KGNU Board of Directors
Minutes of March, 2001 meeting

6:39pm Call to order.
Board members in attendance: Arleigh – Chair, Phil Dougan, Greg O’Brien – Vice Chair, Anne Bermingham, Liz Valles – Treasurer, Paul Mischo, Nile Southern, Victoria Zhang – Secretary
Public in attendance: Paul McGuirk, Gabrielle Silva, Hardy Darring

6:39pm Discussion of January, 2001, minutes – minor changes made.

6:44pm Paul McGuirk brought documentation and discussed his history with KGNU and Boulder politics. He requested that he be allowed to speak without being censored on air at KGNU. Marty reiterated that interviews with him must be taped in advance to protect the station against libel charges. Greg asked about our situation re: libel. Marty replied that if someone makes an "outrageous" statement on air, then the interviewer is required to challenge the statement to protect against libel. Nile offered information about CATV as an alternative way for Paul to express his views publicly. Paul asked how long for a decision and Arleigh said we would agree to discuss the issue further before the next board meeting.

7:04pm Building Report – Phil Dougan. Things are going quite well; there will be some serious volunteer projects starting soon. Drywall is almost done. Marty noted that the move date is expected to be somewhere between the end of March to the end of May. Landscape plan is underway. Arleigh suggested we all go to see what progress has been made. We have volunteer feng shui consultants. Marty gave brief recap of move: first to be moved are the production studio, phone bank and news studio, then membership and library. Michael, Fergus and Davide have been superb help. We have bids from two moving companies for about $1,000 each. There are lots of issues still hanging: Qwest, expense to move dish (can we get a new one?), we need a back-up plan for receiving programs. Nile suggested we try to get newspapers to write about us, perhaps attract new members. Greg asked if we have a budget. Liz is working on it. Marty said we have 250K in contractor bids, so she ball-parked 350K for total including windows, wiring, etc. Shades have been donated and discounted.

7:22pm – Station Manager’s Report – Marty. See handout. Drive planning is ok. All-station meeting here at Boulder Meadows on 3/15 – potluck. Ft. Collins – tentative ok from Channel 6, engineer for new translator. We have loyal listeners, been in Ft. Collins since ’93 so we want to stay there. Transmitters have rights, translators don’t. We have new medical insurance company – now have Aetna. NFCB: please read letter (decide in May to stay members or not). Some board members had questions. Are they doing their job? Did we get their budget yet? Can we join back in then put it to vote again to lower the rate back down? Have they helped with Pacifica issue?

7:50pm – Arleigh – we skipped our usual January retreat. Perhaps have a mini-retreat for board and staff only. We’ll have more discussion at next meeting.

7:52pm – Hardy’s report on phone call progress. See handout. He’s on the M’s now. General consensus is that we aren’t making enough money to continue much longer, but will let him continue until end of March and re-evaluate. We should ask Sara Payne, our gnu fund consultant, to review the numbers and give her opinion of effectiveness of calls.

8:30pm – Board discussion of phone calls. Hardy should highlight bad/disconnected numbers and let a volunteer fix it. We generally think he could be working faster, more calls per hour. Marty suggested 20 hours per week max. Volunteers can do some of what Hardy has been doing. We want to know how he accounts for his hours worked.
8:45pm – PBOG – Greg O’Brien. There are lots of events coming up – Farmer’s Market, car raffle, Amy Goodman, cocktail party, Tim O’Brien 4/1, Dining on Air 5/21 (hoping to average $500 per party) – Arleigh will be Joanne’s asst. Bed & Breakfast, Tuesday night bluegrass @Trilogy Wine Bar. Nile is now Games Master for raffles.

8:56pm – Internet – Arleigh. Website is in middle of redesign – send changes to webmaster@kgnu.org. Members prefer to "meet" through email. Working on wiring for new building-software, network security. Qwest is giving two T1 lines for price of one; also getting ISDN line in new bldg.

9:02pm – Nominating Committee – Arleigh. Nothing to report.

9:03pm – Program Committee – Reviewing public affairs hosts; comparing Pacifica w/Free Speech Radio. Livewire news seemed good in February – will be a big topic at GRC.

9:07pm – Budget Committee – Liz. Mike is breaking down our P&L report by topic so there’s more detail. We’re doing fine in YTD. Our yearly audit has been completed.

9:11pm – Grievance Committee – Joel will retire in May so we need a new person to take over this committee, unless he agrees to stay on. We need to make sure we have a system in place in case anyone files a grievance. Davide and Kathleen are in the pool now.

9:16pm – Adjourn.