SavePacifica.net
Summary of Pacifica Natl Board meeting
Tue Mar 12 18:25:43 2002

http://www.savepacifica.net/20020312_lameeting.html

iPNB votes to return to Berkeley, sets procedures for bylaw revisions and elections

March 12, 2002: The interim Pacifica National Board voted to return the network's headquarters to Berkeley, agreed on a procedure for rewriting Pacifica's bylaws and setting up an election procedure for Local Advisory Boards and the permanent national board, and passed a resolution aimed at setting the Free Speech Radio News stringers' strike at a wide-open meeting last weekend in Los Angeles. Several hundred listeners from all signal areas attended the meeting and were afforded opportunities to speak on every issue taken up by the board.

The board also heard reports from all station managers and LABs, from executive director Dan Coughlin and his assistant, Verna Avery-Brown, and from the director of the Pacifica archives.

Eleven of the 14 iPNB members attended the meeting. Missing were Dick Gregory, Bert Lee, and James Ferguson. Rob Robinson was present for part of the meeting.

The decision to return Pacifica's headquarters to Berkeley met the requirement for a two-thirds vote of the directors on all substantive issues, and came after a motion to split the issue of returning the national office itself and the financial headquarters failed on a 5-5 tie. The final vote was on a motion by Carol Spooner to move headquarters, including financial operations, to Berkeley "as soon as is feasible," but by the end of 2002. The vote was 7 to 2, with one abstention, by Marion Barry (WPFW). Voting in favor were Spooner and Pete Bramson (KPFA), chairman Leslie Cagan and Janice K. Bryant (WBAI), Dave Fertig (KPFK), and Teresa Allen and George Barnstone (KPFT). Against were Jabari Zakiya (WPFW) and Ray Laforest (WBAI). The deciding vote came from Barnstone, who agonized for minutes before voting yes. The crowd erupted with applause and cheers.

The discussion on revision of Pacifica's bylaws and establishment of election procedures spilled over from Saturday to Sunday morning as the board struggled with the issue of whether initial drafts should originate with the national board or with listener/LAB groups. Many listeners argued for local origination of the drafts; and Spooner, who presented the motion for formation of a national/local committee to prepare them, also tilted toward that solution. Against it was the argument that collating five different drafts from five separate areas would be confusing and time-consuming.

The committee proposed by Spooner would include at least one member of the iPNB from each signal area, at least three members of each LAB, and all members of local staffs and the listeners who wish to participate and who attend at least three consecutive subcommittee meetings in their local areas.

Cagan offered a compromise under which the iPNB would circulate a list of issues and questions; that the five local subcommittees consider these and add their own suggestions and revisions; that the national committee would then codify these as suggested bylaws and send them out to the local subcommittees for their consideration and revision. The process might take as many as three iterations, Cagan said. This proposal passed by a 9-0 vote, with Zakiya abstaining.

Spooner will chair the committee. Her timetable calls for the local subcommittees to have their issues identified by April 15, for a rough draft of bylaws to be circulated by May 31, a revised draft by July 15, and a final draft submitted to the IPNB and the LABs by Aug 15. Final approval would be expected by Aug. 31. That would leave three months for the elections mandated by the court decision returning control of Pacifica to the current board to be held by Dec. 29, 2002.

The decision aimed at settling the stringers' strike came on a resolution, passed unanimously, that Pacifica pledge not to censor FSRN or any other programs that air on the network's five stations, and that it continue to provide access to the Ku satellite system for the stringers group. If ratified by the stringers within 10 days, the strike will be considered settled.

The board also agreed on procedures for hiring station managers to replace the temporary managers now in place, and heard a report from Barry on the search for a permanent executive director to replace Coughlin. His search committee has received 14 resumes, Barry said, which it has reduced to five; these are now being reviewed and the committee will make a recommended choice at the next board meeting.

That meeting will be in Berkeley on the weekend of June 21-23. Further iPNB meetings will be in Houston Sept. 20-22, Washington Dec. 6-8, and New York March 22-24. The March meeting, Spooner noted, will be the last for the iPNB, since by March 29 a permanent board will have been elected.

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