The CAB appears to be like conventional TV broadcasting – both are shrinking. The once-obligatory CAB convention vanished this year and the association has been getting smaller since the start of ’09.

Fourteen positions were cut this year, including COO Tina Van Dusen. And the CEO, Glenn O’Farrell, walked.

A new CEO is expected at some point, but there is no longer a senior vice-president of member relations and administration, nor a vice-president of communications, nor a vice-president of regulatory and policy, nor a director of events and member services.

It’s not known yet what will happen to the CAB Hall of Fame and Gold Ribbon Awards. ‘Since we don’t have a convention, we’re still looking at what to do with them, whether to combine them with another event or do something else,’ says CAB chair Charlotte Bell, who also works as SVP of regulatory for Canwest Media.

During this massive reorganization, a management council is running the association. And Margo Patterson, general counsel and VP of legal affairs, says that while the CAB (and everyone else in Ottawa) is waiting for the government to introduce an amended or new copyright bill, it will continue to talk up its solution around Parliament Hill.

The association has called for a new framework for digital copyright as part of the federal government’s consultations on the matter.

‘Broadcasters also need to be able to clear copyright to material quickly, especially in the digital world,’ notes Patterson.

Its two core recommendations are that broadcasters not be charged multiple copyright fees, including for backing up their digital servers, and overhauling the way copyright is administered under new legislation so that it is less time consuming.

Copyright and broadcast policy obligations are new focuses of the advocacy organization for private TV and radio broadcasters since it was sliced in half.

Also, in the first week of October, the CAB reached an out-of-court settlement on the lengthy battle over Part 2 licence fees, which has been regarded as a partial victory. (The CAB had taken the issue of the multimillion-dollar payments to court, calling them an illegal tax.)

The CAB has also finalized the governance structure for the Local Programming Improvement Fund, which is aimed at pumping dollars from distributors into local TV programming in markets of less than one million. A board was established to oversee the fund, and McCay, Duff and Company Management was chosen to distribute the money.

Elizabeth Roscoe, CAB EVP of strategic and public policy, says the organization is participating in consultations on the Canada Media Fund (skedded to start in April 2010), and the 411 process (a public proceeding on group-based licensing of TV channels and on certain issues relating to conventional television, including fee-for-carriage).

‘We will be following the 411 process closely and commenting on that proceeding,’ she says.