Minutes of the July 2018 meeting of the NWC Board of Directors

Attending

Board members: Dan Hemmelgarn, (president), Gordon Rogers, Margot McMillen, Laird Okie,

John Lofton, Ellen Schlie, Heather O’Connor (secretary).

Staff: Sean Spence, Sarah Catlin

Visitors: Erica Dickson, Reggie Ford

The visitors each introduced themselves and expressed interest in serving as board members.

Both are current programmers and members in good standing.

Absent

Board members: Jackie Casteel, Mohammed Sawani, Tim Pilcher, Allen Vaught.

Laura Wacker was delayed by a work commitment and arrived while the financial reports were

being reviewed.

The minutes were approved with one modification. (Margot 1, Ellen 2, unanimous voice vote).

Financial report:

The financial reports continue to be slightly incomplete. The board voted to approve the

minutes.

GM monthly operating report:

Status of 990 tax form: it will be sent soon.

9/30 fundraising plan update: We have about 21% of the funds required to keep receiving the

CPB grant money.

Station technology:

Recent repairs/upgrades- internet-based way of reaching the transmitter is a goal, still,

but it is complicated. Socket has been engaged to install fiber and is in the process.

Grants: Sean has applied for $4850 from Ameren for equipment, $$$ from Stafford Bank,

$4850 Central Bank, MFA for Veteran-related programming, ……

CPB: They will require that the community advisory board continues to meet and they will

require that a CPB training session be done.

John Lofton continues to keep the free concert series going and the farmer’s market concert

series. His work is appreciated.

Sean will be attending a meeting of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in

Charlottesville.

Jay has resigned as the part-time engineer. He agreed to work until 9/30.

Committee and Working Group Reports:

Fiscal Working Group: The group met and discussed the need to get the books more in order,

discussed the problems with them, discussed accounting contracting and developed requests

for proposals, Beard and Boehmer; Accounting Plus; Gerding, Korte and Chitwood; John

Clark; and Marbury and Eagle are the firms to which the requests were sent.

Volunteer working group: Didn’t have a meet and greet in July, but Rhett is responding to

requests by new volunteers through the website and it seems to be working out.

Programming committee meeting: Jackie was not at the meeting.

Dennis Froeschner is the new committee chair. There was some conversation about

programming changes and how to ensure that the station has the best programming and

considers feedback from surveys, etc.

Membership/Development Group Report: The group did not meet this month.

Engineering/IT Working Group Report: The group has not met in months as far as anyone

knows. Reggie expressed interest in joining the group. Dan moved that Reggie be made the

new liaison for the group. Heather seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous voice

vote.

Messaging/Branding/Organizational Image Working Group: The group has not met since its first

meeting, at which the mission statement was discussed in depth. With the departure of John

Clark due to his interest in the accounting job, Gordon will be the liaison. Erica agreed to join

the group.

Library Working Group: This group needs to be working on organization and planning for other

library improvements.

Guiding Documents Review Working Group: There is a set of bylaws that’s slightly different

from the current set of bylaws on the website. There is also no one place where all the policies

are. The group will continue to work on this.

New Business:

The GM 6-month evaluation: Dan sent out an evaluation form for the board’s perusal and

Gordon asked if we have an evaluation committee. There was a motion from Ellen that the

executive committee be in charge of the evaluation of the general manager. It was seconded by

Reggie and passed by voice vote.

Website issues: Our website needs attention. Ellis Benus is willing to do the work in exchange

for underwriting.

Ratification of bylaws: Margot moved that the Board approve the bylaws as posted as our

current bylaws as of today. Ellen seconded. The motion passed by voice vote.

Amendment to bylaws: After the sentence beginning “Elected directors shall be elected at the

annual meeting of the corporation..” The following sentence is proposed as an addition:

“Voting members may cast one vote for each open position on the ballot, but no more than one

vote for any individual candidate.”

The board voted in favor of proposing this as an amendment to the bylaws.

Retaining auditor for 2018: Howe and Associates will be doing the audit, having been secured

by Dan.

New working group: Dan, Tim and Margot met to start discussing how we will start planning for

the move, asking questions that would guide the process. Those questions include what our

needs and ideal spaces are like. An all-station meeting is in order. Our lease goes until June of

2021.

Contact info of new board members:

Reggie Ford 573-825-8592, refster@gmail.com

Erica Dickson 573-424-5485, ericardickson@gmail.com