Board Meeting Minutes, 4-24-19
Draft Minutes
MCPB Board of Directors Meeting
564 S. Dora St., Ste. 1A, Ukiah
24 April 2019
Present on Board:Tom Dow, Dina Polkinghorne, Bob Bushansky, Len Tischler, Jerry Karp, David Hulse-Stephens, Renee Vinyard
Also Present: Marty Durlin, Stuart Campbell, Ed Keller, Sarah Reith, and two others
A) Call to order @ 5:17, by Vice President Polkinghorne.
B) Introductions for Marty Durlin, our new General Manager.
C) Agenda approved.
D) Minutes approved as corrected of 03/27/19 meeting. [Final copy posted on station Web page]
E) Interim GM Dow’s written report: attached, with his oral comments added by secretary.
F) Committee Reports
· The Board wants to thank John Azzaro for his leadership during the past year and Tom Dow for his full-time service as Interim GM of the station for more than 5 months.
· Bob Bushansky brought up that we need a vision statement.
· Rich Culbertson provided the Board with a report of recent operations improvements. The Board offered its appreciation to Rich for the report, which is included as an attachment.
· Sarah Reith reported that Alice Woelfle received the Board’s gift and was pleased. The Board thanks Alice for all of her good work and wishes her well on her new adventure.
1.Executive Committee:
A. New officers were elected for the 2019-2020 term.
Tom Dow – President
Dina Polkinghorne – Vice President
Bob Bushansky – Treasurer
Len Tischler – Secretary
B. Board terms were reviewed, agreed upon, and posted on the web site, given the new four (4) year terms and elections every other year.
2. Finance Report:
A. The March financial report shows KZYX came out almost even. No loss and no substantial gain.
B. Budgeting for the next fiscal year has begun. Steve Winkle, the bookkeeper, will provide a sheet for use in budgeting in the next day or two, and May 9, May 30, and June 13 will be the three budgeting meetings. Marty Durlin, the new GM, asked to be at the meetings.
C. Tom Dow reported that the CDF revised our rent schedule. Details are in the GM report, attached.
D. We received a $7,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County for equipment, but did not receive a grant for furthering our strategic planning.
3. Membership/Fundraising Report:
Renee Wilson is doing a great job so far. Now that Tom Dow will be relieved of being interim GM, he will begin to search for major donors. Len Tischler is beginning to create a new set of processes to revamp our underwriting system.
4. Planning Committee:
A. The strategic plan was written and approved by the Board in March. Now it will need to be prioritized. Also, the committee will work on a vision statement for MCPB.
B. David Hulse-Stephens reports that our 30thAnniversary party plans are moving along well. We need decisions made about paying the bands very soon – out of the KZYX pocket or from donations.
Other events planned and agreed to, on the coast:
May 18 jazz concert
Four concerts from June through September were discussed and need to be coordinated with the sponsors, Jeff Zolitor and Kathleen Rippey.
Oct 25 concert – Daimh - Oak & Thorn
Nov 1 concert – Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O’Laery -Oak & Thorn
A December concert was considered but rejected for now.
5. Programming & Publicity Committee:
Jerry Karp wrote a press release about Marty Durlin arriving as our ne GM. It was published in at least one newspaper.
6. Bylaws & Policies Committee;
The May meeting has changed to May 9, 3:30PM, at 564 S. Dora St., Ukiah.
7. Community Advisory Committee:
Jon Middlebrook will create a radio announcement to actively seek volunteers for the committee. Jerry Karp and W. Dan will assist with this effort.
G. Upcoming Benefit Events
See F4B above.
H. Matters from Directors
I. Public Expression
Great job.
Questions from late guests about issues discussed earlier.
J. No closed session.
K. Next Board meetingis a Membership meeting on May 29, 2019, at the Ft. Bragg Senior Center. We will introduce the new GM, Marty Durlin, and our Strategic Plan, in addition to our normal business.
Minutes Submitted by Len Tischler, Secretary
Interim GM Report
KZYX Board of Directors Meeting
April 24, 2019
Ukiah, CA
1. General Manager Update:
Marty Durlin spent her first day at KZYX today. We welcome her to her first Board Meeting. She will be formally introduced at the next Board and Membership Meeting, May 29thin Fort Bragg.
2. Staffing Update:
The Program Director position Skype interviews have been conducted. We expect to make an offer this week. Update to follow.
3. Technical and equipment Update:
Rich Culbertson’s report is attached. One exciter has been repaired and tested and installed.
4. CDF –CAL Fire Tower Rent:
CDF has proposed a revised rent schedule. Rich and I have reviewed assumptions for Vault space utilization and confirmed that CDF is correct. I have discussed with Sen. McGuire’s staff and there are no options for further reductions from the state at this time. Proposed annual rental is $14,112.36 for Laughlin Ridge and $11,447 for Cold Spring. Total $25,559.36.
Separately, the owners of the Bald Hill Tower have agreed to rental of $332 per month, $3,984 per year. We agreed that we can quit the agreement within 2 years without penalty. (We might find a better deal.)
Total expense for Tower Rentals, $29,543.36 per year.
5. The Community Foundation of Mendocino County notified KZYX that the application for a Grant to fund Strategic Planning was not approved.
6. KZYX has agreed to CPB findings and has paid the $3,000 fine for non-compliance in accordance with the Audit. Final agreement on NPR balances owing are still under discussion.
And now for something completely different…
Tech News
(published Oct. 2007 thru Oct. 2009 and revisited 2-23-2017)
Not the full legendary KZYX & Z’s technical newsletter, but just a brief update.
Here’s what we’ve been doing… (By “we” I mean myself and our new helping hands Jonathan Peakall and Jake Martin-Wagner):
- We’ve rebuilt both of transmitters’ exciters (the brain of the transmitter) and now have a third good tested unit as a back-up as well.
- We also have a full set of Harris (our transmitter) STL’s (Satellite to Transmitter Link.) So we are nearly fully redundant now which means we should never be off for long if something goes haywire.
- I have repaired the older turntable in Philo and given it a new stylus (very expense so please be careful with it.) I have moved the older turntable above the delay and EAS equipment and put the new turntable next to the PC because I was told the lower one gets more play. Both turntables will now start from the air board.
- I’ve replaced the headphone mixer on the table in Philo so our guests can hear themselves in both ears.
- We have new simpler CD player for Fort Bragg. (replacing the clumsy CD #1)
- We’ve added another UPS battery back-up (universal power supply) to the main equipment rack in Philo to give better power protection. (It’s already been tested and passed)
- We’ve replaced the antenna on the Philo station roof which has vastly improved monitoring our own signal as well as monitoring KUKI for EAS messages.
- We’ve been working on heat displacement at our Laughlin Ridge transmitter site as requested by the CDF. We think the replacement of the missing Harris exciter may have made the difference. We may have solved this.
- We moved the EAS alert light so more of the office folk could see it as well as the on air staff to either kill it or run the EAS when they come in. (I’ve wanted to do this for 10 years!)
- We now have a phone interface again in the production room to record on-phone interviews.
- We are finishing up the first round of training. We’ll be adding the remote studio training and another round for Public Affairs coming soon.
Here’s a small list of some of the top technical priorities I hope to address so you know what to expect.
- Repair Belar monitoring system in Philo.
- Repair Burk Telemetry remote control system.
- Configure Silence Check system to trip when we have dead air.
- Train paid staff on DAD at the programming level.