There are a few pending ABA projects that are close to becoming a reality. While you'll hear about each one in the coming weeks, you may find these top lines helpful right now:

1) Wishes for Teachers
The ABA is launching a new partnership in September with a Fiesta Bowl-funded program called Wishes for Teachers. Wishes for Teachers will be awarding $1 million in grants this fall to hundreds of teachers across Arizona. It’s built as a non-partisan, non-profit effort to support Arizona’s public education system.

The ABA partnership is a two-pronged effort. First, the Wishes for Teachers program will be using the PEP ad program through all of you in September to solicit teachers to apply for these grants. Information about the ads will be heading to your traffic departments next week. Since this is a single-month campaign, I'll be asking for your help to ensure we give the effort a strong run.

Second, the ABA will be rallying all members to get involved with a one-day October event for Wishes For Teachers where all $1 million in grants will actually be awarded to Arizona teachers. This is one of those moments where the collective power of TV and radio can make a real difference in our community. To make the effort memorable for viewers from participating radio and TV stations, every station that participates will be paired with at least one grant-winning teacher from their home market (whether Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma or beyond) for a live reveal and I'm certain emotional interview during the surprise award. 

2) EAS Coding Recommendations
Our Arizona Emergency Alert System (EAS) is one of those things that can easily cause confusion. Between the FCC rules, mix of old and new technology, and complicated workflows, I know I'm not the only one who has needed a little help to wrap my head around how it all works.

We had success this spring by starting the process of connecting our EAS system to internet delivery (instead of relying only on the daisy chain). Now, we're about to finalize a plan that offers ABA-endorsed recommendations for how to handle every EAS code, along with what those codes mean, who uses them, what to expect in a real emergency, as well as a simplified document that explains how our overall EAS program works. Expect more details in the coming weeks.

3) Sales recruitment plan at all three Arizona universities
Thanks to feedback from so many of you, the ABA is close to implementing three different plans, one at each of our state's universities, to  tackle the shortage of media sellers available for hire in the Arizona marketplace. The programs go after everything from re-launching a traditional media sales class, to partnering with student ad clubs, to growing a first-of-its-kind online media sales class and certification program. We expect to get all three of these programs underway during the fall semester, and as each one launches, we'll share full details. All three programs will lead to job fair opportunities and relationship building between stations and new sellers in the market.

4) Lower 2020 Dues
We solicited your feedback in June, and now we're close to finalizing a 2020 dues structure that will notably reduce the overall ABA membership cost for 65% of our members. The rates will stay flat for another 20% of members, and the rates will go up modestly (by a couple hundred dollars at most) for the remaining 20% of the membership. As we told you in June, we want our dues structure to reflect the business realities of today and also offer a rate plan that accounts for different-sized broadcasters across Arizona. We also want to simplify the process. Our current structure has 28 different rates. This proposal nearly cuts that in half and prioritizes equity in membership support. Once the final proposal is blessed by the ABA board of directors later this month, we will be putting this new dues structure to vote. Look for that email in the next couple weeks.