[grc] PNB Meeting Thurs. 1/8/15 - 8:30pm EST

[Cerene WBAI]

Beloware a report from the Interim Executive Director Margy Wilkinson and somemotions from the National Finance Committee (NFC). (The NFC is comprised of thetreasurers of the five local boards, a national board member from each stationarea, and the foundation’s CFO.)


 
Thedraft meeting agenda is here: http://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20150108


 

 
INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOROPEN SESSION REPORT


 
The Pacifica National Office is hard atwork to gather information and documents in response to the AG’s correspondenceaudit. For those of you who do not know, the AG has given us an extension toFebruary 17, 2015 to respond to the requests for documents and information. We have assigned responsibility for each of the 23 requests in the AG’saudit.  And are beginning to pull together the needed materials which willbe submitted electronically. Volunteers are welcome in the PNO to assist. Please contact me at ed at pacifica.org orcall 510-849-2590 if you have time to help.

 

End of the year letter – Pacifica's endof the year letter signed by Ralph Nader with an endorsement by Amy Goodmanwent out just before Christmas to 15,000 previous donors. The first returnswere received on the day after Christmas and brought in enough money to coverthe costs of the mailing – approximately $8K.  Since then we have receivedan additional $10K and donations continue to arrive every day.

 

The difficult financial situation atPacifica and at the stations in our network is now well known.  Stationand unit managers are having to make some very hard choices in order to makeends meet. Whatever any of you can do to generate financial support forPacifica and for our stations and Pacifica Radio Archives is veryimportant.  Please consider what you can do and pitch in.

 

 


 
 MOTIONS FROM THE NFC with notes from its Chair Brian Edwards-Tiekert.


 
Greetings, 


 
The National Finance Committee metMonday to discuss crisis management measures for every financial unit facingdifficulty paying its bills. We unanimously approved motions recommending thePNB adopt the following resolutions.


 
I'll put some background at the bottomof the resolutions. 


 
WBAI


 
The interim Executive Director shallrequire the WBAI General Manager to attend the next meeting of both theWBAI Finance Committee and Local Station Board to give a First QuarterFinancial Report.


 
For the next six months, WBAI Managementshall require approval from

either Pacifica’s CFO or interimExecutive Director prior to making any

disbursement greater than $500 otherthan for rent, utilities, payroll

and other regular, recurring expenses.


 
The PNB directs WBAI Management and LSBto prepare within 45 days a recommended contingency plan to the PNB in theevent that the station’s deficits cannot be stabilized.


 
KPFK


 
For the next six months, KPFK Managementshall require approval from

either Pacifica's CFO or interimExecutive Director prior to making any

financial commitment or disbursementgreater than $1,000 other than for

rent, utilities, payroll, and otherregular, recurring expenses


 
The PNB directs the Interim ExecutiveDirector to direct Management at

KPFK to prepare within 30 days a planfor reducing expenses by at at

least $250,000 per year in order tobring KPFK's operating deficit under

control.”


 

 
KPFA 


 
For the next six months, KPFA Managementshall require approval from

either Pacifica’s CFO or interimExecutive Director prior to making any

disbursement or incurring any expensegreater than $1,000 for other than for rent, utilities, payroll, and otherregular, recurring expenses


 
The PNB directs the interim ExecutiveDirector to direct Management at

KPFA to prepare within 30 days a planfor reducing expenses by at at

least $250,000 per year in order tobring KPFA's operating deficit under

control.” (Passed without objection)


 

 
Pacifica Radio Archive 


 
The PNB directs the interim ExecutiveDirector to direct Management at

PRA to increase revenue from unbudgetedsources or prepare within 30

days a plan for reducing expenses by atleast $9,000 per month in order

to bring PRA's operating deficit fromfund-raising shortfalls under

control.


 
=============

Discussion


 
WBAI:


 
We do not have any recent financialstatements from WBAI. We learned on the NFC call that WBAI is three monthsbehind on transmitter rent, has been spending money on an unbudgeted studiobuild-out, cancelled most of its December Fund Drive, and required assistancefrom the National Office to cover Payroll and Benefits in December. We alsoheard that WBAI's General Manager has been uncommunicative to its LocalStation Board and local Finance Committee, and has not been attendingmanagement conference calls.


 
KPFK: 


 
We do not have any recent financialstatements from KPFK--the bookkeeping has been too deficient there to produceanything useful. Pacifica Management has taken steps to fix that situation byreplacing the person doing accounting at KPFK. 


 
We DO know, based on Memsys data onpledge collections and cash receipts, that the 89-90% fulfillment rate KPFKbuilt its budget around is not bearing out, and KPFK is collecting closer to80% of pledges -- that will produce a bottom-line shortfall in the ballpark of$250,000 over the course of a year. 


 
KPFA: 


 
KPFA's produced an income statementthrough November that showed KPFK's bottom line falling short of budget by$67,000. We know KPFA outperformed its budget for year-end giving in December,and should have have full accounting of how much ground it made up shortly.


 
It looks like KPFA ran into threeproblems: 

•              Cash Budgeting error. The cashflow tab of KPFA's budget accidentally omitted October Central Services,producing a cash balance ~$34,000 higher than it should have been. 

•              Cash Timing. Much of KPFA'soff-air revenues were spread out evenly across the year in the budget, but thatdoesn't reflect how they actually come in. For instance, the Major Donor lineis budgeted at $18,000 per month. However, KPFA's Major Donor income comes infits and starts--we had no income on this line in October, November, orDecember, but have had $42,000 (so far) in January. 
   Also:the budget template's cash flow formula assumes fund drive money arrives in themonth it is pledged -- and shows KPFA recording about $100,000 of ListenerSupport in January from the fund drive that starts January 26. In fact, KPFAdoesn't process credit card payments until 1-3 business days after pledges aremade. That means none of the money from that fund drive will arrive in time tohelp with KPFA's end-of-month payroll in January--which means we'll have tokeep other bills unpaid to keep money on hand for payroll and benefits.

•              Optimism. Absent a major bequestwe don't know about, it looks like KPFA's off-air fundraising will lag what'sbudgeted over the long run -- it's not just a timing issue. 


 
KPFA management say they're preparing tocut about $250,000/year in personnel spending through layoffs, consolidation ofpart-time positions (to eliminate extra benefit packages), and hour cuts.However, the savings from that will take time to  phase in -- and won'thelp with KPFA's January cash crunch. 


 
PRA [ed: Pacifica Radio Archives]: 


 
PRA fell $72,000 short of its Fall FundDrive goal; it is also about $20,000 behind on Central Service payments fromstations. The first quarter financial statement PRA sent to the board todayindicates it had a bottom line shortfall of $90,000 in just three months.

 

     On Wednesday, January 7, 2015 6:38 PM, Cerene WBAI <yes.cerene at yahoo.com> wrote:
   

 The Pacifica National Board will meet on Thursday, January 8,2015, in open, then executive session. There will be some discussion of ourfinancial situation and the audit by the California Attorney General, as well as other business.
    ‪You can listen live where shown below and/or later, on thearchive, at http://archive.kpftx.org/ ‬    Streamed at     http://kpftx.org/pls/kpftx6280.pls        The direct link is     http://kpftx.org:6280        Also at     http://audioport.org:8000/pnb1    
The full list of governance meetings around the network,including live meetings in your listening area, can be found here: http://kpftx.org/   
Cerene