Web and Business Awards
I am delighted to tell you that Radio Teesdale’s web site has been included in the Digital 08 Awards in the Best Not-For-Profit Website category. Whether we win or not is based on votes received. You can cast your vote for Radio Teesdale by following the link on our web site or home page or this link. You only have today and tomorrow to vote!
http://www.northeastdigitalawards08.co.uk/view/40/
Please register your vote now.
I am delighted to tell you that we have been shortlisted for the Internet and ICT Award in the prestigious nebusiness Awards. Details of all categories can be found at:
http://www.nebusinessawards.co.uk/awards-shortlist/durham-business-awards-shortlist.aspx
Included in our category is everyone from Website Developers to independent businesses all with superb websites. From all of these Radio Teesdale’s website has been chosen as one of the 3 finalists. The results will be announced at an awards dinner at Ramside Hall on the 12th March.
New Spring Schedule commences 20th April 2009
We are now around 50% of the way through our Winter schedule. This has gone very well. Congratulations to everyone involved, particularly those with new programmes and formats. Although it is still six weeks until we start our Spring season, it is useful to start thinking about it now. As Easter falls during the last week of the Winter Season we need to finalise the Spring season by Friday the 3rd April. Therefore, all programme proposals and information about availability needs to be provided by Friday the 27th March at the latest.
Volunteers helping with the re-broadcasting of live programming
Many thanks to Malcolm Proud for volunteering to take live programmes from the audio logger and prepare them for repeat broadcasting. As mentioned previously, without this volunteer support we would not have been able to maintain the level of repeat programming that we currently do. Well done Malcolm.
If you are interested in regularly working as part of our editing team we would be delighted to hear from you. After a little training it is not difficult to do. We never have enough resources to re-edit all the interviews and features that we could do. It’s a great way to productively practice your editing skills.
Bishop FM
As many of you are aware, Bishop FM has been awarded a community radio license to broadcast in the Wear valley area. They currently broadcast various programmes on their internet site. We are delighted to say that we have been having preliminary discussions with them about how we can support them and work with them to spread the word about the benefits and advantages of community radio. We wish them all the very best as they work towards setting up a transmitter for FM broadcasting later this year. If you are interested in getting involved as we progress these discussions then please let Peter Dixon know.
Radio Teesdale Junior Activities
We are constantly looking at ways of involving the Teesdale Community in our activities. Katey Wallace has done an excellent job in setting a variety of activities involving young people. We have a Junior Section of our web site. You can follow the button on the home page of our site. Activities include a poetry competition for young people. Katey has also been visiting Teesdale schools to inform teachers and pupils about our activities and how they can get involved. We have been collecting and broadcasting an impressive set of station announcements made by the pupils at all the various schools visited.
Radio Teesdale National News
As you may well be aware, a number of changes have been taking place with our national news service. Although we still obtain the national news through IRN they are in the process of changing their bulletin provider from ITN to Sky News. We have used the opportunity to improve a number of our station identifiers.
Teesdale Learning Partnership
Teesdale Learning Partnership is holding an open day at Enterprise House on Wednesday 11th March from 3pm to 8pm. We plan to feature the event on Drive Time that day. If you would like to show any visitor around the station at any time during that period, then please let Peter Dixon know.
Themed Promotional Activities
We are planning a series of monthly promotional campaigns, throughout the year, during which we aim to attract related sponsors and advertisers. Often these are coinciding with national/regional campaigns or interest awareness initiatives. The first three of these will be “Supporting Local Traders,” “Animals and Pets” and “Health, Beauty & Fitness.” If you are interesting in getting involved or know any organisations that we should contact then please speak to Katey Wallace.
Membership Details
Carolyn Proud has been doing an excellent job updating our members records and making sure they are properly recorded in our email/outlook system. If you think your details have changed (prefered email address, change of address or phone number) let please let us know.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Monday, 2 February 2009
Note to Active Members from the Chairman 2/2/9
Dear Members
Thanks to all of you who made the effort to turn out on a cold evening for the AGM on the 20th January 2009. It was great to see such a large enthusiastic gathering in one place. I hope you found it useful. We have much to celebrate.
The AGM is a formal occasion, following a structured agenda, intended to give members a chance to review our achievements in the last year, approve the accounts and ratify our plans for the way forward. There were a number of points raised during the meeting however that prompt me to drop you a line to clarify the current structure of your organisation.
We have come a long way since 2002 when a small group formed the board, adopted a standard set of constitutional rules appropriate for a typical ‘social enterprise’ and started the process of obtaining a licence, raising funds, purchasing equipment and finding premises leading to our first one month test transmission. By then membership had risen to around 50 multi-skilled individuals. Today we have 240 members, some 46 of whom attended the AGM.
In March 2007 we finally went live full time and it was clear that the work load would be too much and too varied for a small group of volunteers to manage without a formal structure with tasks delegated to optimise the use of individual capabilities and the amount of time each volunteer is able to commit. Hence the decision to appoint a Station Manager, our first employee, to manage the operation of the Radio Teesdale leaving the board to focus on corporate governance, financial, funding and strategic issues. The Station Manager is responsible for all operational issues including management of the station team and volunteers, programming and delivery, and dealing with our partners, suppliers and the community. Whilst main board members represent all members, the first point of contact for all matters is the Station Manager; he reports to the board on progress once a month and in turn delegates operational tasks to volunteer members according to their interest and level of commitment. Only in the event that individual member’s concerns cannot be resolved by the Station Manager are they then referred to the board. We have experimented with various operational structures over the years to support the Station Manager, from a formal ‘Operating Group’ to the current less formal structure with monthly meetings to manage the numerous tasks. The latter is apparently the members preferred option.
A ‘social enterprise’ is of course a unique type of organisation in that rather than maximising shareholder value it aims to maximise social gain; in our case to have fun, engage the community as a valuable resource and make brilliant entertainment. Other than the Station manager we are all volunteers, and as members we all, including the Station Manager, ‘own’ Radio Teesdale equally. There is no hierarchy such as shareholders, management or a workforce in the traditional sense and members give what they can without making unreasonable demands on any other member. Of course the Station Manager could not do his job without the respect of members and their acknowledgement of his operational authority.
Clearly we do, as an organisation, have to make certain formal commitments such as meeting OFCOMs license regulations, delivering official accounts, ensuring the health and safety of all members, meeting sponsor and funder requirements, raising finance, detailing strategy and budgets, and so on. These responsibilities are accepted on the member’s behalf by the main board, and requires volunteers with certain unique competences. Hence the board co-opts volunteers when appropriate and we ask members to ratify these decisions at the AGM.
As Chairman I consider it one of my primary responsibilities to ensure we have a cohesive efficient well qualified team on the board, with the common goal, able to meet these responsibilities on our behalf. Board members are chosen with care and your current board, I believe, more than meets these criteria although, as our business, the environment we operate in, and individual circumstances change we are constantly keeping an eye open for new skills. Any member who feels they would like to contribute in these areas is always welcome to approach the board and offer their services. If they fill an appropriate need and are committed to the common goal, the board will co-opt them. This can happen at any time in the year and should therefore avoid ‘contentious’ elections at an AGM. There is no upper limit to the number of board members although we are conscious there is an optimal manageable size.
We are still a young organisation, learning as it grows, and as a result our constitution is something of a work in progress. We will continue to review it in the coming year and will seek member’s approval for any modifications at the next AGM as normal.
I hope this all makes sense and clarifies the points raised at the AGM. We should be very proud of what we have all achieved thus far. There is no doubt that we are becoming an increasingly important part of the Teesdale community, more and more people tell me how much they enjoy and value our output, and I hope most importantly each one of you enjoys your part in the adventure.
I end with the fantastic news that we have been successful with an application for £15k of funding from OFCOM, towards the cost of employing a Station Manager, so our immediate future remains secure.
Sincerely yours,
Alastair Dinwiddie
Chairman Radio Teesdale
Thanks to all of you who made the effort to turn out on a cold evening for the AGM on the 20th January 2009. It was great to see such a large enthusiastic gathering in one place. I hope you found it useful. We have much to celebrate.
The AGM is a formal occasion, following a structured agenda, intended to give members a chance to review our achievements in the last year, approve the accounts and ratify our plans for the way forward. There were a number of points raised during the meeting however that prompt me to drop you a line to clarify the current structure of your organisation.
We have come a long way since 2002 when a small group formed the board, adopted a standard set of constitutional rules appropriate for a typical ‘social enterprise’ and started the process of obtaining a licence, raising funds, purchasing equipment and finding premises leading to our first one month test transmission. By then membership had risen to around 50 multi-skilled individuals. Today we have 240 members, some 46 of whom attended the AGM.
In March 2007 we finally went live full time and it was clear that the work load would be too much and too varied for a small group of volunteers to manage without a formal structure with tasks delegated to optimise the use of individual capabilities and the amount of time each volunteer is able to commit. Hence the decision to appoint a Station Manager, our first employee, to manage the operation of the Radio Teesdale leaving the board to focus on corporate governance, financial, funding and strategic issues. The Station Manager is responsible for all operational issues including management of the station team and volunteers, programming and delivery, and dealing with our partners, suppliers and the community. Whilst main board members represent all members, the first point of contact for all matters is the Station Manager; he reports to the board on progress once a month and in turn delegates operational tasks to volunteer members according to their interest and level of commitment. Only in the event that individual member’s concerns cannot be resolved by the Station Manager are they then referred to the board. We have experimented with various operational structures over the years to support the Station Manager, from a formal ‘Operating Group’ to the current less formal structure with monthly meetings to manage the numerous tasks. The latter is apparently the members preferred option.
A ‘social enterprise’ is of course a unique type of organisation in that rather than maximising shareholder value it aims to maximise social gain; in our case to have fun, engage the community as a valuable resource and make brilliant entertainment. Other than the Station manager we are all volunteers, and as members we all, including the Station Manager, ‘own’ Radio Teesdale equally. There is no hierarchy such as shareholders, management or a workforce in the traditional sense and members give what they can without making unreasonable demands on any other member. Of course the Station Manager could not do his job without the respect of members and their acknowledgement of his operational authority.
Clearly we do, as an organisation, have to make certain formal commitments such as meeting OFCOMs license regulations, delivering official accounts, ensuring the health and safety of all members, meeting sponsor and funder requirements, raising finance, detailing strategy and budgets, and so on. These responsibilities are accepted on the member’s behalf by the main board, and requires volunteers with certain unique competences. Hence the board co-opts volunteers when appropriate and we ask members to ratify these decisions at the AGM.
As Chairman I consider it one of my primary responsibilities to ensure we have a cohesive efficient well qualified team on the board, with the common goal, able to meet these responsibilities on our behalf. Board members are chosen with care and your current board, I believe, more than meets these criteria although, as our business, the environment we operate in, and individual circumstances change we are constantly keeping an eye open for new skills. Any member who feels they would like to contribute in these areas is always welcome to approach the board and offer their services. If they fill an appropriate need and are committed to the common goal, the board will co-opt them. This can happen at any time in the year and should therefore avoid ‘contentious’ elections at an AGM. There is no upper limit to the number of board members although we are conscious there is an optimal manageable size.
We are still a young organisation, learning as it grows, and as a result our constitution is something of a work in progress. We will continue to review it in the coming year and will seek member’s approval for any modifications at the next AGM as normal.
I hope this all makes sense and clarifies the points raised at the AGM. We should be very proud of what we have all achieved thus far. There is no doubt that we are becoming an increasingly important part of the Teesdale community, more and more people tell me how much they enjoy and value our output, and I hope most importantly each one of you enjoys your part in the adventure.
I end with the fantastic news that we have been successful with an application for £15k of funding from OFCOM, towards the cost of employing a Station Manager, so our immediate future remains secure.
Sincerely yours,
Alastair Dinwiddie
Chairman Radio Teesdale
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