Pacifica National Board Meeting (Open)
January 23, 2009
Minutes
(Approved Jan. 31, 2009)
The chair called the meeting to order at 8:34PM EST
The roll was called. The following members were present:
|Grace Aaron |Ambrose Lane |Bonnie Simmons |
|Nia Bediako |Efia Nwangaza |Joe Wanzala |
|Evelyn Bethune |Mike Martin |Yosh Yamanaka |
|Carolyn Birden |George Reiter | |
|Acie Byrd |Sarv Randhawa |Lonnie Hicks |
|Kathryn Davis |Rob Robinson |Dan Siegel |
|Zaccai Free |Jamie Ross |Donna Niemann |
|Sherry Gendelman |Wendy Schroell | |
| | | |
The following members were absent:
Margaret Prescod
Lori Taguma
I. Agenda
A motion was made to approve the agenda.
Yosh Yamanaka proposed moving the Election Committee discussion up.
Seconded. There was no objection.
Zaccai Free proposed moving the Nadra Foster issue up. Kathy Davis
seconded. There was no objection.
Jamie Ross moved for a special order to go to executive session at 10:40
in order to have a full hour. Kathy Davis seconded. There was no
objection.
Grace Aaron made a motion to move the Whistleblower issue to the end of
the agenda. Yosh Yamanaka seconded.
The motion passed 11 in favor; 6 against, as follows:
|Opposed |In favor |
| | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |
|Evelyn Bethune |Carolyn Birden |
|Acie Byrd |Kathryn Davis |
|Mike Martin |Zaccai Free |
|Sarv Randhawa |Efia Nwangaza |
|Bonnie Simmons |George Reiter |
| |Rob Robinson |
| |Jamie Ross |
| |Wendy Schroell |
| |Joe Wanzala |
| |Yosh Yamanaka |
Jamie Ross moved to move discussions of the in-person LA meeting up.
Evelyn Bethune seconded. There was no objection
The agenda was approved.
II. Acknowledgments
III. Election Committee report and motion.
Yosh Yamanaka made a motion as follows:
In order to properly clean and maintain Pacifica's database, the Election
Committee recommends to the PNB the adoption of the following motions:
1. It is recommended that all five of the Pacifica station's listener and staff
membership lists be sent out as soon as possible for an NCOA scan, after which
the indicated corrections should be made to each station's database under the
supervision of its Subscription Manager or functional equivalent as soon as
reasonably possible. Cost of an NCOA scan is approximately $4 per thousand, or
around $400 for Pacifica's 100,000 names. It is further recommended that this
procedure should be repeated regularly thereafter approximately every 6 months
as a prophylactic measure.
2. That for all election mailings, it is recommended that the National Election
Supervisor research the best mailing options to insure receipt of corrected
addresses, such as "Return Service Requested" or "Address Service Requested."
3. In order to save $48,500 to $67,500 in the next election, the Election
Committee recommends that the PNB rescind its earlier motion mandating first
class mailing of all ballots and instead adopt the following motion:
That Standard Class Mail be used for the future elections instead of First
Class Mail, and that a CRE (Courtesy Return Envelope) instead of a BRE
(Business Reply Envelope) be enclosed for return of ballots.
Nia Bediako moved to use the same mailing house that was used to mail the
ballots for the 2008 election. The motion failed by 10 against, 4 in favor, 3
abstentions, as follows:
|In favor |Opposed |Abstentions |
| |Grace Aaron | |
|Nia Bediako |Carolyn Birden |Mike Martin |
|Evelyn Bethune |Kathryn Davis |Wendy Schroell |
|Acie Byrd |Zaccai Free |Bonnie Simmons |
|Sarv Randhawa |Efia Nwangaza | |
| |George Reiter | |
| |Rob Robinson | |
| |Jamie Ross | |
| |Joe Wanzala | |
| |Yosh Yamanaka | |
Yosh Yamanaka moved to extend discussion for 5 minutes.
Kathy Davis seconded. No objection.
Yosh Yamanaka called the question.
Nia Bediako moved to divide the motion into three parts.
The motion failed by 11 against, 4 in favor, as follows:
|In favor |Opposed |
| | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |
|Evelyn Bethune |Carolyn Birden |
|Acie Byrd |Kathryn Davis |
|Bonnie Simmons |Zaccai Free |
| |Efia Nwangaza |
| |Mike Martin |
| |George Reiter |
| |Rob Robinson |
| |Wendy Schroell |
| |Joe Wanzala |
| |Yosh Yamanaka |
The main motion passed 12 in favor, 2 against, 2 abstentions as follows:
|Opposed |In favor |abstentions |
| | | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |Evelyn Bethune |
|Acie Byrd |Carolyn Birden |Bonnie Simmons |
| |Kathryn Davis | |
| |Zaccai Free | |
| |Mike Martin | |
| |Efia Nwangaza | |
| |George Reiter | |
| |Rob Robinson | |
| |Jamie Ross | |
| |Wendy Schroell | |
| |Joe Wanzala | |
| |Yosh Yamanaka | |
IV. Nadra Foster
Zaccai Free proposed the following resolution:
Be it resolved that as listener sponsored network largely staffed by volunteers
and community members,
We deplore the decision by KPFA/Pacifica management to call on the Berkeley
Police Department to remove Nadra Foster by force from the KPFA offices.
We request that Pacifica management propose a policy for so-called "bannings"
that include criteria and processes for such actions. These should be sent to
the Pacifica National Board for review and comment.
Such criteria should:
- be incorporated in paid and unpaid employee agreements;
- stipulate that bannings are primarily done to protect paid and unpaid staff
in the workplace from dangerous and threatening behaviors and to protect
station assets, not as a means of settling personal scores.
- They should advise unpaid staff of how they can respond to such proposals;
and,
- they should ensure that paid and unpaid staff be given written notice of such
"bannings".
Police should be called to remove someone from a Pacifica station, if and only
if, that person is threatening the safety of paid and unpaid staff, or poses an
obvious danger to the station's physical plant/ technical infrastructure.
Carolyn Birden seconded the resolution.
Jamie Ross proposed an amendment adding: "and guests and volunteers" Carolyn
seconded.
George Reiter proposed changing the motion to read: "PNB requests that..."
Nia Bediako made a motion to extend by five minutes. No objection.
The main motion passed with no objection.
V. PNB Meeting in LA
Bonnie Simmons summarized the logistics of the upcoming PNB meeting:
Orientation at noon; KPFK report; Saturday day and evening session; Sunday
early morning executive session, ending at 2 or 3 on Sunday afternoon.
Grace Aron moved to invite Ursula R. to the meeting and to give her a half hour
to speak.
Efia Nwangaza seconded.
Nia Bediako moved to invite her to the New York meeting to save in
transportation costs. No second.
The motion to invite Ursula R. passed 9 in favor, 5 against, 1 abstention as
follows:
|Opposed |In favor |Abstentions |
| | | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |Jamie Ross |
|Acie Byrd |Carolyn Birden | |
|Evelyn Bethune |Kathryn Davis | |
|Bonnie Simmons |Zaccai Free | |
|Wendy Schroell |Efia Nwangaza | |
| |George Reiter | |
| |Rob Robinson | |
| |Joe Wanzala | |
| |Yosh Yamanaka | |
VI. PNB Delegate Status
Nia Bediako made the following motion:
In light of the fact that both David Beaton And Lori Taguma appear to have
submitted flawed applications that the process be reopened for a period of 30
days for nomination and balloting. The process shall also be open to other
qualified candidates. Until that process is completed current Affiliate members
shall remain on the board.
Acie Byrd moved to amend the motion to state that the PNB would appoint Lori
Taguma to an at large position. No second.
Acie Byrd moved to extend the discussion by ten minutes. Seconded. Motion to
extend failed, 10 opposed, 6 in favor, as follows:
|In favor |Opposed | |
| | | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron | |
|Acie Byrd |Carolyn Birden | |
|Bonnie Simmons |Kathryn Davis | |
|Ambrose Lane |Zaccai Free | |
|Evelyn Bethune |George Reiter | |
|Mike Martin |Rob Robinson | |
| |Jamie Ross | |
| |Wendy Schroell | |
| |Joe Wanzala | |
| |Yosh Yamanaka | |
Nia Bediako read the main motion again. The motion failed 9 against, six in
favor, as follows:
|In favor |Opposed |
| | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |
|Acie Byrd |Carolyn Birden |
|Evelyn Bethune |Kathryn Davis |
|Bonnie Simmons |Mike Martin |
|Ambrose Lane |Efia Nwangaza |
|Mike Martin |George Reiter |
| |Rob Robinson |
| |Jamie Ross |
| |Wendy Schroell |
| |Joe Wanzala |
| |Yosh Yamanaka |
George Reiter moved to accept David Beaton and Efia Nwangaza as affiliate
members of the PNB. Motion passed, 9 in favor, 5 against, 2 abstentions, as
follows
|Opposed |In favor |Abstentions |
| | | |
|Nia Bediako |Grace Aaron |Bonnie Simmons |
|Acie Byrd |Carolyn Birden |Mike Martin |
|Evelyn Bethune |Kathryn Davis | |
|Zaccai Free |George Reiter | |
|Ambrose Lane |Rob Robinson | |
| |Jamie Ross | |
| |Wendy Schroell | |
| |Joe Wanzala | |
| |Yosh Yamanaka | |
The public session was adjourned at 10:43PM EST.