9.1) Nov 12 2008
Meeting Date: Wed Nov 12 2008
Kootenay Co-op Radio
Minutes of the Board Meeting
November 12, 2008
Started: 7:05 pm - adjourned at 10:15 pm.
Board Members present: Teressa Hodsall (Chair), Gord Andrews, Alon Gelcer, Bob Olsen, Dustin Cantwell, Nancy Likness, Jennie Barron, Heather Dahlgrin, Hal Mitchel, Ceilidh Sutherland, & Lise Godin.
Staff: Leah Wilson (minutes)
Member: Catherine Fisher (NCRA report & guest member).
1.Check in & welcome: to those just elected to a 2 year term as directors: Jennie Barron, Dustin Cantwell, Nancy Likness, Lise Godin , Hal Mitchel, Bob Olsen, & returning directors Teressa Hodsal, Alon Gelcer, Heather Dahlgrin, Ceilidh Sutherland, Gord Andrews.
2.Agenda and Minutes:Agenda approved after agreed amendments: To first move Branding to be after the AGM report. To amend Committee Assignments to now read "committees as a whole, assignments".
All agree.
3.Time Keeper: Jennie Barron.
4.Catherine Fisher reports on NCRA (National Campus Community Radio Association)
* Community Radio Fund of Canada grant applications in January - receiving funds by April 2009.
* Suggestion to KCR Directors, station as a whole to consider what to apply for - station priorities to be defined & to be included in minutes.
* Recently Catherine has reported to the NCRA on "Minority Language programming (French)" Report included information gathered via KCR programmers and their experiences. This will be included with the information gathered from NCRA member stations to be reported then to the CRTC.
* The will CRTC receive research from the NCRA (after advocacy efforts) - investigating what kind of regulations, protections, and guidelines would affect non-corporate/commercial radio, member stations are asked to fill out a survey to assist in the process.
*Questions to consider:
1) What is the impact of New Media - the ability to re-broadcast, podcast, and & the ability to live-stream on-line.
2) What is the impact that New Media has on community/campus radio?
3) What impact would New Media have on Terestrial Radio; what if there is more need for online- New Media Radio?
Action: Catherine will post information on the KCR website Forum for discussion & reference.
Action: All members of the board agree to read, comment & engage in the process of answering the survey provided by the NCRA in representing the interests of KCR as a community service cooperative radio station.
5.Annual General Meeting report:
Alon Gelcer presents on the importance of organizational memory - to create ideas & to implement actions - to create a way to remember.
During the vote count at the AGM, while a motion to destroy the votes was being presented, passed and captured in the minutes, many of the directors did not hear the motion for they were engaged in the vote count. The area used for counting the votes is noted to not be sufficient space to count ballots in the future. Those counting the votes felt unsure of the count due to the distracting environment.
The motion to destroy the votes was disregarded to uphold the agreements and integrity of representation with the KCR membership - to honor the votes and to recount.
Comments from the Directors:
Lise: "Members can not vote by proxy - question: can a member be nominated by proxy?" What is said in the Co-op Rules regarding counting votes? If we do not have a rule about counting votes - one should be developed. There is need for more transparency regarding station activity - the web site news item is not enough, more communication directly from the board on the web site would help.
Heather: Question: Is it mentioned anywhere in Rules or Policy if we count the votes and announce the election results at the AGM?
"During the AGM (a 3 hour process) the motion to destroy the votes was passed to fast - and during a time when the votes were in the process of being counted. A recount was important for it turned out it was needed to determine the directors. I did not hear the motion to destroy the votes.
Jennie: Urged that the process developed for counting the votes to include further transparency & clear communication. "If there is an unsure vote count, then directors of the board should not be announced."
Gord: Recommendation - to ask Zoe her recollection as the minute taker of the motion to destroy the votes. Not recalling the event well for it was the end of the AGM Gord recalls making a motion to adjourn the meeting, recalls people standing & a commotion of people talking.
Hal: Recalls from past Annual General Meetings of KCR, the same kind of hectic vote counting process followed by a commotion as the meeting ends.
All agree: that the motion to destroy the votes was agreeable in the circumstances. That the Rules of the Co-op are to be researched regarding the vote counting process & to be further developed into KCR Rules for future AGM elections, with this past experience in mind. Further discussion will take place on the forum and through email.
Consensus for the record:
Transparency to include a statement posted on the web site that reads:
"Error was made, miscounted the votes corrected by recounting, establishing procedures for future AGM elections to avoid such error".
All agreed that a news item is to be written from the Board to be posted on the Web home page.
Action: Leah to research the Rules of the Co-op & the KCR Rules & Policy documents for any details, & to paste such to the forum pages of the KCR web site.
Action: Develop working group = Alon, Teressa, & Leah to design next election rules amendment to be presented to the membership for acceptance during the AGM in 2009. Through using the tools provided by the B.C. Co-op Association, and through council of the KCR membership, policy and legal agreements the intention to find balance & integrity. The NCRA membership stations were recommended to ask for sample rules for example.
6.Branding & the request for Sinixt Advocacy:
Presented by Alon: Committee seeks clarity on the name Kootenay Co-op Radio.
Sinixt Nation: (5,000-10,000) years of living on this land. Land that we broadcast through and around. In 1956 the Federal Government declared the Sinixt Nation extinct, with cultural & emotional impacts on a people who are not extinct at all.
A letter was sent to the 2007-2008 KCR Board of Directors in response to a survey from the KCR Community Connections Committee on Branding: Requesting support and advocacy regarding the name "Kootenay" lending to the continued exile in status as: unknown in name.
Alon has spoken with many sources of repute on the topic to present to the board.
Question: Is this the right thing to do?
Then: What & how do we do it?
All directors engaged in a round of table discussion:
Consensus = that more information needs to be available for research before answers are developed.
In the event of interest in changing the name of the station: There would need to be a special members meeting for any change of name to be presented for voting, or to do so at the 2009 AGM.
Other concepts of advocacy suggested were to produce historical media documentaries of the Sinixt Nation from KCR to be podcast and archived through educational resource centres.
It was recommended to contact Touchstones who has a significant recognition & relationship with the Sinixt people. To seek Touchstones as a potential partner and venue for a public event celebrating awareness of the Sinixt as a people, and as a public forum that KCR would broadcast live while archiving and podcasting.
Catherine Fisher presents: KCR history with Sinixt Radio & some Resources to start with: Sinixt radio was one of the first programmes on the first ever KCR programme schedule.
Invites forum discussion on the KCR web stie.
Action: Catherine, Teressa, Ceilidh, & Nancy are to be an ad hock committee of the board to assist in the education of the board on matters related to actions of advocacy in this regard.
Action: Gord to turn the Sinixt documentary into podcast available on the web site and to send to the Sinixt Nation contact.
7.Board Directors Co-Chairs nomination, all in favor of Teressa Hodsall & Alon Geler to be Co-Chairs for 6 months, then the Board will review the chair positions where one director will be replaced by a new co-chair in their first year of term. Allowing for 6 months observation time, while ensuring station memory is consistent & useful.
The following Directors are as agreed:
Teressa Hodsal: Chair of the Board, Personnel Committee
Alon Gelcer: Vice Chair of the Board, Community Connections Committee
Hal Mitchel: Treasurer, Finance Committee
Lise Godin: Board Secretary, Personnel Committee
Gord Andrews: Finance Committee
Nancy Liknes: Programming Committee & Technical Committee.
Bob Olsen: Policy Committee
Jennie Barron: Community Connections Committee
Dustin Cantwell: Technical Committee & Building Committee
Statement for Co-op Report to include the Managers as Staff:
Bill Metcalfe: Programming Manager, Terry Brennan: Operations Manager, & Leah Wilson: Administrative Manager.
Mention for the Records: that there are 5 part time staff at KCR, including Deb Burnett as Sponsorship Coordinator, & Zoe Creighton as Sponsorship Producer.
8.Ending Business:
November 22, 2pm at the station, during the Open House of Membership Drive the board of directors will gather for a group photo to be posted on the web site and in the station.
9.Board of Directors orientation to be determined.
10. Time and date for next meeting:
December 10th: 7:00-pm - at the station downstairs.
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