NAEB Newsletter (June 1958)

mittees of the American Council on Education and other professional organizations. The first meeting of the Office of Education and the NAEB, eight years ago, resulted in the organiza¬ tion of the Joint Council on Educational Television and the reservation of frequency space for educational use. This was followed by the establishment of the ETRC and other organized efforts designed to guide the use of television and radio as educational tools. Similar long-range plans are expected to result from the present conference. MEMO FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR —Harry Skornia It was very pleasant indeed to see so many of you at the IERT. At such times my principal regret is that we can’t be in several places at once, since Board meetings, committee meetings and many other things have a way of running simultaneously. The NAEB Board meeting was one of the most satisfying in years. A solid record of accomplishment was reviewed, including NAEB participation in hear¬ ings on the Magnuson bill, plans for constitutional changes for greater consistency and clarity, plans for the Washington meeting, which will have been held by the time you receive this, Foundation relations and certain other items mentioned elsewhere in this issue. I was particularly gratified at the reaction to our “NAEB sessions” and the luncheon as well. Dr. Brish’s talk will be carried in the fall issue of the Journal, where any who missed it will have an op¬ portunity to enjoy it. We are also happy to be able to report the NAEB’s first Industrial Associate. At the NAEB luncheon Mr. Philip Jacobson, Manager of Instructional Tele¬ vision of Motorola Inc. presented President Paulu with a check for $500.00 as Motorola’s way of con¬ tributing to the development of those things the NAEB stands for. We hope to have others to mention as time goes on. This is a natural and gratifying de¬ velopment, in line with the NAEB’s efforts to broaden the base of its support. Our thanks to Motorola. Several people have urged me to repeat for the benefit of all the gist of a few remarks I was called upon to make at our luncheon. I’m very glad to do this, and I also want to thank those who took the trouble to write their appreciation for last month’s “editorial” as contained in this column. The remarks which follow further elaborate on that theme— specifically illustrating with a brief description some of the ways in which we proceed to achieve what we think should be the goals of an association which as¬ pires to be something more than a group of tech¬ nicians. A great many NAEB members have had applica¬ tions, recommendations and nominations for grants- in-aid and scholarships, and the many seminars and workshops we run, returned because they were not in complete form, or because they were not submitted in the proper number of copies. It is difficult for most people to realize the volume of such applications which pile up seasonally. And many do not understand the reason why we are so insistent on receiving all these in the number of copies specified. Let’s answer the first question first. The NAEB is democratically operated. No member of the Head¬ quarters staff decides who will attend any workshop or seminar, or who will receive a program or work¬ shop grant, or a scholarship. These decisions and selections are all made hy committees of your peers — committee members who serve as appointed, con¬ tributing thousands of man hours each year to the NAEB, because they believe in it. When an application is received in six copies, for example, the original is sent to the Chairman of the committee, who may be in Boston. One file copy is kept here. The other four are distributed to the other members of the committee. In a typical dis¬ tribution of committee members, one might be in Ala¬ bama, one in Wisconsin, one in Texas and one in Boston. That is why we must have the specified number of copies. Why don’t we just make the extra copies in such cases? A few years ago we did. But the volume is now so great that we no longer can. Secretarial staff does not permit typing copies, many of the type¬ writer ribbons used won’t photograph on our photo machine, and of course it’s really the responsibility of the applicant anyway. If the application is in the right number of copies, but the recommendations, or certifications required are in only one copy, we must still return them. For the entire committee needs to have the full data on each person. No one of us here at Headquarters can even begin to read nearly all the applications. From the above illustration you might visualize only a single committee at work. Actually, at any given time, applications may be coming in which must be distributed to from six to eight different com¬ mittees. Within the last few weeks applications or NAEB Newsletter, a monthly publication issued by the Na¬ tional Association of Educational Broadcasters, 14 Gregory Hall, Urbana, III. $5 a year, edited by Jane Lombard. 2 NEWSLETTER