|
Join PBMA PBMA Homepage Employment Listings Contact Us
|
PBMA's History: 1982 to the Present |
|
In 1982, PTFMA’s headquarters moved from the University of Wisconsin in Madison to SECA (now NETA) in Columbia, South Carolina. The boards of PTFMA and SECA, and the staff of SECA (particularly SECA’s finance director Bob Simmons) saw synergy between their organizations. PTFMA engaged SECA to provide management services. PTFMA has evolved, as did SECA (in 1997, it became NETA), but the two organizations remain closely allied and NETA continues to provide the headquarters service. The character of PTFMA’s membership evolved, too. People who had begun public broadcasting careers in accounting and finance moved into general management, but maintained their PTFMA connections and membership. Human resource specialists realized that PTFMA’s professional development interest aligned with theirs, and that the association’s focus on non-commercial broadcasting made its training products uniquely valuable. Staff legal counsel and information technology professionals discovered PTFMA, and joined to gain access to its special network. |
|
|
The broadening membership meant that, by 1996,
PTFMA’s name no longer described the association’s reach. Under the leadership of chair Gary Ferrell, then at KCET/Los Angeles, the board recommended, and the members voted, a name change to Public Broadcasting Management Association (PBMA). The ad hoc committee that developed the new name included individuals who had been on PTFMA’s first board. PBMA continues to provide top quality, professional education for managers and administrators, as well as those who aspire to leadership roles in public broadcasting. Its workshops on preparation of the CPB Annual Financial Report and the Station Activities Benchmark Survey remain the place for administrators new to public broadcasting to learn the basics. And PBMA’s conference is still the only meeting in public broadcasting with vital information for both radio and television broadcasters. |
|
|
Our
thanks to Paul Few, Ken Krall, and Priscilla Weck |
|
|
|