This proposed Pacifica bylaw in a sense formalizes " town hall meetings." The intention is to insure, in writing, regular Pacifica listener/staff participation in the preservation and health of the foundation as well as to promote connectivity between Pacifica management, staff, station boards and listeners.

Regular "General Meetings" would relieve much of the burden put on local and national board meetings, though those meetings would remain public.

The General Meeting bylaw potentially accommodates many needed functions and concerns expressed by the greater Pacifica community during this current bylaws revision process. A straw poll conducted at the 5-21-02 meeting of the WBAI bylaws revision sub-committee indicated overwhelming support for such a bylaw (29 for, 2 against, 4 abstentions).

ALL VOTES TAKEN AT GENERAL MEETINGS WOULD BE ON NON-BINDING ITEMS

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PROPOSED BYLAW:

ARTICLE [ ]: STATION GOVERNING BOARDS [a proposed article]

SECTION [ ] GENERAL MEETINGS
Each Station Governing Board shall conduct General Meetings of Pacifica listeners, staff, and management four (4) or more times a year in their station area.

A. These meetings will be 1) held at a date approximately two (2) weeks prior to the 4 national board meetings, 2) publicly announced over the airwaves and the internet at least seven (7) days in advance and 3) broadcast on their respective Pacifica radio stations.

B. The chair of the LGB shall be responsible for scheduling General Meetings. A formal request for the scheduling of a General Meeting may be made by any member of the local or national boards, station staff or any listener-member and must be honored if approved of by a simple majority of the LGB though this approval is not required to schedule a General Meeting.

C. General meetings: 1) shall be at least 3 hours in length 2) shall open with a period (of 30 minutes or less) for members of the attending public to add items to the meeting’s agenda including proposals for non-binding items (resolutions, requests, or suggestions to national and local boards and management or other entities) to be discussed and voted on later during that meeting. 3) Time given for reports from various Pacifica board members, management and staff and corresponding question and answer periods shall not exceed one third of the total time allotted for the General Meeting. General Meetings shall also include, but are not limited to 4) organizing of committees of listeners/staff as a station resource (for input, fundraising, outreach etc), 5) providing a platform for station board candidates prior to elections, 6) facilitation of portions of the procedure of recall of local or national board members [defined in Article __ Section __ ], 7) facilitation of portions of the procedure for binding Listener-member directives [ defined in Article __ Section __ ], 8) presentation of concerns and proposals regarding on-air programming, 9) educational presentations on Pacifica governance and history.

D. General Meetings will be open to the public and any person present may participate in discussion and simple majority votes conducted regarding non-binding items.

E. General Meetings shall be chaired by rotating Local Station Board members. Robert's Rules of Order (revised edition) shall apply.