E-mail From the PNB Secretary January 8, 2015

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: [WBAI-LSB-PUBLIC] Re: PNB Meeting Thurs. 1/8/15 - 8:30pm EST
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 11:37:43 +0000 (UTC)
From: Cerene WBAI yes.cerene@yahoo.com [WBAI-LSB-PUBLIC]
Reply-To: Cerene WBAI
To: takebackdiscussions@googlegroups.com , LSB PUBLIC , PacificaRadiowaves , Fulcrums of Change , New Pacifica , KPFK , Uncensored Friends of KPFT , GRC

Below are a report from the Interim Executive Director Margy Wilkinson and some motions from the National Finance Committee (NFC). (The NFC is comprised of the treasurers of the five local boards, a national board member from each station area, and the foundation’s CFO.)

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

INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OPEN SESSION REPORT

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

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

The difficult financial situation at Pacifica and at the stations in our network is now well known. Station and unit managers are having to make some very hard choices in order to make ends meet. Whatever any of you can do to generate financial support for Pacifica and for our stations and Pacifica Radio Archives is very important. 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 met Monday to discuss crisis management measures for every financial unit facing difficulty paying its bills. We unanimously approved motions recommending the PNB adopt the following resolutions.

I'll put some background at the bottom of the resolutions.

WBAI

The interim Executive Director shall require the WBAI General Manager to attend the next meeting of both the WBAI Finance Committee and Local Station Board to give a First Quarter Financial Report.

For the next six months, WBAI Management shall require approval from either Pacifica’s CFO or interim Executive Director prior to making any disbursement greater than $500 other than for rent, utilities, payroll and other regular, recurring expenses.

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

KPFK

For the next six months, KPFK Management shall require approval from either Pacifica's CFO or interim Executive Director prior to making any financial commitment or disbursement greater than $1,000 other than for rent, utilities, payroll, and other regular, recurring expenses

The PNB directs the Interim Executive Director to direct Management at KPFK to prepare within 30 days a plan for reducing expenses by at at least $250,000 per year in order to bring KPFK's operating deficit under control.”

KPFA

For the next six months, KPFA Management shall require approval from either Pacifica’s CFO or interim Executive Director prior to making any disbursement or incurring any expense greater than $1,000 for other than for rent, utilities, payroll, and other regular, recurring expenses

The PNB directs the interim Executive Director to direct Management at KPFA to prepare within 30 days a plan for reducing expenses by at at least $250,000 per year in order to bring KPFA's operating deficit under control.” (Passed without objection)

Pacifica Radio Archive

The PNB directs the interim Executive Director to direct Management at PRA to increase revenue from unbudgeted sources or prepare within 30 days a plan for reducing expenses by at least $9,000 per month in order to bring PRA's operating deficit from fund-raising shortfalls under control.

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Discussion

WBAI:

We do not have any recent financial statements from WBAI. We learned on the NFC call that WBAI is three months behind on transmitter rent, has been spending money on an unbudgeted studio build-out, cancelled most of its December Fund Drive, and required assistance from the National Office to cover Payroll and Benefits in December. We also heard that WBAI's General Manager has been uncommunicative to its Local Station Board and local Finance Committee, and has not been attending management conference calls.

KPFK:

We do not have any recent financial statements from KPFK--the bookkeeping has been too deficient there to produce anything useful. Pacifica Management has taken steps to fix that situation by replacing the person doing accounting at KPFK.

We DO know, based on Memsys data on pledge collections and cash receipts, that the 89-90% fulfillment rate KPFK built its budget around is not bearing out, and KPFK is collecting closer to 80% 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 statement through 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 three problems:

• Cash Budgeting error. The cash flow 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's off-air revenues were spread out evenly across the year in the budget, but that doesn't reflect how they actually come in. For instance, the Major Donor line is budgeted at $18,000 per month. However, KPFA's Major Donor income comes in fits and starts--we had no income on this line in October, November, or December, but have had $42,000 (so far) in January. ? Also: the budget template's cash flow formula assumes fund drive money arrives in the month it is pledged -- and shows KPFA recording about $100,000 of Listener Support in January from the fund drive that starts January 26. In fact, KPFA doesn't process credit card payments until 1-3 business days after pledges are made. That means none of the money from that fund drive will arrive in time to help with KPFA's end-of-month payroll in January--which means we'll have to keep other bills unpaid to keep money on hand for payroll and benefits.
• Optimism. Absent a major bequest we don't know about, it looks like KPFA's off-air fundraising will lag what's budgeted over the long run -- it's not just a timing issue.

KPFA management say they're preparing to cut about $250,000/year in personnel spending through layoffs, consolidation of part-time positions (to eliminate extra benefit packages), and hour cuts. However, the savings from that will take time to phase in -- and won't help with KPFA's January cash crunch.

PRA [ed: Pacifica Radio Archives]:

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

On Wednesday, January 7, 2015 6:38 PM, Cerene WBAI wrote:

The Pacifica National Board will meet on Thursday, January 8, 2015, in open, then executive session. There will be some discussion of our financial 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 the archive, 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