I attended the 2015 APTS Public Media Summit in Washington, D.C. This was my third Summit attending as a representative of Southern Nevada Public Television/Vegas PBS. Despite a difficult travel day due to record snow on the East Coast, I arrived on Saturday ready for the Summit.
I was inspired to attend the conference to do my part to help educate Nevada elected officials on the value of public broadcasting on our communities. From my perspective, I was impressed with the structure and information provided at the conference. Overall, we had three representatives from VegasPBS. Three others planned to attend, but weather caused cancelation of their flights. My role as an attendee was to provide examples of the impact of public media on our communities. We had meetings scheduled with the following Nevada delegation: Ryan McGinnes (western Governor's Association), Senator Reid Representative Cresent Hardy, Representative Joe Heck, Representative Mark Amodei and Representative Dina Titus. Due to scheduling, I was only able to meet with a few of our representatives. In general I found our representatives engaged and familiar with our services. APTS did a great job of providing attendees with information and talking points to email representatives who were unable to meet with us. I attended several General Sessions and found them all very helpful to me as a Board member. The theme of the 2015 Public Media Summit was "Great Success Through Greater Service." After a few days of great networking and education, I found the theme to be highly appropriate. As a follow-up, I provided a brief report to the Southern Nevada Public Television Board of Directors. Article by Reggie Burton, National Friends Trustee; Board Member of Southern Nevada Public Television/Vegas PBS (Photo) |
WNET had another successful year at the 2015 Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) Public Media Summit in Washington, D.C. The conference brought together representatives from public media stations across the country to discuss topline industry issues, from the pending digital spectrum auction to the impact of grassroots community engagement. This year's sessions included an in-depth discussion with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff (co-anchors of the PBS NewHour) and Sara Just, Executive Producer of the PBS NewsHour. They analyzed the state of news in America and how public media -- our national programming, local content, and technology and infrastructure -- can enhance education, public safely and civic leadership in America.
The summit concluded with Capitol Hill Day as station representatives took to Capitol Hill tomeet with local legislators to promote the relevance and vitality of public media and to emphasize the importance of sustained federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. WNET's team was the largest in attendance at the Summit and on Capitol Hill with meetings with 28 members of Congress from New York, New Jersey and Long Island as well as three Senators from New York and New Jersey. In addition, Friends of Thirteen held their annual essay contest with MacaulayHonors College at CUNY to recruit student representatives to attend the Summit and Capitol Hill Day. Our of 10 applicants, four were selected for the advocacy efforts: Carlsky Belizaire (senior at Queens College), Dylan Campbell (freshman at Brooklyn College), Claire Lynch (freshman at City College) and Alanna McAuliffe (freshman at Baruch College). A final federal budget has not yet been voted upon, but the contingency hopes that their efforts will solidify the votes needed for continued funding for CPB. Article by Sasha Schechter, National Friends Trustee; Friends of Thirteen (Photo) |