Minutes for the regular National Finance Committee meeting June 25, 2013. Meeting convened at 8:36 PM (ET) a quorum being present, the Chair and Secretary being present. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attending: Jim Boyd, John Cromshow, R. Paul Martin (Secretary), Tony Norman, Michael Novick, Tracy Rosenberg (Chair), Manijeh Saba, Raul Salvador (CFO), Richard Uzzell, Barbara Whipperman. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agenda: 1. Roll Call 2. Approve agenda 3. Approve minutes 4. Audit Update 5. Budget Cycle Updates 6. Cursory Review of Prelim 2nd quarter financials 7. Crowd-funding Proposals 8. Syndicated Programs and Fund Drive Pledge Handling - (continued) 9. Archives Update ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Motion: (Jim Boyd) “To adopt the agenda.” (Passed without objection) Approve minutes 8:39 PM (ET) Motion: (R. Paul Martin) “To approve the minutes of the June 11, 2013, meeting.” (Passed as amended without objection) Minor corrections to the minutes were accepted. Audit Update 8:45 PM (ET) The CFO reported that he’d met with the auditor this morning, the auditors are back working on the audit after some payment issues were cleared up. The auditors think they need about 30 more hours of work on their review process, if they find that they need more information it could take longer. It is estimated that it will take another week or two in order to get the FY12 audit finalized. The CFO reported that the interim Executive Director has gotten the CPB to agree in principle to an extension for Pacifica’s audit. It is not known if this agreement is in writing. The committee discussed the report. The CFO said that the National Office was down to three people in accounting, with a fourth person doing accounts payable, and that person is leaving this week. Pacifica is hiring new person to do that job right away. No one in the National Office is working on financial statements at this time. The CFO said that he is developing some checklists to start the review of financial statements for FY13. He said that he will assign someone to go over all journal entries so that we will have more realistic financial reports. The CFO said that he will be going to New York City tomorrow as well as to Washington, D.C. The WPFW part time Business manager is resigning. The CFO will manage the turnover of documents. He is also anxious to start streamlining financial statements for FY13, but we have to get the audit behind us. There was a discussion of getting help from a college, university or program that helps put work places together with retirees to assist with some of the work at the National Office. The CFO also reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had sent notice today that they want to audit Pacifica’s 990 from FY11, they indicated a deadline for doing this of July 9, 2013. They were told that Pacifica has a lot going on and we won’t be able to finish the audit, etc. by then. The IRS agreed to an extension to the end of July, if we need more time we need to call them. Budget Cycle Updates 9:02 PM (ET) The Chair said that she was looking for final LSB approval of FY14 budgets by July 31, as per the timeline. KPFK - The Business Manager is away on vacation, and will be back on July 1. The General Manager is ill and has missed meetings. The KPFK LSB said they want to see the budget figures by July 8. They have talked about rescheduling the LSB meeting. They are in a holding pattern until they get more information. KPFA - They are working on their FY14 budget. The last of the station’s Union negotiations will be on Friday. They will then be able to pin down their projected salary expenses. They do not think that they’ll have a budget by the July 13, 2013, LSB meeting, but they have an August 10, 2013, meeting. There is a proposal that older Paid Staff could get Medicare to pay part of their Kaiser health plan coverage, talks on this have not happened yet. They’re hoping to have some report on salaries and on-air fund raisers for the next NFC meeting. Their Business Manager is gathering figures for other expenses too. KPFT - Their local Finance Committee passed a motion about the FY14 budget at its last meeting, it will be presented to KPFT LSB on July 10, 2013, they expect to have something for the NFC by the end of July or the first part of August. They are currently about $50,000 in the black for their FY13 budget. WPFW - They have a tentative local Finance Committee meeting for the first week in July. They may have a draft budget for the LSB meeting in July. They may be able to meet the July 31, deadline. They may need a special LSB meeting for this. WBAI - Not getting good communications from Management. The WBAI General Manager and the four WBAI Directors have presented a plan to the PNB for the short term survival of WBAI. As a result of a complaint filed with the NLRB over WBAI Paid Staff not getting paid on time for two pay periods the Department of Labor investigated the matter and told Pacifica that they had to send layoff notices because they couldn’t keep employing people they couldn’t afford to pay. The Pacifica National Office has sent 30 day layoff notices to all Paid Staff at WBAI, effective July 15, 2013. Pacifica Management will be meeting with WBAI Management and SAG/AFTRA to reach an agreement about staffing at WBAI. Personnel costs are the largest single item in the WBAI budget, so those numbers will not be available until after the negotiations are over. The WBAI LSB is asking the PNB for an extension to August 15, 2013, regarding the PNB mandate that the WBAI LSB and Staff present a long term plan for WBAI’s survival. Cursory Review of Prelim 2nd quarter financials 9:36 PM (ET) The committee was unsure of the accuracy of the financial documents it was given concerning the second quarter of FY13, and so decided not to do this review tonight. Crowd-funding Proposals 9:38 PM (ET) The Chair said that KPFK has already made a proposal regarding their studio revision, she asked for any other proposals. The committee discussed crowd-funding in general and some possible proposals for this. Some stations may have emergencies that will need to take priority over planning crowd-funding activities. Syndicated Programs and Fund Drive Pledge Handling 9:51 PM (ET) The motion that had been postponed from the last meeting was brought to the floor. Motion: (Tracy Rosenberg) “The NFC recommends to the PNB that station fund drives be synced over similar periods of time whenever possible to maximize organizational efficiency.” (Postponed to next meeting) The committee discussed the motion. Motion: (Richard Uzzell) “To postpone the motion to the next meeting.” (Passed without objection) Archives Update 10:15 PM (ET) The Chair reported that Brian Deshazor the Director of the Pacifica Radio Archives (PRA) says he’s working on grants for PRA, and they got a $128,000 grant over two years to archive the voices of feminist history that PRA has. It’s a part of a grant from the National Archives. PRA has to show that stations are making payments. Brian Deshazor thinks the primary issues are WBAI and WPFW which are in arrears in their payments to PRA. For WBAI there is no idea of what the future revenue and expense structure will look like. At WPFW there is a smaller amount owed, and they are in a better position to think about it. There may be a suggestion to shift the percentage that would go to the National Office and PRA to cover the arrears. Off-air community events might also be something to try in order to make payments to PRA. The committee discussed these proposals. It was reported that there is a CPB Onbudsman report on-line about WBAI that seems very unprofessional. The CPB Onbudsman says in his report that he was unable to contact the General Manager of WBAI and so he based his report on the blog of a former WBAI General Manager who is very critical of WBAI and who hasn’t been at WBAI for 48 years. Adjourned 10:33 PM (ET) Submitted by R. Paul Martin, Secretary.