Minutes for the regular National Finance Committee meeting March 27, 2012.

Meeting convened at 8:36 PM (ET) a quorum being present, the Chair and Secretary being present.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attending: Ken Aaron, Jim Boyd, Bill Crosier, Marcus Jetter, Campbell Johnson, Kim Kaufman, R. Paul Martin, Tracy Rosenberg, Barbara Whipperman, Lavarn Williams, also attending was Executive Director Arlene Englehardt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Agenda:

1.	Roll Call
2.	Approve Draft Agenda
3.	Approve pending minutes
4.	Brief Planning Discussion Re: WPFW
5.	Brief Planning Discussion Re: KPFK
6.	Financial transparency discussion
7.	Houston budget question
8.	BAI Review
9.	Confidentiality Recommendation

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motion: (Ken Aaron) “To adopt the agenda.” (Passed without objection) 8:46 PM (ET)

Approve pending minutes 8:46 PM (ET)

Motion: (Kim Kaufman) “To approve the minutes of the February 28, 2012, meeting as amended” (Passed without objection)

There were some corrections made to the draft minutes without objection.

Brief Planning Discussion Re: WPFW 8:52 PM (ET)

The Chair announced that over the next couple of weeks we’ll be migrating the NFC mailing list and files to the KPFTX.ORG server. There will also be a backup of the existing NFC archives. People will get passwords to access things on KPFTX.ORG. The NFC is one of the bigger committee archives to move.

The Chair said that with regard to budgetary shortfalls the NFC needs to be involved in putting together recommendations about the shortfall. Implementation at the stations is not what the NFC will do. The NFC will be able to put together strong recommendations and fairly strong instructions. She said that the committee should do WPFW first and KPFK second because of WPFW’s need to move.

The committee briefly discussed this topic and it will come up at the next meeting, who will be attending from WPFW was discussed.

Brief Planning Discussion re: KPFK 9:04 PM (ET)

The committee discussed planning for a discussion about how to improve KPFK’s second quarter results and whom to invite from the station to attend that NFC meeting. There was no objection to having the KPFK review on April 17, and not meeting on April 24, the next meeting after that would be on May 8.

Financial transparency discussion 9:15 PM (ET)

The committee discussed transparency and the difficulties some Treasurers have had in acquiring financial information. Current Pacifica policies and the possibility of the NFC coming up with new policies were discussed.

Houston budget question 9:48 PM (ET)

The KPFT Treasurer reported that the KPFT FY12 budget that was approved by the PNB was not the same as the budget approved by the NFC. The CFO said that there appeared to have been a typo in the spreadsheet. She said that she’d send a corrected spreadsheet.

BAI Review 9:57 PM (ET)

The WBAI Treasurer reported that he’d asked questions of the WBAI General Manager about some of the problems seen for the station’s first quarter. Listener Support was off by $13,607. The General Manager said that the Fall on-air fund raiser was off by $42,000 and the December on-air fund raiser was also short. Donations were short by $31,641 and the General Manager chalked that up to “hard times.” The Community Events/Crafts Fair line, which includes a Saturday morning program that uses Broadway theater tickets as a premium was short by $25,555 because the person doing the show had been away for some weeks. Also fewer Community Events were done than had been planned. Administrative Expenses were about $40,000 higher than budgeted due to consultants being converted to Paid Staff. Telephone expenses were $5,000 higher than expected because WBAI is still using two telephone systems. Tower Rent was $28,000 higher than expected because the station had paid outstanding bills from last year and the amount of the increase in tower rent, at the Empire State building, was higher than projected. All in all, WBAI continues to improve, but the Treasurer does not think that it’s improving fast enough. At this rate the station will not become self sustaining and able to pay its share of shared expenses in full until some years from now. The Treasurer suggested that Pacifica could save money overall by having the National Office pay WBAI’s tower rent on time and so avoid large, cumulative late penalties.

The committee discussed the report, including an assertion on a Web-based bulletin board that someone had threatened to bring complaints about claims made for some “health premiums” during WBAI’s recent on-air fund raiser to the F.C.C. There was a discussion of WBAI’s premiums. The CFO said that the National Office does not have the reserves to pay WBAI’s tower rent, Democracy Now! is currently owed about $1,000,000 and any reserves would have to go to pay payroll first, including WBAI’s payroll.

Confidentiality Recommendation 10:30 PM (ET)

The committee reopened the discussion it had previously had about the confidentiality of executive sessions. It was agreed to take the discussion to executive session.

Motion: (Kim Kaufman) “To adjourn to executive session.” (Passed without objection)

Adjourned 10:39 PM (ET)

Submitted by R. Paul Martin, Secretary.