|
LAB exploratory committee minutes and notes 2-13-02 |
LAB exploratory notes index
Minutes of the Exploratory Committee of the WBAI Local Advisory Board (LAB). What follows is an account of the meeting that took place this Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002, 6:45 to 9 pm. I volunteered for the job of typing up the official account of this brainstorming session. I have been given permission by the chair of the committee to post these minutes to the Internet. These minutes have not yet been approved by the Committee, but I expect that they will serve as the official record of the proceedings. The numbered list of ideas is my account of the meeting. But in the interest of accuracy, I have also transcribed all the flip charts that were created by the facilitator during the meeting and included this information as an appendix at the end. The names "Local Advisory Board" and "Station Board" are the old and newly proposed names, respectively, of the official local boards of each of the 5 member stations of the Pacifica Network. Most people at the meeting used the term "Local Advisory Board";therefore, for simplicity's sake, I have used that term throughout the document, where appropriate, abbreviating it as "LAB." Tom Gregg Thurs, Feb. 14, 2002 In attendance and facilitating the meeting: Lee Kronick (Exploratory Committee Member) Marian Bornstein (LAB Member) Sheila Hamanaka (Facilitator, flip chart writer) Special Guest: Ray Laforest, member of interim Pacifica National Board. Others in attendance (a total of about 14 people): Members of Exploratory Committee, and Listeners. I. Meeting was called to order. II. Announcements: Monday, February 25, at 6:30 there will be a meeting at WBAI radio station sponsored by the Exploratory Committee; Valerie Van Isler will be the speaker. III. It was explained that this meeting is intended to be a brainstorming session, to think of suggestions for the WBAI LAB about proposed bylaws. The WBAI LAB is supposed to cooperate with the interim Pacifica National Board to write and approve new bylaws for the Pacifica Foundation, as mandated by the recent court settlement. The theme for this brainstorming sesssion is "Role of the Station Board." IV. The chair gives the floor to the moderator. A. Explanation that elections of new LABs are supposed to take place by December 29, 2002 and we must work quickly. B. The deadline for Exploratory Committee recommendations to the WBAI LAB is in May 2002. C. Announcement by Marian Bornstein: Everyone who comes to the Exploratory Committee meeting is expected to bring a copy of the Pacifica Bylaws and a copy of Carol Spooner's recommendation. D. Next there was a facilitated brainstorming session about the functions of the LAB. What follows is the list of suggestions offered by participants in the discussion, roughly in chronological order. Some items were controversial, and inclusion on this list does not imply endorsement by the WBAI LAB or by the Exploratory Committee. These are just the ideas that were stated in the brainstorming session on Feb 13. We do not all agree on them. (Note that some people at the meeting have said they will email me other suggestions that they had. I will include those in a separate document or an appendix. The body of this document will be confined to the meeting of Wednesday, Feb 13.) SOME IDEAS ABOUT PROPOSED FUNCTIONS OF THE STATION BOARD/LAB: 1. The Station Board, i.e., Local Advisory Board (LAB) should safeguard the FCC license, to prevent WBAI from being sold, hijacked, mainstreamed, or taken over by conservatives, and to ensure that the mission of Pacifica is maintained. The facilitator illustrated the mission of Pacifica with a picture of a dove. 2. It was noted that over the past few years, the Pacifica National Board (PNB) voted to disenfranchise the LABs, resulting in a self-selecting National Board which took actions that were bad for the Pacifica Network. Suggestion: the LAB needs to make sure that the PNB cannot take any actions that the listeners disagree with. 3. LAB should participate in fundraising. 4. LAB should participate in oversight of finances. Later, this suggestion was expanded with the suggestion that the LAB should act as a watchdog for both the PNB and the local station, watching over any matters that need attending, not just financial ones. 5. LAB should function as a place where people within the station (producers, staff, volunteers) can bring issues, for example, in a case where there is some conflict between people (conflict over ideas, per\sonalities, etc.) within the station. One person offered the descriptive term "steam valve" for this function. And LAB should act as a liaison between producers and listeners. 6. Roger Manning distributed and very briefly presented his proposal for a General Board, and noted that Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding guidelines require the existence of an Advisory Board that has no real power. See his proposal for further detail. 7. WBAI LAB should liaison with the other 4 LABs and with Pacifica affiliate stations. 8. LAB or listeners should elect the Station Manager of WBAI and Program Director. 9. LAB is required by the terms of the lawsuit settlement to participate in the process of creating new bylaws for the Pacifica Foundation. 10. LAB should facilitate the placing of interns and many, many volunteers into the station, modeled on stations such as WORT and KGNU. These volunteers should be trained, and should have a very active role. 11. LAB should inform the listeners about what is going on at the station, This can be done by mail. The Folio is another way to foster communication between the station and listeners. 12. LAB should ensure broad representation and diversity. It should reach out to many different types of people, and should ensure that groups are not neglected. For example, perhaps a WBAI program should address the issues of the disabled. Perhaps there should be more Asian programming. 13. LAB should recruit candidates for LAB; it should actively reach out and encourage people to come forward and stand for election for LAB. 14. LAB needs to set up a structure to carry out elections for LAB. 15. LAB should protect the producers from anything that would interfere with their doing their jobs-- it should protect them from the listeners, from the National Board, from the FBI, etc. 16. LAB should protect paid and unpaid staff when the union fails to protect them. 17. LAB should protect program independence and freedom of speech of programmers, as long as their programs help fulfill the mission of Pacifica. 18. The lawsuit settlement requires that new LABs be elected. LAB should interview candidates for these elections. 19. LAB should participate in recruitment and vetting of candidates for the LAB elections. 20. LAB should not be able to prevent anyone from becoming a candidate for LAB. (Note that 18 and 19 may be opposing viewpoints. This was an area of disagreement.) 21. LAB should help set up an organized volunteer network. 22. We should have independent elections for LAB, either run by LAB or run by a third party. LAB should not be self-selecting. 23. LAB should protect and enhance the station. 24. LAB should be empowered to have a judicial function, so that it can adjudicate disagreements among station personnel when attempts at conflict resolution have failed. For cases of real or alleged physical violence, racism, sexual harrassment, etc. 25. LAB can act as an "Ethics Committee." 26. There should be a process so that a referendum can be held by the LAB for community input. 27. Question: should LAB be independent of PNB? If so, how independent should it be? 28. LAB should allow listeners to have direct access to WBAI. (Note, I believe that the core idea here is to allow listeners to have control over what happens at WBAI, not simply to allow listeners into the studios.) 29. Elaboration of Roger Manning's "General Board" idea- everyone would be able to be on the General Board, it might be somewhat similar to the organization of Concerned Friends of WBAI. Referendums, direct access, meetings. 30. LAB should accept proposals from listeners for referendums, which would operate as follows: A listener would gather enough signatures to put a proposition on the ballot, and all listeners would be given the opportunity to vote for or against this proposition by checking a box marked "yes" or "no", and the results of this referendum would be officially reported by the LAB to the Pacfica National Board. 31. Amendment to the above proposal, offered by another person: the results of such referendums should be binding, so that the Pacifica National Board and/or the local station would be forced to obey them. 32. In response to the proposal (listed above) stating that the LAB should vet candidates, someone proposed that listeners should vet candidates in a democratic way. 33. There should be interdependence and a positive, dynamic relationship between the LAB and National Board. 34. LAB should provide access to information about the structure of the organization and issues within the organization. 35. If the LAB is given the authority to select candidates for seats on the LAB, then there also needs to be a way for independent candidates (i.e., candidates who are not picked by the LAB) to run for places on the LAB. 36. If LAB elects a PNB member, and it turns out that this PNB member is not doing his or her job properly, then LAB should be able to remove that person from the PNB and elect someone else. This process is called "recall." 37. LAB should meet with the community in the 5 boroughs of New York City and in the other listening areas. LAB should set up community meetings in all these areas, with guest speakers and time for open discussion from the community. LAB should do a "community needs assessment". 38. LAB should get the list of WBAI members, and, without violating anyone's privacy, analyze the Zip codes on the list to figure out where our biggest listener-subscriber base is. Use of Zip codes to "monitor" members. 39. If LAB analyzes the Zip codes as described above, LAB should be sure to take into account that some people are avid listeners but cannot afford to donate to WBAI (poor people's Zip codes would be underrepresented on such a list.) These people's ideas need to be solicited. 40. If LAB elects one or more PNB members, those PNB members should be required to report back to the LAB. 41. LAB should ensure that money is earmarked for the purpose of preserving the WBAI archives of old radio shows (Note: this is relevant because this morning Amy Goodman mentioned on the air at WBAI that some archival program tapes had been re-used within the past year or so, destroying whatever was on them). 42. LAB should assist and aid the formation of a Program Council. 43. LAB should establish mechanisms to accept or appeal national programming mandates, so that if , for example, the Pacifica Foundation mandates that a certain program must be run during certain times, this mandate can be challenged. 44. LAB should develop a policy about hate speech and establish a committee to handle this issue. 45. Someone proposed that the policy about hate speech should apply to hate speech that occurs either on or off the air. 46. LAB should develop a WBAI Folio. 47. Some producers receive money from outside organizations to help them develop their programs. The LAB should establish a mechanism to review all of this "outside" funding. This process should be "transparent." That is, it should be done openly. 48. LAB should develop a process by which fired staff can appeal to get their jobs back, if the union cannot protect them. It is unclear whether this proposal refers to unpaid staff as well as paid staff. 49. LAB should implement an annual programming referendum, with power to change programming. The plan would work like this: every year, the listeners would vote on whether they were satisfied with the programming. If the results of the referendum showed that the listeners were dissatisfied with the programming, then the LAB would be required to act to remedy the situation within 45 days or a similar period. 50. LAB should select a member of the LAB to become a Pacifica National Board member, as was done with Ray Laforest. But if the person does a poor job, then the LAB should be able to take that person off the PNB ("recall"). 51. There are a number of people who are WBAI listeners but not members, because they cannot afford the expense. LAB should encourage these people's involvement. 52. LAB could call an annual General Listener Meeting, where all listeners could come together and participate. 53. LAB should make a weekly report to the listeners over the radio, with free speech and no gag rule-- it should be allowed to say what it needs to say. 54. It was suggested that, because this brainstormed list of proposals is so long, the LAB would need a paid staff and a budget in order to accomplish all these goals. 55. LAB should work to minimize conflict between paid and unpaid staff, because paid staff might be afraid that unpaid staff is taking their jobs away from them. We need non-competition for jobs. LAB should also address the issue of who is volunteering. Perhaps many volunteers are middle-class or rich people who can afford to take the time to volunteer, and poor people need to be considered too. 56. Another comment on Roger Manning's General Board idea: there can be more than one general board. This could result in dispersed representation, managed through the LAB. 57. There should be more local control over the General Manager of WBAI. The General Manager (GM) should be required to report to the LAB. Perhaps the LAB should be allowed to hire and fire the GM. The Executive Director should not be allowed to make such decisions, and the Executive Director position should be either eliminated or greatly reduced in power, so as to make it something like an ombudsman. 58. LAB should perform Youth Outreach. This outreach should include training in radio techniques. Air time should also be allotted to cover youth issues. 59. LAB meetings and subcommittee meetings should be run democratically. 60. LAB representatives should follow LAB mandates (note: I believe that this proposal referred to LAB relations with the National Board). 61. LABs should instruct the PNB members as to their duties, and recall them if they do not follow these instructions. 62. LAB should have the power to approve or reject the budget of the Pacifica National Board. 63. One person expressed his "deep concern" over whether the current LAB will allow listeners to participate in decisions over bylaws. E. The Facilitator drew a graphic, during the course of the conversation, that can be summarized as follows: Mission of LAB I. Safeguard FCC license II. Elect Pacifica National Board III. Elections for LAB IV. Fundraising and oversight of fundraising- also a general watchdog function over the station and National Board V. Programming A. Review programming B. Do this in consulation with listeners VI. Volunteer Network VII. Liaisons with various groups A. Listeners 1. Interns 2. Listeners can be contacted by many means, including by mail B. Staff 1. Paid 2. Unpaid 3. Union issues C. Producers D. Management E. LABs of other stations F. Pacifica affiliate stations G. National Board H. Ethics Committee/Conflict Resolution V. Closing announcements. Next week's meeting will be a similar brainstorming session, addressing the structure of the LAB (for example, how many members should the LAB have?Should there be requirements or criteria imposed on LAB members?) The next meeting will take place Wednesday, Feb 20, at 75 Varick Street, 4th floor, at the District Council office of the union located there. These meetings are open to all WBAI listeners. VI. Meeting Adjourned. Appendix: What follows is a literal transcription of the flip charts that the facilitator wrote during the meeting. I include it here for completeness's sake. Flip Chart 1. MEETING--NOTE--EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE MONDAY 2/25 AT WBAI-- SPEAKER VALERIE VAN ISLER ------------------------------------------------ 1 1 2w 8/15 9/18 1/9 EXPLORATORY [Note: a calendar-table was next on the flip chart, which I have transcribed the best I could.] Feb M A M LAB J J A S O N D D/L elections. Dec 29, 2002 LAB Flip Chart 2. Graphic drawn by facilitator. I have added an outline structure to make it easier to read. Mission [picture of dove] I. FCC II. PNB III. Elections IV. $ Fundraising + oversight - [picture of dog's head] V. Programming A. Review B. listeners VI. Volunteer Network VII. Liaison A. Listeners 1. Interns 2. mail B. Staff 1. Paid 2. Unpaid 3. UNION C. Producers D. Mgt E. Other LAB's F. Affil G. PNB H. Ethics/Conf. Res. Flip Chart 3. -FCC license sell change mission -Producers- problems in station -CPB funding problem -Elect SM + PD -Approval of By-laws (Nat'l) -Interns -Board Rep/Diversity -Protect paid + unpaid staff -Program Independence/Mission! Flip Chart 4. -_Interview_ process Recruitment- Vetting- of candidates -Volunteer Network- _organized_! -Independent elections (Not self-selecting -Protect + Enhance stations -Judicial (Conflict resolution). Ethics [note: the word "conflict resolution" is crossed out, and was not intended to be included in the official record of the meeting.] -Watchdog over PNB + WBAI -Process/Referendum/Community -Q: Independence from PNB -Direct Access Listeners to WBAI Flip Chart 5. - General Board - Everyone referendums direct access meetings -Referendums - Voters _ Yes _ No Propositions - Listeners vet candidates - Binding referenda - Interdependence POSITIVE _DYNAMIC_ relationship - Access to information about structure, issues -Independent candidates not picked by LAB can run -Recall Flip Chart 6. - Meet w/ Community NY + Burbs C.N.A. Solicite ideas from underrepresented [Note: graphic: double-headed arrow between these two items] - Analyze + monitor Members base - zip codes [note: this originally read "analyze listener base" then the word "listener" was crossed out.] - PNB reps should report back to LAB - Preserve $ for local archives - Assist + Aid form. of Program Council - Estab. Mechanism for accept + appeal N' programming mandates - Dev _Hate_ _Speech_ Policy + estab. comm on + off air - Folio Flip Chart 7. -Mech to review all program funding [grants] - transparent -Fired Staff Appeal Process -Annual Programming Referendum w/ power to cure -LAB elects LAB member to go to PNB w/ right to recall - Listeners vs. members: Encourage involvement of those who can't afford $ -Budget + Perm. staff - On Air reports Weekly- Free speech Flip Chart 8 -Volunteers-rich, poor/Paid staff/unpaid staff --- non-competition for jobs -More than one general Board dispersed representation managed thru LAB -More local control over GM/Exec Dir shd be Ombudsman -Monday Feb 25th- mtg at WBAI 6:30 pm -Outreach to Youth -LAB mtgs + subcommittees run democratically -LAB reps follow LAB mandates -Approve National Budget |
top of page | LAB exploratory notes index | bylaws revisions process info page | bylaws etc | home |