Minutes for the special National Finance Committee meeting May 4, 2016.

Meeting convened at 8:31 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), Michael Novick, Cerene
Roberts, Eileen Rosin, Barbara Whipperman, also attending were KPFT General
Manager, Duane Bradley and KPFT Business Manager Markisha Venzant Sampson.
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Agenda:

Roll Call (5 minutes)

Agenda Review and Approval (5 minutes)

State of KPFT
Report by KPFT General Manager and Business Manager (10 minutes)
Questions (20 minutes)
Discussion and/or Action (20 minutes)

Election Expenses (10 minutes)

Adjourn 9:30 PM (ET)
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Motion: (Adriana Casenave) "To approve the agenda." (Passed as amended without
objection.)

Amendment: (Adriana Casenave) "To add item 4 'Election Expenses' for 10
minutes." (Passed without objection)

State of KPFT 8:37 PM (ET)

Report by KPFT General Manager and Business Manager 8:37 PM (ET)

The KPFT General Manager said that they are trying to model best practices. He
said that KPFT has been badly impacted by the loss of CPB grant revenue for the
past three years, and he hoped that Pacifica would stabilize and resume getting
the CPB grants soon. He said that the station has been expanding its HD service
for community connections and formalizing community partnerships for revenue.
They will also be leasing out one HD channel. He said that they have been doing
a number of community events, a recent event with Amy Goodman had netted the
station about $6,500. He said that he sees a growth potential for KPFT in
community events and lease income. He said that the CFO had visited them
recently and they used his time to do some restructuring at KPFT, which the
KPFT General Manager said he hopes will result in positive outcomes both in
terms of the auditors' Management letter and to affect changes in business
operations at KPFT. He said they will utilize the Business Manager in better
ways and will have their Development Director more actively pursing grant
opportunities.

Questions 8:44 PM (ET)

The committee asked questions of the KPFT General Manager and Business Manager.
The KPFT General Manager explained the HD channels and their difference from
the SCA channels. He also said that since KPFT upgraded their transmitter last
year they'd leveraged government grants to upgrade their HD channels, they can
have up to three HD channels. He is negotiating leasing one out. Since
negotiations are in progress the amount listed in the KPFT documents that had
been sent to the committee was not discussed. It was noted that there is a
revenue shortfall of about $91,000 for KPFT, while expenses were reduced by
$24,000 and Community Events expenses are higher. The KPFT General Manager said
that there were large expenses related to the Richard Wolfe community event,
which were offset by one of the event's sponsors. KPFT has not been repaying
the loan to KPFA lately due to KPFT's financial situation. In answer to a
question the KPFT Business Manager said that she'd add the pension catch-up
payments to the operating budget. The KPFT General Manager said that the lower
than budgeted daily averages were the result of how Pacifica does programming
and how people use media these days. He said that there is no advertising
budget; he said that long term restructuring of Staff will allow the
Development Director and the station, working with LSB members, to get some
effective grants. The station is looking at its schedule and making changes.
The KPFT General Manager said that on that morning's National Leadership Call
they spoke of building a new morning network offering that all five stations
could use to tie us together better and which would give Pacifica something to
share which would be a new effective product that we own. The KPFT Business
Manager said that they are calling expired members. In answer to a question
about the HD negotiations the KPFT General Manager said that he has been in
touch with Pacifica's FCC lawyer Crigler, and that the figure in the documents
sent to the NFC is a minimal figure, and he expects the final lease to be
orders of magnitude larger than that. In answer to a question about
CPB funding loss around minority programming grants the KPFT General Manager
said that the CPB changed the rules on that a couple of years ago and they no
longer do those grants.

Discussion and/or Action 9:16 PM (ET)

The CFO noted that KPFT was only running a deficit of about $4,000 and he
wished the other stations were doing as well. He said that he'd gone to Houston
and that the changes in job responsibilities will allow the Business Manager to
do other things and he expects that in the next six months we'll see KPFT in
the black. He said that some of the questions asked about KPFT's 20% shortfall
in Listener Support and the 14% shortfall in overall revenue should be asked
for all Pacifica stations. He said that the NFC and PNB need to ask what to do
to bring Listener Support up again.

A member said that the reduction in expenses looks like it's $24,000 but it's
only $20,000. She said she'd asked about the loan for the transmitter at a
meeting and it was clear that it'd make a big difference, she said that even
cash flow doesn't reflect specific obligations. She said that the salary
reduction changed just one employee and resulted in about a $3,000 reduction in
salary which doesn't make a big difference.

A member said that when the loan to KPFT was approved for the new transmitter
there was a proviso to develop a plan to build membership to repay the loan,
not simply rely on the improved signal.

The KPFT General Manager said that KPFT has a stagnant strategy plan that they
invested in a couple of years ago that is still lacking full implementation. He
said that the demographics of Houston are changing and represent what America
will look like in years ahead. He said that KPFT has created alliances with the
Houston school district, and had students on the air. He said that KPFT has
incorporated a number of initiatives and brought in minority groups. He said
it's only little over half a year since KPFT upgraded its signal. A member
asked if he would write that up and share it with the NFC.

Election Expenses 9:30 PM (ET)

The committee discussed the election expenses and the effect of the timing of
the elections on those expenses. The Chair noted that the budgeting was done
eight months ago based on different situations from now.

Adjourned 9:37 PM (ET)

Submitted by R. Paul Martin, Secretary.