2006-01-17 Finance Committee Report

MOTIONS for Consideration by the PNB

1) Concerning Payment to Persons for Making Fundraising Appeals:

Whereas, the Pacifica Foundation is one of the last bastions of free speech and that the first purpose of the Pacifica Foundation as stated in the bylaws is as follows:

     To establish a Foundation organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes
     no part of the net earning of which inures to the benefit of any member of the Foundation.

Resolved, that all on air appeals to the community and listeners for funds by individuals or groups shall be voluntary and/or part of normal Pacifica job responsibilities whether paid or unpaid staff, volunteers, or board members. The Pacifica Foundation shall practice what is written in the bylaws and shall not allow members to benefit or inure from earnings of the Foundation and that the practice of "paying to pitch" or exchanging cash or other assets that may include airtime, premiums, or equipment is a violation of the bylaws of the Foundation. (considered on 11/17/05, approved without objection)

2) Concerning General Manager Expense Reimbursements:

Resolved, that all General Manager expense reimbursements must first be submitted via expense reports with receipts attached for approval to the Executive Director (or CFO in the ED's absence) before General Manager expenses are reimbursed. An implementation plan will be developed by the CFO and brought to the NFC for review. (considered on 12/1/05, approved without objection)

3) Concerning Reporting Relationship of Business Managers to the CFO:

Resolved, that the role and authority of the CFO includes a dotted line reporting relationship from the station Business Managers to the CFO (considered on 12/1/05, approved without objection)

4) On Funding for the National Spanish Language Programming:

Resolved, that KPFK shall be authorized to use the 15K that it had budgeted for the bylaws convention to fund the National Spanish Language program. That 1K per month of National Office "Other Programming" budget line be allocated to the National Spanish Language program (note: the National Office has 6K per month total budgeted for Other Programming). That other stations be authorized to contribute up to 10K each to the National Spanish Language program, with the amount to be negotiated, and the funds to come from the funding originally budgeted for the bylaws convention. The station managers and the LSBs of contributing stations shall approve those stations' contributions. The KPFK GM shall submit a proposed budget to the national office for approval prior to initiation of the program as a national program, indicating how these funds would be specifically used to fund the project. The National Office shall review the budget six months after the initiation of the program as a national program. The NFC recommends that a performance review of other aspects of the program be conducted by the appropriate bodies simultaneous with the financial review. (considered on 1/17/06, approved without objection)

Items currently under discussion/being worked on by the NFC

1) The NFC is currently working with the CFO on developing a budget timeline, to improve the process for approving the budget in a timely fashion. The timeline below represents the current state of the proposal. Additional changes to clarify the specific steps are being developed, and we will be considering what to do in the event the deadlines for each step are not met. The NFC contemplates that a final proposal on budget timeline will be submitted to the PNB for its approval by the PNB's February 2006 teleconference meeting.

Proposed Budget Timeline