CAB Meeting Approved Minutes November 2019

Community Advisory Board Meeting Tuesday, November 12, 2019 12:00 – 1:30 PM Ron and Linda Yanke Family Research Park 220 E. Parkcenter Boulevard, Room 700 Board Members in Attendance: Julie Adams DeFord Laurie Ahern Vicki Lawson

Dennis Hall Andy Huang Paul Ries

Board Members Attending via Telephone: Chris Bragg Jennifer Martinez Board Members Not in Attendance: Leon Smith Teresa Yragui Susan Bechdel Staff in Attendance: Tom Michael, General Manager Bethany Taylor, Membership

Tyson Chaplin Kendal Shaber

Chelan Lippincott, Major Gifts Valerie Hadley, Office Manager

Leta Neustaedter Mark Wheeler David Lombardi

Laura Bond

Jeremy Woodson Monique Bettencourt

Kristin Jackson, Membership Guest: Will Browning

Call to Order: Laurie Ahern called the meeting to order at 12:05 pm.

Approval of the Previous Minutes: Laura Bond asked the previous meeting minutes be corrected to state that Tyson Chaplin and Dennis Hall self-nominated to become Members-at-Large. Dennis Hall made the motion to approve the September 10, 2019 minutes with those corrections and the motion was seconded by Julie Adams DeFord. The minutes were approved by all. Tom Michael acknowledged a guest, who introduced himself as Will Browning, a former BSU professor and longtime BSPR listener.

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Committee Reports Executive Committee (Laurie Ahern): The committee met on October 31, 2019, to draft this meeting’s agenda.

Governing Committee (Laurie Ahern): The group considered bylaws changes, specifically in Article 2, in describing the organization of the board that the nominating committee can meet anytime and add nominees at any time, and in Article 3, in regard to setting policy for nominations and elections. David Lombardi stated he was happy about the bylaws changes, allowing the nominating committee to become a standing committee to help with any mid-year vacancies. In addition, improvements to how the committee operates will bring greater clarity to the nominating and election process. Vicki Lawson made a motion to approve the changes and David gave the second, and the bylaws changes were accepted. Laurie Ahern announced that David is taking over the governance committee in 2020.

Then David moved to elect the slate of board officers for the coming year, Julie Adams DeFord moved to second, and all approved these officers: Laurie Ahern – Chair Teresa Yragui - Vice Chair Tyson Chaplin - Member at Large Dennis Hall - Member at Large Nominating Committee (Teresa Yragui): In Teresa’s absence, Dennis led a discussion of the nominating committee changes previously introduced. He presented a slate of nominees to be elected to three-year terms. Vicki Lawson seconded the motion and all members voted aye. The new members are: Bill Vasconcellos Robert Otten Shelley McEuen Howard Thomas Jans Laurie Ahern addressed whether the CAB had enough time to process applications for future nominees.

The currently practice allows for only 10 days to review before November’s annual meeting, which is not much time. Dennis responded that by Fall, any candidates should have already been interviewed, presented, and vetted, so that the 10-day window is more to allow other CAB members to make any final comments and that introductions could be made over a longer timeframe.

Fundraising Committee (Teresa Yragui): Laurie said that Teresa and Kendal Shaber were not able to attend this meeting. Chelan Lippincott explained they spoke about underwriting at a September fundraising committee meeting. She and Kristin Jackson talked about rewriting scripts for membership drive, cultivating new voices for on-air drives, and discussing drive premiums. Chelan said the legacygiving pages online have been revised. She asked the CAB to “save the date” for a January 24 event for Broadcast Society members.

Advocacy Committee (Vicki Lawson): Julie Adams DeFord said the committee couldn’t meet in October, but committee members (including Mark Wheeler and Bethany Taylor) had previously spoke on the phone about upcoming events. Susan Bechdel offered to help with Winter Carnival in McCall in late January.

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Programming Committee (David Lombardi): David had no updates for the committee, other than to suggest that Andy become the committee chair, since David was moving on to lead the governance committee.

Conflict of Interest Update Tom Michael gave details and background to the resignation of CAB member Meredith Stead over perceived conflicts of interest. Tom explained that he discussed with staff and also the Statesman wrote an article. The executive committee had met promptly and discussed issues and bylaws and reached out to Meredith Stead. There was agreement that the executive committee handled it quickly and well.

Lombardi added that he discussed this with Meredith Stead and she did understand the issues but explained it was not her intention to cause any conflicts for the station. Because of this the new News Director, Sáša Woodruff has set up an Ethics Webinar with the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. Bethany and Kristin discussed these policies with volunteers and Bethany explained that there will be an orientation in the spring to explain to volunteers their expectations. Mark appreciated the swift action and thanked everyone for their part.

Laurie then distributed a conflict of interest document and asked all CAB members to sign and return.

David wondered if language should be added in Article 4 of the bylaws to mirror the policy of conflict of interest. Paul Ries contributed comments and it was decided the governance committee would look further into that.

Andy Huang asked for clarification of what the role of a candidate or elected official on the board should be? Dennis Hall stated that if he was an insurance salesman he wouldn’t sell insurance while volunteering and elected officials would not either. David said they can’t simultaneously work for themselves and the station and Paul Ries agreed. Tom said underwriters, such as Bill Vasconcellos, were actively solicited to join the CAB by the nominating committee. He also asked Vickie to tell us how many people lived in Stanley (pop. 68) and how it’s important to acknowledge the rural aspect of our state and allow for representation in small towns where people take on a wide variety of civic roles.

Station Update (Tom Michael): Tom discussed the new compact between NPR and its member stations, which includes editorial collaboration, fundraising collaboration, and a new financial model of member fees based on membership rather than audience. Under current modeling, BSPR would face a modest hike in NPR fees of about 5 percent.

He noted that public radio set out to add 1,000 new reporters 10 years ago and achieved the goal in 7 years. He discussed the station’s collaborations with Guns & America, Report For America, and the Mountain West News Bureau.

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In regard to fundraising collaboratively with NPR, Chelan Lippincott talked an upcoming pilot program that would possibly offer more structure and more resources from NPR. Paul Ries asked what collaborative fundraising means and Chelan explained you can fundraise with NPR and both the station and NPR benefit. Tom explained how NPR overall has improved relationships with member stations.

Laurie attended the NPR Collective in Washington DC and shared details of the event with the board.

Membership Drive Updates: Kristin Jackson recapped the Fall membership drive, noting it was, “the best Fall drive in four years,” detailing the breakdown between online and phone donations, most popular premiums, and percentage of gifts between the news and music stations. The average pledge amount went down but that’s typical when there are more new members, which increased compared to last Fall.

Paul Ries asked what attributed to the success and Kristin Jackson explained that there is never a single answer, but the team did a lot preparation and focused on new members and matched pledges, plus the international trip prize helped drive interest. Dennis Hall mentioned that it seemed like there was more on-air conviction. Laurie Ahern then spoke of the election-related booms and busts among news audiences. The December drive will have a thematic focus on local news coverage, as well as on the Broadcast Society, which traditionally has many renewals end-of-year.

Laurie Ahern mentioned that CPB featured our CAB documentation in a May 2019 annual conference of the PMBA (Public Media Business Association). They shared the CAB’s member documentation as an outstanding example to share with other stations. Tom recounted upcoming events, including Another Round in Nampa, Wine and Wills, and the Broadcast Society event in January.

The meeting ended with the acknowledgement that Vicki Lawson and Leta Neustaedter are leaving the CAB after six years of service. David Lombardi recognized Vicki’s and Leta’s contributions, with Vicki Lawson being a great asset from Stanley and Leta bringing insight and energy and a focus on expanding diversity. Leta and Vickie received gifts and both spoke to the CAB about their legacy with the board.

Laurie thanked them again and mentioned she, Tom, and Mark would have their first meeting with the new university president, Dr. Tromp, the following day. The meeting was adjourned at 1:33 pm.

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