Council Meetings
Quarterly Meetings and Community Dialogues
Meetings of the Community Council are open to the public. For further information, please call Anne Healy at 202-885-1264 or send an e-mail to ahealy@wamu.org.
Quarterly Meetings
The WAMU Community Council meets four times a year. Meetings are held in the community room at the station, which is located at 4000 Brandywine Street in northwest Washington, D.C., and are open to the public. Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr. and Dale Clayton Morrison serve as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Council for 2009. Dates and times for the quarterly meetings are posted on our website and announced on-air at least seven days in advance. For further information, please call Anne Healy at (202) 885-1264 or send an e-mail to ahealy@wamu.org.
The WAMU 88.5 Community Council held its final quarterly meeting of 2009 on Thursday, Dec. 10. The Council approved the report submitted by its nominating committee and also approved the nomination of Dale Clayton Morrison and Pat Mathews as Chair and Vice Chair of the Community Council for 2010.
At the December meeting, the Council bid a fond farewell to outgoing chair Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr., who served on the Council for seven years. David Taylor, American University chief of staff, and Caryn G. Mathes, WAMU 88.5 General Manager, paid tribute to Barnes' years of dedicated service to the station.
Community Dialogues
The WAMU Community Council sponsored four outstanding Community Dialogues during 2009. These off-the-record discussion meetings focused on wide ranging issues of concern to our community, and provided background information and valuable contacts for the station's news and programming staff. Mark McDonald, WAMU's Director of Programming, served as the moderator of these discussions.
The first Community Dialogue of 2009 was held in February, and the topic was "What is the reality for youth in the District of Columbia?" This meeting, which featured a preview of a comprehensive report describing the current conditions for young people aged 12 to 24 in Washington, D.C., included Jennifer Comey of the Urban Institute, Eshauna Hicks of The DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, and Walter Woods of the World Bank Community Outreach Program, along with two youth counselors who work with troubled young men in D.C., and three students from Washington D.C., two from Friendship Public Charter School and one from Wilson Senior High School.
The April Community Dialogue examined "Using music and arts to address social tension and help disparate groups communicate." Vicki Moss of the Knock on Wood Tap Studios in Silver Spring, Stan Kang of the Educational Theater Company in Arlington, Lisa Marie Thalhammer, an independent artist and educator in Washington, D.C., and Margaret Paris, a photographer and former teacher in D.C., public schools all participated in the discussion. In addition, Kindra Ingram, a former dance student, and Stan Squirewell, a former student at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, were invited to talk about the difference that art and music programs had made in their lives.
"Changing the American dream" was the subject for the third Community Dialogue, which focused on how the needs and expectations of college students have been affected by the downturn in the economy. The participants were Dr. Andrew Flagel, Dean of Admissions at George Mason University; Susan Gordon, Director of Career Development at American University; Dr. Steve Lietz, a counselor/advisor at Montgomery College; Joan Zander, the Director of Financial Aid at Northern Virginia Community College; and Natalie Neumann, a recent graduate of the University of Montana.
"Beyond dollars: How Washington area grantmakers are creating a lasting impact in our community" was the topic of the fourth and final Community Dialogue, held in November. Tamara Lucas Copeland, President of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, provided a brief overview of her association’s report “Beyond Dollars: Investing in Big Change,” which had just been released. In addition to Ms. Copeland, participants included Jim Tragakis, Senior Manager of Deloitte Consulting LLP; Eduardo Romero, Director of Marketing & Communications for the Nonprofit Rountable of Greater Washington; Margaret K. O’Bryon, President and CEO of the Consumer Health Foundation; and George A. Jones, Executive Director of Bread for the City.
