[APPROVED]
KPFA 2011 Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting, November 19, 2011, 11am-4pm
Finn Hall, 1819 10th St., Berkeley CA
Note: An audio archive of this meeting is available at www.kpftx.org/archive.php
Present:
Mal Burnstein, Terry Doran, Pamela Drake, Anthony Fest, Sasha Futran*, David Gans, Conn Hallinan, Matthew Hallinan, Cynthia Johnson, Jack Kurzweil, Henry Norr*, Andrea Prichett, Laura Prives, Tanya Russell, Lewis Sawyer, Dan Siegel, Franklin Sterling, Akio Tanaka, Kate Tanaka, Andrea Turner*, Margy Wilkinson, Rych Withers; Barbara Whipperman (treasurer), Craig Alderson (secretary), Andrew Phillips (ex-officio)
*Arrived after roll call.
1. Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair M. Wilkinson at 11:06 am.
2. Roll call and excusing of members
Moved (L. Sawyer) to excuse S. Aghamir, S. Futran, H. Kim, T. Rosenberg. Approved without objection. (S. Futran subsequently arrived.)
Terry Doran was welcomed and seated, replacing Suzi Goldmacher.
3. Approve agenda
Agenda approved as amended without objection.
Moved (M. Burnstein) that speakers be limited to three minutes on any one topic; that each member may speak twice on any motion; that the body can extend the time by majority vote. Approved: 11Y, 7N
[On reviewing these minutes in 12/7/11 LSB meeting, T. Rosenberg noted that motions to extend time require a 2/3 vote rather than majority, and thus that this part of the motion is out of order.]
4. Minutes
Approved as corrected without objection.
Moved (M. Burnstein) to limit speakers on all agenda items to two minutes. Approved without objection.
5. Public comments (in order of speakers)
Daniel Borgstrom, Orca Raptalon, Virginia Browning. Approved without objection to allow Joy Moore to speak when she arrived.
6. Announcements
a. A. Prichett announced CopWatch forum on threats to public’s right to observe police. Dec. 3, 2pm, Humanist Hall. Commended KPFA staff for work covering Occupy Oakland.
b. M. Wilkinson asked board to commend KPFA staff for work on Occupy movement, including Franklin Sterling, Dev Ross, and Laura Prives. Approved by acclamation.
c. F. Sterling thanked everyone for their participation in movement and thanked Dan Siegel for his action in support of Occupy Oakland.
7. Interim general manager report (A. Phillips)
See attached.
8. Technology report (Roger Marquis)
Roger Marquis, KPFA IT consultant, gave board overview of KPFA’s IT operations and needs. Concern is over cuts to computer maintenance in 2012 budget. The longer maintenance is deferred, the costlier it ultimately becomes. Servers are currently 5 to 6 years old and need upgrade. IT is vital to staff productivity. We are doing little to bring in listeners via new technologies, and we do nothing to attract listeners outside our own time zone. KPFA programs not picked up by search engines because those index text, not audio content, and KPFA is not transcribing its audio. The pledge page could be improved.
8. Treasurer’s report (B. Whipperman)
TR1 is chart comparing LSB and NFC budgets by line. TR2 shows actual versus budgeted. Stations with most staff are KPFA, KPFK, and WBAI; other stations run on minimal staff. KPFA is paid ahead on central services fees so we owe nothing. Money hasn’t been paid to staff 403b accounts. Directors inspection currently being conducted; Whipperman has been appointed as agent for Andrea Turner, Brian Edwards-Tiekert has been appointed as agent for Dan Siegel. Report will be issued. TR3 reports first month of new fiscal year with comparisons to previous years.
9. Committee reports
A Pacifica National Board (D. Siegel, L. Prives)
Most significant development has been to hire Ross Wisdom as audit firm for coming year. Has been Pacifica audit firm previously. Andrew Gold is new Pacifica counsel. Evaluation of executive director is planned for next meeting and CFO evaluation for following meeting.
B. Development (A. Prichett)
Met about Santa Cruz transmitter. Committee wants to publicize in Santa Cruz but is hampered by relations between KPFA and UC student station KZSC. KZSC needs final approval from UC and wants to avoid overlap or redundancy in programming if KPFA will be broadcasting its own material from transmitter.
C. Personnel (C. Hallinan)
Committee has narrowed search to 5. A. Fest drafted questions and will send to rest of board. Committee proposed involving whole board in preliminary interviews on Dec. 10. By phone, about 3 hours.
Moved (C. Hallinan) to schedule Dec. 10 for initial phone interviews in approximately 3 hour session beginning 9 am. Approved without objection.
D. Outreach (A. Prichett)
Outreach has been happening. KPFA table at events, including Robert Reich address on Sproul Plaza. Hundreds of flyers distributed. Perception that committee is not getting much support from station in funneling volunteers to them. Shift Board didn’t work, access to emails a problem. Suggested developing policies and procedures for volunteers.
E. Staff reports
a. Paid staff (L. Prives)
Union discovered 403b payments had not been made. Contacted management and is pursuing. Another fund drive scheduled for Dec. 12.
b. Unpaid staff (D. Gans)
Appears to be no viable organization at moment. Drafted letter calling for general meeting Dec. 6 to reconstitute an unpaid staff organization. Terms of current officers of UPSO have ended. Meeting will see whether people still want an UPSO.
10. KFCF (R. Withers)
See report.
11. Old business
A. Open discussion on programming
Motion to suspend rules for discussion approved without objection. Board engaged in roundtable discussion of purposes and philosophy of KPFA programming. The discussion begins at 33:42 of part 3 of the audio file.
B. Interim general manager performance review
Committee met mid-September and decided to poll LSB and staff directly supervised by interim general manager. Each program to get one questionnaire. Committee had trouble getting contact information; did not want to stuff station mailboxes as this was not secure. Committee voted to go back to original plan using old forms.
Moved (A. Turner) to accept committee proposal to survey programs using old forms and use Survey Monkey as means to return forms.
Moved (A. Prichett) amendment to replace surveying programs with giving every volunteer and every paid staff member an opportunity to submit an evaluation form. Failed: 5Y (A. Prichett, D. Siegel, F. Sterling, A. Tanaka, K. Tanaka); 10N (A. Fest, S. Futran, D. Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, J. Kurzweil, L. Prives, T. Russell, L. Sawyer, A. Turner, R. Withers).
Main motion approved: 12Y (S. Futran, D. Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, J. Kurzweil, L. Prives, T. Russell, L. Sawyer, D. Siegel, F. Sterling, A. Turner, R. Withers); 2N (A. Fest, A. Prichett).
C. Program council
Moved resolution (attached; C. Hallinan).
Moved (A. Fest) amendment to change composition of program council with 2 LSB members, 3 unpaid staff members, 3 paid staff members, 2 community members. Failed: 5Y (A. Fest, A. Prichett, F. Sterling, A. Tanaka, K. Tanaka); 11N (S. Futran, D. Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, J. Kurzweil, L. Prives, T. Russell, L. Sawyer, D. Siegel, A. Turner, R. Withers)
Main motion approved: 11Y (S. Futran, D. Gans, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, J. Kurzweil, L. Prives, T. Russell, L. Sawyer, D. Siegel, A. Turner, R. Withers); 4N (A. Fest, F. Sterling, A. Tanaka, K. Tanaka)
Adjourned 3:38 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Craig Alderson
LSB Secretary