President's Message | May 26, 2020

Sweet home, stay at home

Registration is now open for our virtual conference workshops and presentations – we’re calling it Sweet Home/Stay at Home. We’ll be featuring partner presentations from exhibitors starting in July and will feature 10 workshops and seminars for virtual learning through the rest of the year (that’s on top of our free webinars for members!).

The first of the workshops will be on how to make your fundraising case – it’s essential for any kind of fundraising work and we’ll help you write one for your organization. We’ll look at case studies of how community media centers have changed their services to increase revenues.  And we’ll provide practice and advice for how to better advocate for your organization.

All the workshops and presentations are meant to provide practical and big picture information that will help you and your organization succeed in the coming year. We’ll have the rest of the schedule in June.

Registration discounts are available for ACM members – and while we can’t be together at the National Conference, we will have the ability to be together throughout the year – and you’ll save the cost of the hotel and travel! Sign up today! 

Academic survey

American University Professor Patricia Aufderheide and longtime ACM colleague Antoine Haywood are conducting an academic survey of how PEG operations are faring during the COVID-19 outbreak.

ACM feels it is very important that every organization participate in the survey to accurately tell our story of how we are helping communities during the crisis and the challenges we face.  Please take a few minutes now to fill out the survey. Thank you!

Click here to take the survey.

 

ACM Member's Conversation on Re-opening 

In case you missed the conversation last week with ACM members about concerns about re-opening and challenges of operating under Covid-19, here’s a link to the video. Feel free to share it with your staff and board as you are thinking about re-opening.

Here’s a list of topics that came up in conversation:

·       How to edit at home and navigate software licenses
·       Navigating complexities of health protocol when opening up
·       Employee health and safety
·       Navigating major digital divide issues
·       Taking training courses - OSHA and infection tracing
·       Legal liability of operating a potential health hazard space
·       Monitoring what libraries, museums and community centers are doing
·       Challenge of expectations of services that can be provided
·       Figuring out teaching online courses
·       “Blended” internship experiences
·       Zoom meetings with producers and community engagement
·       Longer equipment check-out & return periods
·       Questions about how we handle summer camps
·       Questions about how we handle graduations?
·       How we don’t lose “Personal touch and community culture”
·       How are we leveraging PEG resources to support others who don’t have as stable revenues?
·       How do we do work during this moment to accentuate community access media’s value in communities?

Several organizations are compiling guidelines for their re-opening, and ACM will try to collect and compile what we can in the coming weeks.  Please share your ideas and approaches and questions to other members on the ACM Listserv!  And if you are NOT on the Listserv, please sign up (or sign up your staff and Board if you are an Organization Member).


Antoine Haywood

And speaking of Antoine Haywood, he will begin a summer internship at ACM in June helping us survey the country in an Access Count that will document where PEG community media exists across the US.

We’ll be partnering with organizations across the country to try reach channels that may not have relationships with ACM, and will be publishing results in the Fall in a new Community Media Directory.  You can see a preview of how the work will look here. 

 

Hometown Award Winners

If you are a Hometown Award winner, be on the lookout for a press kit coming out this week to help you publicize your award.  Announcements are embargoed until Monday, June 1, but we want to make sure you tell the world about your success and publicize the HMAs!  Stay tuned!

Mike Wassenaar
President & CEO
The Alliance for Community Media