Minutes for the special National Finance Committee meeting March 29, 2016.
Meeting convened at 8:34 PM (ET) a quorum being present, the Chair and
Secretary being present.
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Attending: Sam Agarwal (CFO), Fred Blair, Adriana Casenave, Joseph Davis, Brian
Edwards-Tiekert (Chair), R. Paul Martin (Secretary), Tony Norman, Michael
Novick, Cerene Roberts, Michael Washington, Barbara Whipperman, also attending
were KPFA General Manager Quincy McCoy and KPFA Business Manager Maria Negret.
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Agenda:
Roll Call (5 minutes)
Agenda Review and Approval (5 minutes)
Getting the CFO on the mailing list (5 minutes)
State of KPFA
Report by KPFA General Manager and Business Manager (10 minutes)
Questions (20 minutes)
Discussion and Action (20 minutes)
Adjourn 9:30 PM (ET)------------------------------------------------------------
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Motion: (Michael Novick) "To approve the agenda." (Passed without objection as
amended.)
Amendment: (R. Paul Martin) "To add, 'Getting the CFO on the mailing list' 5
minutes." (Passed without objection)
The committee discussed the amendment.
Getting the CFO on the mailing list 8:38 PM (ET)
Motion: (R. Paul Martin) "That the CFO be added to the mailing list." (Passed
without objection)
The committee discussed the motion.
State of KPFA 8:43 PM (ET)
The KPFA Business Manager said that the station's expenses were below budget by
about $98,000. She said that revenue was about $242,000 below budget as well.
She said that not having a Development Director made it difficult to budget and
forecast for Major Donors. She said that because KPFA has not gotten any
donations from Major Donors for the first five months of FY16 that they have
taken the Major Donors revenue out of their budget. She said that fulfillment
rates were lower than expected, and that they had averaged from 84% to 89.6%
for 2013, and about 85% for 2014. She said that the KPFA Holiday on-air fund
raiser had a fulfillment rate of about 80% by the end of February.
The KPFA General Manager said that the fulfillment rate for the Holiday on-air
fund raiser was about 83% and the Winter on-air fund raiser is showing about a
63% fulfillment rate so far. He discussed on-air fund raisers and said that
shorter on-air fund raisers work best. He said that the goal for KPFA's Winter
on-air fund raiser was $610,000 and that their final tally was about $638,000.
He said that the Holiday on-air fund raiser came in about $20,000 above goal,
its fulfillment rate was 81% and that premiums fulfillment was complete by mid-
February. He said that the lack of up to date audits for Pacifica was an
impediment to KPFA's getting grants because most grantors want to see the
latest audit. They have gone after grants from family foundations that don't
require the latest audit information. He said that the KPFA Web site is good
but needs to change its data system so that KPFA can have a store that's
available full time to make premiums available to visitors. He said that
they've found that 22% to 23% of the people pledging during on-air fund raisers
are new members. He said that the station had faced an unbudgeted expense in
their recent emergency with their main antenna and they needed $10,000 to
repair it and between on-air pitching and appeals on the Web site they raised
$25,000 in four days for it.
The committee discussed the report. The Chair said that a lot of the revenue
shortfall is a timing issue because of the way the budget template is made. He
said that KPFA had revenue of about $160,000 better than budgeted for March and
that this mediates a lot of the revenue shortfall. The CFO said that Pacifica
needs a national Development Director or grant writer. There was a discussion
of how to keep costs low. The KPFA Business Manager said that the station was
under staffed, they have no Receptionist, she said they need to review their
phone lines to see which are essential and which can be let go. The KPFA
General Manager said that appointment listening is almost gone and the stations
need to appeal to people who want on-demand listening. He also said that
underwriting is not a good idea, but maybe some underwriting could be done on
the web site. There was a discussion on monetizing on-demand listening. It was
noted that the committee would be better able to go over KPFA's finances if
actual spreadsheets were sent to the committee instead of the Portable Document
Format (.PDF) files that were sent to the committee minutes before the meeting
began. The KPFA Business Manager said that they are calculating fulfillment
rates per calendar year, and that the budgeted fulfillment rate for FY16 was
89%. She said she'd send spreadsheets to the Chair for distribution to the
committee. In the course of the discussion it was established that the
consolidated financial statement through the end of February had not been sent
to the NFC; the Chair said he would send it out.
Motion: (Brian Edwards-Tiekert) "To extend the time for the meeting by 20
minutes." (Passed 9 for, 2 against) 9:34 PM (ET)
The committee continued to discuss KPFA's finances. There was a discussion of
what data the station can get from its Web site about visitors.
Motion: (Joseph Davis) "That the NFC requests the financial data in spreadsheet
form and at least two business days in advance of the for-station review
meetings from reporting stations."
The committee discussed the motion.
Amendment: (Adriana Casenave) "To add 'That we continue this discussion on KPFA
at the next NFC meeting.'" (passed 5 for, 2 against, 4 abstentions)
The committee discussed the amendment.
Motion as amended: "That the NFC requests the financial data in spreadsheet
form and at least two business days in advance of the for-station review
meetings from reporting stations. That we continue this discussion on KPFA at
the next NFC meeting." (Passed without objection)
Adjourned 9:51 PM (ET)
Submitted by R. Paul Martin, Secretary.