WRFI-Meeting Minutes-June 2023
WRFI Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday JUNE 13TH, 2023
In Attendance:
-Peter Bakija
-Fred Balfour
-Joseph Haefeli
-Talaya Centeno
-Theresa Lyons
-Chantal Thomas
-Corinne Shanahan
-Joe Romano
-Felix Teitelbaum
-John Young
-Robin Elliot
-Bryan Roberts
Not in attendance:
-Megan Merriam
-Amie Herman
-Carlos Gutierrez
Agenda Items:
-Call to Order at 6:07 pm.
-Consent Agenda:
Move to accept Minutes for April Meeting. Discussion about if Minutes passed and accepted are passed for public minutes, or for Board specific minutes, and Public Minutes (posted on Website) might be edited; consensus is that Minutes voted on are for Board Consumption, and public minutes might be edited for public consumption (Personnel, confidential, or sensitive information). Moved, second, passes unanimously.
-Board Reflections:
Training with Sally Kane recommended revised meeting schedules and agendas. Corrine suggests adopting meeting changes a bit at a time. Asking for 3 volunteers to talk for 60 seconds or less about a memorable thing they heard on WRFI recently. Peter mentions the interviews on WRFI with Ithaca Common Council members. Joseph discusses WRFI getting press in the media, such as Ithaca Voice. Talaya discusses hearing candidate interviews on the air is fantastic, as it is better than reading it. Also seeing WRFI stickers on cars as a plus. Fred discusses the availability of Democracy Now! On a daily basis.
-Parliamentary Procedure Proposal:
Motion to add to bylaws:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P6m4ErzUCk4KBpQQIrtMUzLe7aySdnsWR4ZfTO1QCYs/edit
Motion to add Parliamentary Procedure:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kXSS554iJN4sBKJUA3OitrT-4do4zJl7fSsPlUVa-fU/edit
Short form parliamentary procedure:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cHz7QNAFxongQirwpweT-eBRtgE4bRFBivPXoof8pkM/edit
Fred discusses adding Article V to Bylaws about having meetings—what is a legal meeting that is not necessarily all in the same room, and then Parliamentary Procedure. Fred suggests adding Article V to Bylaws, and then voting to adopt Short Form Parliamentary Procedure (see link above).
Motion to vote on adding Article V to the Bylaws (first link above). Seconded. Vote passes unanimously.
Motion to adopt Short Form Parliamentary Procedure (second link above). Seconded. John asks about Executive Session possibilities. Fred suggests that hammering out details on meetings is for a future adjustment in Bylaws and adding to Article V. Discussion about removing the phrase “Meetings are open” from the Short Form Parliamentary Procedure. John motions to remove “Meetings are open” wording from motion. Second. Motion passes unanimously. Main motion voted on, passes unanimously. Corrine indicates this might take some adjustment, and we will grow into it.
-Committee Reports
Development Committee: Corrine discusses Donor calls—Board members calling assigned major donors to thank them. Will have a brief discussion about calls after Board Meeting.
Governance Committee: Fred discusses a new Google folder to hold all Board documents. John suggests a specific web page hub for all Board business. Support for such a thing is expressed. Fred suggests Slack as a communication tool. Joe suggests Trello, which the station already has access to. John is looking for a site for specific document links. Corrine suggests a sub-page on the radio HQ page specifically for board documents.
Personnel Committee: Joe reports the Personnel Committee has not met recently, but Joe and Felix are in communication about minor Personnel issues.
Finance Committee: Felix has been reconfiguring financial books from an older, sub-optimal configuration. Has met with Jennifer Edmonson who is helping reorganize. Felix has sent an update to the Finance Committee indicating that we need to track expenditures in three areas. All accounts have been reorganized into these three classes—Program Delivery, Fundraising Costs, and General and Managerial Costs. All expenses will be moved into these areas each month. Felix indicates support for doing Finance Reports quarterly, rather than monthly. Felix indicates that we have increased some underwriting potentialities.
-ED Report
Soundliner: Felix looking for a place to put the Soundliner; the insurance issues might be solved by recent NYS legislation. Felix connected with architect Claudia Brenner, who wants to help with the Soundliner project. Suggestions to use the Soundliner for long term projects—i.e. move the Soundliner to a specific location for 6 months or so, and moving it via bonded haulers. Theresa asks about the original plan for the Soundliner. Felix clarifies that the Soundliner was based on a grant from long ago; the grant was extended till the end of 2023, and the Soundliner was meant to be a studio on wheels for further outreach. Long term use of the Soundliner seems like a way to get buy-in from the place where the Soundliner is parked for an extended period. John clarifies that the original idea was originally based on the two part broadcast area—Ithaca and Watkins Glen—but now with our increase broadcast area (such as Elmira, etc.), the Soundliner could be used to bring the Mic to people—bring WRFI to other communities, instead of having the community to have to come to WRFI. Corrine adds that many stations have mobile broadcast units, and WRFI could benefit from such a system. Asks if the Development Committee could make calls to other organizations to investigate relationships. Felix reiterates that we need to settle the insurance issue before committing to use of the Soundliner. Fred suggests a brainstorming session on the Soundliner for a future date—short term ad-hoc committee.
Outreach: Ithaca festival was a big success—a lot of donation income from t-shirts and tote bags ($500 total); working on Pride festival for next weekend (6/17). Jim managed the Ithaca Festival successfully, doing a great job. Jim will also run the Pride festival in Press Bay Alley. Numerous DJs for the event. Joseph and Felix met to discuss transferring Joseph’s technical knowledge via the gear-list in the event that Joseph leaves the area; Joseph has been a great technical resource for the station. Looking for volunteers to pick up technical resources.
Staffing: Additional staff has added to Felix’s work load, as well as adding to the station capacity. Felix transfers duties to Jim as needed, and Jim has been supporting Felix as needed, and has supported Felix in various staffing issues as well as general station management. Theresa asks about a potential Business Coach for giving information on maturing the business aspect of the station. Felix discusses professional organization (Community Radio) support, and some minor staffing issues involving time and working beyond what is expected by some staff. John suggests more support for Felix as needed, such as managerial issues, etc. John suggests trying to find a Development Fellow from the Business School at Cornell, as a support for the organization. Joe discusses growth into management, and suggests that this sort of growth is tricky, and requires a shift in thinking, and indicates that a Business Coach could be a valuable resource as the station grows. Fred discusses management capabilities and possibilities for station growth.
-Strategic Planning:
Corrine asks that if anyone has not joined a committee, please join a committee. Most committees meet monthly, some meet as needed. Discussion of the Sally Kane development session. Theresa asks about the process of implementing Sally Kane’s suggestions to the board. Fred supports the idea of the Upside Down Agenda, as presented by Sally Kane. Joe advocates for an agenda item for an upcoming meeting to discuss ideas as presented in the workshop. Corrine suggests the Governance Committee to coordinate discussion of adoption of ideas for board meetings. Fred discusses the timing of committee reports, and the idea that they should be sent out the Friday before Board Meetings. Corrine is hoping to have a data meeting (qualitative, quantitative, surveys, census, focus groups, etc.) in the near future (TBD). Brian suggests checking quantitative data, and then building qualitative information out of that.
-Donor Calls:
Corrine discusses stewardship calls to existing donors. Thank donors, listen to donors, let them have a say as a valued member of the station community. Felix sent out an email with a list, script, and link to the results form.
-Meeting Adjourned at 7:37 pm.