BOARD OF OPERATING TRUSTEES MEETING
Campus Club, Room 203
405 W. 25th Street
September 22, 2006
2 p.m.
AGENDA
I. 2 p.m., Convene in Open Session for Meeting of the Executive Committee
A. Monthly Financial Report
B. Revised 2006-2007 Budget
II. Recess to Executive Session pursuant to Texas Government Code Chapter 551, ŅPersonnel
Matters Relating to Appointment, Employment, Evaluation, Assignment, Duties, Discipline,
or Dismissal of Officers or EmployeesÓ - Section 551.074.
A. Deliberations regarding consideration of individual personnel matters relating to
appointment of advising staff members.
III. Reconvene in Open Session to consider action, if any, of Executive Session item.
IV. 3 p.m., Convene in Open Session for the Texas Student Publications Board Meeting
A. Approval of Minutes from August 25th TSP Board Meeting.
B. Executive Committee Report
C. Monthly Reports of Director and Student Managers
D. Discussion and appropriate action regarding unfinished business
1. Update on Student Affairs reorganization.
E. Discussion and appropriate action regarding new business
1. Appointment of TSP committees.
2. Discussion and appropriate action concerning potential budget cuts and the proposed
budget adjustments.
V. Adjourn
Persons interested in the meeting and desiring communication or other special accommoĀdations should contact the Board Office at least two working days prior to the meeting. The Board Office may be contacted by phone at (512) 499-4402; by fax at (512) 499-4425; or by email at bor@utsystem.edu. The Board Office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., excluding national holidays. Every reasonable effort will be made to accommodate special needs. Requests may be delivered or mailed to: The Office of the Board of Regents, 201 West Seventh Street, Suite 820, Austin, Texas 78701-2981 or submitted electronically to bor@utsystem.edu.
Texas Student Publications
Board of Operating Trustees
August 25, 2006
Voting members present: Brandon Chicotsky, Brian Ferguson, Bill Laird, Jef
Richards, Rusty Todd, Cindy Tomlinson Brummer, A.J. Bauer, Lindsay Meeks,
Kendra Newton
Voting
members absent: Bill Cornwell, Urton
Anderson
Non-voting members
present: JoAnna Chin, Carlos Corral,
J.J. Hermes, Kathy Lawrence, Loren Seeger, David Strauss, Zach Warmbrodt
Non-voting members absent:
Sherri Sanders, Ely Cohn
Professional staff
present: Richard Finnell, John
Foxworth, Wayne Roche, Tim Serpas, Jack Simons, Merry Tillman, Dan Knight,
Frank Serpas, Mary Baird.
Guests: Maggie Sharp
In the absence of a Board
President, TSP Director Kathy Lawrence called the meeting to order at 11:06
a.m.
I. Introductions and
Orientation
After the Board members and
professional staff present introduced themselves around the table, Lawrence
presented a brief history of the TSP organization, its components and
activities. Subsequently, the
various Assistant Directors and Advisers provided more detailed information on
the roles of their units and examples of their activities. Before adjourning for lunch, Newton
invited all the units to send representatives to the event she had planned for
the residence halls to inform students about their opportunities with TSP.
The meeting adjourned for
lunch at 11:55 a.m. and reconvened at 12:45 p.m. with Todd presiding.
II. Selection of Board
Officers and Executive Committee
A. At the request of
Chicotsky, the declared candidates for Board President – Laird and Bauer
- made statements on their own behalves.
Todd then called for a show of hands. Bauer was elected 6 to 1, whereupon he assumed the chair of
the meeting.
B. For Vice-President,
Chicotsky presented himself for the office, as did Laird, relying on his
statement in favor of his Presidential candidacy. By a 5 to 2 show of hands, Laird was elected.
C. Bauer moved and Richards
seconded Newton being appointed Secretary. The motion passed.
D. The Executive Committee
required two new student members and five candidates presented themselves:
Bauer, Chicotsky, Laird, Meeks and Newton. Voting members were asked to submit paper ballots with two
names apiece. Lawrence tabulated
the votes with the result of a three-way tie between Bauer, Meeks and
Newton. A run-off between the
three produced Newton as a clear winner and a tie between Bauer and Meeks. A final run-off led to BauerÕs
election.
Thus the final composition of
the Executive Committee: Anderson, Bauer, Richards, Todd, Newton.
E. As to the membership of
other committees, Bauer asked that anyone interested in current committees or
creating new ones contact him before the 8th.
III. Reports and Approvals
A. Todd reported on
reorganization progress, pointing out that major components could include deed
transfer to a potential non-profit organization and negotiation for services
provided by the University. He
noted that further progress would depend on the forthcoming Executive Committee
meeting.
B. Lawrence submitted her
summer activities report and revised five-year plan. Mention of plans for Broadcast prompted Newton to comment on
potential for connections with Housing.
C. TillmanÕs report on
finances included a projected deficit of $149,000 by the end of the year. Todd suggested that the many recent
capital improvements were not yet showing their worth and that a restatement of
revenue for the next year be made so as to determine how much budgets could be cut. He further suggested that all units
begin examining how they might reduce their expenses and that the reserve fund
be frozen. He insisted that all
units cut their budgets by an equal percentage; Ferguson protested that this
could penalize the more successful units unfairly while Todd countered that he
intended the plan to keep successful units from being solely penalized to
support the others.
With regard to potential
sources of increased funding, Ferguson reported that he did not believe the UT
Fees Committee would be open to any changes.
Tillman returned an estimate
that revenue was down approximately 5%.
D. With a motion from Todd
and a second by Bauer, the April minutes were approved.
E. With a motion from Todd
and a second by Richards, the budget was approved.
F. When the student managers
gave their reports, Todd questioned Seeger regarding KVR turning down certain
opportunities for underwriting.
She responded that she felt the staff had become more accepting of underwriting
and that they would continue to adapt.
She cited a case where a local sports bar was advertised with its
address given in lieu of saying it was in the Marriott, a national chain. In the past, such an ad would have been
dismissed out of hand with no chance for compromise, she claimed.
At 1:51 p.m., Bauer adjourned
the meeting.
TO: TSP Board of Operating Trustees
FR: Kathy Lawrence
DATE: September 14, 2006
RE: September Board Report
This month has had the expected frenetic pace of the start of school. Ad sales so far are strong, and the students in all media have quickly hit their stride as the new semester opened.
ItÕs also been a month of recalculating and trying to ensure that the budget will be met this year, and that financial goals are reasonable. In that regard, youÕll find a pared back budget that has not been easy to achieve. We feel, however, the revised budget is achievable and will meet our needs.
TSTV started off
with good news, bad news. The
recruiting efforts in classes, dorms and around campus resulted in a much
larger than expected turnout for the first meeting and the first week of mock
shows. The crowd took up so much
room, overflowing into the halls and offices that it overloaded the air conditioning,
and some had to leave because of the crowd and the heat. We will have a larger venue next time.
The first week of mock shows has been very successful, however. The work done over the summer, and
donated equipment has made the master control provide increasing production
values and options. Scheduling
studio and field equipment is becoming more difficult as demand increases.
MTVu, the university
oriented network in the MTV network family, owned by Viacom, is coming to
campus and has purchased the company that owns College Publisher (the Texan
website provider. We will be
meeting with the company principals next week about any mutual benefits that
may be workable, including a possible new revenue stream for TSTV.
TSTVÕs application
for a digital channel on channel 29 will not need to go to the bidding process
at the Federal Communications Commission since we were the only applicant for
that channel in this area. That
means we can apply for a full license for a digital channel for the changeover
from analog to digital in 2009.
The current channel 9 covers about 77,000 homes; the new channel 29
would cover more than a million homes, quite an increase in circulation.
Operations/Circulation delivered the new Visitor guides to hotels in advance of the Ohio State football game and continues to fill Guide orders for UT departments. As you may recall, the Guide is sold by an outside agency, written and produced by the UT Office of Public Affairs, while we handle distribution for $5,000 per year. The department also helped with Orange magazine distribution.
Cross training the production staff paid dividends during the busy start of the semester, as manpower shifted among the prepress, press, mailroom, and circulation functions as necessary.
Our new INK classified system is up and delivering our customers a vastly improved interface. Since the September 1 launch, the system has secured 114 credit card transactions for 672 insertions at a total cost of $10,975. While the reporting feature on INK doesn't calculate the revenue posted for an individual day or issue it appears to be generating enough revenue to eclipse our September budget goal of $18,632. Prior to switching over we had $5,159 sold for September, and as of September 12, we had generated an additional $10,975. ItÕs also interesting to note that 51 or the 157 customers who used the new system did it during non-work hours; 86 of the 157 purchased web extras which fulfills the expectation that if you give them a basic online ad they'll buy extras to make it stand out. Our site also attracts 35,000 page views per day, which translates to 24 a minute. That's a healthy site, and currently the second most popular site in the INK client base. LSU barely edges us out. We plan to convert the two remaining classified clerks into telemarketers for radio and television spots in the near future, something we feel is quite promising.
New Media properties are off to a great start. Daily Texan Online, TSTV and KVRX are already over budget for September, with television over budget by $3,600 and KVRX by $4,320. Travesty is slightly below budget with a few days of selling left. All of this business was generated through bundling!
We are hopeful that Daily Texan ROP and classified display will meet the September goal, and itÕs good to know that sales made during the August 31 to September 12 window for this year are up 33 percent over the amount booked during the same period last year. This is business transacted during the window that will ultimately run during the fiscal year. If you break this down per revenue stream it is encouraging to see National up a whopping 85 percent which might be as a result of the prototype. Student sales rep local sales are down 24 percent, while our two sales professionals are down by 4 percent as of September 12.
The Cactus Yearbook staff easily was the hit of Party on the Plaza. We sponsored an ice cream eating contest with Amy's Ice Cream, and according to Randall Ford, the person in charge of the event, "Amy's Ice Cream was the HIT of the day." The Cactus staff also supplied iced lemonade (thanks to Jack SimonsÕ effort) and fans to help cool off everyone during the hot afternoon. The cups and fans had the Cactus logo on each one, and since almost every table had someone holding one or both of them, we got a lot of exposure during the event.
We now have three work-studies to help the staff in the Cactus office. They will meet and greet customers in the office, as well as help the staff with special projects. They are helping contact all of the students organizations now regarding page sales, the CactusÕ key responsibility for now. Editor JoAnna Chin has developed a very effective sales piece to aid in this all-staff effort.
The yearbook staff is distributing the 2006 yearbooks to the VIPs on campus this week. They have gotten great reviews on the book from the students.
Jack is acclimating to his new job and is slowly adjusting to life on the 3rd floor. He is definitely enjoying his window but misses his daily student contact.
On the photo side, itÕs definitely the beginning of a new school year, and the Texan and Cactus have many students signing up for photo tryouts. As the Texan has to turn away photographers, the Cactus should pick up even more student photographers. Photo Adviser John Foxworth is hoping start training still photographers to use some video for the Texan web this semester.
Mary J Baird-Wilcock, KVRX adviser, is still getting her feet wet this month. She has taken an active role in meeting all the student directors and introducing herself to the general staff. The KVRX open house on September 8 was a huge success, gaining 11 new volunteers for the station.
The first live broadcast with Texas Sports Radio Network (TSRN) aired on September 8,and despite the rainfall on-site at the high school football game, the broadcast was crystal clear and ran pretty smoothly. Mary has been working with the professionals behind the scenes with this agreement and has developed a strong working relationship as we kick-off the new school year.
MaryÕs main goal for this fall semester is to help the TSM ad sales staff learn how to better sell underwriting radio spots for KVRX-FM. Working with broadcast sales coordinator Carter Goss, we will help streamline the system between the sales staff and the KVRX traffic and production departments. In short, we hope to stimulate the generated radio revenue by offering advice on new potential advertisers, tapping MaryÕs sales contacts at KUT-FM for potential workshop advice on non-commercial radio underwriting revenue and advising on ways we can generate added value thru promotions and on-site events.
TSP Board Meeting
September 22, 2006
KVRX 91.7 FM
Loren Seeger
The fall semester if off to a strong start at KVRX:
Currently we are working on:
Texas Travesty
The Travesty is in late production for its first Fall 2006
issue, which we delayed one week due to this yearÕs large staff churn.
Fortunately, our
interests coincided with the advertising departmentÕs. The
first issue will be 20 pages, just like last yearÕs.
New staff members help compensate for last yearÕs loss, but
they need
training and more experience before weÕll be able to return
to peak
productivity. Hopefully, weÕll achieve this by the end of
the semester
with diligent work by upper staff members.
WeÕve also found out that weÕll have to move this month to a
new office
in UA9. WeÕve pushed back the move date just past the end of
work on the
first issue. Hopefully, that will allow a smooth transition
to the new office. We have yet to evaluate all our needs for the new office,
but weÕre working with TSPÕs IT staff to ensure our most urgent needs are met,
including Internet access.
WeÕve wrapped up the initial administrative tasks, including
associating
payroll positions with the right people and setting a
(tentative) production schedule. Depending on how the move affects our work, we
may need to push other dates back.
Finally, weÕre examining our options for contracting out a
complete site
redesign for a cost not exceeding the webmasterÕs salary. We
do not have
the webmaster position filled, so weÕre considering such a
contract as
an alternative.
Sincerely,
David Strauss
TSP
Board Meeting
September 22, 2006
Cactus
Yearbook
JoAnna Chin, Editor
The
Cactus staff has taken off to an great start working the promotion and creation
of the 114th edition. Details of particular updates follow. If you
have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at
joannachin@mail.utexas.edu.
Content
The
first official staff deadline is October 24. However, we are trying a new
approach to completing staff deadlines by implementing a rolling-deadline
system where pages are submitted on a weekly basis. Elements that go into each
deadline (copy, photos, design) will be due each week, with a new assignment
beginning each week. These interim deadlines will begin with the first copy
deadline on October 6 (to be known as Deadline 1A). I believe this will be an
efficient way to prevent procrastination and ensure that there are pages being
completed on a regular basis.
Staff
We
had our first staff meeting on Wednesday, August 31 and decided that we will be
meeting weekly, same day same time (7:30pm) in the conference room. In
addition, we have a complete editorial staff with the hiring of the assistant
photo editor, Barbara Kierewicz, who is a Design senior. We also had our first
social event on Sunday, September 10 and hope to continue meeting outside of
Cactus-related events at least once a month.
Marketing
On
the marketing side, we kicked off the year with our second annual Ice Cream
Eating contest, this year co-hosted with AmyÕs Ice Cream. We had 10
organizations participate in eating 4-foot long ice cream sundaes with
everything from bananas and strawberries, to brownies and ice cream.
Participants from Sigma Alpha Epsilon won for the second time in a row. AmyÕs
also gave out enough ice cream to feed over 300 people. We look forward to
continuing this relationship in the future.
Ann
Bui, the marketing manager, has her marketing committee working on a marketing
survey that will have been released by the Board meeting. Please be on the
lookout for an e-mailed link to the online survey – we value your
feedback! Also, she has assigned each committee member particular colleges
around the University to research methods of promoting the Cactus at each
particular college or school. The next campus-wide event is being planned for
sometime in October.
Page
sales
We
hope to sell at least 50 pages of organizational content by the end of
September, which is the most cost effective for the student groups. In total,
we have approximately 125 of pages planned to sell to organizations by
semester-end. A rate flyer has been attached for your reference. Ad-space sales
will take place in the Spring semester for for-profit and non-University
affiliate companies.
Maestro
system
The
Cactus is taking a new approach to developing story ideas by setting meetings
between the section editor (who designs each page), staff writer, staff
photographer, and in some instances, a third party representative. At these
meetings, story ideas will be brainstormed, taking into account the spatial
constraints and possible story angles. By taking this approach, we hope to
avoid undesirable photographs that do not correspond with story content, in
addition to ensuring that groups who purchase pages are satisfied with their
decision to be in the book and will become long-term clients.
Alcalde
Magazine article
The
Cactus was featured in a recent edition of the Alacalde magazine of the Texas
Exes. Thanks to that article, we have received a good response from alumni interested
in supporting the Cactus. We are currently speaking with an alumna who is now
working as a high school yearbook advisor and has extensive experience brining
a struggling yearbook back into the black. In addition, our office assistants
are helping to create a database of contact information for past yearbook staff
members so that we may contact them for donations in the near future.
To: Texas Student Publications Board of Operating Trustees
From: JJ Hermes, Editor, The Daily Texan
Re: Monthly report for September 2006
Tryouts were quite popular at the start of the fall
semester, and I was delighted to see so many departmentsÕ sign up sheets full
by the end of the second week. Our
staff is certainly greener than usual — especially the preponderance of
freshmen that have descended on the basement this fall. While this may make work a bit slower
these first few weeks, it bodes well for the TexanÕs near future.
Additionally, I was hoping we could extend discussions about
prior review. I came into the last
semester with the understanding that this board was unanimously opposed to
prior review. As a new member to
the board, I would love to hear where you all stand on the matter.
Sincerely,
JJ Hermes
The Daily Texan
Members of the Board,
The Texan held tryouts for issue staff positions the first three weeks of publishing. It was a big success. We had more volunteers than we could handle in some departments. It looks like thereÕs a very healthy interest in the Texan among students. KendraÕs seminar also helped us bring in a good number of ambitious honors students. If our newbies are any indication, the future of the Texan looks bright.
One of the first significant accomplishments of the semester was the launch of the sports tab Double Coverage. The first issue printed without any major problems, and looked great. We bumped up the size of the tab to 32 pages, from 24, for the Ohio State edition. The jump in size slowed its production down, ansd in the rush a few embarrassing mistakes got through. But we learned from the experience and have used the week off to make adjustments.
DT Weekend is in a state of transition because of the sudden exit of its editor. IÕve posted ads and solicited recommendations from faculty in a search for someone new, but I havenÕt received many applications. For now, IÕm going to take over the editorÕs duties. I have one candidate who looks promising, and IÕm going to bring her on staff as an assistant editor until sheÕs learned the ropes. Luckily, the rest of the DT Weekend staff is sticking around, and the daily has a solid entertainment department that will help out.
Another addition to the TexanÕs media offerings has also launched successfully. ŅThe Daily Texan Rundown,Ó the paperÕs first-ever daily podcast, has been available on our Web site and iTunes for a couple weeks now. It teases the dayÕs top stories, and is much more than just someone reading news briefs. It includes snippets of recorded interviewes, photography and graphics, behind the scences features and entertaining sports talk. ItÕs available by subscription and steaming. It will also play on portable digital audio devices, such as the iPod.
The project has been difficult, and weÕre still working the kinks out of the work flow. To sustain this product, which has kept a small but steady audience the past couple weeks, we need to find another staff member or two, and try to track down more audio equipment for the Texan to use.
Thank you,
Zachary Warmbrodt
Managing Editor
To
the TSP Board Members,
Texas
Student Television is now in full swing for the Fall semester. To start off, I would like to extend my
thanks for to both Wayne Roche and Carter Goss for the success of the Kickoff
Countdown. The previous ones have
been a great achievement and we are all looking forward to whatÕs in store for
the future. Aside from the Kickoff
Countdown, TSTV has hosted several events throughout the first few weeks of
class, which include: Party on the Plaza, ŅThe Last KissÓ sneak preview, and
our own TSTV volunteer meeting and open house.
The
TSTV Volunteer meeting that took place last week brought a record high of
volunteers. The turnout was so
good that for the next Volunteer meeting, we will need to reserve a large
classroom to make sure we can accommodate all new and old volunteers. The TSTV Open House has been going all
week with great success. From
Sunday to Thursday night, students have become involved with every single Live
show that TSTV has to offer.
Speaking
of television shows, we now have a record of shows being produced by students
at the TV station. Some are even
getting class credit for their work.
As of now, TSTV has a total of 16 television shows. They will all run house ads in the
Daily Texan to further their promotion and marketing with the help of our
promotions department and the TSM Sales Department.
Other
updates include the following:
Finally,
I would like to encourage all TSP Board Members to check out our TSTV Alumni
Group on www.texasstudenttv.com. Several of our alumni, as early as
1998, have begun to contact us with their information. They all wish to serve as a resource
for future TSTV graduates looking for places to start in the television and
film industry.
Carlos
Corral
Texas
Student Television
Station
Manager 2006-2007
(512)
471-7899