[Rfu-station] Station Update

[Andrew Ó Baoill]

1 CDs FROM WEFT
2 STEP UP, STEP UP - TASKS THAT NEED OWNERS
3 PERMANENT TOWER PROJECT
4 STATION CONTACTS

1 CDs FROM WEFT
In my meeting notes, circulated just now, I noted that I spent two  
hours at the IMC today moving CD boxes out of the production studio  
(to an area beside the wheelchair ramp at the back of the IMC).


I believe it's important to take action on these soon, rather than  
have them take up space without being useful to those producing  
programming. Proposed actions:
* TRANSFER: Most of the remaining CDs are in 53 USPS crates. We need  
to return these to USPS ASAP, so those CDs need to be moved to other  
boxes, or shelved, or otherwise processed. Transferring to boxes  
should take about 4-5 person-hours. This is an urgent task.
* MOVE: We need to move the remaining CD boxes from the production  
room, so it can be used by WRU producers and others. This should take  
about 4-5 person-hours, once they have been transferred from the USPS  
boxes. This is an urgent task.
* SORT: Someone has already sorted through some, identifying material  
worth keeping (those boxes remain in the production room, to one  
side). However, it's unclear which material has thus been identified  
as surplus to requirements. Anyone interested in continuing to sort  
should place CDs identified as 'good' in our CD shelving in studio -  
use shelves that are not being used for local music or other  
programming needs.
* POSSIBLE RECIPIENTS: We should identify who might be interested in  
some of the 5-10 thousand CDs we have, most of which we cannot keep  
at WRFU. Record Swap, WILL, others? Are there limitations on our  
selling the CDs? There was some discussion of this on Tuesday, and  
some of those present were to investigate possible options.
* TIMELINE: We should set a firm but reasonable timeline, and after  
that time dump the remaining CDs.

2 STEP UP, STEP UP - TASKS THAT NEED OWNERS
There are a number of regular tasks at WRFU that need specific point- 
people. As I indicated when I took on the Station Manager task I  
*cannot* take on a wide range of tasks within the station, and we  
need to share the load in a fair fashion. I'll be proposing at our  
next meeting that we appoint people to each of these areas.
1 Meeting facilitator - can rotate and/or be split into two tasks.  
Announce meeting on RFU-STATION, RFU, and IMC lists. Moderate the  
meeting, making sure we work through the agenda. Take notes of  
decisions taken at meetings and post to list(s). Workload: 3-5 hours  
per month, including WRFU meeting attendance.
2 SPOKES TO STEERING - We need two people to attend IMC steering  
meetings, which take place twice a month on Thursday evenings at 8pm.  
At present we don't have any WRFU-specific representative attending  
steering meetings, to my knowledge. This is a task where we should  
set a fixed term of office. The two representatives can split  
attendance between them. They should report back to the larger group  
on email and/or at WRFU membership meetings. Workload: 1-3 hours per  
month, plus WRFU meeting attendance.
3 FINANCE/BOOKKEEPING: We need someone to track our authorized  
outgoings, our income, and performance against our agreed budget.  
This person should also reconcile our understanding of our financial  
position with the IMC's copy of our account on a regular basis.  
Occasional attendance at IMC Finance group meetings may be advisable.  
Regular updates (monthly?) to WRFU meetings will be necessary.  
Workload: 2-3 hours per month, plus WRFU meeting attendance.

I want to stress that I believe it's important that we don't have 1  
or 2 people hold these various roles, particularly in the informal  
manner it has been recently. First, this leads to burnout of active  
volunteers. Second, it damages the shared sense of ownership of all  
volunteers when one or two dominate. Third, informal responsibility -  
covering because no one else will - means tasks don't get done  
effectively. We need to have people take responsibility for small  
tasks for fixed periods of time, and accomplish those.

I would suggest that the tasks listed above could, where necessary,  
count in lieu of working group participation.

PERMANENT TOWER PROJECT
It's critical that we make movement on our move to a permanent tower.  
This must be a core action item at future meetings. However, a number  
of information gaps currently exist - we don't have a current copy of  
our account from the IMC; there is debate about the merits of on-site  
and off-site towers. I'm working on fixing those gaps, and look  
forward to participation by all WRFU volunteers in these important  
debates and decisions as we move forward.

STATION CONTACTS
Today I posted my phone numbers on the station notice-board. I am  
available for any regulatory/licensing issue that arises. However, at  
a recent meeting we agreed that others would be listed as contacts  
available to deal with technical or similar issues.
- If you are willing to be one of the contacts listed in the station  
please send me a mail, including the phone number (and email where  
relevant) you want displayed in the station.

Andrew Ó Baoill
Station Manager
WRFU-LP, Urbana 104.5FM
http://www.wrfu.net andrew at funferal.org
(217) 344-2536 (studio)