>From: "Carol Spooner" <wildrose at pon.net>
>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
>Subject: Unofficial thoughts for Pacifica Listeners
>Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 11:01:34 -0800
>
>Dear Friends,
>
> Many things have happened quickly since the legal settlement of
>mid-December. These are my personal notes & thoughts about some of it ...
>nothing "official."
>
> A new interim board of directors was established and first met by
>telephone conference call on December 29th. Leslie Cagan (WBAI) was elected
>Chair, Jabari Zakiya (WPFW) was elected Treasurer, and I (Carol Spooner,
>KPFA) was elected Secretary. At that meeting resolutions were adopted
>lifting the Pacifica "gag-rule" that prohibited discussion of Pacifica
>matters on the air (with safeguards against abusive personal attacks on
>anyone), and returning Democracy Now! to Pacifica airwaves.
>
> We next held an in-person board meeting in NY on January 11-13. At that
>meeting a resolution was adopted restoring all "fired and banned" personnel
>at WBAI over the past year to their former positions. That transition, by
>all reports, has gone smoothly with the help of a "conflicts management
>specialist" and a labor lawyer to help with union issues.
>
> Also, Dan Coughlin (former PNN news director) was appointed acting
>Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation. Dan has named Verna Avery
>Brown (former PNN news anchor) as deputy acting Executive Director. Since
>his appointment, Dan has replaced the station managers at KPFK, WPFW and
>KPFT. Steven Starr is KPFK's new interim station manager, Tony Regusters is
>WPFW's interim station manager, and Duane Bradley is KPFT's interim station
>manager. The new station managers have a tremendous job on their hands --
>restoring staff morale, dealing with much misinformation about what this
>fight has been about, and beginning the job of bringing vibrant new public
>affairs programming to these stations. It will be a long and difficult task
>& there are many issues that must be addressed -- including labor union
>issues and financial issues -- to help restore these stations to fulfillment
>of Pacifica's mission. For more information on how you can get involved to
>help shape the future of these stations ... please contact the Local
>Advisory Boards ("LABs") -- LAB meeting dates and times should be announced
>on each station, and if you don't hear about it ... call the station and ask
>about the next LAB meeting and who to contact for more info.
>
> The Foundation received an anonymous $20,000 gift to bring in an
>accounting firm to help the new board to quickly assess the financial
>situation and get control of Pacifica's finances. The accountants' report
>came out last week and is grim. It is posted on the Pacifica web page at
>www.pacifica.org -- under "Governance -- Pacifica Audit, Feb 2002". We are
>facing $5.4 million debt racked up by the former administration -- almost
>half of which was for the legal and PR firms they used to fight us ... but a
>great deal of this debt is station operating expenses that the national
>office simply failed to pay.
>
> To avoid being forced into bankruptcy (and facing potential loss of
>broadcast licenses) very serious steps are needed. We will be working with
>a "financial work-out specialist" to negotiate with creditors to reduce
>their bills and to arrive at payment schedules. There will also be major
>cuts in the national budget and all local and national management personnel
>have already agreed to take a 10% pay cut. We will do everything possible
>to reduce the impact on our local stations. The accounting office has
>already set up or is in the process of setting up local operating bank
>accounts for each station, under the control of the station manager and to
>be managed against the station's budget. The money raised in the on-air
>fund drives beginning now will go to these local operating accounts for
>local station expenses, including past due and unpaid bills. Some money
>from these fund drives may also be needed for national expenses ... but that
>money will be accounted for against each station's "national services"
>budget.
>
> We will also need to do some "extraordinary" fundraising to help us pay
>off this debt, and plans are being made now for a "special period" of
>fundraising where we will be asking everyone who supports Pacifica's mission
>to come to our aid in the worst financial crisis in our history. As
>horrifying and outrageous as this debt is, our need and obligation is to
>preserve our broadcast licenses. In this time of national warmongering
>abroad and attacks on our civil rights at home, we need Pacifica and an
>alternative voice now more than ever.
>
> The minutes from the December 29th board meeting should be posted to
>Pacifica's web page soon (don't know why they haven't been posted yet). The
>minutes from the January 11-13 meeting have been delayed because we didn't
>have the money to pay the transcriptionist until today! I expect to get the
>transcript soon & will be preparing minutes soon after.
>
> The next board meeting will be in Los Angeles on March 8-10. At that
>meeting we will be setting up local committees to help with the re-write of
>Pacifica's bylaws and local advisory board elections procedures. You will
>receive more information about how to participate in that effort after the
>March meeting. We will also be setting up a "Mission Commission" to help us
>refocus Pacifica on its mission and to develop policies to guide each of our
>5 stations in fullfilling our role in media in the first part of the 21st
>century.
>
> The interim board "dynamics" are very difficult and troubling. James
>Ferguson, Marion Barry and Bert Lee (all appointed by the former board
>majority) appear to be very angry men. Lee is threatening to sue because he
>doesn't approve of our new treasurer (I doubt he could find a lawyer to
>bring such a frivolous suit), Ferguson is threatening to challenge our wpfw
>license if there are significant changes in wpfw's programming (there is no
>basis for such a challenge under fcc licensing rules), and Barry went on
>wpfw last week to do an hour-long angry attack on the new interim board. We
>are doing our best to understand and diffuse this anger, but it makes our
>work of rebuilding this radio network more difficult and time-consuming.
>
> As a personal favor, I ask for an email "respite". I'm studying for the
>California Bar Exam on Feb 26-28 & I just can't respond to the hundreds of
>emails I received over the past couple of weeks, and keep receiving daily.
>
>Thanks for your past and continued help and support,
>
>Carol Spooner
>Interim Pacifica Board Secretary
>
>PACIFICA FOUNDATION ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION [*1].
>http://home.pon.net/wildrose/articles.htm
>
>ARTICLE II [*2]
>
>That the purposes of this corporation shall be:
>
>(a) To establish a Foundation organized and operated exclusively for
>educational purposes no part of the net earnings of which inures to the
>benefit of any member of the Foundation. [*3]
>
>(b) To establish and operate for educational purposes, in such manner that
>the facilities involved shall be as nearly self-sustaining as possible, one
>or more radio broadcasting stations licensed by the Federal Communications
>Commission and subject in their operation to the regulatory actions of the
>Commission under the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended.
>
>(c) In radio broadcasting operations to encourage and provide outlets for
>the creative skills and energies of the community; to conduct classes and
>workshops in the writing and producing of drama; to establish awards and
>scholarships for creative writing; to offer performance facilities to
>amateur instrumentalists, choral groups, orchestral groups and music
>students; and to promote and aid other creative activities which will serve
>the cultural welfare of the community.
>
>(d) In radio broadcasting operations to engage in any activity that shall
>contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the
>individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and
>disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all of
>such groups; and through any and all means compatible with the purposes of
>this corporation to promote the study of political and economic problems and
>of the causes of religious, philosophical and racial antagonisms.
>
>(e) In radio broadcasting operations to promote the full distribution of
>public information; to obtain access to sources of news not commonly brought
>together in the same medium; and to employ such varied sources in the public
>presentation of accurate, objective, comprehensive news on all matters
>vitally affecting the community.
>
>----------------------------------------
>
>*1 Original Articles filed on august 24, 1946, as amended through the last
>amendment filed with the Secretary of State on February 2, 1976. Certified
>copies of the Articles of Incorporation and subsequent Certificates of
>Amendment may be obtained directly from the Secretary of State of the State
>of California.
>
>*2 Article II was amended in whole on August 19, 1948.
>
>*3 Article II Subsection (a) was amended March 6, 1971, filed April 9, 1971,
>and corrected amendment filed May 5, 1971.