Hi Board Members,
As the Program Council facilitator, one of the things I am supposed
to do is cc: a copy of the weekly minutes to the LSB members after thay
are approved.
Obviously I haven't done this for quite a while. I just wanted to explain
why.
KPFA's Program Council, which came about in the 70's after an unpaid
staff strike (loosely referred to as the "people of color strike"
and covered in Mathew Lasar's Pacifica history), is the direct execution
of the LSB's mandated bylaws responsibility to make sure that programming
decisions are made in a fair, collaborative and respectful manner. Unpaid
staff fought very, very hard for their independent seats on the body.
Years later, community folks fought hard to open up similiar seats for
community representatives. In the brief years I have been involved,
the program council has directly placed on the air programs like Voices
of the Middle East, Guns and Butter, The Women's Magazine, Pushing Limits,
and Rock en Rebellion - proposals that lay mired in internal politics
for years - and the only new shows to come ON to KPFA's schedule in
the last 7 years, excluding Against the Grain.
The last time KPFA had an interim management structure,[as
it has now with Sasha Lilley and Lemlem Rijio,] with Jim Bennett,
Phil Osegueda, and Susan Stone, all three attended Program Council meetings
regularly and participated in them. This interim management structure
is very, very different.
To be clear, the Alliance list-serv was notified of the selection of
a new Sunday morning host before the Program Council was.
No programming proposal for ongoing programming has been presented
to the Program Council in seven months, no programming proposal for
one-time programming has been presented to the Program Council in seven
months, the Saturday morning slot from 10am to noon has remained unfilled
since October despite the presence of several program council approved
programs waiting for available slots.
http://kpfapc.pacificana.org/index.php?title+Proposed_Programs
And the program council program evaluation process is waiting on department
recommendations due over nine months ago from the Public Affairs department.
This is unacceptable
.
And unfortunately, the response of interim management has been to attempt
to unsucessfully suspend program council council meetings for an undetermined
period, move them unilaterally to a less frequent schedule, censor the
community representative selection process by not forwarding all of
the applications freely to the Board for review, and now an attempt
to censor the unpaid staff election process by selecting those representatives
for the unpaid staff as well.
These are actions to consolidate decision making power, not actions
to increase the quality and quantity of the offerings on air and serve
our listeners with interesting, diverse and thought-provoking programming.
Let us not be confused.
A program council may not be the panacea for all issues program-related,
but you cannot be a community radio station without a path onto the
air for community-generated programs.
Please seriously consider your bylaws mandated duties and put an end
to these attempts to run around what many people fought hard for: collaborative,
respectful and fair programming decisions.
Best,
Tracy Rosenberg
Community Representative
KPFA Program Council
Urgent Update of
Management actions regarding Program Council
The KPFA iGM and iPD are making huge unilateral decisions that are threatening
the infastructure of shared input and /or checks and balances within
the Listener/Management/Staff configuration as outlined in the Pacifica
Bylaws and historical process over the last16 years.
At a time of very significant programing changes: Johnny Otis Sat am
time slot, Sunday Salon time slot, am show host Andrea Lewis leaving,
News person Sandra Lupien leaving, and more...;the iPD has cancelled
the Program Council on the grounds that new members from the LSB chosen
Listener Reps and the Unpaid have not been forthcomming. As a member
of the PC, I believe it is the one place were healthy dialogue from
all the stakeholders has been ongoing.
In the online application posted by the iGM/ iPD there is a statement
that new voices will be given priority. I fear that this is an attempt
to forget our history by excluding any applicants with a history/ institutional
memory within the station.
In addition,the iGM/ iPD have commandeered the LSB/Listener selection
process established 2 years ago and now will not release the new applicants
(second round) to the 3 LSB Reps to PC which have been assigned the
vetting and recommendation process by the iGM/ iPD This seems to be
an attempt to keep the PC from meeting for another month during this
very important period of change.
Yesterday at the staff meeting which is now occupying the cancelled
program council slot,the iGM essentially derecognized KPFA's Unpaid
Staff Organization four days before the election ballots are due. The
unpaid staff was outraged by this unacceptable act of dismantling an
employees' organization (as it follows its own election guidelines)
and is reaching out to the LSB for support and resolution.
While I believe the Wanzala Motion is in the right spirit and important,I
also urge the LSB to support and prioritize the selection of new LSB
chosen listener reps from those we have interviewed ( in June) and support
the UPSO rep elections which are in place to be finalized this week.
I am available for further dialogue with interested delegates and details
of actions as requested. I will be scheduling a presentation and then
2 min statements of those applicants which are still interested in serving
on the PC for a 1 pm slot on the Sat Aug 18 agenda.We will then vote
stv and seat the new LSB selected Reps to the PC. Feel free to contact
me.
Best, Annie Hallatt, LSB Rep to PC
