Stephen Fonzo's Field Reports

Month 3: “Done Too Much” – The Job Eclipses the Project

Stephen Fonzo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:43:58 -0600

Month 3 (September 15-October 15) saw the growth of the IMC Production and Video News efforts that I began in the previous month. Together with other volunteers I recruited, we covered five on-location events where we recorded interviews, filmed, and took notes to share with other community journalists. We finished video previews/announcements about a local campaign to end truancy and a city Unity March that brought 150 people from different backgrounds together to support the local poor and to participate in county government. We also attended a reception for artists and art-buyers, a beer and chili festival, and a panel discussion on the challenges faced by African-American male youth. Our reputation grew as a voice of the people, and I used the opportunity to train another 15 volunteers on video editing, field audio recording, and radio broadcast.

Back at the IMC, I helped update the IMC web site by replacing old documents and language, and calling Web group meetings. I really did not do much else on the web site, though, and real credit is due to VISTA leader Josh King, who fully upgraded the site to the latest version of Drupal and also redesigned it to be more striking, effective, and bug-free. Trying to focus more on the a/v media projects at the IMC, I organized a group of Music Library volunteers to update the WRFU automation system, adding new PSAs, station IDs, and local music, and getting this database ready for publishing on our site. I continue to work with WRFU to make sure that its members can consistently produce new content for the station, and Production room maintenance and improvements are a slow part of reaching that goal. By the way, I’ll point VISTAs to ZaraRadio and SHOUTcast as good tools for community broadcast.

For several weekends, I organized volunteers in the IMC Shows group to raise funds for the IMC by sponsoring some concerts during the Pygmalion Music Festival. We packed up, set up, and tore down our PA about seven times in three or four different venues, but we got to assist and listen to some great music by local and non-local performers while getting out into the campus and raising some money for ourselves and area businesses. We played loud rock music in the middle of a clothing store – and then in a vegan restaurant, which was incidentally voted the best venue in the festival. We got to stand on stage in front of Dan Deacon when that very stage collapsed under the weight of his wild, raving audience and we worried that our speakers might not make it out alive. We were exhausted by the end of those shows and I still haven’t received our check to give to the IMC for the time, labor, and equipment.

Looming in the background of all these activities was a growing body of direct service that I was doing back at the IMC. During both September and October, I was responsible for calling meetings, taking notes, and facilitating the weekly operations of at least two IMC working groups – Shows and Production – and was often doing the same for other groups. It was ultimately the Shows group that began requiring too much from me and relying too much upon me. Since August I had been the only person administering the events/concerts calendar, responding to booking requests, reviewing contracts, and even running live sound and security at shows. Earlier this month I realized that no one else was volunteering to do these things, and that I could no longer do so, either. The more often people who came into the building associated me with the shows, the more they would come to me and write to me – instead of the group – for their requests, both big and small, while the other members of the group stopped showing up, or when they did show up, made such a mess of things technically and figuratively that I had to fix things or respond to angry “customers.” It was annoying on one level and aggravating on another, especially because it prevented me from focusing on developing media training curriculum and building community teams. As recently as one week ago, I found it harder to get project goals done at work than I did at home, because I was distracted by requests unrelated to my position, and I found it to be a very different and more negative interaction with the public than our video news outings.

Perhaps it was merely the long summer-like weather that kept everyone active and busy through the end of September and beginning of October – so busy that I found myself taking on the tasks of other volunteers at the IMC, which seriously cut into my VISTA project work. Overall, it was a good month if for no other reason than I learned a valuable lesson and communicated my frustration with my organization in a way that was well received and constructive.

The problem stems from an admirable philosophical commitment to volunteering at the IMC. There is hardly staff, decisions are made in consensus, and groups organize themselves around common goals and skills. So, what happens when a non-profit with no staff suddenly gets “staff” members (two VISTAs)? The new staff are asked to do everything from answer visitor requests in the office, to file leases and contracts and burn bulk copies of DVDs – because we’re there and no one else is, since everyone else is just a volunteer and shows up when they feel like doing so. Nevermind that we are also volunteers, that we are not being paid employee wages, and that we have specific long-term projects that ought to take up a major portion of our time.

None of this is really the fault of the IMC, but has more to do with group dynamics and my offering up too many of my services. Ultimately, I noticed this well enough in advance, and had the support of people like Josh and Nicole, to address the issues before they became too difficult to manage. I imagine that other VISTAs have had similar experiences in their organizations; do not be afraid to politely but firmly tell people what your job is and what it is not, especially when they are unloading a lot of their tasks, hopes, and expectations onto you.

Month 2: Out in the community already (“Hi public, we’re the media… but you can trust us.”)

Stephen Fonzo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:53:20 -0600

I am submitting two reports at once this time. The past two months were so busy that there was little time to reflect or to write about what was going on.

During the second month at my organization, I delved further into media training and started an active video news project with some volunteers. Most of my work this month was interactive and in the community, so in contrast to my plans, I did not have much time to write training manuals. A notable exception was authoring a revised Airshifter Handbook for WRFU 104.5-LP, our community radio station, with an extra manual on remote/live broadcast and streaming radio. The last version of the handbook had been written two or three years ago, and lacked a discussion of the goals of the organization or a studio checklist for DJs new to the radio. After talking with the Station Manager, we realized that a new handbook alone would not have much effect unless we also scheduled small group training sessions so we could discuss the social, legal, and technical aspects of running a community radio show. Our efforts were successful and now WRFU has an established program for orienting new DJs and getting new shows on the air, while respecting the needs and goals of the IMC as a whole, which includes other groups beyond the radio station.

One of those other groups is IMC Production, a volunteer group that I helped create in order to carry on and combine the legacies of the separate Video and Radio News groups that ceased to exist around two years ago. Simply put, all the IMC groups make sure that some different aspect of independent media is alive, productive, and engaged with the local population. Production is here to create audio-visual content for the community and for other groups, and to provide the facilities and personnel to make this possible. While our work to improve the studio is slow, in only my second month as a VISTA, we were able to initiate IMC Video News. IMC Video News actively searches for local or regional stories that are not being covered by other stations, goes out on-site to interview and shoot, and then edits and produces short-length film for distribution online and on Urbana Public Television. Even though others in the IMC look to us for technical multimedia advice, we spend far more time interacting with the public than sitting in front of computer screens editing. This has turned out to be very beneficial for our organization’s outreach and public relations, because we are listening to – and publishing – voices that others are ignoring.

In September, we produced segments on a Greenpeace Solar-Powered Concert (where I ran the mixer, too – next to a solar panel the size of a roof) and the closing of Illinois State Parks. We also assisted with an Iraq Veterans Against the War forum on post-traumatic stress disorder (for UPTV) and re-published the local Books to Prisoners’ Our Volunteer Experience film online. A sample of our work to date can be accessed on our new UC-IMC YouTube Channel. To get this project going, we have been using Adobe Premiere, but we will be expanding to incorporate more open-source software for editing. Two open-source/freeware video utilities that have been crucial to my work here have been Handbrake and MP4CAM2AVI. Of course, Audacity is a robust, simple, and reliable solution for audio editing that I would recommend to anyone and which most people seem to know, anyway. Though not technically free (you can use it for free with no features suspended or get a license for $50), I recommend Windows’ Reaper for multi-track audio editing and sequencing because it is easy, allows for flexible routing, comes with high-quality processing built-in, and accepts most free or commercial VST and DirectX plugins.

It doesn’t end there, though. The Sunlight Foundation webinar that I scheduled between members of WRFU, Production, and Public i (the IMC’s independent newspaper) was a small event, but so useful that I am posting the links here for CTC VISTAs to view. Bill Allison guided us through an overwhelming tour of websites that allow any citizen with Internet access to closely investigate the finances, bills, and records of members in the United States Congress, as well as information on lobbyists, federal contracts, and elections. Obviously, these types of topics and data are of great interest to journalist and media organizations like mine in the IndyMedia network, but this set of links provides another set of tools that all community organizers can use to bridge the digital divide and help the groups they are working with attain greater access to knowledge and the political process in their states and in the nation:

Congresspedia
OpenCongress.org
GovTrack.us
Senate.gov
Federal Election Commission
Sunlight Media Services - This deserves a special note for technology users/junkies: widgets with updated political and congressional data that you can embed in a web site or blog.
Politicker.com
OpenSecrets.org
Fortune535
FedSpending.org
TaxPayer.net

Finally, when even progressive mainstream media does not address all the questions your community may be asking:
DemocracyNow.org
Pacifica.org

I hope some of you find these links useful in your own VISTA work. Between radio, video, and live events, I trained around 30 individuals in the second month and identified many new resources that have helped me and others. Meanwhile, I got inundated with direct service… but I’ll save that story for the month 3 report.

Month 1: Working the Working Groups at the UCIMC

Stephen Fonzo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:14:50 -0600

The over-arching goal of my first month of VISTA service has been to understand and coordinate the efforts of the many “working groups” that comprise my host organization, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UC-IMC). The UC-IMC is a grassroots organization in the IndyMedia network committed to using media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice in the Champaign County area. The UC-IMC is a unique non-profit that has many resources but no staff – it is a collective of passionate and talented volunteers who help maintain and provide tools and spaces for independent media creation in a great historic post-office building that includes a stage, radio station, computer lab, production studios, art studios, library, and meeting spaces. These volunteers make it all function by organizing into working groups that focus on one area of community interest or media expertise – so there is a Shows group for live events and stage shows; a Print group that publishes an independent newspaper, the Public i; a radio group that runs WRFU 104.5FM; a Tech group; Web group; and many others. Everything is based on consensus decision-making, some volunteers have more time than others, and some groups are larger and more active than others, so things are vital and creative but loosely organized.

In this framework of total independence and intentional self-organization, Nicole Pion and I as VISTAs are the only actual staff at the IMC. As such, the challenges we have faced during our first month are improving the effectiveness of each group in its media and social outreach projects while also getting those groups to work together rather than separately, and balancing our own time between staffing the building on a daily basis and planning long-term social tech projects. It is demanding and rewarding work, and I greatly benefit from collaborating with Nicole, who is bringing non-profit and outreach experience and a keen social organizing perspective, and the ever tech-savvy Josh King, the mighty VISTA leader of whom legends will be told, at least over the course of this next year. The most significant resources that each of us has found and developed in the past month are partnerships with other organizations and media producers locally. I have begun cultivating working relationships with AWARE (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort), Urbana Public-access Television (UPTV), the Pygmalion Music Festival, The Sunlight Foundation, and Pogo Studio, and there are many more I hope to contact over the next few months.

Of all my current or completed projects, the one that has been my primary concern is the restoration and updating of the UCIMC Production Room, which doubles as a multimedia production studio and as the VISTA office for Nicole and I. There is of course space always reserved for Josh who comes and works with us several times a week, and who helped us all a great deal by updating our Linux Ubuntu workstations and by providing tech equipment and guidance. Organizing members of the Tech and Shows groups, I have helped re-instate the UCIMC Media Production group to manage the studio and to offer educational and media editing services to the public. I will be meeting late this week with a member of Tech, the WRFU station manager, and Nicole, who is helping us apply for a community grant that will allow us to update our public-access lab and develop a curriculum for open-source media workshops. Already we have set up Linux, PC, and Mac workstations, with a wide variety of open-source, freeware, and commercial studio software programs. I have started a log-in system for accessing the facilities and for donating equipment, and I am building a budget with which to make further improvements.

Other current projects include ongoing training sessions that I am offering to UCIMC volunteers on recording audio from multiple sources, testing and connecting A/V devices, and live sound reinforcement. I have inadvertently become somewhat of a venue manager due to the small size of the volunteer Shows group, and even though I enjoy working with a sound system that I helped set up (look for Chris Evans’ huge cardboard sculptures), this has become a source of direct service that I will have to spend less time doing. My next major workshop will be the re-training of the entire WRFU staff on studio and on-location broadcasting, which will begin late this week and continue through September. Currently I am also editing an AWARE video project and scheduling a webinar on independent and local congressional investigation between Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, WRFU, Public i, and IMC-Web.

My expectations and challenges for the next month will be drafting the first series of media training manuals, developing workshop curriculum on open-source media production, recording PSAs and shows for WRFU, and video projects with the Public i, Shows group, and the Urbana-Champaign Bike Project. I also expect that my future field reports will be shorter. I have much to do and more to learn, and there will need to be as much community networking as technical work in order to achieve my project goals. I look forward to reading everyone else’s reports, and I am ready to be educated and humbled by my fellow VISTAs, who are all doing interesting and impressive work.

Here is a photo of Urbana, IL taken from the roof of the IMC by our supervisor Dan.