Western States Public Radio

Report on NPR Board Meeting, Los Angeles, July 12/13

There are basically two parts to this report to our members on the NPR Board meeting last week in Los Angeles.

First, a broad observation:  a very great deal of the Board’s activity occurred in Executive Session.  Originally, the agenda called for the Board to meet in Executive Session on Tuesday morning and, in committee meetings and a Committee of the Whole, in Open Session during the afternoon.  In fact, the Board met until 2:45 in Executive Session, then in Open Session for 10 minutes, and then the Committee of the Whole met for about 50 minutes.  The full Board meeting on Wednesday also opened with a two-hour Executive Session.  The Open Session of the full Board on Wednesday lasted about 90 minutes.  Given the shortness of public sessions, not a great deal of Board activity occurred in Open Session and there is, accordingly, less to report to you than might normally be the case.

WSPR members may recall that, at last November’s NPR Board meeting, I expressed concern to the NPR Board, which I relayed to our WSPR membership, over the growing use of Executive Sessions by the NPR Board.  At the request of the other regional presidents, during Wednesday’s Board Meeting I spoke on behalf of all the regionals during the Public Comment portion of meeting and again observed that the growing use of Executive Sessions was making it increasingly difficult for the regionals to fulfill their role as a liaison, carrying messages to the Board and bringing reports on NPR Board activity to our members.

As to specific actions taken, or issues reported, at the NPR Board meeting:

• John Herman, chair of the NPR Foundation, has resigned as Chair citing other heavy commitments, a step which also costs him his seat on the NPR Board.  He will remain on the NPR Foundation Board, however.  A “head-hunter” firm has been engaged to identify suitable candidates for his replacement.
• The NPR Budget of $138.4 million was adopted unanimously.  Member fees, as a percentage of the total budget, continues to decline (to 48%) although the dollar figure will grow somewhat.   The News Magazine fee abatement policy continues with an estimated “revenue forgone” figure of $5 million in this budget.
• D/I fees were approved with a moderate increase.  NPR is also authorizing a steep reduction in channel costs for steams which are intended to be used on Second Audio Channels (SAC) in order to stimulate programming for this new, expanded capacity.  The number of years this type of discount will remain in effect was discussed but long-term plans are had to make because the existing transponder lease will expire in a few years and no one knows what the cost of replacing it will be.
• The Board welcomed newly re-elected – and elected – Manager members.   The “new” fellow is our own Dennis Haarsager.  CONGRATULATIONS Dennis!  We’re proud of you and pleased to have your voice added to the NPR Board.
• Received a very short public presentation about the adoption of a system of “metrics” to measure NPR’s success in attaining its goals.  [A side note:  in some contrast to the Board’s growing use of Executive Sessions, the one topic most frequently the subject of discussion in Open Session has to do with the manner in which different issues affect, or relate, to the health of “membership.”  It is a topic much on the Board members’ – particularly the public members – minds.  In this instance one member of the Board stimulated a conversation about how the “metric” could measure the health of the “membership structure.”  This led to observations about the annual membership survey and an acknowledgement that the drafting of the “Partnership Compact” between NPR and stations had been “back-burnered.”  It was then observed that the membership “health” was even more important in an HD environment.]
• NPR announced that it would schedule a series of “round robin” type meetings over the next year to improve communication with members.  NPR will also establish a different model for a-Reps and the Annual Meeting (as opposed to including them in the Public Radio Leadership Forum).
• Our own John Stark reported upon the Local News Initiative (an expanded version of which will be presented at WSPR in Denver in November).  This looks to be a very exciting project.  The budget NPR adopted involved a commitment of about $600,000 toward the Initiative.
• The Board voted to abolish several standing Board committees including the Membership Committee and the Governance Committee.  Last Fall, when Board committee assignments were issued, no one was assigned to several committees (including Membership).  The Board’s action in abolishing them was, therefore, essentially an acknowledgement that they were no longer functioning.  The implications of the abolition of the Membership Committee are not totally clear to me.  Membership issues are now routed to the Committee of the Whole.  Some people feel, however, that the presence of a Membership automatically provided a regular place for Membership-related discussions and believe that is less likely to occur under this structure.

Prepared by Ron Kramer, WSPR President

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