September 11, 2008 KSDP Board Meeting Minutes

Sand Point Library Conference Room

Thursday, September 11, 2008

7:00 P.M.

MEETING MINUTES

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 7:20 p.m. by Vice-President, Robbe Gilmour.

Roll Call

Board members present: Vice-President, Robbe Gilmour; Treasurer, Joanna Karlsen, and Board member, Marta Varga.

Board members not present: Chairman, Jim Brown and Secretary, Justin Godbehere

KSDP staff present: General Manager, Kells Hetherington; News Director, Anthony Gorman and Administrative Assistant, Shannon Sommer

Public present: Albert Spiros

Approval of Agenda

Approval of Minutes

Robbe made a motion to approve the minutes from the May 15, 2008 Board of Directors meeting. Joanna seconded the motion and the minutes were adopted.

Report from the General Manager

KSDP is executing well on several fronts.

The station has roughly $63,000.00 in the bank with another $18,300.00 expected soon.

The new Cisco router Alaska Public Broadcasting, Inc. sent to the station before my arrival is finally installed. Tom Bohn of B2B Networks visited the radio station early in August to do the set up. His visit was paid for by APBI. Tom is working to get the station streaming online and to complete a software installation in the production room. Both projects have been ongoing for sometime.

Our web site is much improved since the last Board meeting. Also, we registered additional domain names, resulting in “KSDP Radio” being number one in Google search results. Everyone at the station is working hard to put more detail and information on the site. A little KSDP icon has been added on the left hand side of our primary URL address, www.apradio.org.

The station submitted several grant applications to help finance a proposed studio renovation and Albert Spiros is here to discuss that in greater detail. The studio renovation project in short will improve the overall functionality of the current office space and add a second satellite dish outside the station studios. The dish would enable the radio station to receive APRN programming in real time. All told, KSDP has have applied for $80,000.00. The station applied to the Rasmuson Foundation for $25,000.00, to Conoco Phillips for $50,000.00 and to the Alaska Community Foundation for $5,000.00. Each foundation has indicated receipt of our application.

I have made Mayor Glenn Gardner aware of the proposed renovations, and he not only supports the project, but will try to help. Glenn knows Diane Kaplan, head of the Rasmuson Foundation. Glenn has a copy of our Rasmuson request.

Now, I’ll let Albert discuss the project.

Albert reviews the project in detail. He talks about the heat issue in the city office and explains why it is a problem. Albert also discusses the proposed office renovations and how he expects to get the glass needed by the project from Seattle to Sand Point.

General Communications Incorporated, better known as GCI, contacted me about putting something on the tower. GCI recently acquired Alaska Wireless Communications, LLC. GCI led me to believe what was being added to the tower was cell phone service related. This proved not to be the case, and we are negotiating a separate deal with GCI. The company wants to add equipment to our tower in order to offer Wi-Fi internet service in Sand Point. GCI is the new internet provider for the Aleutians East Borough School District.

As you know, we applied to the APBI Capitol Grants Program for financial assistance to purchase and install a wind turbine. The turbine would be constructed at the transmitter site and answer between 80 and 90 percent of the station’s electric needs. The grant review committee responded to us through APBI Executive Director Jamie Waste and asked us to compile more wind data. As such, we have returned to the Committee with a bid from ABS Alaska to do a twelve month wind study.

As a precautionary measure, I am preparing a grant application to the Alaskan Energy Authority. The legislature provided AEA with one hundred million dollars to fund alternative energy projects.

Finally, the radio station is applying to the Alaskan Humanities Forum for a grant to support a portion of a proposed regional program, “Battle of the Bush.” The Alaska Humanities Forum is funded through the National Endowment for the Arts. Dale Houghtaling has agreed to be our Humanities Scholar. Alaska Humanities Forum grant applications must have a Humanities Scholar. The Scholar must be someone with references who has a graduate degree. Advanced graduate degree is introduced in the application and the project.

In November, Tony and I will travel to Anchorage for the Alaska Public Broadcasting and Alaska Broadcasting Association joint conference. Travel to and from the meeting will be paid by APBI.

This year, the radio station will continue the student internship program with Heather Meinert’s art class.

Tony has been doing a good job this year and so has Shannon. Shannon rid us of the Pitney Bowes machine and we are now using just stamps, which saves a lot of money. Shannon has also been selecting songs for the radio and she is doing a great job at that.

Report from News Director

Tony reported on his travel to Bethel this summer for a reporter’s conference. During that time, we were also able to obtain a Morantz recorder and microphone through a grant from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Also Adobe Audition was installed, in the production room. Adobe is a sound editing program. Tony’s fishery stories have been aired and published throughout the summer on “Alaska News Nightly” and the “Alaska Economic Report.” He also gave updates on current election interviews.

Old Business

New Business

Joanna made a motion to postpone the Election of Officers until the next meeting because only three Board members were present, Robbe seconded the motion and it was carried without dissent.

Kells also stated that because each of the last two Board meetings failed to achieve a quorum that he had implemented a temporary budget. The temporary budget increased Tony and Shannon’s hourly wages and provided Shannon with some additional hours. There were no questions raised about the temporary budget. Kells made it clear that while he was proposing a salary increase for himself that his would only take effect upon Board approval. The Board approved the budget with Kells’ increase. Kells’ new gross salary is $5,125.00 per month.

Kells answered several questions about how the special, or proposed renovation project were treated in the budget. He explained that they had been separated out and appeared under the header “other categories.” Kells also highlighted the fact that he had split out the satellite dish expense from the studio renovation in the budget category because he felt that although the projects are commingled in grant applications they really are two separate efforts. Kells emphasized that he does not anticipate the project to be fully funded, but that he hoped to secure some special support for the proposed capital improvements. Kells distributed a bid from ABS for the wind study. The Board set aside items under category heading “other categories” and approved the proposed budget.

The DJ position being created was discussed. Joanna directed Kells to have it advertised and Robbe explained that locally would suffice. Kells said, he would post the position around Sand Point and on the radio and put it on the website. The board also discussed making the part-time DJ a full time position.

Public Comments & Discussion

Next Meeting

The Board agreed to hold future meetings on the second Thursday of the month at the Sand Point Library Conference Room. The next meeting is Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

Adjournment

These minutes were typed by Shannon Sommer, Administrative Assistant.