September 2023
September 21 2023, San Francisco
Agenda
Review Agenda & Vote - Yes
Vote to approve previous minutes - Yes
Discussion Topics
Committee Updates
LPFM
Review Action Items
All action items cleared! 🎉Time for more!
Closing Items
Open for public comment
Any other business?
Minutes
Present:
Amanda Guest, Chair, Executive Director
Irving Pham, Treasurer
Clair McDevitt, Chair of Fundraising Committee
Brandon Paski, Chair of Marketing Committee
Ben Ward, Technical Director
Absent:
Caryn Kesler, Vice Chair, Creative Director
Erika Delgado, Events Director
6:05 pm — Convene, Vote on Agenda & Previous Minutes
Vote YES to approve the minutes.
Vote YES to adopt the proposed agenda.
6:07 pm — Committee Updates
Marketing
We added four more members to the marketing. Kerri created the next steps on our content marketing buckets. Assigned projects to committee members. Portola- Contest done, 44 entires. Successful use of banner ad in app Working with Thorwin Bo’s and Independent for more giveaways.
Fundraising
Hot off the presses: we received money- two grants in the last week: Arts notification- Asked $15K got $12,286. City funded, from hotel taxes CA arts council- $35k grant over two years for operations. (2024/2025). Ask for full amount and see what happens, and we got it.
Thanks for Gala Work! About $7500 under, Total was $13,500. Goal was $15,000.
Elle for a follow up on the gala. Start a dinner fund. Build off the success of this gala. The vibes were immaculate. Possibly a shorter party, same vibes. Kudos to Irving for staying late, getting donations and using the power of asking.
Meeting on the third Tuesday of the month. Underwriting volunteer is a bit unresponsive, maybe do outreach outside the network. Any sales/marketing volunteers?
Peter is doing a great job for the middle process, but we need someone to generate leads, warm leads.
Golden Gate cannabis underwriting was a great model.
Thank you notes with all our donors? Clair to share email copy.
Fundraiser committee taking on end of year fundraising from Amanda.
Tech
Committee met last week.
Unexpected downtime on the website, took some actions, added alters, fixed bug in creek.
Movement on updating the events page. Krista interested in heading that project up.
Jim possibly taking over for Malory (sp?) for analytics.
Cannot update software on broadcast server yet.
Teddy and Eli came by to talk about the pop-up broadcast events, exchange of ideas. More communications between them and tech team.
Board Development
No word from Cathy, last communication was about a month ago. Need to confirm if all interviews are done. We have possible new members, want to wait for input from Cathy before we can start the process. Board retreat- Dec 9/10? Location TBD.
Finance
A lot of numbers from Givebutter. Keeping steady at and expenses very low over the past 12 months. DJ dues keeping steady
Possible repair for studio backup battery, $300. Keeps computers online when power drops. Also a version to plug in wifi equipment. Would need three batteries.
LPFM
This was previously a redacted executive session.
The window to apply is in six weeks. Time to decide, ya or nay. More possible grants, under FCC rules, would give us more legitimacy as an org.
What would it mean and what would it entail? FCC has low power frequencies, 100 watts or less. Last time it was opened was 2013. In 2013, it was highly publicized that it was happening. Two frequencies open. Meeting with engineer, they think that we are a likely candidate. 3 years to see if it’s viable to broadcast, if we are granted. Point system, we score approx 5 points out of 6. Tie breaker if more than one applies for frequency. Free to apply, would need to pay engineer and lawyer. Only open air right now is south west corner of SF. Possibly partnership with SF state, repeater on campus? Use a cell phone tower as a repeater? Question: is this compelling enough to do through the process? Web stream separate from signal.
Ben: Cost is an issue, but there are a lot of interesting angles on this, SFSU, new programming. In terms of opening up grant opportunities, do we know what the numbers look like how much could we bring in with grants?
Amanda: no, but decision has to be made now, so we’d need to proceed without that info. Setting up a separate committee for the LPFM, different board.
One other org that tried to engage the engineer, but the are new. We are keeping this stealth.
Clair: Grant funding from LPFM would be restrictive, mainly for operations. Possibly a wash, but not guaranteed. Approximate costs of engineer and lawyer.
Engineer is $600. He handles application. $2300 total. If we are accepted, then lawyer, $1000-$1500 $4000 to even think about starting to buy equipment. Structural concerns? Wind? In general, started BFF to be drama adverse. If we went down another path that went that way, we would stop and proceed.
Irving: option to have on air and maintain an online presence. Do you foresee a lot of applicants right now? Would we split FM vs Online?
Qualifications are getting better and better for DJ applications so we may have enough to split, treat freq as a third studio.
Studio needs to be within 10 miles. Both streams can live online.
Would it make an impact being on FM? Would we get more listeners? Can we support with volunteers?
Part of the growth conversation, the station needs to grow, people-wise.
How much extra work for Amanda? Not much if we are paying Michael.
It’s not inaccurate to say, we need this money to complete this application, and use for fundraising. If there is interest, we can build a bigger coalition around it.
What staffing would be required?
FCC paperwork and filing. Things that would need more people: development, programing, GM and Exec Dir. Things that the station would already need.
Project specific fundraising is successful. This could be a great campaign.
Ben: since there is interest from DJs and potential audiences in growing the community. It feels like it is in line with our mission. Not crazy outside our usually spend for projects.
Promote POC and give them a large portion of programming.
“Nope” Out clause is a big plus.
Board votes YES (unanimous) to move forward with LPFM application.
We need to decide call letters.
7:43 — Public Comments
7:43 - Other Business
Creating documentation for fundraising on our behalf, and reach out to DJs about doing so. If a DJ has a connection for underwriting, they should not be handling any money. What types of org cannot do underwriting.
7:50 — Meeting adjourned.
The next meeting of the BFF.fm board is scheduled for 6pm on November DAY 2023. See https://board.bff.fm for more information.
Action Items
Clair Work with Amanda on a list of orgs that cannot be underwriters.
Finalize date and location for board retreat. Dec 9 or 10?
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