MEETING NOTES

WNUR Alumni Organization

MINUTES OF THE WNUR GOVERNING BOARD MEETING

Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Present at the meeting: Steve Rudolph, Bob Bresse-Rodenkirk, Don Jacobson, Toni Boyle, Jack Minkow, Jonathan Lehrer, Scott Case, Rick Morris, Mark Flury, Janet Kim, Greg Shapiro, Ben Scully, Jeff Seelback. Via Internet: Mijke Roggeveen and Stuart Rivchun.

President Rudolph called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. He began with a discussion of committee work, saying that in the past year, the group has evolved into a committee-driven organization.

He said the organization's most visible achievement in its first year was the awarding of the first Willis L. Butler Leadership Prize, including a cash award of $300, to 2000-2001 WNUR General manager Drew Pounds at the May, 2001, Speech Convocation. Associate Dean Citron presented the award, and recognized Rudolph and his wife, Alice, who were present at the Convocation.

Rudolph said the money was raised by "passing the hat," and that a similar, albeit more broad-based, method would be employed this year. The award plaque has room for another 11 winners and hangs on the stairway linking the studios with the basement offices at Annie May Swift Hall.

Board Secretary and Career Development Committee chair Bresse-Rodenkirk said the WNUR alumni website is now linked with that of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association (http://www.inba.net/jobfile.html) to permit access to its JobFile, which Bresse-Rodenkirk produces each week. He related e-mails with Rick Morris about expanding the Job Bank offerings to allow WNUR students and alumni to post resumes and audio files on the site, and to allow employers to post non-news and sports openings (since those already are handled by JobFile) individually. President Rudolph stressed that the expansion needs to be done in such a way so that only WNUR alumni and staff can post resumes and materials. Morris said that Northwestern students will begin work on the Job Bank expansion after the station's annual Phoneathon's conclusion.

Bresse-Rodenkirk, in his role as a Mentoring Committee member, talked about three in-service training "Road Shows" which were conducted at the request of the News Department in coordination with the Illinois News Broadcasters Association during the past year. The News Department has already requested that another be scheduled near the end of Spring Quarter.

Student staff members arrived, including General Manager Flury, and Rudolph stressed the availability of alumni for other meetings, training, and mentoring activities with students, should the Executive Board desire it.

Internet/New Media committee co-chair Jonathan Lehrer said he needed to regain access to the WNUR Alumni site and was assured by Morris that it would be done immediately, if it had not already been done. Lehrer said he hoped to put more information on the site when we want it. Lehrer said his hope was that the site would help create a "community" among WNUR alumni, but said it had not done that much yet. He asked whether the Job Bank expansion would be worthwhile, or if it would go unused. Don Jacobson and Rudolph said they believed that career path information should be included on the site, with alumni writing brief statements telling how they have been able to get where they are today, be it in the industry or elsewhere.

Rudolph said he still hoped to activate the Mentoring Committee on a formal basis, and invite WNUR staff to sign up to spend a day or two with professionals to get a better idea what various business experiences are like.

Lehrer asked the student members what they would like to see the Alumni Organization provide for them. He said in other organizations, interest was only modest when mentoring was offered. Toni Boyle said at the School of Management, the NU Committee of 100 (an NU-organized group of 100 influential female alumnae), in which she has been involved, also has had lukewarm response to mentoring activities it has offered because of students' already-hectic schedules.

Rudolph said Communications co-chair Norm Benedict is putting together contact lists, both internally at Northwestern and externally, to use when the Alumni Organization wants to notify other groups of upcoming activities and for press releases, when issued. Scott Case and Lehrer noted that the WNUR Alumni Organization is not currently listed among constituent alumni groups on the NU Alumni Association website. A discussion followed about the wisdom of doing so, in which Rudolph said it is his belief that the more constituent alumni groups that are formed, the better for the university, citing the examples at the DePaul College of Law. Morris said that perhaps it is time to introduce the Organization to the NU Alumni Association and get a cross-listing.

Archives co-chair Jacobson reported that he and co-chair Wally Podrazik are trying to get a better idea of what archival materials are in the possession of WNUR Alumni and what they may be willing to donate. He says to date, he has received a couple of responses to the questionnaire they sent in early February.

He advised that a 1959 alumnus who expressed a desire to "clean out his closet" was among them and was passing on the questionnaire to other WNUR alumni who may not have received it. Rudolph urged him to gather all the e-mail addresses for the Organization's database.

Jacobson said he planned to resend the survey a couple of times to try to build a timeline from 1950 to the present. Several people expressed an interest in a permanent memorabilia room. Morris said NU graduate students may be interested in doing research on student-run radio. Lehrer suggested that there may be broader interest if archival offerings on the website focused on celebrity interviews and staffers.

Jacobson says room exists for both types of archival recordings on the site, saying, "I'm scared to death of what we could lose." Rudolph said any type of archive would be welcome in the beginning and that the committee should create an inventory of everything known to exist. Morris said some of the best archiving to date is by students who archive their own material, and noted that WNUR now has a work-study student for the first time who could assist in archiving.

Rudolph asked for the date of the next Speech Convocation and the next Alumni Weekend, with hopes to planning a get-together involving WNUR's student staff and alumni.

Rudolph then formally asked Flury, the GM, to ask the WNUR Executive Board what it would like to see in the way of assistance in a joint staff-alumni activity. Lehrer suggested that the next one be music-oriented, since the last one was news-oriented.

Central States Alumni co-chair Jack Minkow asked how big the current WNUR staff is, and how many have a desire to go into broadcasting as a career. Flury said that of 200 staffers, about one-third are interested in making it a career, with a higher percentage of the news and sports staff.

Rudolph called for new business, and Lehrer suggested expanding eligibility for the Alumni Organization to include former Medill students who aired newscasts on WNUR, when Medill handled WNUR's newscasts, but its students did not show up on WNUR staff lists. No objections were expressed.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Stephen B. Rudolph
WNUR Alumni Association President