Community Advisory Board Meeting Tuesday, September 9, 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 Susan Bechdel Vicki Lawson Chris Bragg Tyson Chaplin
Dennis Hall Andy Huang Mark Wheeler David Lombardi Jennifer Martinez
Leta Neustaedter Laura Bond Jeremy Woodson Teresa Yragui Kendal Shaber
Board Members Attending via Telephone: Laurie Ahern Leon Smith Board Members Not in Attendance: Paul Ries Staff in Attendance: Tom Michael, General Manager Bethany Taylor, Membership
Chelan Lippincott, Major Gifts Officer Cindy Hall, Business Manager
Kristin Jackson, Membership
Call to Order: Ahern called the meeting to order 12:06 pm and introduced new CAB member, Laura Bond. Approval of the Previous Minutes: David Lombardi made a motion to approve the May 14, 2019 minutes and the motion was seconded. The minutes were approved with unanimity. Committee Reports Governing Committee (Laurie Ahern): With no official process to select members at large, the committee forwarded a proposal and opened up for comments. Yragui commented the process outlined on the proposal sounded reasonable, but suggested holding off on changing the by-laws. There was a discussion about CAB nominations and the delay in between soliciting applications and then getting people to serve on the board. Lombardi believes the process might be cumbersome, but it addresses a need and might just be tweaked a bit. Ahern would like some additional time to be taken on those proposed changes and will present again at the November meeting. Nominating Committee (Teresa Yragui):
Nominations were open and Hall nominated Laurie Ahern as Chair and Teresa Yragui as Vice Chair. No other nominations were made for chair or vice. Dennis Hall and Tyson Chaplin then both self-nominated to become Members at Large. Both were announced by Ahern as Members at Large. Discussion about member selection process was continued and Neustaedter and Woodson agreed the process took too long and communicating this timeline to candidates was important. Chaplin and Hall discussed bottlenecks in suggesting new members with two months until the next meeting. January has been the new member introduction meeting because the by-law only allows for nominations once per year. Lombardi suggested having two nomination terms per year for new members. Yragui explained the need to bring people on mid-year if people resign during their term and require replacement. Shaber also agreed that getting people started when interested is important. Huang agreed that once someone is interested they should be given a timeline of what to expect from the process. Bechdel was concerned that current CAB members need enough time to consider the nominees and review their info. Hall read a portion of the by-laws related to nominating people for all positions that will become vacant during the year. Currently 10 days before meeting is when agenda items go out, is that enough time for members to review a candidate? Yragui noted the nominating committee will discuss all these and return with a proposal. Vicki Lawson and Leta Neustaedter will term out this November. Shaber asked how the process works now since the bylaws state 25-30 members and the CAB is currently at 19 members. Martinez wondered if there was a consensus on amount and Neustaedter expressed that quality versus quantity was important and that building diversity rather than just increasing numbers was also important. Ahern would follow the current process for today’s nominees and then the nominating committee will work on issues and possibly make changes for next meeting. Comments on five current nominees. 1. Shelley McEuen - Chris Bragg discuss her background. She’s a big part of the college and an interesting voice on the CAB. 2. Bill Vasconcellos - Dennis Hall explained that Bill was approached in the past but was on other boards and couldn’t. Would like to be on CAB if it works out. 3. Monique Bettencourt (student) - Kristin Jackson shared that she is a great student and wants to get involved to be a student voice. 4. Tom Jans - Teresa mentioned he is passionate about public radio and David mentioned he has a good business and marketing background. 5. Robert (Bob) Otten - Teresa spoke of him briefly. Fundraising Committee (Teresa Yragui): Larry Newton had given an underwriting presentation to the committee. Also the committee discussed changes to the website. Advocacy Committee (Vicki Lawson): Lawson discussed the many events taking place. Bechdel attended the McCall Summer festival and handled many questions and exposure for BSPR. She suggested volunteering at bingo at Winter Carnival on January 28 & 29 and Bingo at Foresters Club from 7-9 pm, fun to volunteer for one of the two nights. Chaplin received contact info for someone at the Mountain Mamas who would be interested in helping for other events. He suggested we do this event again. Huang attended the Sawtooth Salmon festival. People were familiar with BSPR and met a couple new possibilities. Had QR codes and then worked well. He recommended we have QR codes that lead to the membership page and/or donation page. Lawson arranged for “free” spaces in trades for ads through Larry Newton. Stead worked at Art in the Park where there was pretty heavy traffic and the stickers were very popular. Programming Committee (David Lombardi): Nothing new to report.
Strategic Planning updates (Tom Michael): Michael reviewed the half-year process of working through to the creation of the Strategic Plan. The CAB was going to vote on it in July but the meeting was cancelled. DeFord moved to accept the Strategic Plan and Chaplin seconded it. There was discussion about various items in the plan. Shaber had questions about the section under audience goals: to reach further into undeserved areas seemed broad and why only number one in the Treasure Valley? Michael explained that Treasure Valley is the only area that is rated by the ratings companies, so there we can tell if we are the top news station. Regarding the underserved areas, this is reference to Rachel Cohen in Twin Falls and reporters in Boise going out further into rural areas. Shaber also asked about what the “requirements” referred to and Michael explained some of the FCC requirements and those that accompany our CPB funds each year. Ahern liked the “shared sense of discovery” looping the world to Idaho and Idaho to the world. Hall called for a vote. Ahern was in favor of approving Strategic Plan as presented in draft. Voted; all in favor, passed. Ahern asked Michael to continue to update as available on its progress. Station Update (Tom Michael): In the period since the last meeting, Michael said he was really proud of recent hires and the contributions they've made to the team. Changes included Troy Oppie moving into weekend news, Frankie reassigned interim as Sr. Producer for Idaho Matters, freelancer Arlie replacing Olivia for Expressive Idaho, Brittany leaving, Lew staying, and joined by Monique, Val, Kerri, Molly, Tess. Plus continued help from Katie and Amanda. Going back to strategic plan discussions, we discussed our coverage area, such as Twin Falls. Sharing the recent impact there. Tracking number of stories in the Magic Valley and in the Wood River Valley. Our "news series" product this summer was a collaboration with the Mountain West News Bureau on the podcast LOCKED, a limited run investigative news series, with host Amanda, who helped the team complete a final episode after the court decision. The New York Times in August included LOCKED in their roundup of podcasts to check-out in the article, "The Podcast Playlist That Digs Deeper.” Shaber asked about the feedback on Locked from listeners and Michael said there were a lot of downloads upon launch, plus generally positive comments on the reporting. The Mountain West News Bureau added KUNR Reno to the collaboration, as well as a consultant with the O'Connor Center of the Rocky Mountain West in Missoula, Montana. Also, the news team did well during award season, including two prestigious national awards, a Gracie and a National Murrow, for our Idaho reporter at our Mountain West News Bureau. Michael recounted various engagement events, such as the Bureau's Profiles From The Modern American West at Campfire Stories and Another Round first in Hailey and then in Twin Falls. Plus, as Vickie's team described from Advocacy Committee, there were many other vents. The station is also co-hosting and moderating the first mayoral candidate debate. And not just in news, but music, as well, with last week's pub crawl with the Boise Phil. Gemma facilitated that mayoral debate and Michael and Hall stated she did a good job. There was an event in Sun Valley with NPR Development, featuring Kirk Siegler. He is moving to Boise and NPR is opening a bureau in Boise, which is a real accolade for BSPR and for the Boise community in general. Working on contracting now and expect his arrival in Fall. Martinez asked if there will be brand confusion and asked what others thought? CAB members were to explain NPR on Boise State Public Radio and that it is listener-supported locally. Moving to operations, this fiscal year we are wrapping up the multi-year infrastructure upgrade partially funded by the grant from the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust. We have made a lot of field improvements and HQ studio improvements under this grant, adding new equipment that should be in steady operation for years to come. Looking at the preliminary results of FY19, Michael shared comparisons to previous fiscal year. In Revenue, we see an increase in Development/Membership and Underwriting, based on the regular operating difference as a result of specifically raising revenue goals. It’s a testament to our fundraisers that we meet goals that allow us to provide greater
service. You'll see that Boise State University support has decreased in FY19 and that's because the bulk of funding to help launch Idaho Matters was given to us in one large chunk. The decrease is the net of increases related to CEC (change in employee compensation) and will decrease as Idaho Matters seed money is spent. This number will go down again in FY20. The change in Federal & Private Grants is related to the first full year of the RJC (Mountain West News Bureau) and the first 10 months of Guns & America. In regards of expenditures, much of these increases are for our greatest asset, people, and much of it for CEC (change in compensation). We do well, compared to other states / other public radio systems, in recent years due to CEC, but they are budget considerations that we must stay on top of, as a unit that relies on fundraising. The increase in Programming is CEC and regular inflationary increases of programs we purchase. The large increase in News shows our recent investments and increased activity in RJC, Guns & America, etc. The increase in Engineering is due to CEC and capital purchase related to the Murdock Grant. Development/Membership increase in FY19 due to CEC and the addition of a half-staff member. Concluding with our next big challenge, the Fall Membership drive, which runs September 18-24 on all platforms. Our Membership & Programming teams keep an hour-by-hour tally on drive performance. The overall drive goal is $100,100 and 910 donors. Our emphasis on this drive is new members. Martinez asked what the CAB can do for fund drive and Jackson requested they talk us up to friends, and give out the testimonial number to all friends. Neustaedter made the suggestion to put the testimonial line on the website so members can find it easily. Jackson thought this was a good idea. The group discussed the meetings for 2020, targeted to the second Tuesday of every other month at noon. Conclusion: Ahern adjourned the meeting at 1:30 pm.
Next meeting November 12, 2019 To attend the meeting via telephone, dial 208-426-7330 and use passcode 654789 to join conference.
Executive Committee Members: Laurie Ahern (Board Chair) Teresa Yragui (Board Vice Chair) Paul Ries (Member at Large) Dennis Hall (Member at Large) David Lombardi (Immediate Past Chair) Advocacy Committee Members: Vicki Lawson (Chair) Laurie Ahern Susan Bechdel-Not sure attended Tyson Chaplin Julie Adams-DeFord Paul Ries Bethany Taylor Mark Wheeler Fundraising Committee Members: Teresa Yragui (Chair) Corey Cook Dennis Hall Kristin Jackson Chelan Lippincott Kendal Shaber Governance Committee Members: Laurie Ahern (Chair) Susan Bechdel Tyson Chaplin Julie Adams-DeFord Dennis Hall Andy Huang David Lombardi Leta Neustaedter Kendal Shaber
Nominating Committee Members: Teresa Yragui (Chair) Chris Bragg Dennis Hall Jennifer Martinez Kristin Jackson Programming Committee Members: David Lombardi (Chair) Andy Huang Paul Stribling Leta Neustaedter Kendal Shaber Dennis Hall