[Approved]
KPFA 2011 Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting, June 2, 2012, 11am-4pm
South Berkeley Community Church
1802 Fairview St., Berkeley, CA
Note: An audio archive of this meeting is available at www.kpftx.org/archive.php
Present:
Shahram Aghamir*, Mal Burnstein, Pamela Drake, Anthony Fest, Sasha Futran, David Gans, Donald Goldmacher*, Cynthia Johnson*, Janet Kobren, Henry Norr, Tracy Rosenberg, Lewis Sawyer, Dan Siegel, Franklin Sterling, Akio Tanaka, Kate Tanaka, Andrea Turner*, Margy Wilkinson, Rych Withers; Craig Alderson (secretary), Barbara Whipperman (treasurer).
*Arrived after roll call.
1. Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair M. Wilkinson at 11:15 am.
2. Roll call and excusing of members
Moved (D. Gans) to excuse D. Goldmacher, C. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, J. Kurzweil, L. Prives, T. Russell. Approved without objection.
3. Approve agenda
Moved (M. Burnstein). Approved without objection.
Moved (M. Burnstein) for three-minute time limit on speakers. Approved: 8Y, 7N.
4. Minutes
Moved (L. Sawyer) to adopt minutes of May 5, 2012, meeting, as drafted. Approved without objection.
M. Wilkinson reported that material for recall election had gone to mail house and should be in the mail in a week to 10 days. Wilkinson spoke to Arlene Englehardt on June 1, who said she would be hiring a supervisor for the national elections. The elections will be delayed by 2 months. Presumably, this means that the filing date for candidates will also be pushed back 2 months.
5. Announcements
A. F. Sterling reported that his trial was set for June 20 but that it may be postponed. His prospects look good. Further news on his Facebook page.
B. J. Kobren reported that Occupy Bay Area United has formed out of Occupy San Francisco. It is committed to non-violent direct action. www.obau.org. She also said the Alameda Board of Supervisors have as part of their agenda at their June 5 in Oakland to recognize Palestine Day.
C. M. Wilkinson reminded members that Berkeley’s Juneteenth was scheduled for June 24. She encouraged people to attend and urged KPFA to have a table there.
D. F. Sterling announced that apprentices will be at Juneteenth. Apprenticeship Program is accepting applications, due date is June 8. Applications are at kpfaapprentice.org.
6. Interim general manager report (A. Phillips)
Membership drive brought in $619k, 7% less than the $740k goal. All Pacifica stations are struggling, so our receipts are good. $50k goes to KFCF. Many bills are still outstanding, especially legal bills. Democracy Now, FSRN owed more than $1 million. National office calling for more fundraising. Staff did great in fund drive, including news staff, which pulled together a new program with just three days’ notice.
New morning lineup because he finally decided to ignore politics and do programming. Has been very little negative, and lots of positive, comment. Station morale has improved considerably. Currently 11 apprentices.
Looking at program council. UPSO has been developing list of programmers. Phillips would like to make Father Figure program permanent, but this means changing Saturday morning schedule. Also interested in economics program with Richard Wolfe, Law & Disorder by the Center for Constitutional Rights, and maybe a 4/20 marijuana program.
Exploring part-time development director. Has invited someone who already has experience, although there have been demands for open hire. Veronica Faison has been great as fund drive assistant. There will probably be serious staff cuts across network of $1 million. KPFA share will be $250k-$350k, or 3 to 5 positions.
His last day is June 30. He thanked the board and the board thanked him for his service.
7. Public comments (in order of speakers)
Aileen Alfandary.
8. Treasurer’s report (B. Whipperman)
TR1 is P&L statement through April. Business manager tried to reproduce what she gets from national office but has given up because she has found so many discrepancies. She has analyzed errors and found that they are quite a lot; they will need to be corrected. Yesterday she received email requesting immediate payment of KPFA’s share of central services. Documentation provided had huge errors. Englehardt has not been given accurate information, particularly regarding payroll. Line 21 shows total of salaries and related expenses. To date, we are not far off from what was budgeted. Business manager recommends establishing a reserve account under “Capital Items” category. We could put $30k in reserves over the year.
TR2 summarizes current statistics. TR3 reports fund drive revenue by program.
Whipperman reminded board of budget timetable and said there are problems again with budget template. She is starting to review budget with staff and expects to present draft budget for vote at July meeting. She distributed survey to board members in order to assist in that process.
9. Committee reports
A. PNB (D. Siegel, T. Rosenberg)
Most recent meetings have been in closed session. PNB meeting will be third weekend in July in Berkeley or Oakland. Discussion ensued about which hotels were union and not on AFL-CIO boycott list.
B. Development (A. Prichett)
No report.
C. Personnel (C. Hallinan)
No report.
D. Outreach (A. Prichett)
No report.
E. Technology (J. Kobren)
Met May 15 as a task force as approved by the PNB. Approved a Technology Documentation Policy proposal that recommends the PNB to direct the ED to add requirement to GM job description to develop technical documentation.
F. PNB audit committee (M. Wilkinson)
Hasn’t met recently.
G. PNB elections committee (S. Futran)
No report.
H. PNB finance committee (T. Rosenberg)
Continuing to oversee budget process. Workgroups are developing plans for cutting expenses. KPFK has seen fall in listener subscribers.
I. PNB governance (T. Rosenberg)
Looking at ways to streamline bylaws amendment process. Will meet mid-June.
J. Staff
1. CWA
No report.
2. UPSO (A. Fest)
Hasn’t been membership meeting. Currently in election process. Election committee has been compiling list of 200+ voters. Has been contacting producers to ask who has worked on programs and will finish soon. Recruiting candidates now. iGM approached him about new program council.
10. KFCF report (R. Withers)
See attached.
11. Old business
A. Town Hall
Board assented to chair’s proposal for 10 to 15 minutes of open discussion, with speakers limited to 2 minutes.
Moved (C. Johnson) to establish task force to plan for Town Hall. Approved without objection. Volunteers: L. Sawyer, C. Johnson, M. Wilkinson. A. Prichett would be asked to participate also.
Adjourned 2:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Craig Alderson
LSB Secretary