Berkeley – The upcoming week features not one, but two, Pacifica National Board meetings on December 13 and December 15. The long-scheduled December 15th meeting is when the board will select two affiliate directors for 2017 from among 5 applicants, and a recently called special meeting was initiated by directors Cerene Roberts, Adriana Casenave and Janet Kobren for December 13. The reason for the sudden meeting on the 13th isn’t entirely clear with the meeting notice saying the meeting is about 2016 local board elections and the FY 2014 audit. The 2016 elections were certified as complete last Wednesday. A draft of the FY 2014 was distributed to Pacifica’s audit committee last Monday. Roberts, Casenave and Kobren have not indicated what motions, if any, they may be presenting for board for consideration. Continue reading Are Two Meetings Better Than One?→
Berkeley – Election update. As of press time, voting has been extended at KPFT in Houston and WPFW in Washington, DC until October 7th and at KPFK in Los Angeles until October 10th. Elections at WBAI and KPFA are closed. Continue reading The Return→
Berkeley – A source who wishes to remain anonymous reported to the NY-based blog WBAI Then and Now , that the 50-year old KPFA reel-to-reel master tapes being sold on eBay.com came from a storage container formerly located in Rosemead, California that was maintained by Pacifica’s national office for over 20 years and it contained thousands of tapes and old folios. Continue reading eBay Backstory→
In Tuesday’s national finance committee, contention broke out when, in lieu of news about 50-year-old unique archival reel-to-reel Pacifica recordings being sold off on E-Bay after a storage container was auctioned for nonpayment, Save KPFA’s Barbara Whipperman proposed asking for a shut down and transfer budget for the network’s archives department. After much yelling (some of it here, but not all of it), the proposal failed on a 4-4 tie vote with Siegel/Brazonites Adriana Casenave, Cerene Roberts, Michael Novick and board chair Tony Norman voting it down.
Berkeley – Ballots mailed for Pacifica’s 2016 board elections from the East Coast on August 15th. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate endorsements for all stations can be found here. You will find online voting instructions inside your printed ballot envelope. The voting period ends on September 30 at 11:59pm in your own time zone. If you donated, but don’t receive a ballot or for any ballot-related question at any station, you can contact King Reilly, a KPFK member who has graciously agreed to assist folks, at[email protected].
Berkeley – Ballots mailed for Pacifica’s 2016 board elections from the East Coast on August 15th. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate endorsements for all stations can be found here. You will find online voting instructions inside your printed ballot envelope. The voting period ends on September 30 at 11:59pm in your own time zone. If you donated, but don’t receive a ballot or for any ballot-related question at any station, you can contact King Reilly, a KPFK member who has graciously agreed to assist folks, at[email protected].
Berkeley-PNB director Bill Crosier notified the local board in Houston that Pacifica’s directors and officers liability policy had been cancelled, with an extension for only 60 days, and a bankruptcy/insolvency exemption in effect for those 60 days. The last day the policy provided full coverage was August 11th. Insurance underwriters had been demanding audited financial statements for months. Crosier told his board (the only local one to date that has been informed): Continue reading The Day The Insurance Died→
Berkeley-The emergency PNB meeting on finances with the CFO went off as planned on June 26th, despite attempts to block it. You can listen to the full 90 minute audio here. CFO Sam Agarwal’s written report prepared for the meeting can be read here. A shorter (28 mins) audio segment with selections from the meeting can be heard here. Continue reading Crackdown During Breakdown→
Berkeley- Pacifica Archives Director Brian De Shazor has announced his resignation from Pacifica Radio, effective June 30th. De Shazor’s resignation provoked a strongly worded rebuke to Pacifica from Dr. Josh Sheppard, director of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Sheppard stated De Shazor’s resignation forced him to retract a Library of Congress offer to apply for grant funding to support the archives and would amount to several hundred thousand dollars in potential lost funds. Sheppard went further, stating the Library of Congress would change Pacifica’s status to that of an endangered archive and advised Pacifica management that “abandoning maintenance of the archive and the consequent degradation of these materials will effectively erase the history of Pacifica”. Sheppard’s full letter can be read here. Pacifica had recently threatened significant cuts to archival preservation staffing. Continue reading Erasing The History of Pacifica→
