August 2019

August 28th 2019, San Francisco

AGENDA

Prior to the meeting, please add items for discussion here:

  1. Review Agenda

  2. Committee Updates

    1. Tech

    2. Content

    3. Others

  3. Constellation Brands Underwriting

  4. Committees

  5. Matchtracks

  6. Development Director Contract

  7. Studio Upgrades

  8. Mush Reflections

  9. Data Project

MINUTES

Scribe: Ben Ward

Convene as Best Frequencies, Inc. Board of Directors

Present:

  • Ben

  • Amanda

  • Tom

  • Will

15:12 - Committee Updates

  • Tech:

    • 13 people in the Slack channel right now.

    • Need to brainstorm & rank project list

    • Need to take inventory of skills

    • Web migration: Going well. Hopefully finish within 2 weeks. Currently we’re double-paying for hosting, but cost will be reduced after the change takes effect.

    • Data

      • Amanda joined a networking app (Lunchclub) to meet tech people. Met someone interested in helping us with data projects. We’ve formed a project to explore and experiment with station data.

        • Goals: Volunteer (Cindee) will review all the data we can get her and see what insights might be gleaned. e.g. Web logs, playlist history, listener insights.

        • We’ll meet and discuss major questions we have and want answers to.

        • She’s interested in helping mentor people in the BFF community to learn data science skills.

        • Maybe try to kick off projects like a “Year in Review”

      • Ben is working with Science Hack Day Organisers to have BFF data included in the program.

    • Content

      • Committee met. 7 people involved.

      • Not really producing more content yet. Some good ideas, though.

      • Need a bit more a strategic focus on how the committee gets stuff done.

Committees generally: Will can help as an external moderator to help committees get off the ground. Still missing chairs for more committees to start up though.

Look to have each new board member also chair a committee.

15:40 Constellation Brands Underwriting

  • Have we heard from them?

  • We have not.

  • Tom will follow-up.

15:42 Matchtracks

Matchtracks provides access for LGBT artists to access free/low-cost mixing/mastering of music.

  • Amanda is working on a project where we use our non-profit status to handle donations for this.

  • Lien would manage the program, who is involved in the project.

  • We’d process all the money coming in to the project, w/ 7% cut for our administrative role.

  • We’ll be applying for some grants specifically for this project, trying to get a sense of $$$/participant to frame how we apply for those, Amanda will help structure that.

  • Advantages to us

    • Broaden our scope from Radio Station to bigger music community

    • Links us to established other sponsors (e.g. Dropbox & Bandcamp) which may open us up to more opportunities.

    • Aligned with our music/arts mission.

  • Risks

    • Time commitment from Amanda.

15:52 Development Director

  • Two bids we need to consider.

    • One is a short-term (2 month) near-full-time engagement.

    • Another is an annual contract for ongoing strategy advice, which will involve teaching us how to do this kind of work.

  • Neither have direct experience in radio, but one has worked with Noisebridge so we have some understanding of the kind of groups they work with.

  • Amanda preference for the strategy advice for at least 6 months to get the ball rolling.

    • Also has experience with board development.

    • Also has contacts for grant writers.

We want to engage now to help with the Holiday Fundraiser campaign, although we wouldn’t expect substantial improvements until next summer’s campaign to allow for time to get educated.

We should not lose sight that we need to bring on a development director in our own organisation.

Two month engagement for a project will cost $2000. Strategy consultant will cost $8000 for the year. Not the same service, so we have to choose the preferred strategy for how we approach development.

Board votes in favour of using budget for the 12 month strategic consultant.

16:09 Studio Upgrades

  • We’ve installed an iPad the studio for DJs playing pre-recorded PSAs, idents.

  • Currently limited to being plugged into AUX2 as we’ve run out of inputs on the engine.

  • DJs seem to really like it!

Proposal: We want to buy an upgrade 16 channel engine to give us more inputs. Forrest is getting quotes for new and B-stock. Estimate around $5000 (new)

Benefits:

  • Permanent connection for studio infra like iPad

  • New engine has more dedicated mic channels (fix mic 3.)

  • Unlocks doing other hypothetical new integrations (e.g. live feed from the Alley, telephone, etc.)

Board votes in favour of using budget for the new engine.

16:20 MUSH Reflections

We’re at the end of MUSH. Final event tomorrow! We have made… drumroll… $50!

Lessons for next year:

  • Better security for equipment as it was clearly being used by others in JLS.

  • Keep doing it at Ferry Lawn, much better audiences than Marina Lawn.

  • Start later in the season as the first events were very foggy.

  • Be more proactive about promotion.

For the budget we had: Great job, managed to have an event every time. Bookings were good. Outlay for the equipment was a one-time cost.

We’d do it again.

16:30 Any other items

  • Check on how many liquor licenses we can obtain a year for running events?

  • Can we as a non-profit get preferred access to things like block party permits?

  • Amanda is working on insurance.

ACTION ITEMS

    • Tom

      • Continue working on leads for underwriting

      • Verify some of the above questions about transferability of liquor licenses.

    • Ben

      • Tech: Ship the website, shut down our Amazon costs.

      • Get the Data project rolling

    • Amanda

      • Move things forward with Krebs

      • Resolve the insurance task

    • Will

      • Put together agenda for our next meeting

***

16:41 — Meeting adjourned.

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