Board Meeting Minutes

BOARD Of DIRECTORS MEETING

NEW WAVE CORPORATION, KOPN

915 East Broadway, Columbia, Mo.

20 May 2008

Approved June 17, 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 studio in Columbia on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. In the absence of Board President Sheryl Clapton, Vice President Thomas Sobieck called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. In attendance were Board members Jim Baker, Ryan Kind, Thomas Verdot, Kyle Cook, Scott Meiner, Randi Bishop, and Lindsey White. Also in attendance were General Manager David Owens and minutes volunteer John Betz.

Vice President Thomas Sobieck called for the approval of the previous months’ minutes. The Board pointed out several spelling errors in the submitted minutes and asked for corrections to be made. Ryan Kind made a motion to accept the amended minutes. Jim Baker seconded the motion. The motion to accept the April 15 minutes was approved.

OFFICER REPORTS

Ryan Kind gave a report on the interviews with candidates for the Director of Development and Volunteer Coordinator positions. He said that he and the rest of the Executive Board had met with all the candidates who were interested in taking the positions. The Executive Board had narrowed the selections down to two persons: Brian Davis was selected to be the Director of Development and Holly Maness as the Volunteer and Special Events Coordinator. David Owens said that Brian would be concentrating his time and energies on underwriting for the station. Holly will be working with volunteers, scheduling programmers, planning special events, and managing the fund drives. Brian will also be assisting Holly when needed. David said that Christine Gardener would be continuing to work with the station as the volunteer coordinator until Holly assumed her new duties the first week of June.

David said that because a back ailment, John Clark had not been able to submit a financial report for the meeting.

Ryan Kind asked David to see that thank you letters were sent to all those who had been interviewed for the two staff positions. He also asked David to send letters to the two other candidates for the Director of Development position who had done well in the interviews. He said he would like to inform them about a possible opening at the University of Missouri that they might be interested in applying for.

STAFF REPORTS

David gave a report on the spring pledge drive. He said that considering the staff shortages the drive had actually proved to be successful. The ten-day telephone drive netted $28,555 for operations and $1,325 for capital improvements; the letter drive had netted thus far $28,000. Tom Verdot passed along to the Board that he had noticed a fewer number of new volunteers helping out on the phones; most of the drive had been handled by the “regulars.” He said that he thought the good news about this was that there were more voices being heard on the on-air “pitching” for support.

David told the Board that Mark Haim, from Peace Works, had offered to help the staff organize a June Lapsed Member phone drive in order to help make up for the short falls of the spring drive. David also reported that the underwriting goals were down about $15,000 for the fiscal year. Tom Verdot talked about the possibility of making changes in the premiums being offered by the station that might help out in increasing listener support. He suggested having different KOPN logos on t-shirts as an example of something that might interest current and prospective supporters.

David said that he had not received a written report for May from the Programming Committee. He reported that they were concentrating on finding new ways to help programmers improve the quality of their programs.

David reminded the Board that on the following Saturday, May 26, KOPN and Larry Dickerson would again be hosting a session on Organization Development. Grant writing was the topic for May. David encouraged Board members to take part in the training.

SPECIAL BUSINESS

Tom Sobieck asked David what the current status was on using Pay-Pal on the KOPN website for the purpose of recruiting new members. David said that he

and John Clark were still working on figuring out how to use the system. John Betz said that one of his associates in the Missouri Section American Water Works Association had in the past year begun to use Pay-Pal on the organization’s website and that she might be willing to offer suggestions about how to set it up and how to deal with problems. David said that he wanted the station to get back to reminding our listeners on a regular basis that KOPN is a listener supported station and that we need their help in ensuring that KOPN meets its goals and mission. Accepting donations on-line using something like Pay Pal may be a way of making it easier for listeners to support the station.

Ryan told the Board that radio station K——– does an excellent job in asking for listener support. He suggested that the new Director of Development and the Volunteer Coordinator might visit with the management of K——– to get ideas about strategies KOPN might use to increase listener support. David and the rest of the Board agreed. David also suggested to the Board that he has been considering “tacking on” something to the on-air station ID that would also constantly be reminding listeners that we need their support.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

David gave a brief report on the Amy Goodman visit to Columbia. He informed the Board that Goodman’s manager had told him that he thought the event in Columbia had been the best organized of any that they had been involved in during their tour around the country. David said he thought the Sunday evening event had been successful for both Amy Goodman and KOPN.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no other old or new business, Vice President Tom Sobieck asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. The next meeting was set for June 17. Randi Bishop made a motion to adjourn; Jim Baker seconded the motion. The motion was approved.