May 2020

May 21st 2020, San Francisco

Agenda

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

  1. Review Agenda & Vote [Ben]

  2. Vote on previous minutes [Ben]

  3. Board Nomination and Vote: Tom Tierney, term renewal

  4. Board Nomination and Vote: Will Craven term renewal

  5. Board Nomination: Eddie/Erika Delgado

  6. Mid-fundraiser update

  7. Open for public comment

  8. Any other business?

Minutes

Scribe: Ben Ward

Present:

  • Amanda Guest, Executive Director, General Manager

  • Ben Ward, Secretary, Technical Director

  • Tom Tierney, Vice Chair

Late:

  • Will Craven, Chair

18:18 – Agenda & Minutes

Board majority votes YES to proceed.

Board majority votes YES to approve April minutes.

18:19 - Board Nomination and Vote: Tom Tierney (term renewal)

Tom: Very enthused to remain on the board for another term. Calls out that he thinks he could be more effective and if we wanted to look for others in his place he’d understand.

We note that we have 3 open slots on the board, so no concern about taking up space, we can also always vote to expand the board if there’s a need, and we’ve just recently set new job descriptions to help make us all more effective.

  • Amanda nominates.

  • Ben seconds the nomination.

Board majority votes YES for Tom Tierney to remain on the board for another term.

Tom’s second term expires June 1st 2023

18:27 - Board Nomination: Erika Delgado

Amanda nominates Erika to join the board. So many times we talk about BFF.fm and what we’re doing and Erika is regularly cited as a great example of what we are with her work on the Bestie Bashes.

“What they do is really at the heart of what BFF.fm is all about.”

Erika: I’ve been with BFF.fm since 2016. It’s a place I dedicate so much of my time to, I don’t regret dedicating so much time to. BFF.fm always gives back for that dedication. I want to keep doing that, and helping. BFF.fm is such a big part of what San Francisco is.

Tom: What’s your background?

Erika: Born and raised in San Francisco, from the Mission. Used to work in galleries in the city, music venues, have written about music since 2015.

Tom: What would you say is “the magic” you do?

Erika: I’m a wonderful person! I build relationships with musicians and people really well. This has

Ben: What would you like to learn by being on the board?

Erika: I want to learn what it is to be on a board! I want to be able to keep doing this at a higher level, to dedicate more substantial time to this thing. I’m living my truth, which is BFF.fm, aliens, and not going crazy.

Tom: I’m excited, you and Amanda already have a great working relationship and to have new perspective on the board. I will second.

Amanda: Also, the proposal here would be for Erika to take the role of Events Director, convene an events committee. We need to slightly work out what that means in this time of “no events”.

Erika: I have a lot of experience doing that, and of organizing people and managing the execution of events. Excited to run more events and achieve things I couldn’t do on my own. I already have people in mind who could join the committee and help out.

Called to vote: Amanda nominating, Tom seconds. All present in favour.

Board majority votes YES to proceed.

Welcome to board, Erika.

18:30 - Virtual Bestie Bash

We’re putting together a virtual streamed Bestie Bash event for the evening of May 27th.

We’re going to compile pre-recorded contributions from bands and stream it live. Will avoid technical problems of trying to stream live from many locations with bad internet.

We’re doing 6 bands, each will play 3 songs. We’re paying the bands. It will be short and sweet. Amanda and Erika will host via video interludes. We’ll also include contribution “commercials” from the artists who usually have tables at the bash.

Amanda previews the presentation for the videos.

Ben question: Is there a plan for the recorded performances? E.g. Releasing them standalone beyond the live stream, extracting the audio for playing on shows, will the performances be retained by the bands?

Amanda: Expectation is that band’s own their recordings since they’re producing them, we’ll ask permission for other uses, and look to extract MP3s so they can be played on shows.

19:03 - Spring Fundraiser Update

Half way through, we’re doing OK. We’re at 65% of our goal. Matching fund and off-air fundraiser both fell short of goals, but Facebook Giving Tuesday Now campaign came out ahead.

Targeted email campaign did well as people caught up — although the initial reaction was very slow, likely because people are a bit overwhelmed by all the fundraising attention in the world right now. We’re getting an unusual/higher amount of personal engagement to the donor emails after donations too. Seems like people have a little more time and desire to connect. It’s taking them longer to response, but the response has been good.

Our social media reach has been poor. We’re not seeing the impressions level on our posts that we were a few months ago, even the special posts (e.g. the jingles) aren’t getting as much engagement as we expected. Might also be a consequence of changing online/social behaviour under the crisis.

19:13 - Relief fund

We’ve got a few donations to the relief fund, but not much. We haven’t had that many applications either though. There’s a slight dilemma about whether/how to promote this to reach more people while having limited funding.

19:20 – Public comment

For any members of the public observing the meeting, an open session to hear comments.

  • No public attendees this month.

19:20 – Any Other Business?

  • Tom is working on video footage for a fundraising video for attracting underwriters.

  • We worked again with Nanosoar to do a BFF.fm design for face masks.

  • Amanda deferring goal setting and committee head meetings until June to keep time focused on fundraising.

19:30 - Board Nomination and Vote: Will Craven

Will joined the meeting mid-way through, so we pulled his agenda item to the end.

Will: Won’t be continuing for another term as doesn’t feel he has the time to commit to the board activities. Next month will be his final board meeting.

Action Items

  • All

    • Share information about the fundraiser.

    • Promote the Bestie Bash.

19:37 — Meeting adjourned.

The next meeting of the BFF.fm board is scheduled for 6pm on June 18th. See https://board.bff.fm for more information.

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