Resoution on Pacifica Investigation Summary

UPSO RESOLUTION:  We request a copy of the page and a half summary of the investigator’s conclusions. 

In favor:  5

Abstained: 2

Opposed:  1     

Resolution passed 10-17-13 

Notes: UPSO Membership Meeting 10-17-13

Present:  Adrienne Lauby, Gabriella Wilson, Ann Garrison, Eddie Ytuarte, Anthony Fest, Emmit Powell, Shahram Aghamir, Lisa Dettmer, Carla West, and Tim Lynch.

Guest: KPFA Interim General Manager Richard Pirodsky

1) KPFB

2) Program Councils

3) Program Changes at KPFA

4) Hiring

5) Pacifica Investigation at KPFA

6) Fund Drive

1)   KPFB.  Richard says that KPFA needs a "feeder station," that would try out programs that might be given time on KFPA if they appear to be successful.  He has never been at a station that didn't have any way to regularly try out and improve new programming before it came to the grid.  At this point, however, he said there's no open slot to put a new show on KPFA.    KPFB is a radio station, not just a repeater.  “…to just repeat KPFA programs is a waste of the frequency.”  It originally covered areas around Berkeley that KPFA could not reach but, due to technical advances, KPFA now reaches those areas.  (Michael Yoshida is doing a study of that to be sure.)

Richard described an experience with a situation similar to his plans for KPFB at college stations, where turnover was far more frequent, as students graduated and moved on.  The station he was talking about covered the campus and the vicinity around the campus.

KPFB will impose two very strict limitations.

    **KPFA does not have the revenue to pay people on KPFB.

    **It will have to be pre-recorded, because live production studio space isn't available

Otherwise, Richard said, it gives us a chance to experiment with programming. It will have its own web stream and be promoted on KPFA.  It wasn't clear whether it would have it's own website as well. Richard has asked a LSB Task Force, with both caucuses represented, to consider KPFB.

There was general excitement about the idea of KPFB programming.

Eddie Ytuarte asked, "How much does it cost to run the station?"

Richard said:  Nothing more.  It will mean no addition to the budget.

Someone asked if it will be on 24 hours?   The only answer for now was that only the Berkeley City Council and School Board meetings are on the KPFB schedule separate from KPFA at this time.

Gabrielle Wilson did not want to see KPFB ghettoized as, she said, most programmers of color are currently at KPFA.

Question (Adrienne): will this new use of KPFB have to wait until there's a Program Council?

Answer: not necessarily; we could at least solicit applications, e.g. the Strike Debt group has already asked for a show.

2)  PROGRAM COUNCILS:   Richard said that, the PNB has passed a general rule that every station must have a Program Council but let the individual stations define their structure and responsibilities.   The Program Council needs to represent both caucuses on the LSB.   Uncertainty remains about who will have the authority to approve programming.

The LSB Task Force, with representatives from both caucuses, will come to a consensus as to what a Program Council at KPFA should consist of in response to the resolution by the Pacifica National Board.

Tim Lynch said that the LSB should not have any role in programming, that it should have only a governance role.

Richard said that a member of the LSB has already suggested that the Program Director should propose programming, the Program Council should dispose (decide), and if there's a deadlock between the two, the LSB should break the deadlock.

Richard strongly believes we need good program evaluation.  The only data that can currently be collected about audience or enthusiasm are the number of hits on the website and $$ raised during pledge.

Richard said we need better metrics.

3)  PROGRAM CHANGES AT KPFA?

What strategies are we using for making choices?

Richard:  There's a very slow turnover process for KPFA.

Richard: There has never been strategic thinking here about scheduling; I wanted to do some, but thought I should talk to the LSB about it. I did, and discovered that neither caucus wanted to see changes.    Also, changes ought to be done soon after a pledge drive, but we won't be doing them when the present drive ends tomorrow... so the next time to do it would be after the December drive – but I will be leaving by then.   Interviews for a permanent GM are underway this week (and I'm not a candidate for the permanent job).

4) HIRING

Lisa asked when the GM hire will be made.  Richard said that that members of the committee said they're interviewing this week, and that they will present a short list to the LSB.

Richard himself did not apply and said that he was brought in specifically to make sure the investigation was conducted fairly and that Pacifica National had promised to get him out of there before long.

Question:  Have hiring committees been formed for the Board Op and Phone Room jobs?   Richard: no.... I'm not sure what the process is.

There are other hires in the works. . . Board Op and Fund Drive Coordinator/Volunteer Coordinator. The Board Op job is union.  The other is half time non-union.  (see KPFA website>About>Jobs for details)  UPSO usually has a representative on these hiring committees.   Eddie Ytuarte volunteered to serve on the GM hire committee.   Richard says he is unable to find any written, established procedure regarding hiring committees, so this seems to be up in the air, but he was not opposed.

5)  PACIFICA INVESTIGATION AT KPFA

Any outcomes besides JR being banned?   One unpaid staff person got an apology.  There were other recommendations.   Whether or not to move on the recommendations is up to the LSB and the Executive Director.

Richard: I haven't seen the investigator's report, but there was a list of recommendations passed out to LSB members (during executive session).

Shahram: the recommendations were very general.

Gabrielle: if nothing is shared with staff, how will KPFA learn anything from this??

Gabrielle Wilson mentioned the double standard that led to former Program Director Sasha Lilly banning Youth Radio on KPFA, because a Youth Radio programmer allowed the "f" word to be said over the airwaves.  Youth Radio went national and opened a big office in Downtown Oakland and went down as a big missed opportunity for KPFA to have played a role in nurturing it to its national audience and prominence..   Sasha Lilly, as co-host of Against the Grain, let the f-word onto KPFA airwaves in a pre-recorded segment, in which it could have been caught, but was never disciplined in any way, much less banned.

Others present agreed that this is an example of the double standards that they had been hoping the grievance process would address but, so far, has failed to.

Shahram said that the only evidence of a formal resolution of grievances against Andrew was a statement in the summary sent to the LSB, saying that he had not handled personnel issues properly.

Richard said that Pacifica's insurance company had insisted on the investigation to reduce the costly litigiousness at KPFA and had said they would not insure Pacifica any longer if they did it.  Richard also said that if the costly lawsuits at KPFA decreased as a result, then the investigation would be considered a success.

UPSO RESOLUTION:  We request a copy of the page and a half summary of the investigator’s conclusions.  Resolution Passed. 

In favor:  5

Abstained: 2

Opposed:  1    

Support came from the sense that many unpaid staff cooperated with the investigation and listener money paid for it.  Support also came from those who want to learn the lessons so as not to repeat them.

Opposition was due to possible liability issues, that KPFA airs too much dirty laundry, and that distributing the summary of the report to the UPSO would make it public information.

6)  FUND DRIVE

Widely agreed that the fund drive has been going on too long.  Might make goal if tomorrow's a good day, but might not.  (At that point, Thursday evening, it was at $610,000. and it ended the next day at $671,000.)   Richard: This drive has been going for about 24 days now... even though it's short of its goal, it can't be extended.

Richard: some programmers haven't changed their approach to fund drives, to reflect what we're learned by experience or from Goal Busters.  For example, nobody likes a long pitch at the end of a show, but some programmers are still doing their pledge-drive shows that way.

Richard said that National (the board?  the office?) has told him that KPFA must make its goals.

Notes by:

Ann Garrison

Independent Journalist,

SKYPE: Ann Garrison, Oakland

415-503-7487

Notes: Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO) Council Meeting 9-12-13

Attending:  Ann Garrison*, Steve Zeltzer, Adrienne Lauby*

(*Council members)

This meeting replaced the meeting planned for Sept. 10 after only one person attended that meeting.  Due to the low turn out and lack of quorum among the Council Members, the meeting was information exchange only

1)  Steve noted that we have asked the KPFA managers to hold all staff meetings, with a meeting in the evening when unpaid staff can come, on at least a bi-monthly schedule.  These meetings have not happened since May/June.  We agreed to write Richard Pirodsky and remind him of our resolution.

2)  Adrienne and Ann talked about the difficulty of keeping UPSO functioning when most of the council members are not able to come to meetings or take on tasks between meetings.  There is no method in our by-laws for requiring attendance.  We could ask one person to resign in favor of the next runner up in the last election.  If there are two vacancies, we have to hold a special election. 

3)   Steve requested that the Unpaid Local Station Board (LSB) representatives give regular reports on their work on the LSB.  This is required by our by-laws.  We will schedule this for the next meeting and ask our representatives to report.  They are David Gans, Shahram Aghamir, Joy Moore & Frank Sterling.

4)   Our next meeting is Tuesday, Oct 8 at 7 pm and it is our quarterly membership meeting which is held in the Performance Studio at KPFA. 

We would like the major topic of discussion to be Richard Pirodsky’s initiative to open KPFB to a new programming schedule.  We will invite him to give a brief description of what is possible and open the floor for discussion.

These are also possible agenda topics for the membership meeting:  A)  Would we like a written policy on pre-emptions?  How much notice should a programmer generally have?  B)  Why are we not allowed to tell listeners an event is “free”?  Is this a reasonable interpretation of the law governing non-commercial radio?  C)  The strain on the UPSO organization due to non-participation.  D) New and very strict “Sensitive Language” policy.

Adrienne will send a copy of the new stricter policy to the unpaid staff list.

Meeting ended at 8:07

Following the meeting, this letter was sent to the KPFA manager.

Hi Richard,

We would like to have some focus at the next Unpaid Staff Organization meeting on the possibility of opening KPFB up for new programming.  Would you join us at our next meeting for this discussion?   Tues, Oct 8, 7 pm in the KPFA Performance Room.

We would also like to know where the policy against saying "free" in event announcements originated and what was the rationale behind it.

Finally, as I think you know, the Unpaid Staff Organization has asked you to hold all staff meetings on at least a bi-monthly schedule.  These meetings are long overdue.   Would you please
schedule a meeting where the unpaid staff can learn what is going on at the station and express our thoughts and opinions?  (Our resolution on this is below.)

Thank you.  I look forward to a positive discussion about this exciting new schedule for KPFB on Oct. 8.

Adrienne
cc: UPSO Council Members

5-14-13:  We affirm our February 13, 2012 resolution calling on KPFA managers to hold regular all-staff meetings on, at least, a bi-monthly schedule.

Additionally, we note KPFA's long-standing tradition of two meetings, with one in the morning to accommodate those who work in the building during the business hours and one in the evening to accommodate those who work elsewhere.  We call for both afternoon and evening meetings whenever there is an all-staff meeting.

Notes: Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO) Council Meeting, 8-13-13

Attending:  Afrykahn Jamal Dayvs, Ruthanne Shpiner, Ann Garrison*, Adrienne Lauby*

     1.  Information Exchange 

          A.   66% of the staff at WBAI were laid off last Friday.  Andrew Philips has moved to that station as the new program director.  There is a recording of the program Andrew did with Summer Reese announcing these changes on WBAI.

               “Letters and Politics” and "Against the Grain" are being piped into WBAI, "Letters and Politics" for the 5 pm hour. This, the Pacifica Foundation's physical presence here, and Andrew's recent tenure at KPFA, has led to some angry members of the WBAI community calling this a California coup.  “Guns and Butter” has been playing on WBAI for awhile and seems to be popular.  KPFA plays Richard Wolff’s show, “Economic Update”, which is produced at WBAI. Some discussion about the WBAI News department.  This is what WBAI listeners seem most stressed about.  We had some discussion about whether management was expecting a volunteer newcast to come together and whether or not that was even possible, but had no answers to either question. 

          B.  Adrienne says the UPSO workshops will return soon but only one every other month. There are people who want to lead them and topics people have said they want.  But, she needs help to produce them every month

2.      Unpaid Staff Expenses
Afrykahn (with Doug Edwards at first and then alone) has done 71 live broadcasts. Either from studio or within the community.  We talked about how possible it might be to get some financial help from KPFA with this effort.

3.      Underwriting at KPFA?
Richard Pirodsky has said at an UPSO meeting that Pacifica has to do underwriting.  KPFT already has some underwriting.

Discussion:
Ruthanne vehemently opposes any underwriting, she cites “The Revolution will Not be Funded.” African is not sure but sees it leaning toward advertising, which is not our mission statement.  It would depend on what kind of business it is.

See Richard Wolinsky's e-mail below.  He opposes it with very specific reasoning.

Ann:  At the top of every hour, KPFA should make a 15 second plug for membership, outside of fund drive and try to raise money this way before going to underwriting.

Adrienne:  KPFA’s income is $1.5 million a year.  Couldn’t we live within that budget?  We should try other ways to raise money.  Looking at KQED and NPR gives me a big distaste for this.  But, some unpaid staff have said they think we should consider it and that has kept me having an open mind.

We all feel very negative to underwriting by big corporations.

Going Forward:  Get the other Council Members to give their opinion on this and bring it up at the October Membership meeting.

4.      Input on Program Changes

 Richard Pirodsky talked to the Local Station Board about beginning to use KPFB as a radio station. There are also rumors of program changes.  We should consider how the unpaid staff can be part of these decisions.  Adrienne suggests a Taskforce.

5.   KPFA's Staff Culture
Energy should go toward creating a gathering of everyone.  The level of participation is low.   Do we have all these different cliques?  When that happens in an organization, it leads to this lack of energy.   It feels like there are not a great deal of interest in this group and this meeting.  Afrykahn: The culture of KPFA is that I don’t know many people and not many people know me.   I see a lot of e-mails espousing what is their point of view but there is no camaraderie.  There have been racist incidents recently but I didn’t see any information from UPSO.  Before we can have discussions about underwriting and other issues we need to know whose who and what’s what. 

There is agreement about the problem.  It's not something UPSO can solve on its own.  Afrykahn points to the list in the post box area and how out of date that is-- his name isn't even there and he's been soloing on a show for three years.

Those on the call spend some time getting to know each other.

6.  Richard Wolinsky on Underwriting

Underwriting means several things. It means underwriting of particular programs; it means general station underwriting, with the occasional on-air thank you.

The first problem with specific program underwriting is that, in essence, the programmer is advertising the name of the underwriter, and by doing so, in essence, serves as its spokesperson. Most programmers are unpaid and they will now be unpaid advertisers for people who make money. I resent that. If I am working as an outside contractor for another organization, I want to be paid for my time and efforts. The second problem is that individual program underwriting puts some pressure on the programmer to conform with the underwriter in order to maintain the underwriting. Obviously this is the reason why KPFA has generally had no corporate underwriting. Back in the 1970s, some programs were created under matching grant proposals by government entities. These programs did have individual foundation (not corporate, though they might be corporate foundations like the Ford Foundation) underwriting, but they were for specific projects which had applied for grants and which were broadcast once the grants were complete. This is very different from ongoing underwriting. The slope for underwriting, particularly corporate underwriting, is extremely slippery for individual programs.

If people do want individual program underwriting in which the programmer (or a cart) must announce prior or after the show about the underwriting, then I want to be paid by the underwriting, then (1) Pacifica turns into something else; and (2) I want to be paid for my work, as should everyone doing programming that has corporate underwriting. I volunteer my time to KPFA. I do not volunteer my time to either the Ford Foundation or Ford Motor Company. Their executives make money off me; screw 'em. This is particularly important for me because my program would be one of the programs most likely to receive underwriting (via publishing houses).

There's also the notion that an ad on the KPFA website, for instance, from Amazon, would be a direct slap in the face to local booksellers, as well as all brick and mortar stores that Amazon competes with. And Amazon certainly has the money to underwrite programming.

If we're talking about Foundation grants, and we're talking about a development director writing up grants that not only pay for the program but also pay the programmer, my opposition softens. But there still remains some kind of slippery slope, the pressure from management for the programmer to spend the time and effort, year after year, trying to find funding for his or her show. That's the commercial world, of course, and it runs counter to the idea that we're working for the love of working. Now we're doing administrative chores.

Notes by Adrienne

* UPSO Council Members

Resolution on Authority Figures Urging Stands on Internal Issues

We would like this paragraph added to the section of the Pacifica "Volunteer" Handbook titled Policy on Harassment:  No one with authority over air time or employment should circulate a petition, seek a Local Station Board endorsement, or otherwise urge action on internal Pacifica/station issues from staff whom they exercise that authority over. 

This is intended to decrease the potential for retaliation for disagreement about internal politics.

Passed unanimously 7-9-13 

Resolution on title of Pacifica's New Volunteer Handbook

We strongly urge that the handbook with the draft name “Pacifica Volunteer Handbook” be renamed “Pacifica Unpaid Staff and Volunteer Handbook.” Unpaid Staff are those involved in actual radio production work but not paid for it.  Unpaid staff are eligible to vote in Local Station Board elections; volunteers are not.  The word “volunteer” has been consistently used to denigrate our work.

Passed unanimously 7-9-13 

Notes: Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO) membership meeting minutes, 07.09.2013

Present: Shahram Aghamir, Lisa Dettmer, Ruthanne Shpiner, Jae Michael, Adrienne Lauby (by phone), Frank Sterling, Carla West, and Emmit Powell. (Carla West and Emmit Powell were able to stay only briefly.)

This quarterly meeting was held to initiate a discussion of the rights and responsibilities of the Unpaid Staff.

As a way of starting we had a call-in Q & A with Bruce Wolf, a WPFW Local Station Board rep and member of the Pacifica National Board associated, who worked on the PNB committee that drafted the new Pacifica Employee Handbook and Pacifica Volunteer Handbook.

The main takeaways from the conversation with Bruce were that: 1) The Handbook was drafted by the PNB’s Financial Audit Recovery Committee in the interest of defining explicit Pacifica policy regarding unpaid staff, andthat it has not yet been finalized.  2) The committee is still accepting feedback, although a formal deadline has passed.

As the UPSO, we unanimously passed these two resolutions to request revisions, which have been forwarded to the PNB:

1)We strongly urge that the handbook with the draft name “Pacifica Volunteer Handbook” be renamed “Pacifica Unpaid Staff and Volunteer Handbook.” Unpaid Staff are those involved in actual radio production work
but not paid for it.  Unpaid staff are eligible to vote in Local Station Board elections; volunteers are not.  The word “volunteer” has been consistently used to denigrate our work.

2) We would like this paragraph added to the section of the Handbook titled “Policy on Harrassment”: No one with authority over air time or employment should circulate a petition, seek a Local Station Board endorsement, or otherwise urge action on internal Pacifica/station issues from staff whom they exercise that authority over. This is intended to decrease the potential for retaliation for disagreement about internal politics.

(END OF RESOLUTIONS PASSED.)

Those present also unanimously agreed that language regarding reimbursement for training and travel costs should be stronger, and that production costs should be added to the list of reimbursable expenses.  Adrienne Lauby said that this reimbursement provision in the handbook was not likely to be very strong unless and until the UPSO negotiates a contract with management that includes reimbursement for such expenses and the LSB makes a budget allocation for it.

Shahram Aghamir asked whether the language in the draft of the (paid) employee handbook is similar to that in the unpaid staff handbook, and Bruce Wolf said that much of it is.  The still unfinalized versions of both the paid and unpaid staff handbooks are on the staff page of the KPFA website:  http://www.kpfa.org/staff.

There was appreciation for those who worked to draft this handbook and discussion about other specific areas covered by the handbook. Those included rules regarding blogging & other internet activities and the conflict of interest section.

Anyone who goes over the Handbook and wants to submit further suggestions should send them to Bruce Wolf, haunteddog@aol.com and cc’ UPSO Councilors Ann Garrison and Adrienne Lauby, who initiated this process. We will keep a record of all suggestions forwarded by UPSO members.  Possible revisions will go to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) Committee working on the handbooks.

At our next month’s conference call meeting we will vote on whether we want to add the KPFA UPSO’s name to any revisions suggested by individual UPSO members. Revisions can also be proposed for the first time at that meeting.

We all thanked Bruce for staying up late on the East Coast, three hours ahead of us, to talk about this.

Notes by Ann Garrison 

Notes: Unpaid Staff Council Meeting, 5-14-13

Unpaid Staff Council Meeting

May 14, 2013

by teleconference

Attending:  Shahram Aghamir, Tim Lynch, Adrienne Lauby, Ann Garrison, Ruthanne Shpiner

Agenda
1.  Welcome to Richard Pirodsky

2.  Statement of cooperation with investigators

3.  Community Building Workshops

4.  Clarification on staff meeting policy

5.  Grievance process report (confidential item?)

1)  Resolution (proposed by Adrienne): The Unpaid Staff Organization elected council members welcome Richard Pirodsky to his position as interim general manager of KPFA.  We look forward to working with him on matters pertaining to the unpaid staff. 

Tim is opposed because our constituents made it clear that they supported the prior manager and didn’t want a change.  This is another attempt to run KPFA from the Pacifica Offices without consulting the LSB or the Staff.

Ann and Adrienne think that managing KPFA is tough and we should offer a kind word.

Shahram does not think that Richard needs this kind of support and would be more comfortable with this resolution coming in a membership meeting. 

Tim -  No

David (by prior e-mail) - No

Shahram  - Abstain

Ann - Yes

Adrienne - Yes

Resolution fails.

2)  Resolution (Proposed by Adrienne):  The Unpaid Staff Organization elected council members understand that an investigation by an outside agency will begin soon at KPFA and we expect to cooperate fully.

Passed Unanimously

3.  Community Building Workshops.  Community Bridge-Building Workshops  at KPFA for KPFA.  Facilitated by Alternatives to Violence
Wed. May 29th 6:30 – 9:00pm
Sat. June 1st 3:00 – 5:30 pm
Co-sponsored by the Unpaid Staff organization (UPSO) Communication Workers of America (CWA) and KPFA management.  This is a rare opportunity to talk to each other with help from neutral facilitators.  With the support of UPSO, CWA and KPFA management these workshops should be powerful.  Please consider coming and invite others. The workshops are open to the public.  KPFA staff and community are especially urged to attend. 

4a.  Staff Meetings
Adrienne Proposed a resolution about staff meetings which was broken into two resolutions.  The discussion:

Tim:  What is the issue in having LSB members come sporadically?  What is the strong feeling that gives rise to this paragraph of the resolution.

Shahram:  Sometimes the staff meetings should be just staff and managers.  The demarcation lines shouldn’t be blurred.  If people are uncomfortable with LSB members in the room, their objection should be honored.

Ann:  Has been uncomfortable with board members who seem to simply show up at staff meetings.  Board members would understand the station better if they came to the staff meetings.  There hasn’t been an outcry against LSB members at the meetings but she, herself, has objected and so has at least one other staff person.

Shahram: Is there a way to know in the meeting whether or not the LSB members have all been invited.

Adrienne:  There are usually staff representatives at the meeting who can tell us.  

Shahram:  How practical is it for us to ask someone to leave?

4b)  We affirm our February 13, 2012 resolution calling on KPFA managers to hold regular all-staff meetings on, at least, a bi-monthly schedule.

Additionally, we note KPFA's long-standing tradition of two meetings, with one in the morning to accommodate those who work in the building during the business hours and one in the evening to accommodate those who work elsewhere.  We call for both afternoon and evening meetings whenever there is an all-staff meeting.

Passed unanimously

4c)  We call for a meeting policy that staff meetings are primarily for paid/unpaid staff and managers at KPFA.  When listener-representatives of the local station board (LSB) are invited, the invitation should also be extended to all listener LSB representatives.

Discussion:  Ann and Adrienne think this is important and want to pass it.

Tim -  Suggests talking to paid staff about it to get more input.

Shahram – dropped off the call.

Resolution tabled.

5.  Grievance process report.  This item was tabled because Shahram had dropped off the call.  Adrienne will communicate with Shahram to ask him for a time when we could have a short meeting (30 min?) to get this report.

Meeting adjourned shortly after 8 pm

Notes by Adrienne

Resolution: Staff Meetings - LSB listener-representatives presence (Tabled)

We call for a meeting policy that staff meetings are primarily for paid/unpaid staff and managers at KPFA.  When listener-representatives of the local station board (LSB) are invited, the invitation should also be extended to all listener LSB representatives.

Proposed by Adrienne

Resolution tabled.  (5-14-13)

Resolution: Welcome to Richard Pirodsky (failed)

The Unpaid Staff Organization elected council members welcome Richard Pirodsky to his position as interim general manager of KPFA.  We look forward to working with him on matters pertaining to the unpaid staff. 

Resolution proposed by Adrienne

 

Tim -  No

David (by prior e-mail) - No

Shahram  - Abstain

Ann - Yes

Adrienne - Yes 

Resolution fails.

Resolution: Staff Meetings - Regular, Evening

We affirm our February 13, 2012 resolution calling on KPFA managers to hold regular all-staff meetings on, at least, a bi-monthly schedule.

Additionally, we note KPFA's long-standing tradition of two meetings, with one in the morning to accommodate those who work in the building during the business hours and one in the evening to accommodate those who work elsewhere.  We call for both afternoon and evening meetings whenever there is an all-staff meeting.

Proposed by Adrienne

Passed unanimously (5-14-13)

Resolution: KPFA Investigation

The Unpaid Staff Organization elected council members understand that an investigation by an outside agency will begin soon at KPFA.  We expect to cooperate fully.

Proposed by Adrienne

Passed Unanimously 5-14-13

Notes: UPSO General Membership Meeting 4-08-13

In attendance:

Adrienne Lauby* (facilitator), Malihe Razazan, Shahram Aghamir,* Tim Lynch,* Ann Garrison,* Carla West, Ruthanne Shpiner (via phone), Andrew Phillips, Anthony Fest

* = UPSO Council Members

TOPICS

1.  UPSO Update

2.  Planned Delay of next UPSO Election

3.  Hiring Committee Report

4.  Staff Meetings

5.  Report from Interim Manager

The meeting began at 7:10 pm in the KPFA Performance Studio

AGENDA ITEM: UPSO COUNCIL ACTIVITIES (report & discussion)

Adrienne summarized the UPSO Council's recent activities since the last general meeting:

passed resolutions calling for

• regular staff meetings
• unpaid-staff representation on hiring committees
• no further hiring for the Up Front program

arranged workshops for unpaid staff on

• social media (taught by Clay Leander)
• using the studio board (taught by Carla West)
• nonviolent communication (coming soon)

Tim Lynch has been talking to Engineering staff about doing phone interviews via Skype

 (and a new phone system this fall may make that easier)

The Council has also discussed unpaid-staff representation on other KPFA committees, besides hiring committees (e.g. fund-raising committee).

AGENDA ITEM: NEXT UPSO ELECTION (discussion & resolution)

Adrienne: the Council members are concerned that if we hold the next UPSO election twelve months after the last one, that would put it in October, and thereby probably overlap the LSB election.  The Council members would prefer extending the current terms slightly, and holding the next election early in the new year.

Resolution: the current Council members' terms be extended until the next election is complete, and that election process should begin January 15, 2014.

There was some discussion of election issues, such as verification of hours worked.

The members present approved the resolution (7 yes, 0 no) but the proposal will also be circulated to the membership via email.

AGENDA ITEM: HIRING COMMITTEE REPORT (report & discussion)

Ann Garrison was the unpaid-staff representative on the hiring committee for the Subscriptions Assistant position; she summarized her thoughts on the committee's activities:

• I thought it was a fair process and a big improvement over previous hires (where there was little transparency) 

• I drafted a written report to be sent to the UPSO membership, not naming applicants, but describing the hiring-committee's process, and how it might be further improved.

• I sent my report to the hiring committee first, and that started a heated debate on email. I was even threatened with a libel lawsuit (so I consulted a lawyer and was told there'd be no grounds for such a suit). I resent the flaming emails, but as an unpaid staffer, what recourse do I have??

Tim Lynch: I've been on hiring committees at UC, and it would not be normal practice to have a written report from a hiring committee.

Andrew Phillips: I was worried what might happen next [after a report was made], given the history of litigation at KPFA. I would rather have the committee do a post-mortem meeting.

Adrienne: there ought to be some kind of report, so the next UPSO rep to the next hiring committee can benefit from Ann's experience.

Shahram: if the report was entirely about process, I'd be okay with it being made public.

Adrienne: Andrew, there should be standardized hiring-committee procedures. And the bullying Ann experienced was unacceptable.

AGENDA ITEM: STAFF MEETINGS (discussion)

Adrienne: except when there's a crisis, not much usually happens at staff meetings... just lots of comments and opinions... so where is the real work of running the station done?

Andrew: I don't think it would be possible to conduct business via staff meetings... decisions are made by management.   But, for example, in the leadup to the Up Front program going on the air, there were staff meetings held and input taken.

Shahram: some matters have defaulted to management because, for example, there's no Program Council now... haivng staff meetings isn't a substitute for restoring the Program Council.

AGENDA ITEM: REPORT FROM GENERAL MANAGER (report & discussion)

Andrew:

• NFCB: the NFCB conference will be in San Francisco next month, and KPFA will pay for two unpaid staff to attend (the conference fee is $400). The early-registration deadline is April 19.

• Development: I sent an email around to programmers to think of projects they'd like to have funded; we can have Goal Busters look at these ideas and see how they might match up with grant possibilities.

• Pacifica: the East Coast stations are in very serious trouble financially, with relocation costs and weak fundraising. It's not clear whether they can survive.

• Personnel matters: the Pacifica National Board is conducting a search for an Executive Director.  The KPFA Local Station Board is beginning a search for a GM and a Program Director.

• KPFA birthday: KPFA turns 64 on April 15, but the celebration (with Wavy Gravy et al) has been canceled due to lack of interest (only about 20 responses to 1000 invitations). But Tim Lynch and Sally Phillips will plan another birthday event, to take place later in the year.

• Project Censored article: I have an article about Pacifica in this year's Project-Censored book (copies of the article were handed out). I'm somewhat sorry I wrote it, given peoples' sensitivities about the issues, but I wouldn't change 80% to 90% of it. There is a two-tiered system at KPFA, and the unpaid staff subsidizes the paid. But that's the way it is now.

After some discussion, the meeting ended at about 9:00 pm.