Secretary’s Report: December 2017
This has been a long but fruitful year.
We have all learned a lot about technology, we have recruited new worker members to the co-op who have been excellent, welcomed new media partners to the Fund, launched our site, done a promotion push online and have agreed a business plan for the following 12 months. Here is an overview of what came out of the AGM.
As ever if you have any questions please email us through the contact form on the site, we look forward to hearing from you.
We elected a chair (Dan Lewis), Treasurer (Allan Wort) and Secretary (Thomas Barlow). We encourage anyone who is interested to stand in next year’s elections!
We have our next General Meeting in Sheffield at The Festival of debate on May 26th. More details soon!
- NEW MEDIA PARTNERS
2. NEW WORKING GROUPS AND SERVICES
3. PROJECTS AGREED FOR NEW YEAR
4. PUSH PUSH PUSH
Hello everyone! Here is a short report of what happened at our first AGM — the fact we’ve made it to 1 year old is all down to you! Thank you so much!
Also a special thanks to Manchester and Salford National Union of Journalists who made the AGM possible.
You can find the long report on our website (KALLUM, INCLUDE A HYPER LINK HERE — post the long report first on the website, then send out this report)
- NEW MEDIA PARTNERS (up on the site in the new year)
First off we would like to welcome the following new media partners to the fund! These were all agreed upon at the AGM, and we think they are excellent additions to The Fund — what do you think?
- Another Angry Voice
- Alborada
- Byline
- Conclusion
- Corporate Watch
- DeSmog
- Ethical Consumer
- Guestlist
- Livingstone Media
- News Peeks
- Skwakbox
- STRIKE
- The Ferret
- TruePublica
All their details will be up in the new year, but until then you can click on their names and it will take you through to their sites, where you can enjoy their excellent work.
2. NEW WORKING GROUPS AND SERVICES
INDY MEDIA SUPPORT — Oshi from Guestlist Social has already set up a social media management team, and is looking to set up an ethical advertising team. Get in touch for more deets: oshi@guestlist.net
EVENTS GROUP — Thomas Barlow, the Fund’s Secretary, is going to run an Independent Media Awards fundraising gala next year, along with other cool events, like News Club!
Get in touch for more deets: admin@themediafund.org
FUNDRAISING TEAM — Allan Wort, the Fund’s Treasurer, is going to be heading up the new fundraising team, to manage support for grant applications, engaging trade unions and getting cash from our pot.
Get in touch for more deets: ajw01@cyteenfoundation.com
DEMOCRACY TEAM — Thomas Barlow, the Fund’s Secretary, is going to be setting up the votes for our fundraising pot and more. To get involved, get in touch: admin@themediafund.org
3. PROJECTS AGREED FOR NEW YEAR
The Media Fund has agreed it’s year long business plan for 2018 at the AGM, and there are some exciting projects we’re going to be undertaking! If you want to get involved, please get in touch :)
- MF NEWS WIDGET AND APP
We are going to develop a widget that ties all of our media partners sites together. It will create a little box on each site that shows the top news stories of each day from Media Fund partners solely. We are doing this to try and help us all to get out of Facebook and Google dominated spaces. We want this to be finished by the summer.
The App will build on that and will be a space where you can see all of our partners content in one place — a one stop shop to get all the best independent media! We aim to finish this by December.
- INDEPENDENT MEDIA SUPPORT AGENCY
As mentioned above we are working with Guestlist to provide social media management for indy media organisations.
Also, though, we are going to build an ethical advertising agency and try and tie together all the support indy media needs to be truly successful, but never has the time or resources to do.
- TIGER SWANS FUNDRAISING TEAM
We are setting up a special funding applications team to help indy media organisations get funding from existing grant organisations.
We are also setting up a training scheme and a paid internship scheme as well.
4. PUSH PUSH PUSH
We want to make 2018 the year indy media really starts to become viable — to create, to consume, to fight for.
To do that we need more donors. We are looking for big money as well, but if we can’t prove there is appetite for it, we can’t grow and make the changes we want.
We know you have all been a massive help so far — and look what you money has already done! But we want to get to a next level, and we need you help to do that.
In this regard we are asking your for your help, to push, push, push The Media Fund to that next level. Please share our posts, videos and memes on social media. Please encourage friends to donate (a conversation in person is far better than an online interaction). And please donate if you’re not already!
Also several donors have volunteered and got involved in the workings of the fund. This has made an HUGE difference. So if you have any spare time, skills, or even just ideas to share with us, please do! We cannot tell you how much it lifts us to work with and hear from such great people.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year. Best wishes,
Thomas Barlow, Secretary, The Media Fund
Treasurer’s Report
Finance;
- final testing of the payment links from the website to our partners is complete. 2 partners continue to have problems.
- the first distribution of public donations through the website will be made before Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all!
Accounts;
- the organisation is completing the construction of our accounting manual over the Christmas period ready for adoption in the New Year by everyone working with the Media Fund. It covers all aspects of payments, contracts, accounting procedures and reporting.
- the handover of banking accounts to the Treasurer is almost complete; work on creating the accounting entries will proceed now.
Administration;
- regular management meetings have begun in the Manchester offices.
- establishing the office setup in Manchester has begun. Postal address service works and is useful.
Social Media Manager’s Report
Report on Facebook posts and impact
Since the 7th of November, our facebook page typically post three pieces of content a day: an article (12pm), a meme (5pm) and a video (9pm).
The memes have all been of roughly the same format: a text quote and a picture of the individual being quoted.
The reach of these posts has varied, with a slight but gradual decline in reach occuring as time went on. Posts that got the most reach involved a heavy push — i.e. posting in facebook groups, requesting likes from friends and shares by other pages. On the occasions when I didn’t push posts, the reach was usually severely reduced. This suggests that our facebook following is not large enough to let the posts go out on their own, while still expecting reach. I would suggest that we need to budget for the occasional paid-for boost on some posts. I think this will significantly increase the reach and engagement.
On the other hand, since the 7th of November we have gained over 400 new followers. So although, the impact has not been a large as could have been, our posts are helping us slowly build a following on facebook.
I have noticed that the posts with the greatest impact are one which contain quotes from more recognisable celebrities. For example, our most popular post was one containing a quote from Frankie Boyle. I will be trying to find more quotes from people like this to use in the future.
