March 2012 LSB Meeting Records

[APPROVED]
KPFA 2011 Local Station Board
Regular in-person meeting,
March 3, 2012, 11am-4pm
Humanist Hall,
390 27th St., Oakland 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, Conn Hallinan, Cynthia Johnson, Janet Kobren, 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; Craig Alderson (secretary), Barbara Whipperman (treasurer), Andrew Phillips (ex-officio)

*Arrived after roll call.

1.         Call to order
Meeting called to order by chair M. Wilkinson at 11:20 am.

2.         Roll call and excusing of members
Moved (C. Hallinan) to excuse D. Gans, D. Goldmacher. M. Hallinan, T. Rosenberg. Approved without objection.

3.         Approve agenda
Moved (C. Hallinan) to move new business items (Crafts Fair, email policy) to follow public comments. Approved without objection.

Moved (D. Siegel) to approve agenda as amended. Approved without objection.

Moved (M. Burnstein) that speakers be limited to three minutes on any one item. Approved: 10Y, 8N.

4.         Minutes
Minutes of Feburary 4, 2012, meeting approved as drafted, without objection.

5.         Public comments (in order of speakers)
Les Radke, Daniel Borgstrom, Joy Moore, Paula Erkkila, Virginia Browning

Moved (A. Prichett) to allow Les Radke to speak additional three minutes. Approved without objection.

6.         New business

A.         KPFA Crafts Fair (Jan Etre)
Crafts Fair director Jan Etre addressed the board on the history, purpose and performance of the Crafts Fair. See attached remarks.

B.         KPFA email policy (Roger Marquis)
KPFA IT director Roger Marquis spoke about the inadequacies of current email and communications policy. His primary concern is the privacy of subscriber database and email. Neither KPFA nor Pacifica has privacy policy with respect to these. Commercial bulk email services have serious loopholes in their privacy policies. He is also concerned about KPFA’s spam score and problems that may arise with uncontrolled use of email blasts. Email lists must be opt-in only, which is not true of commercial services. Commercial services also track and collect user data such as pages viewed, links followed, etc.

Moved (M. Wilkinson) Resolution on KPFA Email Policy.

Moved (J. Kobren) to amend by replacing the “Therefore” clause with “Therefore be it resolved that the LSB recommend that the IGM review the existing email policy, inlcuding the recommendations listed in the original motion, and invite other recommendations from the LSB, listeners and staff.” Failed: (9Y, 10N)

Moved (A. Prichett) to add two resolution clauses:

“4. All emails to be distributed to the lists should be sent to and approved by the general manager and/or his or her delegate;

“5. Guidelines for each list should be written by the general manager and moderators and be available for public viewing.”

Moved (D. Siegel) to amend A. Prichett’s amendment, item #4: the general manager’s policy on emails lists shall be submitted to the LSB for approval.

Moved (T. Russell) to close debate failed: 11Y, 9N.

Moved (M. Burnstein) to close debate: approved: 16Y, 0N, 2A.

Motion (D. Siegel) failed: 6Y, 8N, 2A.

Motion (A. Prichett) approved: 9Y, 8N, 3A.

Moved (A. Prichett) to divide enumerated items of resolution and vote separately on #1 and #2-5 (as a group).

Moved (H. Norr) to amend #1: add, after “…without their explicit opt-in,” “except that it is permissible to embed code within messages sent by KPFA that will report open rates and click-throughs on embedded links back to KPFA and only to KPFA.” Approved: 20Y, 0N, 1A.

Item #1 approved as amended: 17Y, 1N, 1A

Motion to close debated failed: 9Y, 8N.

Moved (M. Wilkinson) to delete in item #3, “by KPFA staff and board members” and add “bulk” to read, “All bulk email sent to KPFA members should be archived and readily available for viewing in its original format and its entirety.”

Items #2-5 approved: 16Y, 0N, 2A

Final resolution as approved is attached.

7.         Announcements

A.         F. Sterling announced March 16, 7pm, a veterans’ roundtable on Iraq by Iraq Veterans Against the War. Event will be webstreamed. Also, KPFA Apprenticeship Program will have parking lot sale on April 14.

B.         J. Kobren announced event that evening at King Middle School with Mustafa Barghouti speaking on Palestine and Arab Spring.

C.         L. Prives reported that the pledge drive fell $125k short; it was the longest drive ever. Letters and Politics will be in Sacramento March 5 to cover education rally and occupation.

D.         M. Wilkinson announced that Dave Zirin will speak on sports under occupation in the Occupied Territories, Wed. Mar 14, 7pm., First Congregational Church.

E.         M. Wilkinson also noted that Aileen Alfandary’s oldest son died unexpectedly on Feb. 19. A memorial service will be held later in March.

8.         Interim general manager report (A. Phillips)
See attached.

9.         Treasurer’s report (B. Whipperman, M. Negret)
B. Whipperman gave budget report as of month four. We have $77k (5.6%) less in revenue but net overall we have $12k more than budgeted. Salaries overspent by$11k, but have underspent on health benefits, though we expect those costs to go up soon. Noted that KPFA has met salary overruns through voluntary staff cuts in pay. Depreciation expense is being categorized this year as actual expense but is inappropriate under standard accounting practice. That expense of $113,500 would make up for salary overruns. There is no way to audit expenses being charged to KPFA. Bank balance end of January was $403,314; bills due $13,192. $415k has been deposited in Mechanics Bank, and $95k remains in Wells Fargo.

Business manager M. Negret reported that KPFA has short-term debts to Pacifica of $321k but Pacifica has long-term debts to KPFA of $1.4 million. In last 16 months, KPFA owed about $700k for central services and billbacks, including $131k in legal bills. We paid Pacifica $172k and Pacifica received additional $681k in CPB and other monies for KPFA. Negret calculated that an overpayment of $153k was made to Pacifica and was unaccounted for.

Negret said that Pacifica was not providing documentation for charges it levies on KPFA. Folger Levin law firm has billed $115k but she has seen only 3 invoices, for instance. Pacifica received $115k bequest in April intended for KPFA but, with this and other income, it keeps the money and applies it to KPFA debts. Complained that Pacifica is not providing any documentation for charges it assesses KPFA or accounting as to how income is allocated.

Moved (J. Kurzweil) to suspend treasurer’s report and conduct PNB committee assignments, then return to treasurer’s report. Approved without objection.

10.        Old business

A.         PNB committee assignments
Results of volunteers and elections for LSB representatives to PNB committees were as follows:

Audit
L. Prives
M. Wilkinson
A. Tanaka

Coordinating
T. Rosenberg

Elections
T. Rosenberg
A. Turner
J. Kurzweil
A. Fest

Finance (election forthcoming at PNB level)
T. Rosenberg
D. Siegel

Governance
T. Rosenberg
S. Aghamir
S. Futran
[With M. Burnstein also running, this was a contested election. Ranking using STV method was 1) Aghamir, 2) Futran, 3) Burnstein.]

Personnel
A. Turner
T. Rosenberg

Racism/sexism
A. Turner
K. Tanaka
T. Russell

Programming
L. Prives
C. Hallinan
H. Norr

Development Task Force
L. Prives
C. Johnson

Technology
D. Siegel
H. Norr
J. Kobren

Affiliates Task Force
A. Prichett
C. Johnson

Financial recovery
T. Rosenberg
D. Siegel

11.        KFCF report (R. Withers)
See attached.

Adjourned 4:00pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Craig Alderson
LSB Secretary