BOARD of DIRECTORS MEETING
NEW WAVE CORPORATION, KOPN
915 East Broadway, Columbia, Missouri
July 15, 2008
Approved by Non Face-to-face Meeting via Email December 8, 2008
CALL TO ORDER
A meeting of the Board of Directors of the New Wave Corporation was held in the Ashlock Room at the KOPN offices and studios on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. Board President Sheryl Clapton called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. In attendance were Board members Thomas Sobieck, Ryan Kind, Kyle Cook, Thomas Verdot, Jim Baker, and Bridget Early. Also in attendance were General Manager David Owens, Financial Officer John Clark, Development Coordinator Holly Maness, Larry Dickerson, and John Betz.
Sheryl Clapton asked for any changes or corrections to the submitted minutes. Ryan Kind asked that the wording in the minutes of the June 15 minutes to the effect that the “Executive Committee could take the lead on budget matters for the coming year” be changed to state that the committee “would assist the General Manger and the staff in the preparation of the budget.” This change being approved, President Clapton asked for a motion to accept the June 15 minutes. Ryan Kind made a motion to approve the minutes; Thomas Sobieck seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
David Owens and President Clapton introduced KOPN volunteer and trainer Larry Dickerson to the Board. David welcomed Larry to the meeting and told the Board that Larry had been invited to give a brief presentation to them on Board Recruitment and Evaluation. Larry gave a fifteen-minute training session on the topics and asked the Board to fill out a “board composition analysis” form after the Board meeting and to return it to him later.
David thanked Larry for taking the time to come to the Board meeting. He told the Board that Larry would be hosting his scheduled monthly development training program on Saturday. The workshop training for July would be on “Getting the Word Out.” He invited the Board to attend if they could work the class into their schedules.
STAFF REPORTS
Ryan Kind expressed concerns about the executive committee not yet being able to get together with the staff to work on budget matters, the CPB AFR, and public radio grants. He said that David had asked for input from the Executive Committee and that he was waiting to have the chance to begin helping. David said that he was still working on trying to find the time to get the various groups of volunteers together to work on staff items. Ryan also expressed some concerns about John Clark’s not being more responsible for the preparation of the budget. Ryan asked David if he thought the operation was “on track” with budget expenditures this year. David said that the station wasn’t and that he thought the operation was looking at a projected shortfall.
John Clark gave a financial report. He said that June 30 was the end of the 9thmonth of the ’08 fiscal year. He said that the ongoing “lapsed member phone drive” was proving to be successful. He reported to the Board that the drive (on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings) was netting KOPN around $500 to $600 a night. The phone calls to lapsed members had so far netted $4,115 for operations and $225 for capital items. 75 lapsed members had made pledges averaging $58. John said that we had thus far been able to have only seven phone drive sessions and that we needed to plan more of them very quickly. David said that they had planned on using five volunteers each evening to make the phone calls to lapsed donors but that he was not always able to find five volunteers to help out. John said that we needed to end the special drive around July 31 in order to protect the upcoming fall drive. Tom Verdot told the Board that many of the lapsed members that he talked to while helping out had expressed to him that “tight money” was one of the reasons they had not renewed their membership. Tom also expressed his concerns that 6:00 to 7:00 in the evenings might be a bad time to call for listener support. Many people are just getting home from work and eating dinner. Some of the Board thought 7:00 to 8:30 might be a better time to make calls. Tom said that he did think the ongoing drive was worth doing. The Board agreed. David said that the next phone bank would be on Friday, July 18, and Sunday, July 20, from 6:00 to 8:30. He said that any help would be appreciated.
David reported to the Board that CPB had rejected KOPN’s Audited Financial Report. They had denied the station’s valuation of its volunteer contributions. David said that after discussing this issue with the CPB, a revised AFR was submitted and accepted. John Clark said that he had asked CPB to review its rules with respect to volunteer services and that they had reported that they expect to conduct a 10-year policy review on the matter.
John reported that the station had received $6,856 in listener pledges since May 31. He said that the fall and end-of-the-year ’07 and ’08 drives thus far had raised $158,310, which is $5,700 more than for the same period last year. We are $14,000 short of the budgeted revenue goal for paid underwriting.
Tom Verdot asked David and John Clark what percentage of the station’s operations should be paid-for by underwriting. John said that many stations have 40 to 50% of their operations paid-for by major underwriting donors. David said that the staff had had discussions about looking to increase the number of “major” donors. He told the Board that there are two underwriting “spots” an hour aired each hour that bring in about $17,500 a year. David said that Brian Davis is settling-in to his new position as the staff member responsibility for underwriting and that he had already made a number of connections.
David told the Board that we had set up a booth outside that station for the Twilight Festival each week in June. We also had a booth at the Solarbration and Juneteenth at the Courthouse Square on June 21 and at the Bear Creek Blues Festival at Slater on June 28. David said that on Friday, July 25 we would once again be taking part in Lowe’s Customer Appreciation Day. He said that he would be using the event as a chance to train volunteers in the use of the MARTI remote equipment. On the night of July 25, KOPN would also be hosting another Audiodacious exhibit as part of the Artrageous Gallery Crawl . He told the Board that Christine Gardner would be recruiting volunteers for the Lowes event and the open house. Holly Maness has been working on a number of activities to help promote this year’s “One Read Program” in September. Holly is also putting together a planned post fall drive celebration at the Winery in Rocheport on Saturday evening, October 16. In addition to inviting all those who will be volunteering to help out at during the Fall drive, the Board discussed the possibility of inviting potential major donors to the event.
David told the Board that Christine Gardner was working fifteen hours a week and doing a great job for the station. He said she was working on job descriptions for the volunteers as well as helping to plan special events.
John Clark passed along to the Board that the donation page on the KOPN website was now working and that it will accept both credit cards and PayPal. He said that he was also working with someone on improving the hallway and Green Room lighting.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
David and John told the Board that there was going to be a staff meeting on 8 October to begin planning the specifics for the upcoming October and future pledge drives. Board members were invited to attend the planning session. David said that he wanted news of the fall drive to be announced in the upcoming newsletter. John said that he wanted to use the upcoming and future get-togethers for the fall drive to be “brain-storming” sessions for improving future drives. He brought up some potential meeting ideas that have been presented to the staff, such as having drives twice a year or quarterly, pledging for individual shows versus the station goals as a whole, etc. John said that this would be a great time to explore improving the way the drives are handled.
Ryan asked if there would be a special committee for doing the actual planning for the fall drive. John Clark said there would be. David reminded the Board that at the June meeting Tom Verdot had expressed an interest in being involved with such a committee and that other volunteers would be needed.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Tom Sobieck said he was still talking with a student from the Sudan about the possibility of joining the programming committee.
OTHER BUSINESS
The Board held a discussion about a personnel matter with one of the station’s staff.
ADJOURNMENT
Jim Baker made a motion to adjourn. Tom Verdot seconded the motion. The motion was passed. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.