ACM 2009 Western Regional Conference

More than 100 public, education, and government (PEG) access advocates and volunteer producers gathered Saturday October 17 in Reno for the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) Western Region Conference and WAVE Awards. Sierra Nevada Community Access Television (SNCAT.org) was our host in their beautiful new studios in the Meadowood Mall…yes, in a mall!

Helen Soulé, the ACM Executive Director, was the keynote speaker and introduced the "Community Access Preservation Act" (CAP) to the attendees. The CAPs act has been introduced in the House by Representative Tammie Baldwin of Wisconsin and is now moving through Congress. Go to www.AllianceCM.org for detailed instructions on how to help CAPS pass through Congress with your help.

The opening plenary session welcomed Laurie Cirivello back to the Western Region to present the work of Grand Rapids (Michigan) Community Media Center and their pioneering work with "Neighborhood News Bureaus" called www.TheRapidian.org. Ms. Cirivello was the executive director at Community Media Center of Santa Rosa before taking the same position at GRCMC. The Rapidian has been operational for only one month but has already trained more than 300 volunteer "community reporters" from all sections of the community. Visit the site and take a peek at the future of community media.

Cirivello's message to Conference attendees was, “Apply the lessons learned in Grand Rapids to your own public access organization. Use the 30 years of public access experience with training and technology on cable TV and build new and robust ‘hyper-local’ reporting on neighborhood news web sites in your community. Work with local media - they need your help.”

The busy day of workshops ended with the Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) awards. More than sixty different awards were given out. Brian Wilson Mentorship Awards were given to Rusty King of KMVT Mountain View, Robin Fort-Linke of Seal Beach Channel 3 and Jan Janes of CMAP in Gilroy.

Special thanks go to Les Smith and the SNCAT Crew for being wonderful hosts and to Xoe Huffman and Dan Villalva of Community Media Center, Santa Rosa for coordinating the WAVE Awards. See you next year!

The ACM Western Region looks forward to working with other media centers looking to host the western regional conference. Check here for conference planning documents that will help you produce the best possible western region conference.