AIM Board Calls Special Meeting In April, Elects New Leaders: Letter

Arlington Independent Media announced that it had laid off its entire staff by end of business Monday.

Dear AIM Community,

On March 14th, the Board of Directors received an Open Letter from members of the AIM community, expressing the members’ concerns with AIM’s current financial health and well-being, and calling for a Special Meeting of Members. At the Board’s emergency special meeting on March 18th, which was closed due to discussion of personnel matters, the Board voted unanimously to hold a Special Meeting of Members on April 17th at 7pm. This meeting will take place in the Black Box Theater at 3700 Four Mile Run Drive.

During our closed session this evening, we also elected new officers. We are pleased to announce that the President of AIM’s Board is now Rhonda Snipe, and our new Treasurer is Amanda MacKaye. Please join me in thanking them for their service in these extraordinary times!

We want to assure you that amidst all the current turmoil, the Board is standing firm for AIM, and that as a body we are taking over operations of the organization for the time being. We are committed to the survival and flourishing of Arlington Independent Media and its longstanding legacy of community media production. This will take grace and grit, but we will get through this.

This will be a season of belt-tightening for AIM, and we fervently believe it will be a temporary one. The Board believes that AIM has the potential to achieve an ambitious new vision of what public access, community-produced media can be in the 21st century, but we have to take some necessary steps to get there. We need to rebuild trust, conduct a financial audit, and return to radio and TV production. We will conduct ourselves with kindness, and we will do things by the book. There are dedicated volunteers ready to carry us through this, and we look forward to this community coming out stronger on the other end.

Lastly, we want to reiterate our commitment to the future of AIM. We have the opportunity to work together to shape the road ahead. We’ll do what we can with what we know we have, and we’ll forge a path forward to ensure AIM is insulated from the kind of financial shocks we’ve endured, even years prior to the pandemic. And someday soon, we’ll raise our voices together in a cheer for everything this community has accomplished. Together.

On behalf of the entire AIM Board of Directors,

Claire Seaton, Secretary of the Board