KRFC’S MISSION AND VISION

FOR THE FUTRE

by Kate Tarasenko

[Originally published in Watts Happening, a supplemental insert in the Rocky Mountain Bullhorn (Fort Collins, Colo.),
week of April 9, 2006, cover]

“People get ready—there’s a train a-comin.’

You don’t need no baggage,
you just get on board.”
— Curtis Mayfield

In real estate, the formula for success is “location, location, location.” For KRFC, it means claiming its own “sense of place” on the airwaves of the
Front Range.

“A sense of place” is one of the recurring themes that emerged following months of meetings and hundreds of surveys that articulated the qualities
that best evoke what KRFC means to listeners, sponsors, members and volunteers. And defining that “place” was one of the drivers behind the new
Mission, Vision and Values Statements adopted by the Board of Directors on March 16.

Station Manager Beth Flowers, who recently signed a three-year extension on her contract, says that the original Mission Statement written by the
eight founding members of PRFR used the future tense, “which made sense, since it was written before we were on the air! But we have already
achieved lots,” she emphasizes. “We need to take credit for what we are already doing.”

At the same time, Flowers says, it was crucial to plot a purposeful course for KRFC, “so that we could create a plan for the next five years.” After
accomplishing so much and expanding so quickly in three years, “we didn‟t have a clear vision of where we should be going,” she says.

There are some very practical aspects to developing new Mission, Vision and Values Statements, as well.

“We needed something more concise, more professional,” says Flowers. “We are competing with lots of non-profits for grant dollars, and we need to
play by the rules of the funders.”

KRFC decided to hire a consultant to help guide the station‟s efforts. “We knew that this process was going to be complicated and very public,” says
Flowers, “so we wanted a professional to help us out.”

Board member Cat McClintock is a single mom and a manager at an international software company. A resident of the Front Range for more than 15
years, McClintock hosts KRFC‟s “Runaway Fiddle.” She joined the Board in January.

She agreed with the necessity of using an outside consultant, saying that the station wanted someone “to keep us focused and on-task.” Ultimately,
she says, the station benefited by the process. “I think we saved ourselves from bogging down and over-analyzing things.”

KRFC turned to Denise Clark. “For years, I called myself a „recovering executive director,‟” she says. “But now I prefer „non-profit champion.‟”

Clark has an extensive background in the non-profit sector in executive management and leadership development. She also has decades of experience
as not just a „social activist,‟ but a “social change activist,” working on legislative policy that addresses rights for women and children, GLBT issues,
animal protection and environmental reforms.

Her 15 years as a volunteer and DJ at KOTO, Telluride‟s community radio station, made her the natural choice to facilitate KRFC‟s task of crafting
a vision for the future.

“Strategic planning is a tool for changing your mode of functioning from reactive to active,” say Clark. “You anticipate, plan and create the future.”

Rather than operating from crisis to crisis or even day to day, Clark says it‟s key to create a specific, written “road map,” replete with mile-markers
and destinations, to ensure the success of any organization, whether for-profit or non-profit, large or small.

Through the process of strategic planning, says Clark, “the organization learns about itself, its constituencies and its community. It involves
developing vision and mission statements, defining core values, and analyzing the organization‟s strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and
threats.”

Once the assessments were conducted, as KRFC did through its Listener Surveys, the next step “involved prioritizing the issues, setting goals, and
identifying the action steps needed to achieve each goal.”

Goal-setting is only one result of the new documents. “I also thought we needed words that better described our culture,” says Flowers. “I felt it was
time to be clearer about what KRFC is.” Flowers says that the original Mission Statement, though ambitious and well-intentioned, “did not sound like
fun. It was a little too serious. I want KRFC to be a place that lifts people up.”

While the methodology in creating the three separate documents involves answering different questions, Clark says that the most critical components
to the whole strategic planning process are “full group participation, cooperation and consensus.”

McClintock says that “finding a common vision with the Board was remarkably easy,” in spite of the members‟ diverse backgrounds and
interests. “They could all see what this radio station could be five, ten years from now. The work,” she says, “came in simply agreeing on how to
best articulate that vision.”
Tim Tillson is a founding member of PRFR and the tech committee that put KRFC on the air. He served on the SPA Committee.
“I‟ve done lots of vision, mission and purpose exercises with Hewlett-Packard and Agilent over the years,” he says, “so I wanted to help contribute to
this one.”

David Cantor serves on the Programming and Public Affairs Committees, and is a member of NewsTeam. He also served on the SPA Committee.

“I had been told about the effort to change the Mission Statement for some time,” he says.

Nevertheless, Cantor says that he was reluctant to see the Mission Statement altered. “Originally, it was upsetting,” he says, “but I came to have more
faith… I had faith that the intent of the original mission would be reflected in the new documents.”

McClintock recognizes that change itself is a difficult prospect for some people, and KRFC is no exception. She says that those who resist change
“can be useful to a process when they give you points of view you might not have considered.” But sometimes, she adds, “they can also paralyze
progress. At a certain point…we have to move forward.”

For his part, Cantor says, “The first influence I exerted was to try to move the discussion on from whether or not we were going to change the Mission
Statement from the original. I thought [the new documents] would better reflect the volunteers and ground our collective intent.”

From there, some of the strategic planning exercises and questions revealed some fundamental differences.

“There were several different opinions about what our mission is,” Flowers says. “Some folks wanted KRFC to be a social experiment that I and the
Board didn‟t think was possible, or even wanted by the majority of our community.”

Along those lines, Tillson declares, “I am a pragmatic, results-oriented person. I don‟t have a lot of patience with extreme ideological positions which
hinder progress, deadlock people, and strive for states which will not be achieved in this lifetime.”

Jeff Koepke says he had “no fear” when it came to making changes to the Mission Statement. Koepke hosts “House Rent Party,” playing a diverse
catalogue of blues. He also compiles play lists, alerts fellow DJs to choice new arrivals, and shepherds prospective programmers through the demo
process.

“And I frequently do the dishes,” he adds.

He participated in two of the all-station meetings, and talked about some of the more predictable speedbumps that appear when diverse groups of
stakeholders work together, despite setting out toward a common goal.

Of one brainstorming session, Koepke says, “it seemed like we spent most of our time splitting hairs about language and over-complicating our
group‟s task.”

Cantor says that disconnects in communication and differences in language choices among the various groups were sources of frustration.

“No process that we have run—or ever will run—will be perfect and satisfy everyone 100 percent,” Tillson says.

Adds Koepke, “We need to realize that in an institution of this size and nature, we are not going to get everything we want all the time.”

All in all, McClintock considers the whole process instructional. “I think we‟ve identified areas where we were weak in our communications,
training, financial position, staff, policy, etc. We have lots of structured plans for filling those gaps,” she says.

Recalling the expression that the only difference between a goal and a dream is a deadline, Flowers found the process invaluable.

“We needed to write down, on paper, that we want to own a building in the next five years,” she says. “We needed a staffing plan. We needed to
commit to a more diverse fundraising strategy, better training and volunteer-retention plans. We needed to confirm what policies we still need and
a timeline for getting them completed.”

McClintock says that coming up with a delineated plan ensures that “everybody is rowing the proverbial KRFC boat in the same direction.”

Citing another popular theme in the Listener Surveys, she says, “We‟ll encourage our programmers, especially in news and public affairs, to align
their efforts as much as possible with the new vision, mission and values… and with the local-focused message.”

Flowers agrees. “We needed to clarify our strong commitment to improving our news and public affairs programming.”

“Hopefully, you‟ll start hearing the difference in the next few months,” adds McClintock, referring, in part, to the appointment of the new interim
News and PA Coordinator, David Peterson.

After several months of meetings and the input of more than 250 people, Flowers says that the new guiding documents are “something I‟m really
proud of. We created a very open process that included lots of opportunities for public input.”

Tillson agrees. “I think the process made a very sincere attempt to be as inclusive and as open as possible,” he says.

Clark says that an important element of creating a strategic plan is evaluation. “The action plan created by KRFC is a strong document,” she
says. “A regular review of the action plan at board, staff and volunteer meetings should be a top priority. Otherwise, dust collects.”

“I imagine that we will re-visit these documents many times,” says Flowers. “A strong organization has to notice changes in the outside environment
and internally, as well—and re-make itself as necessary.”

To that end, KRFC plans to create a community advisory board, as recommended by last year‟s focus groups led by Board member Saul Hopper.
“Planning should support flexibility rather than rigidity, and use intuition and creativity in the process,” says Clark.

Her final advice? “Please celebrate together!”

Koepke is up for some of that. “We have come a long way in three years—or 13, if you want to go all the way back—and I think we should celebrate
the successes we‟ve had as a group. It has taken the heartfelt effort of many, many individuals to get where we are.”

Noting that “there is always room for improvement,” Koepke accentuates the positive, adding, “I think we are working to get better at all aspects of
what we do.”

McClintock is excited about the road ahead. “The new mission, vision and values reflect, to me, the essence of KRFC,” she says. “We‟re focusing
on showing the world what‟s possible.”

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