jamarchFriday, February 27, 2009
Location: Broward South Regional Library
Facilitator: Maxine J. Tulloch
Media Partners Present:, Maxine Tulloch, Cheryl Wynter, Ian Hamilton, Kervin Clenance, Jean A. Cherubin, Tyrone G. Robertson, Eddy Edwards, Derwent Donaldson, Leona Minto, Kaye Chong, Scott Medvin, Margaret Stapleton, Michael B. Brown, Arlene Amitrigala, Shellie-Ann Fenelon
Media Partners Absent: Garth Rose, Michael Lewis, Sean Jeffrey, Tamar Philippeau, Maria Pazos, Peter Webley.
Called to Order: 12:28 pm Adjournment: 1:48pm
Approval of Minutes: The minutes for February 9th meeting was not available to review.
Meeting Activities:
Thanks to Kervin Clenance for taking notes and preparing the minutes for us.
Maxine Tulloch called the meeting to order at 12:28 pm.
Maxine opened the meeting by sharing her perspective on the organization.
Ian introduced his guests…Margaret L. Stapleton, Assistant Director, Broward County Commission and Scott Medvin also from Broward County Commission Office. They shared the county’s efforts towards getting a more accurate count of the African American and Caribbean American communities.
They are looking to organizations like the CMA to help add credibility to the census process. They want to send a message to those communities that “nothing bad will happen if you allow yourself to be counted”.
They are seeking an updated Caribbean Media list to give them better access to the Caribbean community. Their current list is outdated.
Our next guest at the meeting was Kaye Chong of Air Jamaica. Kaye spoke passionately about the relationship between Air Jamaica, the Caribbean community and the Caribbean media. She emphasized that there is a symbiotic relationship between all three. They must all pull together for the mutual success of the whole. She seeks the media and community support during this time, as Air Jamaica takes action to curtail its losses.
We then moved into discussion as to the direction of the CMA. We arrived at acknowledging that there are two standing positions relative to the mission of the organization. One is that of advocacy, the other is pursuit of media buys. There was passionate and spirited discussion from both sides of the aisle.
Eddy Edwards raised the idea of taking a pro-active stance relative to products that benefited from our business but chose not to advertise using Caribbean media outlets.
Kervin Clenance raised the issue of general market urban stations getting advertising dollars to reach the Caribbean market.
We ended on the note that advocacy and community action when well appointed and strategically employed will give rise to media buys.
Media Writer
