Community Advisory Board

WAER Community Advisory Board

Would you like to:

• help us cover our community? …
• help us meet and connect with our audience? … or
• play a role in ensuring WAER's future?

If that sounds like something worth your time and creativity, or if you'd like more information, send an email of interest to:

WAER General Manager Chris Bolt
cabolt@syr.edu

Description

WAER’s Community Advisory Board (C.A.B.) is a volunteer group of interested listeners, University community members, and members of the broader CNY community that meet 2 times per year to make recommendations to the WAER staff and Syracuse University Board of Trustees. All meetings are open to the public. Board members offer reflections on WAER programming and audience engagement, while helping us learn about and connect with our broader community

The board is advisory in nature and is not authorized to exercise any control over WAER’s daily management or operations. While the C.A.B. is a requirement of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we hope the board members help us reflect and connect with the community, in support of our missions: to enlighten, entertain and engage our audience, and to provide professional development opportunities to student and community volunteers. The board also offers feedback on current programming and other station initiatives. Regular meetings are held during fall and spring at times convenient for the majority of board members and are held at WAER, 795 Ostrom Ave, Syracuse, NY 13244 or spaces in the community.

WAER Syracuse will hold its next Community Advisory Board meeting in the winter of 2025. Return here for details and listen on-air to 88.3 FM WAER for an announcement. The advisory board is a requirement of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund WAER content, to make sure community needs are being met. The public is welcome to attend meetings.

WAER Community Advisory Board Meeting

Last Meeting Minutes:

WAER Community Advisory Board Meeting Notes – 10 Jul 24

Update on Staff:

• Introduced WAER Content & Operations Director Anthony Barney and Development & Membership Director Tracy Caryl to the board.
• Relayed notes from station meeting at NPR headquarters, in which NPR announced more robust editorial guidelines to ensure content balance and audience trust. NPR also shared importance of raising digital audience size and engagement.
• Announced rebranding of WAER as Syracuse Public Media, to reflect increased attention to content delivered via more than just radio, to include more web content, more social media content, more podcast content.
• Discussed desire for board members to increase engagement by being part of community events, representing the station; also making suggestions for WAER to present information about the station at institutions and organizations in our area.
• Created action committees: Community Engagement to come up with ways to meet audience; Content and Reach to find new ways to distribute content and gain audience; Development, to brainstorm ways to raise funds outside of the normal membership model.
• Agreed upon board member terms of 2 or 3 years
  

Community Engagement tasks – WAER reaching out, and us inviting community in:

*** I’m asking for board members’ help with these ideas

• Problem – We’ve been talking about a lack of recognition many have – even university members – of exactly who and what we are here at WAER.  Sometimes it’s distinction from WRVO, or misinformation about relationship with the University, or student station, or how we’re funded.
• So I’m asking you to: Find organizations, groups, companies, that would welcome WAER in for an info session or presentation.  That could be: simple overview of station relationships with SU, NPR, etc; what we see in our future and the importance of local news coverage; it could review and emphasize our community benefit & mission; A presentation or session could focus on a topic, such as elections coverage or other topics (local government, poverty, environment, health or education issues) on which we’ve done extensive coverage. 
• I thought you could talk with leaders of such organizations, companies, industry groups, non-profits to see if they’re interested.  Work on this independently or collaborate with your fellow board members. 
• WAER Open House – Let’s have a committee of board members create an event in which invite the community into the station.  We would advertise, mention on air, have station on-air talent there for people to meet, give tours, Board members would come, bring people with you (from orgs, neighbors, family).  A committee could figure out the format and a date that made sense – we discussed in the meeting that perhaps this would be in spring. 
• Story Ideas (absent City Limits) – I know we’ve talked a couple times about starting another in-depth, sweeping project under our City Limits brand.  But staffing – mostly the lack of a News Director right now, continues to limit that possibility.  But let’s hear story ideas you have that I can share with the newsroom.  Especially valuable at this time of year, when news kind of slows down.  We have plenty of holiday themed softer news stories … so hopefully you have ideas that revolve around important issues for the whole community or specific locales.  Share your idea and if you have possible sources, that always helps.

CAB Members List

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Community Advisory Board requirements:

In accordance with the Communications Act Section 396(k)(8), WAER must establish and maintain a Community Advisory Board.

"(A) Funds may not be distributed pursuant to this subpart to any public broadcast station (other than any station which is owned and operated by a State, a political or special purpose subdivision of a State, or a public agency) unless such station establishes a community advisory board. Any such station shall undertake good faith efforts to assure that: (i) its advisory board meets at regular intervals; (ii) the members of its advisory board regularly attend the meetings of the advisory board; and (iii) the composition of its advisory board are reasonably representative of the diverse needs and interests of the communities served by such station.

"(B) The board shall be permitted to review the programming goals established by the station, the service provided by the station, and the significant policy decisions rendered by the station. The board may also be delegated any other responsibilities, as determined by the governing body of the station. The board shall advise the governing body of the station with respect to whether the programming and other policies of such station are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the communities served by the station, and may make such recommendations as it considers appropriate to meet such needs.

"(C) The role of the board shall be solely advisory in nature, except to the extent other responsibilities are delegated to the board by the governing body of the station. In no case shall the board have any authority to exercise any control over the daily management or operation of the station.

"(D) In the case of any public broadcast station (other than any station which is owned and operated by a State, a political or special purpose subdivision of a State, or a public agency) in existence on the effective date of this paragraph, such station shall comply with the requirements of this paragraph with respect to the establishment of a community advisory board not later than 180 days after such effective date.

"(E) The provision of subparagraph (A) prohibiting the distribution of funds to any public broadcast station (other than any station which is owned and operated by a State, a political or special purpose subdivision of a State, or a public agency) unless such station establishes a community advisory board shall be the exclusive remedy for the enforcement of the provisions of this paragraph."