KBOO Board Meetings

KBOO Community Radio holds open meetings concerning the operations and programming of KBOO in accordance with requirements of the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C. 396, et seq. as amended, and certification requirements promulgated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Information about KBOO Community Radio's open meeting policy is also available by calling the station at 503-231-8032 and selecting extension 205. Board meetings will be conducted at 20 SE 8th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214 unless otherwise noted. Please call 503-231-8032 to verify if a meeting is being held. To request notice of board meetings in writing, please e-mail manager(at)kboo(dot)fm.

La estación comunitaria KBOO sostiene Juntas abriertas a la comunidad, sobre las operaciónes y programas en KBOO en accordancía con las requisitos de la 1934 Acto de Communicación, 47 U.S.C. 396, et seq. según amendado, y requistos de certificación promulgado de la Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Puedes encontrar información sobre las reuniónes de la estación comunitaria KBOO, llamando a 503-231-8032, con la extencion 205. Juntas directivas van a ser conducidos en 20 SE 8th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214 a menos que se indique lo contrario. Porfavor, llama a 503-231-8032 para verificar si la junta llevará a cabo. Sí desea la junta en papel, puedes contactar manager@kboo.fm por coreo electronico. 

 

Next Board Meeting

November 22nd 2021, 6:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

We will be using ZOOM for this meeting due to health concerns of COVID-19.

NEW meeting link: https://zoom.us/j/98436655006

NEW MEETING INFO:

Meeting ID: 984 3665 5006

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Meeting ID: 984 3665 5006

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2019 Annual Meeting & Board Candidate Statements

You can join the Board!

More information about the KBOO Board & Station Governance

Board Meeting Minutes

Committees

 

Current KBOO Board Members:

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KatMeow García (Board President)

I want to help KBOO continue its 50+ year legacy and succeed at its 2021 strategic goals. For the past three years I have had a track record of advocating for equity and humanitarianism on the KBOO board, within its policies and communications. I will continue to do this important work because it resonates with me, living a life with multiple intersections of marginalization. I am a Latinx, nongender conforming, queer person. I am trilingual and come from a working class migrant farming family. I have a degree in film and social justice from the Evergreen State College and studied successful nonprofits while living and working in rural Nicaragua and China. I can offer my strong background in social justice, and independent media production to KBOO. I have many ties to underserved communities in Portland and have experience in activism. Recently, I was featured in a zine published by POW highlighting local women and non-binary directors. I was also part of the documentary, Arresting Power, resisting police violence in Portland. During my time on the KBOO board I have served as the Nominating Committee liaison, the Development Committee liaison, and board Secretary. I have done work amplifying the voices of youth and immigrants, reaching out to current and new members and donors for sustained giving and documenting board meetings in order to stay in accordance with CPB funding requirements. I have also severed on multiple hiring committees and for a time served as a check signer and served on the Community Advisory Board. I have continued my regular volunteer work at KBOO as well, producing and subbing for radio programs, recording KBOO promos volunteering for drives and participating in other KBOO events.

As a producer at Open Signal, I have links to many local producers of independent media and a vast library of resources that can be utilized to help promote and support KBOO. I have served on the board of the Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media and Education. I have immense experience volunteering and working with many local media nonprofits like, Outside the Frame, Sista Sistah, Reel Abilities, Freeform Portland, Voz, the Muslim Educational Trust and many more. I look forward to working for KBOO for many more years and finding solutions to oppressive systemic problems.

Ruba Leech (Vice President)

I am a KBOO member and volunteer.  Being a multilingual Immigrant to the US from Palestine, a teacher for over a decade in two different continents, and a professional interpreter for over 4 years has provided me with unique life experiences. I am very passionate about helping any and all communities that need help, as I have shown through my commitment to underserved youth, immigrants and refugees. Working as an interpreter allowed me to both sharpen my communication skills and develop trust and long lasting relationships with multicultural communities facing co-occurring disabilities. I also worked as a school administrator managing a preschool classroom and all students’ individual caseloads. I have had numerous responsibilities as an educator and administrator, including management, budgeting, curriculum choice and implementation, parent conferences, data entry and data analysis. I am very comfortable with paperwork and have excellent organizational skills. 

My work as a teacher, school administrator and activist for social justice has provided me with a wealth of transferable skills that will be useful for my work on the KBOO Board. While I have not served on a Board before, I have received leadership training from the Unite Oregon Pilot program that aims to empower immigrants and refugees to assume leadership positions in the community. Through my work as a teacher, I have worked with kids and families from different social, financial and cultural backgrounds; building long lasting relationships and developing a good rapport with parents, coworkers and children. 

Some of my activist experience includes: working with Unite Oregon for the past two years, canvassing for measure 102 to support affordable housing in Portland, canvassing for Greenpeace, volunteering with Meals on Wheels and being a leader for Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights.

As an immigrant from Jerusalem with experience working with the Arab and Muslim community in Portland, I have a deep understanding of multiculturalism, and a tremendous respect for the importance of diversity. I have spent the past 6 years consciously seeking jobs that allow me to be of help to marginalized communities, assisting them to feel heard and understood.

I would like to serve on the KBOO Board because I wholeheartedly support KBOO’s values and mission, and want to ensure that the station remains steadfast in upholding those values. I have read the strategic plan for KBOO 2017-2021, and am impressed with the commitment to intersectionality, decolonization and diversity. As a person who embodies diversity in my life and my work, I am excited to be part of the leadership of an organization that is so committed to this important work as well.  

Alyssa Hundersmarck (Secretary)

Poverty alleviation, advocacy and social work are central to my career and life purpose. I have had the honor of serving my community at several nonprofit organizations with a focus in youth advocacy, homelessness and housing, anti-recidivism, severe and persistent mental illness and Indigenous communities. I am from the Navajo Nation in Arizona and completed a year of AmeriCorps VISTA service on a leadership team addressing housing for the urban Indigenous community of Salt Lake City. This was a partnership between The Housing Authority of Salt Lake and The Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake. I gained incredible insight of nonprofit operations and housing development. I have carried this work with me to the Pacific Northwest, with the goal of addressing disparities and service gaps specifically related to Indigenous homeless youth, in conjunction with the efforts of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. I currently work in direct capacity with the unhoused community of Vancouver, WA, as well as female youth in a residential behavioral health setting. I believe with my diverse background and community-centered focus I can offer unique perspective through an Indigenous lens, with emphasis on poverty, mental health and homelessness solutions, as it aligns with the inherent social efforts of public radio and the mission of KBOO.

 

Ashley Matthews

For a long time I have been trying to challenge racist, sexist, and classist institutions from within, whether - by discussing issues with my University’s Dean and staff, or working in publicly traded housing while arguing for lower rent, or in publicly traded healthcare to make sure nurses were treated fairly. - In high school, I even started a petition to stop a teacher from getting fired: We had just learned about The Communist Manifesto and student protests in her class, what I learned in her class is what sparked my activism. I have been going to protests since my freshman year of college, speaking to CEOs of companies I was working at about how to change things, and none of this was working. During the summer of 2020, I finally reached the understanding that I couldn’t change these systems from within. However, I am confident working in both corporate and academic environments, and my superiors gave me the skills to practice advocacy and communication with executives even if we shared different goals (theirs being money, mine being justice). 

In professional settings, my greatest strength is my ability to take on an observer role for a while, collecting the information I need to come up with ideas to bring to the table after analyzing the issues and taking note of the dynamics. Thinking of many possibilities with different approaches, and calculating different ways to execute the task at hand before making assumptions or getting upset has helped me to manage my frustrations with the system while in it. 

I moved to Portland because of the large number of people working to progress our world. I’ve been to protests and to conferences with many activists, and I’ve noticed that the communities I have been a part of in the past, most of them in academia, have not gotten much done. I appreciate the activist community Portland has and the results the city gets (free daycare, saving the Red House on Mississippi, providing free fridges, and much more)., which are far more than even the activists from UC Berkeley, UCLA, and other UC graduates I have followed have accomplished. Those results--oftentimes not progressive enough--are exactly what I protested when we attended conferences together. Those who thought of themselves as leaders were too focused on their egos to ever listen to the ideas of their more marginalized peers. I would listen to the ideas the less popular people had and I witnessed their communities ignore them. Fast forward ten years and the popular activists in academia still have not rendered many results in change. 

It is time marginalized people have equitable representation. I would like a seat at this table.

 

Laurie Mercier 2019-2022

I moved to Portland-Vancouver in 1995 and immediately became a fan and supporter of KBOO. For the past two decades I have been a member of KBOO’s Old Mole Variety Hour collective and a contributor to/producer of its Monday morning public affairs show, which features interviews, reviews, and commentary from a socialist-feminist point of view. In the 1980s I contributed monthly commentaries to Montana Public Radio in opposition to US policies and wars in Latin America. As a long-time activist and supporter of community radio, and as a labor and gender history professor, my work has aligned with KBOO’s values--in particular with its commitments to community, progressive perspectives, and diversity, and to amplifying the voices of activists and scholars from diverse communities in struggle for a more just society/world. Like many KBOO volunteers who have long supported the station but have not yet been able to step up to serve on the board, I believe that this is an important time—with so many empty board seats, the need to insure a quorum on critical decisions, and staff positions to fill—to volunteer for this work. If elected to the board, I will work to strengthen board transparency and process, and increase staff and volunteer input, to help improve station climate, financial health, outreach, and programming. I embrace a collaborative and democratic working style and have several decades of experience serving on various nonprofit, professional, and editorial boards, and as an officer for a union and faculty organization. KBOO is a public treasure that needs to be preserved, its progressive values respected, and its reach expanded. In an era of climate crisis, increased inequality, and military aggression, our public airwaves and community-run radio stations are key for delivering alternative, non-corporate news, analyses, and music. I hope to work with others to advance KBOO’s mission, expand its audiences, and help it embrace the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

Charles Shambry

My activist experience has been through media on TV and radio.  I have interviewed politicians and other activists who have similar mission views of KBOO Radio. My methods on the airwaves have been on a large diversity of platforms.  Cable TV interviews were showcased on public access including KBOO FM. TV broadcasts were hosted through TV Toastmasters, where I presided as President and head of its board. 

As the President over TV Toastmasters and the board, I governed over four locations: OpenSignal, TVCTV, MetroEast and Willamette Falls Media Center under the Toastmaster programming. The viewership was more than 500,000 out of about 2.4 million people in the Portland metropolitan area. I understand the FCC regulations and 501(C)3 nonprofit tax status. Toastmasters International is a global non-profit organization that trains in the discipline of leadership and public speaking on multicultural and diversity issues.  TV Toastmasters is a local chapter and club of Toastmasters where I conducted interviews on Public Access Cable TV and led all weekly meetings with senior board members.

Currently I am the Superintendent of Sharon, a non-profit organization serving over 400 members. I also host Zoom meetings as a board member, facilitating weekly meetings and presentations.  Acquainted with Robert's Rules of Order to conduct the order of business.

I have been training throughout the U.S., presenting 6-hour accredited classes on Human Resources (HR), Civil Rights, Conflict Management, Self-Development, and Diversity.  The HR classes are centered around handling employees and volunteers from a legal and employer’s point of view. The Civil Rights courses focus on privacy, human relations, legal strategies, and how to protect an organization. Conflict Management content is designed to help others deal with difficult people or peers in a business setting. In the Self-Development, I teach leadership, communications, emotional intelligence, how to manage emotion under pressure, goal-setting, and time management skills. In Diversity, I teach the importance of awareness in age, race, gender, physical and mental limitations.  I also educate attendees on Workers Compensation attached to the legal system in state and federal insurance.  My contracts with seminar and consulting groups help my students obtain Continued Education (CE) credit units for 6-hour courses. 

I want to make a noticeable mark locally and be most helpful towards my community. As a BIPOC and African-American native of Portland, Oregon, I grew up listening to KBOO radio. Before my teenage years, I would call in and special request songs. So with these wonderful memories, I was very happy to join the Evening News Team as a volunteer host and anchor. I enjoy being on the radio - it’s my calling.  KBOO has been a part of my history and I want to add to its legacy of impacting and empowering the people at large. My personal statement and motto is: To provide value to content and relationships. I hope to provide more value to the listeners, volunteers, and KBOO Board of Directors.

 

 

Layla Kanaan

My experiences that prepare me for a governance position on the KBOO Board of directors encompass that of a student organizer doing on-campus advocacy, policy demands, and petitioning for pro-BDS (Boycott, Divest, & Sanction Israel) group SUPER (Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights) at the University of Oregon, to work as a KBOO radio host in correspondence with renowned international journalists covering the political repression of Palestinians, to personal experience witnessing the conditions of my extended family living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Although my advocacy predominantly focuses on the plight of Palestinians, I have always maintained a perspective that connects the circumstances in places like the Middle East, with economic conditions, policy decisions, and political structures in the USA, for example, all configured within a framework of global power and hegemony. As the daughter of a Palestinian immigrant and a public health policy advisor, my upbringing influenced my political perspective such that it reflects both the fine-tuned and rigorous specificity of public health, as well as the broad-based internationalist perspective of a refugee, both of which emphasize the interfacing between persons and systems. In addition to instilling an awareness of the interdependence of our world, my parents’ own work in activism empowered me to pursue a degree in International Studies and a minor in Arabic as part of a larger personal ambition to increase accessibility and enfranchisement amongst underrepresented people and cultures. In my time at UO, I became involved with a group known as SUPER. Broadly speaking we were a pro-Palestinian student activist group. However, a specific culmination of our advocacy came when the UO Student Senate passed a resolution in favor of supporting BDS regulations on campus after SUPER’s campaign to bring this resolution before the student senate garnered support from student groups like Decolonizing Judaism, the Muslim Student Association, the Native American Student Union, and the Southeast Asian Student Alliance. Despite the support from diverse student groups, the hearing for the resolution drew hundreds of students to voice their concerns or support for the resolution, a majority of which were answering to a call from pro-Israel student groups on campus. The significance of this resolution passing a student senate at a liberal university was marginal, much less considering that the student judiciary struck it down the next year. But in my experience, this represented a moment in which the rightful concerns for Palestinian equal rights gained support from a broader public, particularly at an institution like UO, whose insignia can be seen on billboards around Israel, promoting the University, and which has ongoing contracts with several companies which operate in the occupied West Bank.

 

Malik Hale

I am currently a Programmer at KBOO. I’ve been at the station since April 2021, it’s always been a childhood dream of mine to have my own radio show. I grew up listening to late night college radio when my Mom thought I was asleep. By day I’m an Onboarding Specialist at Dealership Performance 360 a software company and a Creative Director at Good Green a graphics design company. I would like to serve on the KBOO board because I understand the importance of listener supported radio and believe that everyone has a voice that should be heard. I am deeply passionate about broadcasting and media production, and I will bring that passion to the board if I am elected. It’s an honor and privilege to go on air and share music and thoughts that bring us together as a community. I’m proud to represent KBOO and share its ideology with others.  

Jessica Almroth

As someone born and raised in the Portland area, I know just how unique and valuable KBOO is to our community. I’ve been a listener and a member/donor for 20 years and I’m really excited about the possibility of becoming a board member. As a community organizer and activist at heart, I’ve been doing grassroots community work for most of my life. I care about empowering people to make positive changes, which is reflected in my volunteer experiences. I enjoy event planning, fundraising, and administrative work, and I’ve volunteered with Call to Safety, PCC and PSU’s Women’s Resource Centers, SMYRC, and Planned Parenthood. I’d love the opportunity to diversify my volunteer experience by joining the Board at KBOO.

I work as the Volunteer and Operations Manager at Rose Haven, a day shelter and community center for women, children, and gender-diverse folks experiencing the trauma of homelessness. This role has given me the opportunity to increase my advocacy and leadership skills, and has helped me better understand experiences different than my own. I work with a diverse group of staff and volunteers, and my warm, friendly and welcoming personality contributes to an environment where people feel valued and welcome.

As part of the management team, I work in coalition with Rose Haven’s Board to adapt and change our programs as needed to continue serving our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been one of the most challenging years I’ve experienced and it has taught me so much about the importance of community based, grassroots work and mutual aid.

I’m interested in gaining non-profit experience by joining a Board of Directors, and I believe that joining KBOO’s board would be a mutually beneficial experience. I am fun, creative and positive, and I want to use my leadership skills to support others. A good leader empowers others to lead, and I don’t feel the need to be in the spotlight to make a positive impact. KBOO is such an important asset to our community, because it amplifies voices we don’t hear on mainstream radio. At a time of social justice uprisings, protests against police brutality, a vital election year, and global pandemic, it’s increasingly important to have access to media that isn’t influenced by corporate interests. As someone who is passionate about independent music, I love having a go-to station where I can hear artists that I wouldn’t find anywhere else. Music from the True Vine is the best way to start my weekend, but I know I can tune anytime to hear something interesting and unique!

I want to contribute toward the future of community radio by serving as a board member and I thank you for your consideration! I am a team-player, who is willing to listen and learn, and I think my leadership skills, creativity, and dynamic personality will be an asset to KBOO’s Board of Directors!

 

 

 

 

Brian Setzler

I am a 35-year KBOO member and have volunteered in a number of capacities over the years including serving on the KBOO Board between 1998 and 2000. I am a Certified Public Accountant and have an MBA in Sustainable Business. I have a strong background in organizational development and non-profit leadership. I currently serve on the Board of Livelihood NW and until recently, did the taxes and accounting for Brown Hope since their inception. I helped co-create co-housing and other coops in Portland. I am a co-founder of the Pacific Green Party. I’ve been an activist for the past 40 years. I was the founder of TriLibrium, a certified B-Corp CPA firm. During my previous BOD service at KBOO, we successfully defended an FCC lawsuit, fired Pacifica Radio and created the KBOO News Service, created an endowment fund, developed a hugely successful process to free ourselves from the need for federal funding. I worked with Shaheed and Celeste, two of the current leaders at KBOO and have worked with Emma over the years as well. 

I value co-creation and look forward to bringing my skills and expertise to help KBOO through its current challenges and opportunities. 

 

Todd Kimball

I have had the experience of advocating for myself and others my entire life. I  was born three months pre-mature and diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. My  parents were staunch advocates and I became an effective advocate myself. I  was one of the first people with a disability mainstreamed in California public  schools. I went on to earn a B.S. in finance and an M.B.A. I wanted to use my  business skills to benefit others as well as society as a whole. 

I have had experience with two media entities which empowered  underrepresented populations. In the mid nineties, I co-founded On A Roll- a  radio talk show on disability issues. The organization and broadcast originated in  Phoenix and expanded to 46 cities around the country within five years. The  primary thing I learned from that experience was that when you collaborate with  subject area experts and you mobilize communities you can solve any problem. 

In 2010, I founded the nonprofit United By Media.(a.k.a Mainstreamed Media)  This organization empowered people with developmental disabilities with a  media voice and a platform for community involvement. People with  developmental disabilities acquired press passes to attend educational and  cultural events that they were interested in. Then they would go backstage and  interview the celebrities. Our reporters interviewed Ken Griffey Jr. Lewis Black  and many more. What I learned from this process was that when you give a  disadvantaged population opportunities that they have never had before, they will  often rise to the occasion and achieve things you never thought possible. 

I have been a Portland resident for 20 years. I left Phoenix to come here because  I was concerned by the attitudes in Phoenix about 9/11. Portland seemed to  have a non violent, thoughtful approach about 9/11 that I didn't see from other  places in the U.S.  

I am a member of a number of community organizations including Toastmasters  and City Club. I know how to bring people together and make society better by  being inclusive. I love that Portland strives to be an inclusive place for people  and ideas. I believe that KBOO does an outstanding job of including  underrepresented people in the media with the hope of affecting change. I look  forward to joining the KBOO board and furthering this ideal.

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The KBOO Board is commited to continuing the legacy of deticated board member and community media leader Shaheed A. Haamid. Shaheed came to the station in 1980. His support for KBOO was not coincidental and was not fickle. He supported KBOO because KBOO supported him. He valued KBOO because it supported peoples potential as citizens of Portland. KBOO also supported his social and cultural aspirations as a member of the station and supported his access to the cultural fabric of his community. Shaheed trusted KBOO and understood in order to honor his commitment to KBOO he must be a part of KBOO’s leadership. Shaheed spent 38 years showing his support through his work as a board member, programmer, volunteer and member listener. May we carry his legacy forward always.  يرحمه الله YaRHaMuHou Allah

Shaheed A. Haamid

 

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Interested in joining the KBOO Board? Click here for info and the application.