September 2022
September 15, 2022, San Francisco
Agenda
Review Agenda & Vote
Vote to approve previous minutes
Discussion Topics
Committee Updates
Events
Marketing
Fundraising
Tech
Board Development
Music
Finance
Review Action Items
Update on Birthday & EOY Fundraising
Update on overall health of the station
Closing Items
Open for public comment
Any other business?
Minutes
Present:
Amanda Guest, Chair, Executive Director
Caryn Kesler, Vice Chair, Creative Director
Irving Pham, Treasurer
Clair McDevitt, Secretary, Chair of Fundraising Committee
Ben Ward, Technical Director
Absent:
Brandon Paski, Chair of Marketing Committee
Erika Delgado, Events Director
6:07 pm — Convene, Vote on Agenda & Previous Minutes
Vote YES to approve the JULY and August minutes. Approved
Vote YES to adopt the proposed agenda. Approved
6:09 pm— Committee Updates
Events
Silver sprocket event last weekend, they were pleased with it, but we didn’t sell anything. Toy capsule machine is there.
Talked to George about Halloween Meltdown. In re-budgeting with an understanding of the scope, thinks Halloween meltdown will cost about $6,000 and Mosswood slightly more than that. Talking about ways to help each other get people to give money to BFF.fm for us to give to them or do a package deal.
For Halloween Meltdown Oct. 8 and 9 looking for a contribution of $2,500 and probably the same for Mosswood next year. George talking to Marco about possible sponsors. Talking about ways to raise more funds.
Last year did $1,000 for Twin Shrieks Festival, this year also on Oct. 8, The Complex can’t stream it. But we did $500 sponsorship for the event. For budgeting in the future we might want to start doing more of these sponsorships for local events that align with our mission - add some of the detail to tracking/metrics doc to plan for next year.
Marketing - no updates, Brandon has been traveling.
Fundraising
Grants for the Arts award in process, Resilia and Bill Graham Memorial Foundation grants submitted. GFTA award should be ready to start reimbursing in Nov. Amanda submits receipts, and will keep Irving in the loop.
Tech
Committee met last week, notes and project updates in Slack channel. Approach of writing committee notes every month could be valuable to disseminate info.
Things are good, all of our top level projects are green, bug fixing for schedule page shipped, also scary update for server. Running more up to date software. Had a small turn out at this month’s meeting; thinking about what is the potential - don’t feel well calibrated to have a sense of where it could end up, but also just wanting to get folks volunteering in any capacity. Reliability will be a good foundation for people participating more.
Amanda: I would like to see more redundancy in what people have capability to help with. More people to manage automation, other tasks/projects so if one person is away others to fall back on.
Ben: trying to organize and map out platforms to grow and plan for contingency/redundancy. Want strong awareness of disaster recovery. I have a spreadsheet that documents, will chat with Forrest about automation.
Board Development
Oct. 16 board retreat, location TBD possibly the secret alley or Amanda’s backyard.
Music - no updates
Finance
Overview of fiscal year 2022, what types of categories/highlights do you want to see in future P&L’s?
Every two months will pull in documents and see if anything stands out, can see large donations, DJ dues, etc.
Amanda: helpful to understand a little better - with exception of one time expenses, how much of a cash flow we need on a month to month or quarterly basis. Trending behind where we have been in the past. Will help with fundraising, understanding and budget. Things have been a lot more precarious this year than previous years.
Want to use end of year fundraising to bolster next year’s budget rather than cover this year’s expenses. Cover essentials in advance so additional fundraising covers more stuff rather than expenses. Kindful $1,300/year, has worked out well but has limitations that are frustrating. Give Butter is easier to use, figuring out if can use GIve Butter in the future and not Kindful.
Lifespan of donor is usually 3-4 years, prior to pandemic had great donor retention rates; a lot of attrition over pandemic, but have held onto people longer than other orgs do, want to get some of those relationships started with new people. Hopefully having this info more readily accessible will help us track it better and make more strategic decisions.
Internet hotspot - how often are we using it? Amanda will talk to Forrest about if we’re using it now and if we can cancel it.
Ben- have used in the past for losing internet connection in the secret alley, have used for emergency for studio A internet connection. Worth pursuing more on demand set up. Use to have capability as backup.
Irving is following up on tax stuff with Forrest.
6:49 Caryn Joins
6:49 pm— Review Action Items
Everyone: do you have a connection to a local business? Let’s introduce them to BFF and share messaging and underwriting package with them. Add details to the underwriting tab of this spreadsheet:
Clair will reach out to Green Apple, declined sponsorship but may give for raffle.
Ben reached out to Distrokit, no response, will reach out again
No leads on corp philanthropy at Salesforce, will follow up.
Amanda got G Systems and Fauvescraper Studio (annual)
Pending with Noisepop, got passes to Noisepop 2023 for silent auction and giveaway to The Cut, their outdoor movie theater. Had staffing change and trying to get a firm answer in the next few weeks. Music City hotel/performance space/practice studio in Terndernob. Former bff dj is GM there. It is a business with a c3 arm, trying to figure out how to fund their complex. Have a nonprofit manager, will connect with her. Maybe look for partnerships/collaboration opportunities. Could maybe use their space for events.
Caryn’s friend Bob is helping with underwriting.
Clair: schedule board retreat in October (weekends, add availability to this spreadsheet by Aug. 10)
Amanda: start scheduling committee night (weekday evening) - in progress now that everyone is back, will try to get going for Oct.
Everyone: at next committee meetings, come up with a list of top metrics to share. - Amanda reviewed, committee can review one last time
Update on Birthday & EOY Fundraising
Underwriting - see above, between now and end-of-year do our best to try to invite people to gala, talk to people about donations, talk to potential underwriters. Goal to push to make as much money as possible to start off 10th year.
Gala invites - 40 tickets sold, keep inviting people, goal is to sell at least 50, already sold more tickets than last time and made more money than last time. Goal is 10K, already at about 3K. (presale tix, sales of items, fundraisers at event).
Major donors - got $7,500 donation through Ben. Catching people near the end of year. Continue fostering relationship with Ben’s friend, also with Hirsch (their philanthropic advisor), will also have Ben follow up with tax letter and in Q4 next year.
Amanda reiterates to continue fundraising.
Update on overall health of the station
When pandemic started and pivoted to remote and pre-recordig, it didn’t make sense to onboard a lot of new DJs. Haven’t been pushing too hard to bring in new DJs and keep the schedule full. As things have opened up that has changed, we have started bringing new people in. Past few calls for new DJs getting good responses. Most really good, people putting lot of effort into show concepts. Six new shows joining the schedule next week; five more in development. Some overnight time slots are available, otherwise the schedule is full. Things are picking up and people are excited. I’m excited about where things are going programmatically, a lot of good stuff happening and going to get better in 2023.
Caryn - Is alley doing any live events these days?
Amanda: No, not yet.
7:22 — Public Comments - none
7:23 - Other Business
Ben - croc charms campaign?
Amanda: Enough preorders to pay for charms to be made, will be using them as end of year giving incentive.
Ben - What happened to Ft. Mason?
Amanda: (for Irving background) Westfield didn’t pan out, requirements were too stringent. Ft. Mason, we suspect that when SFAI closed they didn’t want to just lease a small portion of the space. But haven’t heard back with details.
8:28 pm — Meeting adjourned.
The next meeting of the BFF.fm board is scheduled for 6pm on November 17, 2022. See https://board.bff.fm for more information.
Action Items
Clair ask Green Apple for gift certs for next Thurs. Raffle. Get info from Amanda.
Amanda: continue planning committee night.
Everyone: at next committee meetings, come up with a list of top metrics to share. - Amanda reviewed, committees should review one last time
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