Although people of both genders can join and serve as officers, the organization’s mission is to advance the impact of women in broadcasting and related fields. The group furthers community service, member employment, and education. The organization also has a definite social consciousness. AWRT produces an award-winning series of public service announcements, which have focused upon subjects such as outstanding American women preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. Its agenda has also included, as an issue for study, a concern for indecency in broadcast content.

The organization serves many functions for its members. Its nearly 30 local chapters provide a place for social and professional networking. Some chapters are an important force in their local broadcast communities; others are merely meeting places for people in similar professions. Local activities vary, but often include “Soaring Spirits” benefits to help children’s hospitals, scholarship fund-raising for area college students, awards for local media professionals, educational seminars, career development, and job listing dispersal. Local chapter members also mentor meetings of the affiliated College Students in Broadcasting, a club composed of dues-paying students organized at university campus chapters.

On the national level, the organization provides many services. The main office is helmed by full-time employees and directed by both nationally elected officers and an advisory board. Within the organization, the most essential activity is an annual convention held each spring. In the past, convention activities included lobbying in Washington, recreation in Phoenix, Arizona, and education in Florida. As of 2002, however, the organization has chosen to curtail its annual meetings and instead host a yearly training seminar. This policy has been dictated by a decline in the number of members.

American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Originally conceived as the women’s division of the National Association of Broadcasters, AWRT became an independent entity in 1950. At its first convention, AWRT had 282 women members. Today, the group maintains approximately 2,300 men and women members, largely employed by television and radio stations nationwide.

Although people of both genders can join and serve as officers, the organization’s mission is to advance the impact of women in broadcasting and related fields. The group furthers community service, member employment, and education. The organization also has a definite social consciousness. AWRT produces an award-winning series of public service announcements, which have focused upon subjects such as outstanding American women preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. Its agenda has also included, as an issue for study, a concern for indecency in broadcast content.

The organization serves many functions for its members. Its nearly 30 local chapters provide a place for social and professional networking. Some chapters are an important force in their local broadcast communities; others are merely meeting places for people in similar professions. Local activities vary, but often include “Soaring Spirits” benefits to help children’s hospitals, scholarship fund-raising for area college students, awards for local media professionals, educational seminars, career development, and job listing dispersal. Local chapter members also mentor meetings of the affiliated College Students in Broadcasting, a club composed of dues-paying students organized at university campus chapters.

On the national level, the organization provides many services. The main office is helmed by full-time employees and directed by both nationally elected officers and an advisory board. Within the organization, the most essential activity is an annual convention held each spring. In the past, convention activities included lobbying in Washington, recreation in Phoenix, Arizona, and education in Florida. As of 2002, however, the organization has chosen to curtail its annual meetings and instead host a yearly training seminar. This policy has been dictated by a decline in the number of members.

The organization also houses the AWRT Foundation, which is designed to help fund research, publication, institutes, lectures, and the general advancement of the electronic media and allied fields. Since 1975 the foundation has been awarding its Gracie Allen Awards, to honor quality programming by women, for women, and about women in broadcasting, cable, and new media.

AWRT’s Washington office sponsors the annual Star Awards, which recognize media professionals or companies facilitating women’s issues and concerns, whereas the Silver Satellite and the Achievement Awards commend success or advancements in electronic media fields.

The chapters differ greatly from each other. For example, the Austin, Texas, chapter’s monthly luncheon serves as the primary local meeting place for executives and managers in cable, broadcasting, and advertising. Its activities include speakers with the latest news on industry developments, a preview night for each network’s new fall programs in September, a Soaring Spirits five-kilometer run, sponsorship of student scholarships, and the definitive Austin media Christmas party.

In contrast, the southern California chapter has a large sampling of television producers, on-air talent, network executives, educators, screenwriters, and actors in its ranks. Its main annual fundraising event is the Genii Awards luncheon, which honors an outstanding broadcast executive and a performer. Past winners have included producers Marian Rees and Linda Bloodworth Thomason and actors Tyne Daly and Candace Bergen. Other activities include a “Meeting of the Minds” seminar updating the legal and technical knowledge in communication operations, a “Boot Camp” night, where teams wearing military gear attempt to rearrange network programming schedules to maximize competition, and the more typical social gatherings and guest speakers. The chapter gives more than five scholarships annually, each awarded to a College Students in Broadcasting member.

Although different in membership, clout, and structure, each local chapter uses the services of the national office to disseminate industry knowledge and job information. AWRT helps keep its members up to date in a rapidly changing industrial setting.