[Approved]
KPFA Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting, April 13, 2013, 11am-4pm
North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst Ave., Berkeley, CA
Note: An audio archive of this meeting is available at www.kpftx.org/archive.php
Present: Shahram Aghamir, Craig Alderson, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, José Luis Fuentes, David Gans, Donald Goldmacher, Matthew Hallinan, Mark Hernandez, Cynthia Johnson*, Janet Kobren, Joy Moore, Tracy Rosenberg, Mel Sanders*, Lewis Sawyer, Franklin Sterling, Carole Travis, Ramsés Teón-Nichols*, Barbara Whipperman, Burton White, Margy Wilkinson.
*Arrived after roll call.
Absent: Mal Burnstein, Jack Kurzweil, Andrea Prichett, Dan Siegel,.
1. Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair B. White at 11:15 am.
2. Roll call and excusing of members
Moved (M. Wilkinson) to excuse all absent members. Approved without objection.
B. White announced that he had received the resignation of Lawrence Shoup.
3. Approve agenda
Moved (J. Moore) to add, under old business, her resolution for an IT audit. Approved as amended without objection.
4. Minutes
Moved (D. Goldmacher) to adopt minutes of March 9, 2013, meeting. Approved without objection.
Moved (M. Wilkinson) to adopt minutes as amended. Approved: 18Y, 0N, 1A.
5. Announcements
A. C. Johnson: there will be a fundraiser for Free Speech Radio News April 21 at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 5-7pm. Also, a decision on the fate of the Berkeley Post Office is expected in the next month.
B. J. Moore: exhibit opening April 14 at the Berkeley Historical Society; she will be emceeing.
C. M. Wilkinson: the Alameda County Sheriff and the city of Berkeley are looking into buying a drone. It has been referred to city commissions. A May 1 town hall meeting has been scheduled to hear citizen views. See web pages of the city, Police Review Commission, or Peace and Justice Commission for more information.
6. Public comments
Virginia Browning, David Curtis, Daniel Borgstrom.
7. Interim general manager report (A. Phillips)
A. Phillips reported that he had sat in on an UPSO council meeting. It was a productive two-hour session. A subscription assistant has been hired. The hiring committee spent a total of 12 hours interviewing final candidates. UpFront has hired Marie Choi and Tina Bachemin as vacation fill-in hosts for the program. These are not additional positions; the contract requires management to hire to fill temporary vacancies.
FSRN fundraiser event is Sunday, April 21. Last month, KPFA paid $35,000 to FSRN. WBAI has been paying $60,000/month in rent. WPFW situation is volatile over a lease through Clear Channel, which is highly unpopular.
GoalBusters will visit May 6-9. They will be available to meet with LSB members on May 9. Station fund drive is scheduled for May 1-24. There will be a pitching workshop for staff on May 7. For the 64th anniversary fundraising event scheduled for April 15, 1,000 invitations were sent for seats at $150/ticket but there were only 20 responses, so the event was cancelled. Spring fund drive scheduled for May 1-24. Also many speakers coming up.
Union negotiations begin this month. Regarding personnel issues, Phillips is awaiting an action plan from Pacifica over issues raised. He received a phone call from Summer Reese telling him to vacate his office the next week. This action was due to multiple allegations of racism, which she confirmed in a brief email. Phillips said the station needs a stable platform and that the unrest was due to unresolved issues. Reese told him he could run for permanent general manager when that position was advertised.
Moved (B. Edwards-Tiekert): “The KPFA Local Station Board opposes any move by Pacifica to remove or replace a KPFA manager without the meaningful participation of KPFA’s elected Local Station Board and consultation with KPFA’s paid and unpaid staff.”
Moved amendment (S. Aghamir) to replace “participation” with “consultation.” Failed: 5Y (S. Aghamir, C. Johnson, J. Kobren, T. Rosenberg, R. Teón-Nicols); 13N (C. Alderson, B. Edwards-Tiekert, JL Fuentes, D. Goldmacher, M. Hallinan, M. Hernandez, J. Moore, M. Sanders, L. Sawyer, F. Sterling, C. Travis, B. Whipperman, M. Wilkinson); 1A (D. Gans)
Main motion approved: 15Y (C. Alderson, B. Edwards-Tiekert, JL Fuentes, D. Gans, D. Goldmacher, M. Hallinan, M. Hernandez, J. Moore, M. Sanders, L. Sawyer, F. Sterling, C. Travis, B. Whipperman, B. White, M. Wilkinson); 1N (R. Teón-Nicols); 4A (S. Aghamir, C. Johnson, J. Kobren, T. Rosenberg)
Moved (M. Wilkinson) to extend discussion to 1:00. Approved by voice vote.
Moved (B. Edwards-Tiekert): “The KPFA Local Station Board supports continuing the tenure of Andrew Phillips as interim general manager until the process of hiring a permanent general manager is complete.”
Moved amendment (J. Kobren) to add “Based on the information we have as of this date…” at beginning. Approved without objection.
Main motion, as amended: 14Y (C. Alderson, B. Edwards-Tiekert, JL Fuentes, D. Gans, D. Goldmacher, M. Hernandez, C. Johnson, J. Moore, L. Sawyer, F. Sterling, C. Travis, B. Whipperman, B. White, M. Wilkinson); 0N; 3A (J. Kobren, M. Sanders, R. Teón-Nicols).
8. Treasurer’s report (B. Whipperman)
TR1 is a summary showing pledges by program of the pledge drive that ended Mar. 6. Fulfillment figures take time to be complete. We eventually get 88-89%. Pledges are tracked even if payments come in months after the pledge.
TR2 is mid-year statement. “Listener support” includes corporate matches. CPB awards are based on amount of listener support. Actuals in this statement are not yet complete. Lines 16,17 show CPB grants. A small part goes to FSRN, other part to KPFA expenses. Some columns are blank because they’re not booked into the register yet. Last year there was a problem with premiums. CPB claimed we were reducing listener support by what we actually paid for the premiums, but CPB wants us to use actual market value. This is causing us to reduce listener support by the market value of premiums, i.e., a $24,000 downward adjustment. The last CFO had said this would be spread over three years, but CPB apparently wants it all now. CPB grant may be reduced by $25,000 consequently. There is now a new problem with credit card deposits, as the company handling them is making reconciliation difficult. We’re over in salaries but under in other categories. Line 105 includes depreciation figure. Business manager is working to clarify what should be on depreciation list, but it’s difficult for her to give us an accurate statement yet.
Moved (J. Kobren) to reschedule agenda item 10 (“Open discussion on development”) to next month, to come after announcements at the next meeting. Approved without objection.
9. Report on informal meeting with GoalBusters (J. Kobren)
J. Kobren reported on the 2/12/13 meeting with James Anderson and Alice Ferris. Anderson and Ferris gave an overview, with a focus on big donors and why they don’t donate. The want to increase lower donor gift and improve efficiency. KPFA programs produce local content and it needs to push out that content. Social media very important, use Facebook to build audience. GoalBusters will make recommendations to KFPA’s IT consultant. Listener testimonials are another option. A. Phillips added that the failure of the 64th anniversary fundraiser was due to the wrong headliner. He is sending around a project information sheet to gather information about programs so as to develop grants. Contract with GoalBusters is for $135,000, and we’ve spent about half that so far. Apprenticeship program and NEA grants have been submitted.
10. Other reports
A. PNB (T. Rosenberg)
Reported on discussion by national finance committee on ways to supplement fund drives. Committee proposed that each station identify specific financial need and raise money for that problem. Moved (M. Wilkinson) to defer this idea to the discussion on development. Approved without objection.
B. Community Advisory Board nominations (Mary Prophet)
Presented applications for CAB: 6 new applications and 4 continuing. Getting this applications was hard and took reaching out to youth, labor, people of color, etc. Guidelines for CAB: incumbents must come from community, be approved by the LSB, and serve up to two two-year terms. CAB recommends a CAB of 10. Moved (M. Wilkinson) to accept CAB proposal to keep nomination period open indefinitely and vote on applications at the May meeting. Approved without objection.
11. KFCF report (M. Sanders)
KFCF needs money. Suffered equipment failure, but listeners came through after appeal. Station is short an employee. They need money to pay for assistant to executive director. Only two staff at station now.
12. Old business
A. Resolution on members in good standing.
Moved (M. Wilkinson) to table until May meeting. Approved without objection.
B. IT audit (J. Moore)
J. Moore motivated motion she made in January: “The LSB asks management to request bids from non-profit management centers to conduct an IT efficiency audit.” A former Google employee has volunteered to help draft an RFP for audit of IT capabilities. Moore agreed to meet with A. Phillips and the volunteer to develop specific recommendation, to be discussed in May’s meeting after development item.
Moved (B. Whipperman) to consolidate items 13.B (Resolution on Pacifica Archives) and 14.B (In-house reproduction of premiums) under 14.B; and to delete 13.C (Equity and inclusion). Both motions approved without objection. Approved: 13Y, 1N, 4A (2/3 needed).
13. New business
A. Program director recruitment
Moved (M. Wilkinson) resolution on personnel committee. Approved: 11Y, 0N, 7A.
Ballots were distributed pursuant to resolution, then collected. Time did not allow for final tabulation, so ballots were transcribed and emailed to board to allow for computer processing. Final results were:
M. Wilkinson, B. Edwards-Tiekert, J. Moore, R. Teón-Nicols, B. Whipperman
Adjourned 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Craig Alderson
LSB Secretary