Dear Member,

Thanks to your continued support, 2022 has been a milestone year for Arlington Independent Media! The media environment has changed dramatically since AIM’s founding, and it is exciting to meet this moment by expanding beyond legacy media to become a truly digital-friendly organization! Thank you for making our work possible, and we hope that you will consider a year-end gift to ensure the continuation of our robust programming in 2023 and beyond.

In 2022, with your support we have…

• Thrown open our doors to producers again, with a town hall, a producers’ brunch, and a “coming out” party that, to quote a longtime member, was “like nothing AIM has ever seen before.”
• Welcomed television and radio productions back to AIM’s studios. We’ve also experimented with new workshops, including “Intro to Podcasting” and “Planning Your Short Film,” to expand the reach of our programs and allow us to bring working media professionals from all over the country into AIM’s orbit.
• Successfully completed a full relaunch of our radio station, WERA 96.7 FM. A new block scheduling approach is making our programming sound more consistent and listener-friendly.
• Launched our Youth Journalism Initiative, which is explicitly focused on reaching the youth in communities whose voices have too often gone unheard. We plan to offer full tuition scholarships and stipends to teenagers who speak languages other than English at home, or whose parents may be experiencing poverty, to tell stories and build bridges across cultures to help students grow into thoughtful world citizens.
• Successfully negotiated a lease with Arlington County for the expansion of AIM into South Arlington; this collaboration with the county and the Arts community provides us a new opportunity to truly make media creation accessible to all! 

These milestones highlight our tireless work to reimagine our 40-year old organization to succeed in the 21st century and beyond! By contributing to AIM, you are investing in helping shape equitable, accessible, and meaningful media experiences for people from all walks of life. YOU are a part of that legacy. 

As CEO, I am excited to invite you to continue your support of our mission. I can’t think of a more fascinating and meaningful place to be at this moment than Arlington Independent Media. Arlington is a site of incredibly vibrant community activism and creative expression. We plan to leverage all of that richness to solidify AIM as an anchor organization for media arts, culture and social justice. Together, we’ll create a first rate professional organization that is considered a standard bearer for community media not just in Arlington, but throughout our region, this country, and the world. 

Warmly,

Whytni Kernodle, Esquire

CEO, Arlington Independent Media