Accountability. We believe that any changes to the program grid should have specific pre-defined threshold measures for overall listenership, for new and returning listener/members, and for pledge drive goals that demonstrate increased listenership and pledge revenues.  We strongly encourage the board and staff to set a concrete timeline with milestones and deliverables in order to monitor the effectiveness of rescheduling. KFAI must maintain autonomy, flexibility, and fiscal prudence in programming in order to respond to emerging challenges. If any major changes to the program grid are warranted, those changes must halt the declines in listenership and revenues KFAI has endured since 2005 and, as importantly, must result in measurable increases in new listeners and pledges in order to offset any losses of listenership and revenues from displaced existing programming.

We believe that the lack of broad participation in station governance by general membership has helped bring about issues of accountability and transparency. Part of a revamped Strategic Plan should include development of strategies for increasing the number of members who serve on the KFAI board, attend BoD meetings, and vote in board and other station-related elections.

Transparency. Transparent communication has been a hallmark of KFAI. While there are issues that require confidentiality and privacy, these should be limited, explicitly declared and explained to station membership. Clearly stated responsibilities and lines of communication/ reporting for station governance and operations should be posted at the station and on the website.

While we appreciate staff effort over several community meetings to share radio industry information, including Arbitron information, we remain concerned that for an entire year, the Programming Committee and station programmers were excluded from actual program grid design, scenario planning, and additional content production. We believe that this was a breakdown in transparency and trust. Furthermore, despite staff assurances, many of us volunteers and listener members continue to feel as though the station's listener and community research results were gathered under too tight a deadline and from too small a sample of subjects (especially regarding the Cincinnatus' focus groups).The quality of the research and how the results will be used remains a concern not dispelled by the community meeting held on March 23, 2010.

Marketing/Fundraising. We believe that a strong and sustained marketing strategy is critical to the success of KFAI. We strongly support such efforts as outlined by the Program Director, and encourage KFAI to involve as many volunteers as possible in these crucial efforts, especially those involved in marketing, advertising, PR, and graphic design in order to reassure current listeners, regain lost listeners, and gain and excite new listeners. Every effort should be made to secure pro bono public relations and marketing services from willing advertising and PR agencies, and any marketing contractors should be encouraged to communicate with and engage KFAI member/volunteers to ensure transparency. Outside of our semi-annual Pledge Drives, there have been attempts to fundraise in different ways. While we all know of the incredible hard work that goes into planning, drafting and completing grant applications, little has gone into the analysis of why so many applications have been denied or opportunities missed.

There is no doubt that the current economy plays a large role in the sort of funding available from grant-making groups. Some local foundations have shifted focus to more directly alleviating the increasing poverty in our state and local communities. At the same time, other foundations are streamlining their various roles and what they would like to be able to fund in the greater Twin Cities community. KFAI can be sold as a critical cog in informing constituent communities of the issues they confront in a shrinking and difficult economy and legislative climate.

Responsiveness to volunteer initiatives. KFAI has an incredibly committed base of active volunteers. Many of these volunteers would like to start new and/or experimental programs and/or initiatives. They have not been encouraged to do so. We believe the organization is not optimally harnessing the energy and creativity of its volunteers, whether this be specialty broadcast programming, web-only or podcast programs, marketing initiatives, or innovative use of digital communications or social media. KFAI's vibrancy and effectiveness depends on the diversity, energy, and creativity of its volunteers. We are very concerned that this community resource is not being utilized, at least in part due to insufficient staff time to manage this resource.

Web Site. We recognize that there has been a difficult history with volunteer control of the website. KFAI.org is an extremely powerful tool that is only using a tiny fraction of its capacity. We feel that with the decline in dedicated staff time, the control of the website should be shared with the volunteers, with safeguards in place to protect website uptime and data integrity. Strengthening the web site as a tool for content delivery and community building is crucial to serving KFAI's diverse constituents and should be a major focus as we enter our 4th decade.

It is because we all are so passionate about what KFAI has done for us professionally and personally, because we know what community radio has done and can do, that we are taking the unprecedented step of publishing this letter. KFAI faces many challenges in the years ahead, and we feel these challenges are best met with an enthusiastic and fully engaged station community, a goal this letter and our continued passion for KFAI are meant to help achieve. As a group, we are committed to reinvigorated participation in station governance, oversight, and operations, and we look forward to engaging with the staff, the board, and the committees in this capacity.

Sincerely,

Join & sign at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it