The meeting was called to order at 7:01 by President Dan Hemmelgarn.

Present were President Dan Hemmelgarn, Treasurer Allen Vaught, and board members Laird Okie, Margot McMillen, Curt Wohleber, Boden Lyon, Jay Teutenberg and Tim Pilcher. There were guests present, so the board introduced themselves. The guests were Sarah Catlin, underwriting co-ordinator, Jackie Casteel, write-in board candidate and Laura Wacker, board candidate. Board members Ellen Schlie and Kevin Rae joined the group after a few minutes.

Because of the absence of Secretary Heather O’Connor, minutes were taken by Margot McMillen. Dan introduced Sean Spence and welcomed him as station manager.

The agenda was approved by acclimation.

Allen read the minutes from the last meeting and moved to approve with additions. Laird seconded. Motion passed.

There was clarification about minutes from closed sessions called to discuss personnel issues… these issues are always discussed in a closed session and minutes are taken and approved but no minutes are posted.
Allen made the financial report: There is no old or overdue bills. We are still in the black, with money in the bank and the loan paid off. Donations are ahead of last year. Sean announced that there was a dispute on the Grateful Dead program (David Gans hour) over a bill of $2000 that KOPN had not paid from 2014. Sean has found the owners, and they are happy to settle for $500 paid by February 1. It will be documented as a programming cost. In reviewing the bills, Jay pointed out that we might save money on nitrogen and future maintenance because the nitrogen system on the transmitter needed to be examined and re-set. Sean agreed that something was amiss and said Patrick had worked on it. At conclusion of the financial report, Ellen made a motion to accept, Curt seconded, and the motion passed.

General Manager Sean Spence gave the monthly operating report, beginning with notes from Tao Weilundemo: Regarding playlist reporting for spinitron and Radio-free America, there is so much data that we had to switch to a new webstream. Charley Turner is waiting until we have a 14-day report, then he’ll turn it in.

The Boone County Community Trust grant has been spent on the Comrex equipment and a report filed in a timely manner.

Regarding the Missouri Humanities Council grant, asking for a new air board, we may not get it because we spent some of the last MHC grant (reel-to-reel) on other things and did not complete the project as the grant required.

Regarding moving the repeater from Pacquin Tower to the Tiger Hotel. The owner of the Tiger doesn’t have a long history yet to keep the relationship. This subject will be off the table for now. Bookkeeping/audit: The auditor is looking through it and Accounting Plus is working on issues; they will write off unpaid pledges. Allen will meet with Accounting Plus to learn if there are things we need to follow up.

Air board status: It works! It’s not breaking down!

Pod status: Jan Eddy sold us four new computers for just over $500. Two are in the pod and may allow us to remove the mixing boards altogether. There are some issues that Tim is working on.

Digitization: Over 4,000 CDs have been ripped. At the winter work party, much of the vinyl was shelved, but there is a lot more to do.

Volunteer work date/accomplishments: Joy Rushing, volunteer of the month, was rewarded with a branded radio.

Having completed the report from Tao, Sean reported from his own notes: Regarding Como gives, we are a little ahead of last year. The majority of the money is donated in the last 4 days. We’ve been sending e-mails every week to potential donors from somebody connected with KOPN.

Sean introduced his fundraising plan: Any good plan has things that work or don’t work. We’re always going to be tweaking it, determining what’s working. Underwriting is an under-utilized area that Sarah is working on. KOPN events will continue to be important. Sean wants to have a Changemakers Banquet and create a Columbia changemakers hall of fame. Possible hall-of-famers are Darwin Hindman, Barbara Hoppe, Mark Haim; all have made Columbia better and more humane. The effort would have a three-pronged effect: making KOPN money, building community, making the world a better place.

Sean offered his list of three-year goals for KOPN and they were accepted enthusiastically.
Jay suggested that we add a page on our website that links to underwriters and Sean agreed we should. There was discussion on whether that would jeopardize our non-profit status.

Personnel: Sean has given Jill a well-deserved 15% raise.

KIVA.org: Sean suggested that we participate in the KIVA program with sales from our website store.

KIVA loans money to an entrepreneur in a 3rd-world country and when the loan is paid back the money comes back to the donor. The program gets a bit of buzz on social media and doesn’t cost us anything. Ellen made a motion to accept this plan, Laird seconded. Motion passed.
Sean said we need a more accessible building. How can we say we’re in a building that says screw you to handicapped people unable to climb the steep stairs? He is looking into a way to get a stair lift.

Financial working group: Allen reported that the group met in December and they have been talking about a mysterious entry called “ACQ” in the statement of financial condition. The number exists in our quickbooks account from 2008-9 but may or may not mean anything. The auditor thinks we need to know. We’ve had an audit every year and this is the first auditor that’s asked. Might be something that John Clark set up in the books.

Programming committee: This committee now needs a board member. The new Board chair will appoint one after the elections. Jackie added that now that Mark Haim has resigned from his program, we need to find someone for that program time. Pat Watkins, a KOPN founder, told the committee that we need a progamming director, an accountable staff member. Also, we need to bring programmers up- to-date with information from the progammer’s handbook. They plan to make a training program and some kind of list of questions that need to be answered by programmers. Sean complimented the group and said he could help if necessary.

Membership working group: This group is working on developing a questionnaire to be distributed at the annual meeting on January 7.

Unfinished business: Conflict-of-interest statement: Two ideas have been provided to the Board. One is from CPB and the other from Minnesota Public Radio. We decided to table further work on this project until after elections. Sean offered to draft a conflict-of-interest statement and get it out to the community for comment. Allen moved to allow him to do this and Margot seconded, motion passed.

Annual meeting planning: Ellen will get to the meeting space at 3:00 to set up. All are welcome to help. The meeting is a potluck and we need to create a PSA to inform people. The meeting is from 4-6. Cleanup from 6 to 7. Sean will put on the webpage, facebook and other media.

Regarding vote counting: In this election, there are ten candidates that filed in a timely manner and one write-in candidate. There are five vacancies on the board, so each member can cast five votes. There was considerable discussion about information that has been disseminated to allow people to put all 5 votes on one or two candidates. This has been allowed in the past but nobody knows how they have been counted. Board members agreed that all are unhappy about this confusion and that they had not anticipated it, but it is set for this particular election. Dan moved that we should change the policy so that after this election, if you cast more than one vote for one person it counts as one vote. Laird seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. This will be stated on the ballot in future elections.

Ellen reminded us that the mailing list needs to come to the annual meeting to be sure that qualified members are the only voters.

The Board adjourned at 9:10 to conduct a closed session and guests departed.