Board Meeting 11-14-2018
MCPB—Board of Directors' meeting
564 South Dora Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
November 14, 2018
Members attending: Dow, Hulse-Stephens, Karp, Middlebrook, Polkinghorne, Tischler, Vinyard
Members absent: Azzaro, Bushansky
Also attending: GM Parker, Alice Woefle (Program Director) and members of the public: Keller (former Board member), Campbell (former Board member, GM, and current historical resource)
A) Call to order @ 5:13 p.m., by Vice-President Dow
B) Agenda approved, with additions & consequent re-lettering of published agenda
C) Approval of minutes of 17 October meeting—Unanimous
D) Chairman's comments—Dow says he's already made them (laughter) & in interests of speeding a full agenda
to conclusion by 7 p.m., will incorporate further comments into discussion items
E) General Manager's Report (appended), Review and acceptance.--minimal BoD discussion of community
grants we are attempting to get; considerable discussion of Winter Dance status (8 December fund raiser,at
Space, in Ukiah). GM emphasizes we need an event manager for it, and 2 volunteers to take tickets & 4 to
manage wine sales. Middlebrook described in comic detail his efforts to get the ABC alcohol sales permit.
Discussion turned to “What is the Board's role in soliciting wine donations” for sale? GM will develop a
protocol. We have 6 volunteers for the 8 December event.--(Much later in the meeting BoD decided not to
sell alcohol.)
F) Conduct of Business (new item added in B, above)
1. Discussion of how BoD should handle written complaints about the station.-- BoD members had
recently received one, and discussion made clear that complaints are a matter for the staff to handle.
The BoD has been dealing with them [complaints] variously and on an ad hoc basis.--In discussion we
decided that when a complaint coesto the Board the Board Secretary should pass it on to the staff, and
when staff receives a comlaint the should inform the BoardSecretary, who will keep Board members
informed about the matter.--Per CPB rule, the Board needs to have some procedure in place.
2. Hulse-Stevens presented a draft of an MCPB Strategic Plan Outline (appended). BoD consensus is that
this outline is a good “executive summary” of a plan which the Planning Committe will flesh out. Tischler
thinks that we need, as the Board, to formalize our decision to move the station to Ukiah. Some rueful
comment followed to the effect that some community members still feel burned by earlier
pronouncements to that effect & targeted fund-raising had not produced results.--It was moved that the
draft be accepted. Discussion emphasized that the station needs more staff, specifically an operations
person/trainee (paid) to learn from and help Culbertson, and also someone to help Woefle in her many
tasks. “Office Manager” seemed the appropriate title. The vote, approving the Strategic Plan outline as a
working document was unanimously in favor.
G) Committee Reports
1. Finance—Chair Bushansky unavoidably absent; Dow gave the oral report, after distributing the
station treasurer's [monthly] cash flow worksheet. Dow forcefully suggested “good faith” payments,
however small, toward paying off the old debt to NPR, even though NPR has not raised the matter. Also
stressed paying down the line of credit [Secretary notes, in writing minutes that SBMC requires annual
zeroing out of balance owed]. Dow happy to note that finance report does include restored staff salary
cuts, though not retroactively. Tischler notes that we must pay $10,500 for satellite feed. It was agreed
that the cash flow report needs to be in a different format.
2. Membership/fundraising:Dow congratulates the staff for the best drive in years, remarking on the
consistently positive tone. Drive itself generated $75,000 in addition to quiet drive's $15,000. The Grant
process (FEMA) is on-going, with various preliminary papers filed on time. Cultivation of major donors is
proceeding well.
--Woefle (staff) reported that it was a good fund drive, that it was verystressful for staff, and that the
fund-raising drive is not overuntil the pledges are banked. That task is just starting, for Hering. We need
to hire a new Membership persn to help Hering and to take over at least most of this job, afterwards.--
Woefle further reported that day-to-day operations at the station are not stable; that underwriting is
being neglected; that programmers [new & some experienced ones] are unregulated/trained; she feels
that new, full-time staff need to work at the main station (not at a satellite station; the station needs a
volunteer coordinator if we want to use volunteers on a day-to-day basis; she hopes for a musical
instrument event/sale in Ft. Bragg (will need volunteers)--she thinks of it as combined party & fundraiser
requiring volunteer set-up help.
--Woefle continued that there were positive comments on schedule changes, from new listeners, and
that several new shows are doing well (e.g., Sports P & the paranormal show, “When Monday becomes
Tuesday,“ and the local Latino public affairs show. Olikinghorne remarks that show is sponsored by
Project Sanctuary).--The station has signed up for Spinatron 2, for an extra $20/month; the new
program will facilitate keeping records of the music we play on air.--There's an immediate need to get
the year-end mailing out: Hering needs to write the letter and we will use the mailing service we used for
the fund drive.
3. Planning: see Hulse-Stephens (See F.2, above). Campbell adds: immediate issue is to get talent for the
kick-off event, for which we need a title. Woefle suggest kick-off event include a new station logo
contest.
4. Programming/Publicity:Karp reports: 1. that the Sequoia Room will donate whatever the gate is from
our May date with them. [Applause]; 2. hopes to line up ahiphop band, perhaps the Jazz Mafia [?], for
another, smaller event; 3. Word of Mouth will/has [?] run a press release about the Farm & Garden
show; 4. He'll be interviewing Kate Magruder & Sarah Reith for a press release about their back to the
land series.
5. CAB: Middlebrook reports that Ellen Saxe has resigned after years of often unsung service on the CAB,
working on such matters as developing the CAB questionnaire as part of the ballot mailing, and
tabulating the results in usable form.--The CAB is thus in transition & will be reforming itself and
reformulating its mission under the leadership of John Arteaga and members to be recruited by the
Board.
6. Bylaws and Policies: Polkinghorne reports that scheduled meeting of the committee was canceled.
Middlebrook confirmed that he is on the committee, which will meet, December 3 at 3:30, 564 South
Dora Street, Ukiah.
H) Public Expression: Yeah! (positive expression)
I) Closed Session: personnel matters
J) Next Meeting: 28 November
K) Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm
Revision respectfully submitted,
Jonathan Middlebrook
11/25 /2018