Minutes of the January 17, 2017 Meeting of the New Wave Corporation/KOPN Board of Directors

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. Attendees introduced themselves with details of their board membership status, including duration of appointment.

In attendance were David Owens, John Betz, Laird Okie, newly elected members Margot McMillen and Mohamed Sawani, Tao Weilundemo, Dan Hemmelgarn, and Heather O’Connor. Also in attendance were Kevin Rae and Allen Vaught, who are willing to serve as board members. Laird Okie moved that we accept them as board members by acclamation for appointments of one year.

The officers will all continue in their current capacities. Tao nominated Dan Hemmelgarn to continue as President, which Heather seconded. Dan nominated Heather O’Connor to continue as Secretary, which Mohamed seconded. Margot nominated John Betz to continue as Treasurer; Laird seconded. Ellen was nominated in absentia to continue as Vice President. All officer nominations passed via voice vote.

Tao motioned the approval of December 2016 minutes, which Laird seconded, and the motion passed by voice vote.

Financial Report:

The report was reviewed by the members. Allen moved that we approve the report, Tao seconded, and it was accepted by voice vote. At the time of the meeting there was a positive bank balance of approximately $20,000.

General Manager’s Report:

End-of-year fundraising efforts yielded $9024 raised through CoMo Gives, and approximately $10,000 in response to the mailing.

The February fund drive is tentatively scheduled for the 13-19th of February. Allen will draft a letter to be sent the week before the drive.

On the programming front, replacement of Diane Rehm is happening. Free Speech Radio News, Counterspin, Economic Update, WINGS, Building Bridges, Big Picture Science, Sojourner Truth, Alternative Radio, Radio Ecoshock, Time of Useful consciousness, This Way Out, The Ralph Nader Show, Bioneers, and Sprouts, have been played in rotation in this time slot. Some listeners have requested that A1, the replacement show for Diane Rehm, be carried in its time slot.

A motion was made and passed to form a working committee to help with mailing and membership lists. Allen, Tao and Margot volunteered to serve on the committee. Under the current system, members are not issued a reminder notice telling them when their membership has lapsed or is due. A system that helps keep track and remind donors when their membership is due is thought to be a good idea. This should help yield more revenue for the station.

Recent outreach events have included the Columbia Values Diversity Breakfast, and a live remote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday celebration.

The Mid-Missouri Solidarity March is upcoming; our audio equipment will be used.

Engineering issues listed on the agenda, including a broken turntable, ice abatement and issues with the MARTI have been addressed as they’ve arisen.

Unfinished business:

There was brief discussion of the budget cuts that had been proposed.

Margot raised the possibility of hiring someone on commission to seek underwriting support.

There was some discussion of Kara taking over the underwriting duties, also of Jackie doing some of them. Pursuit of underwriting requires a time commitment and relationships with local business owners; this will be taken into account as these staffing changes are made.

Issues related to staffing and budget cuts will be discussed at next month’s meeting, under unfinished business.

A community advisory board meeting took place on January 3rd with a new member, Trish Woolbright. Minutes should have been emailed to David.

Regarding the audit, Dan has spoken with several auditors. Some are too busy to complete the audit by April 15; others have failed to respond. The first deadline is at the end of February, and an extension needs to be filed before then.

Tao has the website ready to go, with a store set up. He’d like to get it live before the February fundraiser. The demo site is at dev.kopn.org, and he is also soliciting feedback.

Once licensing is paid and a service (possibly Soundcloud, libsyn, or another) are set up, programs will eventually be automatically archived without the programmers having to take any specific action.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.