Minutes of the KPFK Local Station Board Meeting of November 19, 2011
The regular monthly meeting of the KPFK Local Station Board was held on
Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 1:51 PM at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 1343 Ocean
Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405, the Chair (Dutch Merrick) being in the
chair and the Secretary (John P. Garry III) being present. The minutes of the
last meeting (October 19, 2011) were approved.
Eighteen members were present, constituting a quorum: Ken Aaron, Chuck
Anderson,
Rodrigo Argueta (2:05), Fred Blair, Lydia Brazon, John Cromshow, Aryana
Gladney,
Leonard Isenberg, Kim Kaufman, Jim Lafferty, Ali Lexa, Dutch Merrick, Margie
Murray, Michael Novick, Summer Reese, Lawrence Reyes, John Wenger, Lamont
Yeakey (2:35).
One member was excused: Brenda Medina
Five members were absent: Ankine Antaram, Omar Burdet, Fred Klunder,
Sequoia Olivia Mercier, John Parker.
Also present: Bernard Duncan (KPFK General Manager), Terry Goodman (Audio
Recordist), Jason Lord (Audio Engineer) and members of the public.
Authority and Notice: This meeting was authorized by the LSB by a motion
approved at its meeting of October 19, 2011. Specific notice was posted on
KPFK.org and other websites on November 14, 2011 (see Appendix A).
Audio Recording: The audio of the meeting is available for a limited time at
KPFTX.org
CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL (1:51)
The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 1:51 PM.
AGENDA APPROVAL (1:54)
Brazon moved to have the executive session occur at a time certain of 3:00 PM.
Motion withdrawn.
Anderson moved reconsideration of the executive session.
Motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-12, No-1 Abstain-2.
Brazon moved to substitute: Postpone reconsideration of executive session until
later in the meeting until after the Governance Committee report.
The Chair invited Steve Goldsmith to speak for one minute.
[Audio Part 1]
Brazon's motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-10, No-4, Abstain-2.
The Agenda was approved without objection (see Appendix A).
ANNOUNCMENTS (2:24)
Novick noticed a Jericho Amnesty Movement Meeting for later that day and an
Occupation Los Angeles Port Action for December 12, 2011. He invited people to
the OLA Action Committee meeting on the West Steps of Los Angeles City, Sunday
at noon.
Wenger noticed a Governance Committee Meeting for Monday, December 12, 2011,
7:30 PM at Peace Center West.
Murray recommended a movie called "The Visitor."
Reese announced that the hearing on charges for her arrest at an Occupation Los
Angeles protest will be on December 8, 2011. Reese urged LSB members to donate
to Occupation Los Angeles.
Reyes noticed an Outreach Committee meeting for Tuesday, December 8, 2011, 7:30
at Peace Center West.
Cromshow announced the immigration clinic is ongoing and invited people to
participate at
La Placita Church, Sunday, November 20, 9:00 AM to noon.
Kaufman acknowledged the Pacifica Radio Archives school gift program and the
person who started the program, Lamont Yeakey.
Isenberg recommended a film called the "The Harvest" ("La Cochesa").
Merrick reported that the IATSE had passed a motion endorsing Occupation Los
Angeles and planned to deliver a palette of bottled water to OLA. Merrick also
thanked Rodrigo Argueta for his work on the Spanish Language Town Hall and
announced that Wikileaks can be financially supported through the online
purchase of merchandise
MINUTES APPROVAL (2:36)
The minutes of October 19, 2011 were distributed to the board electronically
before the meeting and were approved without objection.
SCHEDULING / NOTICE OF MEETINGS (2:38)
Saturday, December 17, 2011 1:00 PM; Assembly of Delegates will vote on
proposed Bylaws Amendments, followed by LSB meeting to elect officers.
Wenger moved to hold the December LSB meeting at Peace Center West. Motion
passed by a show of hands: Yes-9, No-0, Abstain-7.
Reese (amended by Aaron and Brazon) moved to reschedule the January meeting to
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Peace Center West, 1:00-4:00 PM. Motion passed by
a show of hands: Yes-14, No-0, Abstain-3.
CHAIR REPORT (2:50)
The Chair gave a brief oral report.
STATUS REPORT / IMPLEMENTATION / ACTION ITEMS (2:51)
(8/17/2011) "Following a comment from Lafferty, the Chair committed to include
a board expense report as part of the Treasurer's Report." The Chair directed
the Governance Committee to include a Treasurer's Report in future agendas.
(8/31/2011) "Kaufman moved (amended by Novick and Murray) to approve the
budget. Line 5020 "Corporate Match" shall be renamed "Employer Match," a cover
letter shall be included to explain why the KPFK LSB wants to make the change,
and if the PNB does not accept the new language the PNB shall hold a roll call
vote to establish language for the entire Pacifica network." Reese reported
that the motion was approved by the PNB but did not know if it had been
implemented.
(10/19/2011) "Kaufman moved that the General Manager shall forward the monthly
GM Report directly to the entire LSB. Motion passed without objection." The
General Manger reported that this was being done.
Novick referred to three PrOC motions previously passed by the board. The
General Manager committed to follow up on the one motion which had not yet been
addressed.
The General Manager reported on the present Arbitron policy for the LSB.
Q & A with GENERAL MANAGER (3:08)
A written report was emailed to the board prior to the meeting (see Appendix
C). In lieu of presenting his report the General Manager answered questions
from the board.
[Audio Part 2]
PUBLIC COMMENT (3:24)
Public comment was heard for ten minutes.
A member of the public (Bella DeSoto) noticed an intent to sue the Pacifica
Foundation/KPFK and others arising from an incident on Saturday, October 30,
2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. A member of the public (Augustin
Cebada) noticed a KPFK Community Advisory Board meeting for Sunday, December 4,
2011.
Kaufman moved to have, on a volunteer basis, a meeting of KPFK management, the
LSB and station staff to discuss strategic planning on new listeners, fund
drives, and revenue streams. Date TBD. Motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-
14, No-0, Abstain-2.
Novick moved to have a planning committee to facilitate LSB-station staff
dialogue. Motion withdrawn
TREASURER'S REPORT (3:40)
The Treasurer (Kim Kaufman) reported that there had been no board expenses in
the previous month.
Reyes moved to add three minutes for the GM to respond to public comment.
Motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-13, No-0, Abstain--0. Discussion
continued.
PNB DIRECTOR REPORTS (3:44)
Aaron, Reese, and Argueta, gave oral reports. Novick reported on the most
recent National Programming Committee meeting. Discussion followed.
Reyes moved that PNB Directors shall provide advanced written reports to the
board. Motion passed without objection.
Brazon moved to extend five minutes. (3:55)
Motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-12, No-2, Abstain-2. Discussion
continued.
Reyes moved to extend three minutes. Motion failed by a show of hands: Yes-7,
No-8, Abstain-1.
PUBLIC COMMENT (4:03)
Public comment was heard for eleven minutes. A member of the public (Jason
Lord) announced a Zeitgeist Movement meeting on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at
USC's Taper Hall.
PD SEARCH (4:15)
Lexa (PD Search Co-Chair) gave an oral report.
Brazon noticed a motion requiring that the PD Search finalists and resumes be
brought to the LSB.
[Audio Part 3]
PD Search report and discussion continued.
GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE REPORT (4:21)
Wenger (Governance Committee Chair) presented the following motion from the
Governance Committee:
Wenger moved that the KPFK.org shall include a page describing KPFK committees,
and a page with regular meeting dates and committee contact information, which
shall be compiled by the Secretary and posted by the station webmaster. Each
committee chair shall be assigned a station email address.
Wenger moved to extend five minutes. Motion failed by a show of hands: Yes-5,
No-7, Abstain-0.
The Governance Committee motion passed by a show of hands: Yes-11, No-0,
Abstain-0.
The meeting adjourned without objection at 4:40 PM.
Respectfully submitted by John P. Garry III, KPFK LSB Secretary
(these minutes were approved on December 17, 2012 and corrected on February 15,
2012)
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Appendix A-Approved Agenda
Agenda for KPFK LSB Meeting of 11-19-2011
Passed by KPFK Governance Committee on 11-14-2011
John Wenger, Chair (all times include discussions)
Call to Order, Roll Call, Excused Absences, Announcements, Minutes (15 min)
Scheduling/Notice of Meetings (5 min)
Chair Report (5 min)
Implementation/Follow-up/Action Items (5 min)
Q &A with General Manager (15 min)
Public Comment (7.5 min)
PNB Director Reports (10 min)
Public Comment (7.5 min)
PD Search (5 min)
Governance Committee Report (10 min)
PrOC Report (5 min)
Outreach Committee Report (3 min)
Finance Committee Report (5 min)
Personnel Committee Report (5 min)
Public Comment (15 min)
Executive Session (60 min)
total 180 min
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Appendix B-Public Notice
Emailed by Terry Goodman on Monday, November 14, 2011 11:33:07 PM
The KPFK Local Station Board will meet on Saturday, November 19, 2011
from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 1343 Ocean Park
Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405. This meeting will include a closed session.
Refs:
http://www.kpfk.org/lsbpnbmenu/93-calenderandnotices/5407-lsb-open-and-
closed.html
http://www.kpfk.org/eventcal.html?task=view_detail&agid=2075&year=2011&month=11&
day=19
http://www.kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20111119
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Appendix-C General Manager's Report
PACIFICA RADIO KPFK 90.7 FM
MANAGER'S REPORT TO THE LOCAL STATION BOARD
Saturday, November 19, 2011
(Bernard Duncan, General Manager)
Manager's Overview
. Just over a week after KPFK's October fund drive, the Pacifica Radio
Archive ran a two-day fund raising broadcast on all Pacifica stations. Due
to its close proximity to the station drive, numerous complaints were
received.
. The October (Fall) Fund Drive resulted in pledges of $820,000 against a
target of $1 million. The target was always ambitious, and additional
funding will have to be sourced as the year progresses.
. KPFK has been successful in gaining a modest funding grant from the Nathan
Cummings Foundation, following an application lodged in August. The grant
totals $5,000.
. Staff meetings - Monthly full-staff meetings continue.
. Work is underway to have staff and programmers undertake Title VII sexual
harassment training in the coming few months.
. General - KPFK's Public File is up to date.
Outreach and Development
. Outreach and Development activities this past month were focused on Fund
Drive, and again on radio outreach events and promotion.
Community Engagement & Outreach - Recent and Upcoming:
o 22 October - KPFK hosted Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez at Immanuel
Presbyterian Church on Saturday, October 22nd at 6pm to launch his
book (with Joe Torres) News for All the People: The Epic Story of
Race and the American Media.
o 22 October - KPFK had an altar at the Hollywood Forever
Cemetery dedicated to fallen journalists from around the world.
o 29 & 30 October - KPFK hosted a booth at the Green Festival
L.A., where guest speakers included Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!,
Eric Mann and DJ Nnamdi.
o 12 November - A Spanish-language Town Hall meeting was held at the
Immanuel Presbyterian Church on 12 November. The meeting was
organized by several Spanish-language programmers under the auspices
of the Asociacon de programación en español (APE). KPFK was
represented by LSB members and the General Manager and Development
Director.
o 16 November - KPFK hosted a fundraiser at the Immanuel Presbyterian
Church with Greg Palast on his book tour with Vultures' Picnic / In
Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance
Carnivores.
. As a result of greater exposure in the community, our free speech
advocates and programming critics are showing up more frequently at our
public events, and on some occasions proceedings have been disrupted. For
this reason we have implemented a training session in non-violent response
to disruptions for all regular volunteers for community events. This first
training occurred Monday night November 14. It was conducted by the
National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Director and radio host, Jim Lafferty.
Jim has been providing similar training for activists for many years,
including work with the ANSWER Coalition.
Programming
. During the October fund drive, programmers Margaret Prescod, Sonali
Kolhatkar, and Ian Masters all featured non-fund raising segments in
almost every show they did; which allowed the station to do a better job
of staying on top of the major stories of the day than we had in recent
fund drives. However, the break from regular programming was severe and
unfortunate given the exciting developments of the Occupy Movement and the
excellent coverage KPFK has been able to provide of the movement when not
saddled by fund raising responsibilities.
. In the period between fund drives, we are doing our utmost with limited
resources to provide the best coverage of the Occupy Movement in Southern
California. This now involves expanded coverage on the KPFK website
(which will include collecting all of the broadcast segments on the
movement in one space on the KPFK website), and more live broadcasts from
the occupied spaces as and when appropriate and feasible. Of course, what
is distinguishing our coverage of the Occupy Movement from all other local
broadcast outlets is the degree to which we give voice to those actually
participating in the movement both in Southern California and across the
country.
. While a few other minor programming changes are on the horizon, the only
one that has already occurred is that Liberated Sisters and Think Outside
the Cage have changed from being a half hour weekly to one hour each,
rotating every other week from 1 to 2pm on Saturdays
Operations
. Equipment - KPFK has purchased three H4 Zoom recorders to replace our
obsolete Marantz recorders. These compact units are sturdy and simple to
operate, and provide broadcast quality recordings in remote locations. We
took advantage of a reduced-price promotion to secure each unit at close
to half their normal price.
. National EAS Test Day - The Emergency Alarm System test on 9 November was
a disappointment on a large scale. Across the Pacifica network alone, not
one station's test went without issue, and in two cases, the alarm did not
even broadcast. In the case of KPFK a failure on the part of the federal
test system to send the appropriate end tone resulted in our station being
off air for almost 15 minutes while we endeavored to find out what had
happened. Our transmission was restored through local intervention. For an
example of how the test was broadcast in various locations, click on this
link: http://tinyurl.com/National-EAS-Disappointment
. Facilities - Floor covering manufacturer and supplier Bentley Prince
Street has donated to KPFK 784 square feet of carpet tile, which is on our
premises awaiting installation within the next two weeks. This hard-
wearing carpet tile will replace the aged and worn flooring in the
computer room and PCR studio upstairs.
Some of our fire extinguishers are scheduled to have maintenance done on
them, and filters on the station's water coolers have been replaced
The main air conditioning unit that serves the 1st floor studios has had a
compressor fail, and this has been replaced. We are looking at remedying
one of the causes of the compressor icing up. We are advised that the
ducting is not big enough to provide the necessary air flow for our unit
to run efficiently. More information will be forthcoming as the situation
is assessed.
During the recent rains some leaks were found on the roof and the balcony,
and were patched. We will be looking into a permanent solution for this
problem, which appears due to the age of the water-proofing over the
reception entry.
The upstairs mens' room fan has been replaced.
Engineering
. Studios - The studios are generally in good condition and repair with few
problems. New lighting following the recent retrofit has highlighted the
shoddiness of the paintwork in Master Control, and a repaint and tidy-up
is being planned.
. Malibu Booster site - The installation of the Malibu booster transmitter
is complete and the booster is receiving KPFK program audio directly from
the KPFK transmitter on Mt. Wilson. Over the next few weeks testing and
fine tuning and monitoring of the booster will occur to make sure it's
operating properly.
. Ranch Bernardo translator site - This translator is working very well.
. Santa Barbara translator site - The translator is in good condition and is
operating properly.
. Mt. Wilson transmitter site - The emergency generator service and
maintenance and electrical work will be coordinated with the installation
of the new auxiliary transmitter which we hope will be installed in
December.
Maintenance and repair of the current KPFK transmitters and associated
equipment on Mt. Wilson is ongoing. The FCC has approved temporary
transmission from this site at lower power while the difficulties are
addressed. Current antenna ERP is sufficient to cover the receiving area.
Business Office
. Financial status as at November 15 (cf. October 14) -
o Total Cash in Bank is $390,000 (163,275)
o The current balance in the solar project account is $18,649. (Note:
this is additional to Cash in Bank)
o Total payables is $58,190 (35,142)
o Central Services owed to National Office is $42,428 (20,801). KPFK
is up-to-date with Central Services payments.
Bernard Duncan
General Manager
November 17 2011
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