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Tillicum Foundation
Board of Directors Meeting
Tillicum Foundation
12 October 2006

OFFICIAL APPROVED MINUTES

Call to order: 5:02pm
Attendance: Directors Dave Ambrose, Chuck McLaughlin, Ray Merritt, Cindy Price, Bob
Westerberg (5:13pm). Staff: Dave Hammock, Elizabeth Menetrey, Arlene Layton. Guest: Jane Hill.
Directors Margarita Cullimore and Carol Newman excused.


1. Presentation from Mark Redwine, Auditor:
    Increasing insurance and peer review costs make it cost inefficient for Redwine to continue to
do audits. There are very few local alternatives. Perhaps Pratt & Blue, a group in Warrenton who
are also municipal auditors, would be available. We should stay with an Oregon firm because we
do file an Oregon state return, unless the Washington auditor is licensed in Oregon as a CPA
firm as well. (This can be checked with the Oregon Board of Accountancy.)
    CPB requires a full audit, and that’s what Redwine has been doing.
    Ambrose said the system of disbursements still needs some tweaking. Redwine notes that
Quick Books for non-profits isn’t any better than regular Quick Books; in fact there isn’t any good
software on the market for small-to-medium-sized businesses like ours.
    McLaughlin noted that the valuation of our land and buildings is quite low. Redwine replied
that it is forbidden under GAP (General Accounting Principles) to value land and buildings other
than at the price for which they were purchased. Auditors don’t look at fair market value until
something is sold. It’s neither to our advantage or disadvantage because we’re a small non-
profit.
    Misty’s resignation made it more difficult to get the materials together for last year’s audit.
Redwine suggested we get all materials together by the end of year because auditors start
ramping up for taxes by end of January. Hammock said that he and Liz Diamond have started a
system for accomplishing just that. Ambrose added that they are trying to get the books and
data onto a computer in a room which has fewer distractions than the front desk, where the
work is currently done.
    Ambrose asked if there were any red flags. Redwine said No, and if there had been he would
have put it in the notes.
    We thanked Redwine for his presentation and his service, and he left at 5:38pm.        
    Hammock said he has been in touch with Tony Wilder, a CPA from Tillamook who is the
auditor for the Clatsop Soil & Water District and was recommended by Ambrose. Hammock has
sent Wilder last year’s audit and awaits a return call.

2. Approval of Minutes of September 14, 2006 regular meeting. Price moves. Ambrose seconds.
Unanimous.

3.  Staff reports.
    Hammock reported that some “interesting and challenging computer problems” kept the
reports from being emailed in advance.
    a. Programming Report. Received with thanks. The report notes that Guidelines is soliciting
input for programming on Wednesday afternoons to replace Played in Oregon and Classical Fan
Club, and is looking particularly at non-classical programming (which is broadcast on KCPB during
that time). Ambrose reminded us that classical programming on KCPB isn’t heard by many
people, so we could keep classical on KMUN/KTCB.
    b. Development Report. Received with thanks.
    c. News Report. Received with thanks.
    
4.  General Manager’s Report

A. Station Financial Status and Issues

1. Account balances are good because $33K rural bonus and the first half of the CSG grant
($41K) have been banked, as well as $15K roof grant.
    Underwriting is at 73% of the budgeted year and is targeted by Hammock and Arlene to
increase for next year.
    CPB numbers are only in the 90%ile because there were reductions by Congress.
    Legal fees are at 273.3%. The overages are a combo of the every 8-year renewal fees (which
were budgeted) plus snags we ran into with licensing for KCPB. Hammock doesn’t anticipate
such overages for this FY.
    The water bill is at 168% because the bill was in Lisa Smith’s name and to take it out of her
name required a $700 deposit. What happened to Lisa’s $700? And why was it in her name?

2. KCPB Pledge drive. Hammock has budgeted $5,000 in KCPB pledges for the whole of FY07 and
is hoping to get that in this one drive. $2,000 was pledged in the 4-day June drive.
    A company called Eastland has done some small-market work, providing radio survey material
for markets not well-served by Arbitron. Our commercial brethren are paying for Eastland to do a
survey of this area. Once they have it, we can buy it. It’s not cheap; will be available after first of
year. Someone from Eastland remembers Hammock from Alaska and says he’ll let Dave know if it’
s worth the thousands of dollars it’ll cost.
    Price asks that we find a way of determining whether contributors to KCPB are new or are
taking money from KMUN/KTCB. Perhaps just checking the membership list.
    Westerberg asks what sort of marketing scheme we have outside the station for KCPB. We
could have a discussion of it. Hammock reports Arlene has a long list of things she’d like to do
but there isn’t the money for it.

B. General Station Activities Update

1. Roof update: Should be done the week of October 21st. Maybe.
2. Porch post: Albert Smith has put up a temporary post while looking for a cedar post that he
can carve to match the others.
3. Current mailing. The special October election edition is at the printers now; will be here
Monday morning. Mailing & stuffing party scheduled for Monday afternoon.

4. OPB talks. Hammock says Steve Bass (head of OPB) is not returning his calls: “I think they don’
t give a flip any more.” He asked Crigler to outline some of the things that could be a problem
with an OPB partnership. The FCC can be persnickety about fundraising on the air for anything
other than the licensee, so it’s likely there would have to be an FCC agreement that it’s okay for
OPB to fundraise on KCPB. Hammock distributed an October 12 memo from Crigler outlining some
of the issues. (Attached) Hammock is trying to get that memo into Steve Bass’s hands and see
what they think about it. OPB did get permission to make the modification to their license; so, as
Hammock put it, “we’re just road kill in their way.” In the current era, however, CPB almost
gushes with delight when stations form partnerships.
    Hammock’s plan is that OPB’s translator, rather than being set to repeat Portland, would be
assigned to repeat 90.9 so that it’s carrying KCPB. In the last discussions held with OPB, KCPB
would carry OPB from 5-8am and from 5-7pm; the rest would be KCPB programming.
    Price suggested we take a look at the frequency overlays and see if we can’t play around
with what is broadcast on what frequencies.
    Ambrose asked: Can we make ourselves the alternative to OPB? Hammock replied that the
people don’t want an alternative, they want OPB. And OPB has $50K to send a postcard to
every box holder, to let them know they’re there, whereas we don’t.

5. Other. Brandy Hatch dropped in Tuesday. She’s been the work-study student who was going
to become the new Admin Asst. Unfortunately, she went to work today for NNB. Meanwhile, Liz
Diamond has lost her babysitter so is cutting down to 3 hours per day starting next week.
Hartland doesn’t want to be our clerical person but he can help some.

5. Old Business

A.        Website Playlists. Price reports Bob Goldberg is working on it.
B.        Bloomfield grant. Hammock reports it’s ready to go. With the discounts we pay $5,094 for
classical music on KCPB, so we’re asking Bloomfield for that. Grant request will be hand-delivered
tomorrow.
C.        Annual meeting plans. Hammock reports Chris Grant will do the breakfast cooking. Joe
Patenaude can probably be enlisted to assist. Signal path for the remote broadcast shouldn’t be
a problem; Terry Wilson will check ASAP.
D.        The Current. Hammock asked David Paul to be the editor and gave him the name of a
number of others who are interested in helping. Paul has been in to get up to speed. Jack
Cullimore cranked out the October special issue.
E.        Second reading of FY07 budget. The October 12 version of the FY06 Operating Budget
Worksheet projects a $35,695 shortfall for the FY. Ambrose asked if we should we add grant
projections to the budget, to make up the shortfall. Price says it seems unlikely that we could
get a $35K grant during this FY given that there are no initiatives on the table. Hammock said
we haven’t had much time to think of long-term planning recently and that Arlene feels we’ll do
better than projected in underwriting, but he’s reluctant to increase the current projection.
Hammock intends to be as frugal as possible on expenses. Price said that, given that we want
to increase our reliance on sustainable income -- ie, memberships and donations rather than
grants -- it can even be to our benefit to let our membership know that we have a projected
shortfall and ask them to fill it.
            
Motion: To accept the October 12, 2006 budget as presented. Ambrose moved. Westerberg
seconded. Unanimous.

F. Strategic Plan.

Draft 1.2, dated October 9, 2006, of Tillicum Foundation Goals January 2007-January 2009,
drafted by Price, was discussed. (Attached).

Hammock’s comments:
    As manager, the one thing I react to are the programming goals, not because they’re bad
ideas but because we’re running hard to stay in place. If we adopt some of the more challenging
ones, we make the financial gap bigger. One the other hand, the Business Report is something
that is within our reach, maybe with some reallocation.
    Adding local content to Weekend All Things Considered is very difficult to do on a sustainable
basis with volunteers. It could be a real challenge for us because of other things I’d rather see
staff resources devoted to.
    Technology needs fleshing out.  I got here 2.5 months before Content Depot was to be rolled
out by NPR; here we are three years later with no Content Depot. There are some things that
need to be done that, had I known it was going to take this long, I would have done.
    Under technology: We need to improve the connections between the control rooms. Tune
them up. Left/right channels aren’t balanced on the faders. Not tens of thousands of dollars but
will be fairly disruptive. We’re talking connectivity infrastructure.
    Right now Hammock is focused on getting the resources to do what it is we’re already doing.
He takes these goal-setting statements as marching orders.
    Some elements – community involvement and access; some on organizational capacity;
Community Advisory Board; program content – would involve an evolutionary change in
processes. If not approached eyes on, could result in some whiplash.
KMUN and KTCB are People’s Programming. Hammock has invited input from Guidelines but has
been adamant about KCPB, that it will be programmed on the mainstream model of linking
program elements that people will tune into and stay for.        

Menetrey’s comments: Emphasizing the quality of programming and scheduling it at a time that
best allows the program to gain a following can be at odds with providing access to the
airwaves to the community at large.

Ambrose: I’d like to see that we start working more on produced content. A lot is winging it;
people come in and do their show. But now we can do a lot of high-quality, produced
programming.

Hammock: Four or five shows are now pre-produced. But there’s an expectation that the
winging it is a big part of what we do and will be a big part of what we do for the future.
    
Price: The Coastal Business Report is a very specific suggestion and is one that I thought of in
terms of taking some of the heat off the criticisms we get about the length of the Ship Report.
The Ship Report does in fact address an industry very important to our entire listening area --
maritime and shipping. Anchoring it within a morning business report would both give it a
context and perhaps also reduce Joanne’s burden of being a one-person news team, because
she could focus on one area of news: business. It’s also something that no one else is doing.
And business news also extends to the work of our local governments, so that if there is a slow
week or an uninspiring week, one could always fill time with a useful, well-read roundup of what
our local governments will be addressing at their next meetings.
    Menetrey reports that she only gets good reviews of Ship Report. Price responds that she
gets good reviews but many more complaints about its length and “where is the rest of the local
news?” Price often asks people to write to the station but most people consider expressing
themselves to a Board Director well enough, and that the message will be passed along.

Merritt suggested we first determine whether the four strategic interests are the right ones.

#1: To position the Foundation as an essential community resource and a national leader in
community broadcasting.
    
    Hammock asked what being a “national leader in community broadcasting” costs in terms of
time and effort.  Positioning the station as a national leader in community broadcasting means
getting involved on a big level at the national level and can take a lot of time away from local
community. He did that in Alaska and doesn’t necessarily want to do it again.
    Ambrose said one can be a national leader by being overtly pro-active or in the way that
Gandhi did it: by being steadfast to certain principles.
    Goal #1 is revised to read:
    To position the Foundation as an essential community resource and a force in community
broadcasting.

#2: To foster the next generation of creative community radio leaders, broadcasters and loyal
listeners.
    Agreed.

#3: To complete essential improvements to the Tillicum House.

    Hammock said he has been approached about moving the station into the space above the
Liberty Theater. This is off the table, but there could be space there for a KCPB control room.
    Price said she didn’t feel the sentence adequately conveyed what she meant, because she’d
like to see a KTCB studio built within the timeframe of this plan.
    Goal #3 is revised to read:
    To complete essential improvements to Tillicum Foundation operational facilities.

#4: To strengthen financial planning and begin to build an endowment for the future that
emphasizes sustainable funding that will withstand the vagaries of government financing.
    Agreed.
    McLaughlin says there’s a new IRS ruling whereby people over 65 can endow a 501(c)3
without loss of taxes, and will provide us with details.

It now being 7:45pm, the Directors agreed to meet again for a Special Study Session on the
Strategic Plan on Thursday, November 2, 5:00pm, at the Tillicum House.


7:47pm: Entered into Executive Session. Personnel matters and Executive Session procedures
discussed.

8:20pm. Meeting adjourned.


Respectfully submitted,
Cindy Price
Secretary
14 October 2006

Next meetings:

Thursday, Nov 2, 5:00pm: Study Session on Two-Year Goals
Saturday, Nov 11, 9:00am: Annual Membership Breakfast

Troll Radio Review: Saturday, October 28, 11:00am

Approved by the Tillicum Foundation Board of Directors
January 18, 2007
with one nay: Margarita Cullimore, citing unspecified “numerous errors”
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