Resolutions

RESOLUTION
PUBLIC SESSION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Wednesday, October 14, 2020

unanimously

WHEREAS,

The CPB Board of Directors approved policy on August 6, 2007, allowing a merged entity of two television Community Service Grant (CSG) grantees to receive for a minimum of four years the base grant funds that would have been provided to each of the grantees before the merger; and

WHEREAS,

The CPB Board of Directors resolved on September 23, 2019, to leave the current CSG policy regarding base grants for merged television entities in place for a one-year period and directed CPB management to research and quantify the optimal amount of time that merged entities need to continue receiving base grants at a pre-merger level, and report back to the CPB Board with its findings and recommendations; and

WHEREAS,

CPB staff requires additional time to complete its research and expects to develop recommendations for the Board to consider in Fall 2021.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT

The CPB Board of Directors approves retaining the current television base grants policy pending completion of research and presentation to the CPB Board of recommendations for the optimal amount of time for merged entities to continue receiving base grants at a pre-merger level.

RESOLVED,

The Board of Directors adopts the attached Goals and Objectives.

As Adopted July 8, 2020

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

1. CONTENT AND SERVICES

   GOAL: Promote an educated, informed and diverse civil society by supporting high-quality engaging content and services created, developed, executed by diverse talent at all levels and capacities, and delivered across multiple platforms. To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives:

   1. Support the development and distribution of high-quality, noncommercial content and services with particular attention to the needs and interests of children, core publicmedia communities, diverse audiences, and unserved and underserved communities and the public generally.

   2. Strengthen stations' role as essential local and regional institutions and content providers. Support initiatives that enable stations to respond to and reflect the diversity of their communities through their content, personnel and boards.

   3. Facilitate the development and distribution of high-quality content, including news and information, that is accurate, fair, balanced, objective, transparent, and produced in a manner that is consistent with editorial integrity by all involved. Support efforts to ensure diversity and inclusion in public media newsrooms. Make such newsrooms accessible to the public on a reasonable basis.

   4. Provide parents, caregivers, teachers and students with diverse high-quality educational content and services that advances learning in all settings. Support efforts to build education partnerships at local and state levels.

   5. Facilitate the development of content created for and delivered across multimedia platforms by new diverse talent. Consider making the such newsrooms these newsrooms accessible to the public on a reasonable basis.

2. INNOVATION

   GOAL: Strengthen the quality of public media's content and services, and deepen the engagement with audiences and users, by supporting innovative projects.

   To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives:

   1. Support the efforts of public media stations and producers to use multimedia platforms to serve and engage audiences diverse in age, gender, race, and ethnicity wherever, whenever and however they use, share and create media.

   2. Support public media efforts to develop strategies and seek to develop strategies to anticipate and respond to the rapidly changing ways in which people are using media.

   3. Advance public media's role in providing emergency alerts by strengthening local and national partnerships and in seeking improved methods of delivering such information.

3. SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC MEDIA

   GOAL: Strengthen the quality of public media's content and services by supporting strong public media entities that are vital to and reflective of the people they serve.

   To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives:

   1. Promote and support collaborations and consolidations to increase capacity to provide essential and diverse service.

   2. Foster a public media workforce that includes the diverse backgrounds, talents and experiences of the American people.

   3. Support initiatives and projects that extend the reach of public media to new and more diverse users and creators of content.

   4. Work with public media organizations to increase and measure the impact of the services they provide as well as the awareness of the vital role that public media plays in helping communities address important local issues.

   5. Support efforts to strengthening community engagement with diverse organizations and institutions.

RESOLUTION
PUBLIC SESSION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020

unanimously

RESOLVED,
That the Board of Directors hereby approves the attached FY 2021 Operating Budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

RESOLVED,
The President and Chief Executive Officer may, from time to time, make reallocations in the line items of the budget not to exceed ten (10) percent of any line item, provided that such changes are consistent with statutory allocations contained in the Public Broadcasting Act and further provided that the Board is informed sufficiently in advance of such reallocations through reports from the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to enable comments or questions if any.

SOLVED,
Consistent with the authority delegated above, in the event of federal budget action that affects CPB's FY 2021 appropriation, the President and Chief Executive Officer may adjust the overall budget to comply with such action.

RESOLUTION
PUBLIC SESSION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WASHINGTON, D.C.
May 5, 2020

(7 in favor; 1 absent)

WHEREAS,

In September 2019, the CPB Board approved TV Community Service Grant policy changes that included the establishment of a $1 million Healthy Network Initiative to begin October 1, 2020, to support eligible grantees that strategically develop and use data to more effectively understand, engage, and serve their audiences.

WHEREAS,

Since that time, COVID-19 has created unprecedented economic disruption across the nation, challenging public television stations’ ability to maintain local programming and services.

WHEREAS,

Public television stations have incurred additional costs to meet their communities’ intensified educational, health and safety, and public information needs as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

WHEREAS,

CPB Management, with the endorsement of the 2019 Television Community Service Grant panel of station representatives that originally recommended the Healthy Network Initiative, recommends delaying implementation of the new Healthy Network Initiative to FY 2022.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT

The CPB Board of Directors hereby adopts CPB management’s recommendation to postpone the launch of the CSG Healthy Network Initiative from FY 2021 to FY 2022; and distribute as unrestricted funds through the general CSG pool the $1 million that would have been allocated to the initiative in FY 2021.  

Resolution
Board of Directors
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Monday, April 27, 2020

unanimously

RESOLVED,

            That the Board of Directors adopts the following board meeting schedule for the remainder of calendar year 2020:

Date:                                                                                                   Location:

RESOLUTION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
WASHINGTON, D.C.

MARCH 17, 2020

unanimously

WHEREAS,

            Due to the unprecedented financial impact of the coronavirus, public media stations across the country are facing a severe decrease in funding from individuals, charitable foundations, corporate underwriting, states and universities; and

WHEREAS,

            In consultation with the public media system, CPB management has developed a supplemental FY 2020 request to the Office of Management and Budget and to Congress for a $250 million appropriation in support of ensuring the viability of public telecommunications entities during this period of extraordinary economic hardship; and

WHEREAS,

            The Board of Directors has reviewed and considered CPB’s supplemental request,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,

            The Board of Directors authorizes CPB management to submit a supplemental appropriations request in the amount of $250 million for FY 2020 to the Office of Management and Budget and to Congress.

RESOLUTION

PUBLIC SESSION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Thursday, February 27, 2020

RESOLVED,

That the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accepts the Combined Financial Statements and Report of Independent Certified Public Accountants, and Combined Financial Statements, Independent Auditors’ Report, and Reports in Compliance with the Uniform Guidance for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Affiliate for September 30, 2019 and 2018.

    RESOLUTION
    BOARD OF DIRECTORS
    CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
    WASHINGTON, D.C.

    unanimously

    Resolved,

    That the Board of Directors
    of the
    Corporation for Public Broadcasting
    Expresses its Heartfelt Condolences
    to the Family, Friends, and Colleagues of

    Jim Lehrer

    Journalist and public media champion.

We will long remember with gratitude Jim’s pioneering work in the field of journalism and devotion to public broadcasting. Jim began his more-than-50-year career as a journalist in 1959 when he became a reporter, writer and editor for the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times-Herald. He became the producer and anchor of “Newsroom” on local public television station KERA in 1970.

In 1973, Jim received a fellowship from CPB and joined PBS as public affairs coordinator. He teamed up with Robert MacNeil to cover the Watergate hearings, and their collaboration would become the award-winning nightly newscast “The Robert MacNeil Report,” which became “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” and finally the “PBS NewsHour.”

Over the course of his career, Jim covered the John F. Kennedy assassination, interviewed presidential and vice-presidential candidates beginning in 1976, and moderated 12 nationally televised presidential debates. He and Robert MacNeil were inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Jim’s other awards and accomplishments include winning two Emmys, a Peabody Award, the 1999 National Humanities Medal, and CPB’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

In his 36 years at PBS NewsHour, Jim shaped it into a program that continues to be the gold standard for journalistic excellence. Jim remained true to his calling, providing thoughtful and insightful news and analysis to the American public. Through his straight-forward reporting-style, Jim helped public broadcasting earn its reputation as the most trusted institution in America.

As a lifelong storyteller, Jim was also a published author who often used his life experiences as subject matter for two memoirs, over 20 novels and three plays. We remember with fondness his passion for buses and collection of bus memorabilia.

We extend our condolences to Jim’s family, friends and colleagues at “PBS NewsHour,” MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and WETA.