April 15, 2020

Called to Order: 2:30 Eastern Time via conference call

Present:

• Paul Maassen
• Regina Dean
• Neenah Ellis
• Steve Schramm
• Richard Miles
• Nico Leone
• Myrna Johnson
• Dan Skinner

General Check-in with Board Members:

Michigan, mostly remote operation.  

Max 4 people in the station at a time. Everything else is remote. 

No one else has staff with symptoms, tho it’s hard to know who might really be sick.

Nico has heard of a few stations with positive staffers.

Nico – mostly remote

Neenah – mostly remote

Regina – mostly remote

Richard – mostly remote

Schramm – mostly remote. A couple of people presumptive positive and are quarantined. 

Myrna – mostly remote. Operations staffed in master control. Some rural hot spots. Meat packing plants. 

Paul – very difficult in NOLA. It hit quickly and hard. Everything shut. Morning and afternoon hosts going in. Everyone else remote.  Economic impact is steep for the station and the city.  The numbers are flattening out but it’s gonna be a long road.

Staff is doing great, pitching in and getting positive response from listeners. 

Item One: 

PRIMA meeting. We settled with the hotel and cancelled.  We don’t have to reschedule with them.  We need to schedule a business meeting for election of officers. We can do a conference call with the membership.  I propose Thursday May 28, a slate must go out 30 days in advance.  If we did that by April 28 we could do a call.  I’d still like to get John Lansing, but it’s hard to get NPR attention now.   CPB’s Pat Harrison and Kathy Merrit also suggested as a possible guests to address

questions about changes for CSG – changes to grants coming for fy22?

We can use the Michigan ZOOM account.  We can present info etc. and voting is possible. 

PRIMA annual business meeting May 28, 2020.  3pm CT, four ET. Now a virtual meeting

Item Two:

Regina Dean asked for help with bookkeeping. WE agreed that it’s a reasonable request.  She has found someone who can be an assistant. Our payment process has gotten very cumbersome at UT.  I’ve been looking for a bookkeeper and I have an assistant that has expressed interest.

• Annual invoices
• Track payments
• Prepare conference registrations and track payments
• Maintain spreadsheet of membership payments and contact info
• Prepare deposits
• Reconcile bank statements
• Help prepare annual report

(Nico leaves the meeting and gives Myrna is vote by proxy.)

Moved by Myna to accept Regina’s proposal to hire a bookkeeper for $600 per year.

 Seconded by NE.

The new bookkeeper would start May 1. 990 is due in September. 

Maassen wonders if there is something we can do to help stations to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic. 

Some needs may come out at the annual meeting. 

Regina has concerns about the University raiding her reserves.  Maybe the institutional licensees would like to discuss this. 

Myrna acknowledges budgeting challenges. And wonders what we can do to lift spirits.  Myrna slack and social channel, water cooler channel that helps people vent.  

A VIRTUAL PRIMA SUITE to swap stories in place of our annual meeting.  A zoom meeting. Wear your station gear.  Monday April 27, 5 central, 6 eastern.