[Rfu-station] Re: [RFU] Station manager questions

[dan blah]

This was a good overview of what I think are the most important
responsibilities of the SM. Without insinuating that the descriptions
below  should be reduced, I have created a quick and hopefully easier
to read list of responsibilities from Mike's email for everyone to
reference.

-=Responsibilities=-
Station administration
Station personnel
Station finances
Technical operations
Public Relations
Working collaboratively with all RFU, UCIMC, and Socialist Forum (SF) members.

-=Qualifications=-
Education:
College degree or at least 6 years equivalent experience

Experience:
Radio Broadcasting
Non-profit organization supervising employees and/or volunteers, desirable

Skills and Abilities:
Emphasis on communication skills (written and oral)
Management skills (planning, motivating, organizing, innovating, etc.)
Industry skills (programming, marketing, fundraising, etc.)
Ability to work with diverse communities
Ability to advise and support volunteers/coworkers facing difficult challenges
Commitment to work collaboratively in a consensus environment
Must be detail oriented
Requires good judgment
Requires critical thinking
Requires interaction and knowledge of SF, U-C IMC, and the FCC

-=Compensation=-
Working for a respected, exciting, diverse community asset that
promotes social justice to bring *real* public affairs issues and the
arts to our community
Experience in radio broadcasting and non-profit organizations
It will looks good on you resume

Hope this helps,
--
Dan

On Jan 23, 2008 7:00 PM, Mike Lehman <rebelmike at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Andrew,
> I was meaning to get to that tonight, but I appreciate the reminder
> nonetheless.
>
> For starts, a job announcement that went out recently via one of the
> Prometheus lists for the Pacifica station in Los Angeles, KPFK, is a
> good basic description of what a non-commercial station looks for when
> hiring a station manager. Of course, WRFU can't offer full benefits and
> $65k/year, but read it over for a good general idea of what we hope RFU
> can get on the cheap...
>
>  >>>> KPFK job description for station manager
> The General Manager is responsible and accountable for overall
> administration, personnel, programming, financing, technical operations
> and public relations of the station. Working collaboratively with the
> Local Station Board (LSB), the station staff, and the community, the
> General Manager is responsible for monitoring and guiding the station.
>
> *QUALIFICATIONS:*
>
> Education: College degree or at least 6 years equivalent experience.
> Experience: Experience in broadcasting, and/or in a non-profit or
> community organization supervising employees and/or volunteers, desirable.
> Skills and Abilities:  Emphasis on communication skills (written and
> oral); management skills (e.g., planning, motivating, organizing,
> innovating, etc.); and industry skills (programming, marketing,
> fundraising, etc.)  Ability to work with diverse communities. Must be
> detail oriented. Requires good judgment. Ability to think clearly and
> manage multiple changing priorities. Requires critical thinking,
> commitment to work collaboratively, and ability to advise and support
> coworkers facing difficult challenges.
>  >>>>>
>
> Interestingly, they don't mention the FCC at all. But for WRFU, since we
> have no chief engineer or office staff, the SM must be able to keep
> current on, interpret, and apply FCC policy at WRFU to the best of their
> ability, as well as navigate the often clunky but now required
> interaction with the FCC's online license-holder database in order to
> keep our paperwork up to date, including license renewal in a few years
> when that is needed.
>
> There are two other organizations you also need to interact with,
> Socialist Forum, which holds the license, and UC IMC, of which RFU is a
> working group of and which houses the station, studio, and transmitter.
>
> I confirmed last weekend with SF that they are still interested in
> passing along the license to UC IMC once the FCC announces the transfer
> protocol they intend to use for LPFM licenses. My comrades in SF don't
> need much hand holding, but their names are on the dotted line as
> responsible for the proper operation of WRFU in accordance with FCC
> rules and to avoid situations that could result in legal liability for
> the station. It was for these reasons that I often asked people to
> rethink something they proposed, because everything that any individual
> or programming group does on RFU affects not only them and the station,
> but other people who've been willing to put their names on the dotted
> line to make it possible for virtually anyone to walk in and rather
> easily go on the air at WRFU.
>
> RFU more frequently and closely interacts with UC IMC, since the station
> itself is part of the IMC's working group structure. UC IMC also owns
> all of the station equipment, including the transmitter and tower. The
> consensus agreement that put WRFU on the air set this up, with SF
> contributing the vital FCC license as its part of the deal and the IMC
> agreeing to host RFU without rent, but with regular payments to cover
> the overhead costs of hosting the station, studio and tower, along with
> actually owning the equipment. Should the station ever shut down due to
> losing its license or the volunteers making up the working group losing
> interest, UC IMC can dispose of the equipment by selling or donating it
> to support other Indymedia operations, either in town or around the world.
>
> It would be especially helpful for the station for the new permanent SM
> to be able to devote their attention primarily to developing the station
> and its volunteer infrastructure. This is one reason why Dan is
> currently listing himself as interim SM, because he already has a lot of
> other responsibilities. But we'll struggle through, no matter what.
>
> However, the fact that the SM still remains burdened with so many tasks
> that the members should be doing has been my greatest disappointment and
> failure as the first SM. I cannot list all those I am in debt to for
> giving of their time, efforts and resources to put and keep WRFU on the
> air. Most members don't know of the debt we are in to so many in the
> community for supporting WRFU.
>
> It is the SM's responsibility to both make sure essential station
> functions are maintained and to facilitate and encourage the members to
> do as much of that as possible. There are many members who I don't know
> or I never see at any RFU meetings. We only require that any individual
> member show up for a meeting once every two months. But far too often, I
> find that I was the one calling meetings making suggestions or doing the
> work. The station manager has the ultimate authority in an emergency to
> take any action needed to preserve the station or its license, including
> but not limited to taking shows off the air, prohibiting members from
> broadcasting, and securing the studio and station equipment. Normally,
> these functions are left to the members operating through consensus, but
> the SM always retains these powers for use in an emergency.
>
> Just to be clear in case it isn't by now to every member, but I always
> did my best to encourage each and every member to get involved, take
> responsibility for some task, no matter how small, and find their own
> voice to take on the air to serve the community. My failure to get more
> of our members active in station business was less than what I wanted to
> acheive. I always did what I thought was best for the station and the
> community. No doubt, there have been times when I fell short and this
> has been, as I already mentioned, my greatest disappointment.
>
> What all members need to keep in mind is that the station isn't half of
> what it could have been by now. We absolutely need to complete the
> fundraising for the permanent tower, get the paperwork done to allow us
> to put it up, and then follow through so that everyone in C-U can hear
> us, along with many others in Champaign County. This is the primary goal
> that the next SM must focus on or the station will eventually fail. But
> there are many other things that can be done to improve the station that
> will only get as far as how much the members support the SM.
>
> As I've documented above, the new SM has a very full plate. Like me,
> they are responsible to the FCC,SF, and UC IMC for everything that
> happens at the station, yet they only have YOU, the members, to make
> that happen. The new SM will either succeed or fail just like I have, by
> their ability to mobilize, motivate, and grow the membership both
> quantitatively and qualitatively.
>
> I would be glad to answer questions that any member might have about the
> station manager position. I will be available to support and advise the
> next and future station managers. But I will no longer be making
> decisions when the membership can't or won't. That will be up to the
> station managers that follow me.
>
> Every member should consider whether they could be the new SM. If
> nothing else, every member should try to attend the next station meeting
> on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 8pm at UC IMC to decide where to go from here. In
> the end, the SM can do their best, but our successes and failures depend
> entirely on our membership and the support they can give the next and
> future station managers.
> Mike Lehman
>
>
> Andrew Ó Baoill wrote:
> > At our meeting last week we decided to appoint a new station manager
> > at our next meeting. Interested members were asked to contact the list
> > to express interest.
> >
> > One thing that would help with the process would be if we could see a
> > list of the duties of the station manager. We know the station manager
> > is the primary contact point for communication with the FCC. I
> > understand that the SM is also meant to have some responsibility
> > regarding ensuring we abide by FCC regulations, such as on
> > obscenity/indecency, logging, technical specifications. Is there
> > anything else?
> >
> > Andrew
> > --
> > Andrew Ó Baoill
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> > Inst. of Communications Research, U. of Illinois
> > Communications / Participatory media / Political action
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> > andrew at funferal.org / baoillo at uiuc.edu
> > aim: funferal at mac.com
> > +353-87-241-7003 / +1-(217) 384-3142
> > http://funferal.org / Galway, Ireland / Urbana, IL, USA
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > RFU mailing list
> > RFU at lists.chambana.net
> > http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/rfu
> >
>
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