as read

III. Reports

Luke Hudson, editor-in-chief:
•    Sex Edition went smoothly – lots of content, and pages sent well ahead of deadlines. Provides a good template for production of future special editions.
•    Now planning ASWSU election coverage, including livestreaming debates.
•    Working on giving sections their own occasional double-truck space.
•    Working with marketing on creating a consistent brand identity.
•    Red marks have been temporarily replaced with daily one-on-one sessions.
•    Both new podcasts have been launched.
•    Working with Jacob Jones on including Jones’ Whitman county reporting in the Evergreen.
•    All of the newsroom staff has improved dramatically.
 
Clayton Fincher, manager, advertising:
•    Sales over goal again in February, and the sales team has exceeded its goals every month.
•    New ad sales include three flash ads, and two weeks of Summer Session ads.
•    Has developed an excellent working relationship with the graphics team as they work together to create ads.
•    Student Ad Fund is nearly all spent.
•    Next up: Working on the commencement edition and Week of Welcome paper.

Kayla Rott, manager, marketing:
•    Working with Luke on a branding kit.
•    Polling students on the mall for Student Choice Awards, has collected about 100 responses.
•    Just did first photo booth event of the semester
•    Board members suggested giving away photo booth use to promote ASWSU elections and student engagement.

Hannah Martian, editor, Chinook yearbook:
•    No report.

Latisha Jensen, editor, Visitor Guide (report given by Miller):

•    Half of magazine is complete. 25% is assigned and 25% remains to be assigned.

Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, manager, creative/graphics:
•    No report.

K. Denise Boyd, fiscal specialist (report given by Miller):

•    Budget surplus still expected, due to the unfilled content adviser position, election ads, and increased online ad revenue. Preparing for S&A Fee hearings. Plan is to seek no increase for regular operations, but a $5,000 increase for the Student Ad Fund, so student groups can be helped the entire academic year.

New Business

•    Follow-up on plan to use grad intern as content adviser: Miller reported that the Murrow grad school coordinator said all the graduate students were fully funded, and none was likely to have newsroom experience.

•    Hudson asked about the purpose of the board. Miller outlined main duties, such as electing student leaders and deciding on the future of publications. Miller also said the board provides a representative cross-section of WSU students and staff who can advocate for the interests of Student Media. Murray and O’English said the board also exists to offer students general advice, and that each member can provide specific expertise.

VI. Public Comments - none

VII. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:51 p.m.

Minutes taken by Richard Miller, Student Media director

Student Media Board
Minutes for January 30, 2019


I. Call to Order
Jennifer Murray, board chair, called the meeting to order at 4:15 p.m.

Other members present were: Luke Hudson, Christian Shaffer, Clayton Fincher, Kayla Rott, Latisha Jensen, Veneice Guillory-Lacy, Taylor Swanson, Rachel Wong, Rebecca Goodrich, Karen Breese, Lorena O’English, Matt Haugen, and Richard Miller. Board members absent: Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, Matthew Winchell, Hannah Martian, Ella Spillane, and Benjamin Shors,

II. Approval of November 28, 2018, minutes
•    Approved as read

III. Reports

Luke Hudson, editor-in-chief:
•    First semester as EIC has been stressful, and he remains both excited and optimistic.
•    Working on improving communication with advertising.
•    Sex Edition is planned for Feb. 15. Student Choice Awards are in April.
•    Has launched two podcasts, one on news and one on sports.

Clayton Fincher, manager, advertising:
•    Sales over goal for January, and looking good for February.
•    Two new ad products launched: Cougpons and Flash Ads, each giving advertisers a less expensive option.
•    Student Ad Fund is nearly out of money.

Kaya Rott, manager, marketing:
•    Will be polling students on the mall for Student Choice Awards.
•    Working on a branding kit, which includes stickers.
•    Surveys show awareness of Evergreen is up greatly. Board members suggested building on that trend by involving orientation counselors or distributing papers in dorms during Week of Welcome.

Hannah Martian, editor, Chinook yearbook:
•    No report.

Latisha Jensen, editor, Visitor Guide:
•    Story guidelines finished.
•    Pages being designed.

Ana Maria Alaniz Mendoza, manager, creative/graphics:
•    No report.

K. Denise Boyd, fiscal specialist (presentation given by Miller):

•    Budget surplus expected, due to the unfilled content adviser position and election ads.
•    Chinook sales lower than expected.
•    Photo booth sales nearly non-existent. A board member suggested raffling off an hour or two of photo booth use.
•    Visitor magazine ad sales also dismal. Miller said the Lewiston Tribune has taken over sales in the L-C Valley.

New Business

Content adviser search update
•    Miller said top candidate withdrew from consideration. Because it’s late in the academic year, and much budget uncertainty remains, the search is on hold until April or May. In the meantime, Miller is acting as content adviser, and bringing in more guest speakers, including Murrow faculty members.
•    Board members suggested alternative approaches, such as seeking a grad assistant or grad intern to fill the position. Miller will investigate.


VI. Public Comments - none

VII. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Minutes taken by Richard Miller, Student Media director