[grc] ATTN: Previous GRC Host Stations: Nominate your GRC Steering Committee Reps TODAY!

[Sharon Scott]

This discussion, along with the personal attacks on this listserve have 
got to stop now.   The GRC Steering Committee was established by vote by 
the Madison GRC participants and we are upholding that mandate.

As informal as we are, the GRC Steering Committee is an active and 
productive group that put a lot of work into revitalizing the conference 
this year.  We are also responsible for establishing and maintaining the 
monthly meet-ups which are now and will always be hosted by community 
radio stations, not their paid advisors or consultants.  We are 
currently calling for REPRESENTATIVES FROM PREVIOUS GRC HOST STATIONS to 
serve on the informal GRC Steering Committee.  That is it.  We are not 
calling for further discussion of our existence. The Madison vote is 
enough.  The stations who have put in the work to host conferences get 
little rewards and selecting a staff representative for the Steering 
Committee is one of them.

If anyone wants to talk "exclusionary" should be reminded of the GRC 
KBOO Conference when a group of consultants, including Betty and 
Michelle and others who have commented on this tread and called me a 
"dictator" attempted to take hold of the GRC Conference, placing 
themselves at the helm and effectively excluding the true stakeholders 
-- the community stations themselves -- from leadership positions.

As far as the conference decisions go, everyone in the community radio 
world is welcome to participate.  Once we have a list of stations who 
have volunteered to host, everyone's voice will be heard in the 
selection of the upcoming location through a poll to this listserve and 
discussions at the monthly meet-ups.  However, I assure you, the GRC 
Steering Committee will continue to uphold the wishes of the Madison 
attendees and keep the GRC conference where it belongs -- in the hands 
of the stations themselves.

So again,

We are now SEEKING REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE GRC STEERING COMMITTEE.  This 
is an important, yet low commitment, group of individuals selected by 
previous host stations to  ensure the future, independence, and 
station-driven identity of the Grassroots Radio Conference.  These 
station reps determine future GRC locations and ensure that the quilt 
and the seed money gets transferred from one station to the next each 
year.  After that they provide assistance to host stations, as 
requested, but will mostly facilitate the host station's ability to run 
the conference independently, as best they see fit.

GRC Steering Committee Application:
https://forms.gle/USdg3aNufcGT9C1j8

Will you step up?  Play a role in keeping American community radio 
independant or are you content to sleep on this,  allow those who profit 
off our work control what we do?






On 2024-02-19 18:52, Michelle Bradley via grc wrote:
> I agree in part with Al on this, we do not need a "steering committee" 
> as suggested in the past.  This roller coaster over GRC governance 
> continues to teeter totter because of the massive clash between 
> "traditionalists" and "progressives" where it comes to the question of 
> the GRC. (footnote: "progressives" as in those who want to see progress 
> at the GRC, which allows for updating and creating new traditions)..
> 
> I do feel that the Sharon Scott vision for a "steering committee" is a 
> slightly misguided and is extremely exclusionary.  While those who have 
> hosted GRCs in the past are a great resource for information in order 
> to avoid some of the "lessons learned" that have happened at past 
> conferences, it does exclude out many other subject matter experts in 
> the fields of event planning and knowledge of the current broadcasting 
> landscape.  This turns the GRC into an exclusive club with a secret 
> handshake while excluding out other grassroots radio stakeholders.
> 
> I do agree that we need to move away from the term "steering committee" 
> as that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those who are more 
> traditionalist and rightfully so. I have witnessed the power struggles 
> and politics where it comes to organizing this thing and what results 
> is a hastily planned event.  However, sometimes, even when hastily 
> planned, we do get a winner... Charleston.  I would suggest that we 
> have instead, a "site selection committee", which is limited solely to 
> the discussion of site selection based on the potential hosts who bid.  
> Such a committee has no ability to "steer" the GRC in any way other 
> than to which city the event will be held at.  Such a "site selection 
> committee" should not be discriminatory nor exclusive to only the club 
> members who have been initiated with the secret handshake.
> 
> It's important to realize that for some in our community, some places 
> are off limits.  Places like Florida and Texas are good examples as a 
> result of the tyrant governments there that oppress women, minorities 
> and the LGBT.  There are places in the south that will detain and 
> arrest you for using the wrong bathroom. There are places where you 
> will be more likely to be detained or profile because of the color of 
> your skin or your accent.  Those economies do not deserve our support 
> until they get their acts together.  A more well rounded selection 
> committee with a public outreach can best work out those concerns.
> 
> Honestly, right now, we should be planning the site for the 2025 GRC, 
> not the 2024.  While I do not feel that Charleston is the best site 
> from some perspectives, such as travel access and accessibility for 
> participants with disabilities, the people there have fresh experience 
> and a willingness to do this again.  I will support a redux in 
> Charleston as an "extension" of the 2023 show, but overall, we need to 
> be looking for a 2025 site, right now.  We should be able to announce 
> the 2025 site on the last day of the 2024 conference.
> 
> One thing we need to do is review the data to determine the locations 
> of the 2023 Window LPFM stations that would be more likely to attend a 
> GRC (those in REC's segment 300 series [new secular organizations] and 
> 400 series [existing secular cause-based organizations]).  I think that 
> somewhere like West Virginia, while it does have some issues, do not 
> have discriminatory laws like the southern states do, but I think it is 
> within roadtrip distance to many stations and with airline access via 
> ORD, CLT, DCA and ATL, most of the country is a single connection 
> airline flight away.
> 
> We need to attract new people to the GRC, but in order to do that, we 
> need to adapt to changing times.  We need to be progressive while 
> respecting traditions that have not been made obsolete by technology, 
> the marketplace or political climate.  These conferences need to be 
> welcoming, informative, affordable, accessible, inclusive and worth 
> someone's time to take out of their schedule to travel.  Nobody wants 
> GRC to turn into NFCB Jr., but at the same time, people's expectations 
> are changing as our society evolves (especially those who are coming 
> into community radio that have no experience with the 1990s community 
> radio model).  We need to be open to progress, but we need to progress 
> slowly where we are not selling out to corporate.
> 
> Sharon has stepped up at a time when no one else has. That must be 
> recognized and commended.  But at the same time, Sharon and WXOX do not 
> own the GRC.. neither does REC, Prometheus, Common Frequency, Pacifica 
> nor NFCB..  Instead, it is a cooperative movement that everyone who is 
> willing to step up needs to have that opportunity to be heard and be 
> involved, not just the secret handshake singing koom-ba-yah by the 
> campfire.
> 
> I respect Sharon's leadership in trying to salvage the GRC in 2023 and 
> I will support her playing a significant role in the 2024 and 2025 
> planning.. but it can't be Sharon calling all of the shots, like the 
> impression that some folks (including myself) have seen here.  I 
> respect Sharon for planting the seed to keep this topic fresh but it is 
> up to all of us to collectively make these decisions, not just the 
> private club.
> 
> We are all in this together.
> 
> --
> *Michelle Bradley, CBT, KU3N*
> /Founder: REC Networks/
> +1 202 621-2355
> https://recnet.com
> facebook.com/recnet - Twitter: @michichan
> 
> On 2/19/2024 5:40 PM, al davis via grc wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:47:44 -0500
>> Sharon Scott via grc<grc at maillist.peak.org>  wrote:
>>> CALLING ALL GRC HOST STATIONS!!!! SEEKING GRC STEERING COMMITTEE
>>> NOMINEES
>>> 
>>> At the GRC11 in Madison, Wisconsin, conference attendees decided to
>>> "create a steering committee to help coordinate discussions, assist 
>>> in
>> 
>> Then at every GRC after that, it was "decided" again to NOT do any
>> formal organization, essentially repealing the so-called "vote" to
>> formalize at Madison, which nobody remembers anyway.
>> 
>> A formal steering committee is an incredibly bad idea.
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