ARLINGTON, Va. – After holding membership dues flat for several years because of the recession, and researching numerous possible revamps of dues calculations, the Association of Public Television Stations will return to its original dues formula, based on a percentage of each pubTV station’s Community Service Grant, beginning with fiscal 2013. The APTS Board of Trustees today (Feb. 26) voted unanimously to adopt a formula based on 2 percent of the CSG, with a phase-in period during which no station will pay $2,000 more or less than its current dues. APTS is asking its three largest member stations, WNET in New York City, WGBH in Boston and WETA in Arlington, to continue to pay their current rate for the time being, said trustee John Harris, president of Prairie Public Broadcasting in Fargo, N.D., who headed work on the dues formula, which began in November 2010. APTS President Pat Butler told the board that WNET and WETA have agreed, and WGBH appears likely to do so. Butler said one of the objectives of the dues review was to do away with complicated special arrangements, such as multiple-station membership deals for California and Pennsylvania. “We wanted to get back to a dues formula that is simple, transparent and defensible,” he said.
Three new board members participated in the meeting: Dr. Roger Gose, board chair of Central Wyoming Community College in Riverton, Wyoming PBS’s licensee; Allan Pizzato, executive director of Alabama Public Television in Birmingham; and Landri Taylor, lay trustee, Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver.