Draft Minutes for the regular National Finance Committee meeting June 28,<br />
2011.<br />
<br />
Meeting convened at 8:33 PM (ET) a quorum being present, the Chair and<br />
Secretary being present.<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Attending: Ken Aaron, Jim Boyd, Bill Crosier, Campbell Johnson, Kim<br />
Kaufman, R. Paul Martin, Tracy Rosenberg, Alex Steinberg, Barbara<br />
Whipperman, Lavarn Williams, Bruce Wolf.<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Agenda:<br />
<br />
1) Approve Draft Agenda<br />
2) Approve minutes of May 24 and June 14,  meetings<br />
3) Update on template locking issues - DC<br />
4) Budget Updates from Signal Areas<br />
5) Brief CFO report on May 31, financial statements<br />
6) Arbitron update<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Motion: (Bill Crosier) "To approve the agenda." (Passed without objection)<br />
<br />
Approve minutes of May 24 and June 14, meetings 8:37 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
Motion: (R. Paul Martin) "To approve the minutes of the June 14, 2011,<br />
meeting." (Passed without objection)<br />
<br />
Motion: (Tracy Rosenberg) "To postpone consideration of the minutes of the<br />
May 24, meeting to the next meeting." (Passed without objection)<br />
<br />
Update on template locking issues - DC 8:40 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
The issue of some Business Managers at some stations not being able to<br />
change things in financial documents was revisited. The CFO said that the<br />
Great Plains software did not allow changes as a security measure, and<br />
that the documents are locked until the auditors need to go in and deal<br />
with them. Business Managers are bing trained on the software and what can<br />
and can't be done. The budgets as presented on spreadsheets are generated<br />
from the Great Plains software. The CFO said that a problem at WPFW with<br />
different versions of the software has been resolved. The committee<br />
discussed the issue. It was noted that the National Office had sent out<br />
E-mails about using the Great Plains software in the past and perhaps<br />
these E-mails could be strung together and would make up something like a<br />
manual for using that software.<br />
<br />
In the course of this discussion it was brought up that there are draft<br />
FY12 budgets for the Pacifica Radio Archives and KPFK. The committee<br />
discussed the timeline for the FY12 budgets, how the budgets were getting<br />
generated and the flow of the budgets. It was noted that according to the<br />
timeline adopted the NFC doesn't review a budget until an LSB completes<br />
its review or we pass a certain date in August, and neither of those<br />
things have happened yet. The CFO said she'd send copies of the KPFK draft<br />
budget to the KPFK members of the NFC.<br />
<br />
Budget Updates from Signal Areas 9:16 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
The KPFT Finance Committee is expected to consider their FY12 draft budget<br />
tomorrow and it is expected to be presented to the KPFT LSB at its July 13,<br />
meeting.<br />
<br />
At KPFA there are issues with payroll information for their FY12 draft<br />
budget. There are more meetings scheduled.<br />
<br />
At WPFW they are having meetings focusing on the costs that will be<br />
entailed with moving their station. The cost of moving the station's<br />
transmitter due to an accelerated lead abatement program at the current<br />
location may appear on ths year's budget instead of next year's. This may<br />
result in WPFW not being able to have a balanced FY12 budget. It is<br />
expected that the LSB will meet to consider the FY12 budget on August 3.<br />
There are restricted funds that could be used for the move.<br />
<br />
The WBAI Finance Committee has been going over the FY12 draft budget from<br />
the station's General Manager. The WBAI LSB will meet on August 10, and it<br />
is hoped that it will be able to vote on the station's budget then. The CFO<br />
noted that she has sent the preliminary draft FY12 WBAI budget prepared by<br />
the WBAI General Manager to the NFC. She suggested that committee members<br />
review it and send questions to the WBAI General Manager and Treasurer.<br />
<br />
Brief CFO report on May 31, financial statements 9:35 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
The CFO reported that Pacifica's income through May 31, was about $1.3<br />
million, which is about $1.6 million better than last year at this time.<br />
She said that she didn't expect Pacifica to go through that positive<br />
balance of $1.3 million before the end of FY11. She noted that in FY10<br />
Pacifica ended about $1.975 million in the red. We are still getting cash<br />
from the Spring on-air fund raisers. Pacifica now has a positive working<br />
capital of about $300,000. KPFK and WPFW have negative working capital,<br />
but they have improved since September 30. She said she is cautiously<br />
optimistic. We have no choice, but to implement savings. Spending is<br />
better than budget by about $400,000. We should be in the range of<br />
breaking even to being about $500,000 ahead by the end of FY11. Key<br />
elements are stability at stations; we have General Managers at more<br />
stations. With the force reduction in November salaries at KPFA are under<br />
control.<br />
<br />
The committee discussed the report. The CFO said that errors in the<br />
spreadsheet would be fixed and that by the end of the week she should know<br />
enough to be able to make a forecast and will consolidate the cash flows.<br />
She said that cash should be positive by the end of FY11. She said that we<br />
are paying our debts and that some of them should be resolved during this<br />
quarter. The amount owed to Democracy Now! Will go down by the end of the<br />
quarter. The amount of extra money from the day of on-air fund raisers<br />
that the stations are each contributing won't be known until the end of<br />
the month, she doesn't have a final number for that yet. For KPFA it's<br />
maybe about $75,000 to $80,000k, which is about equal to a payment for<br />
Democracy Now! And this would reduce the amount owed to FSRN by half.<br />
Arbitron update 9:52 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
The committee again discussed Arbitron ratings, their uses and costs. The<br />
CFO reported that the Executive Director had discussed the use of the<br />
Arbitron data with the General Managers at her Staff meeting. There was a<br />
question of which stations use the Arbitron data, how they use it and who<br />
gets to see it. The question of how the Arbitron data tracks the stream<br />
data which we already get for free was raised. The question of whether or<br />
not Pacifica should be using arbitron ratings at all was raised.<br />
<br />
Adjourned 10:12 PM (ET)<br />
<br />
Submitted by R. Paul Martin, Secretary.<br />