WBCR-LP 97.7FM, Great Barrington Community Radio

Minutes May 26, 2010

Minutes
WBCR-lp FM
Board of Directors Meeting – May 26, 2010

Meeting convened at 6:10pm

In attendance: Paul Rapp, Nick Ring, Judy Eddy, Peter Levine, Yvonne Skiba
Absent: Dave Barrett, Frank Tolopko
Guests: Andy Potter, Julia Potter

Andy Potter gave a fund drive recap. Andy is acting Fundraising Committee Chair. He suggested we start planning for the fall fund drive soon. We came close to our goal, brought in $13,000 in pledges. Yvonne reported that total was off due to errors in calculations. Looking at Oct 4-11 for the next fund drive.

No public comments were received.

Previous minutes approved from 4/28/10.

Agenda was unanimously accepted.

Speaker series was discussed. Question regarding what is current status. Barbara Dean is trying to nail down Amy Goodman for event.

Treasurer’s Report – Income & Expense Report presented. $15,000 bank balance. Treasurer’s Report was accepted unanimously.

Committee Reports –

Programming - Nick Ring reported on new schedule for new term. There are 16 new shows. Some returning after hiatus. New programmer training is difficult, but it’s coming along. We don’t have a training coordinator right now, so some new programmers are getting on the air more slowly than we would like. Programming Committee will shift training a week early due to fund drive in October. Seasoned programmers will be paired with new ones for fund drive. The P.Committee suggested we institute a one-time blanket waiver to youth programmers for volunteer hours due to the difficulty of completing required hours. Dave Barrett so moved, Board voted unanimously to do so.

Membership – Nick Ring reported that Leslie Gabriel has offered to head up the Membership Committee. No committee report given.

Tech – Peter Levine reported that he shipped the CD player off for repair. Nick Ring reported all computers are nearly 5 years old. Will need replacing. MAC mini’s are ideal for station use. About $400-$500, plus monitor, keyboard, mouse. Nick will resolve the stereo issue. Nick Ring reported that the monitor didn’t work out. He has purchased a new MAC mini. Ben ordered a shock mount. One of our main drives died. Lost current term shows, although they might still be on the drive, Nick has had no luck getting the data off of it. Stuart has donated a 400GB drive, an older model. Jump starting the system is still required. Issue with studio transmitter link was discussed. To replace it would cost thousands of dollars.

Facility – Ben Shalles reported (via phone) that he needs to change the handicapped ramp, needs to extend it. Steve Dietman is willing to pay for it. Will cost around $5,000. Steve will draw up plan and present to Ben and building inspector. John Breasted reported that he felt the ramp was non-compliant. Question was raised as to whether we had to have a ramp that is fully ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. Paul with check the ADA regs. Bldg. Inspector would probably want it to be. If we’re exempt, then we’ll leave it as is. Two different architects went over the ramp plans with Ben before it was built. But it’s not right. Ben will get more info from Steve.

Fund Raising – covered during Andy Potter’s presentation regarding fund drive recap (see above).

Full Power Transition – Nick Ring and Peter Levine. 550 watt transmitter is $6,000. Question of build vs. use existing building to house it was discussed. 2 cell racks up there now. Need to figure out costs. Peter Levine will call owner of building where we think we’re putting the transmitter.

Other Business:

There was a listener complaint about the stream rebuffering repeatedly. Nick looked into it and it seemed fine. Our speed is 128bps, which is faster than many people have at home.

Programmers have confusion regarding operating Studio Two. Andy has offered Studio Two trainings. Binder of procedures would be great.

Motion to adjourn was unanimously accepted at 7:40 p.m.

Submitted by: Judy Eddy

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