Pacifica is looking for

five Local Election Supervisors immediately

 

The Pacifica Foundation (pacifica.org) is seeking a Local Election Supervisor (LES) for each of its five radio stations, KPFA (Berkeley, CA), KPFK (Los Angeles, CA), KPFT (Houston, TX), WPFW (Washington, D.C.), and WBAI (New York, NY).

 

Note: This is a temporary position. Some work will be done from home using phone and Internet, and some at the radio station.

 

Hours of work: some daytime, weekend, and evening hours necessary. Some weeks will be part-time, others full-time, with possible crunch times before certain deadlines.

 

Duration: around July 15 to November 30, 2012

 

Compensation: $12,000 - $15,000 depending on experience (paid in monthly installments)

 

Requirements:

 

·      Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree

·      Detail oriented (can’t let anything fall through the cracks)

·      Be self-motivated, work well independently, and with a team

·      Demonstrated community organizing skills

·      Computer savvy (word processing, Excel, email, Internet)

·      The ability to learn an unfamiliar database program quickly

·      The ability to work with a very diverse group of people, some with very large egos

·      The ability and willingness to be assertive to ensure that election policies are followed by station staff, both paid and unpaid, should persuasion prove inadequate

·      Patience, perseverance, and a thick skin

 

 

Additional beneficial experience and skills:

 

·      Database management

·      Media production (especially audio)

·      Graphic design

·      Booking and event promotion

·      Publicity

·      Bilingual (English, Spanish)

·      Teaching

 

Supervision:

    The supervisor for the Local Election Supervisors is the National Election Supervisor (NES). The NES and LES are responsible for the election being conducted in the fairest possible manner. The NES is also responsible for the training of the Local Election Supervisors.

 

Compensation: $12,000 - $15,000 (depending on experience) for approximately 6 months of work, paid in monthly installments.

 

To Apply:

    Please send a cover letter, your resume or CV and two references with contact information to: Terry Bouricius, National Election Supervisor, PacificaNES@gmail.com In the subject line of the e-mail specify which station you are applying for (KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, WPFW or WBAI). No phone calls please.

Women and minorities especially encouraged to apply.

 

 

MORE DETAILED INFORMATION

 

What are these elections all about?

 

The Pacifica Foundation, the oldest network of non-commercial, community-based radio stations in the United States, is the only listener-supported independent media network for which both listener-members and staff-members (paid and unpaid) have the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process with respect to the station's budget, programming and policies via the local station board. Each local station board (LSB) is composed of 24 delegates and 12 are elected to serve on the board each election cycle. These 12 delegates are elected to the board through two simultaneous elections, one among staff-members (staff members elect 3 staff delegates) and one among listener-members (listeners elect 9 listener members). The LES is charged with supervising these two simultaneous elections.

 

Specific Responsibilities of the Local Election Supervisor (LES)

 

Please note that the time-line for the election is strict but each LES will need to be flexible and creative with respect to each task at hand.

 

The Job has several distinct phases with different responsibilities.

 

1. Candidate Nomination Period: mid July to end of August.

 

This first phase involves overseeing the nomination of candidates to the Local Station Board by

 

·      raising general awareness about the election through on-air, community, and Internet means

·      informing both listener and staff members about how to become a candidate for the LSB

·      reminding listener members to renew their membership before September 1 in order to participate as a voter or a candidate

·      distributing packets of nomination materials to prospective candidates

 

This will require significant community outreach efforts by producing election-specific tutorials and PSAs (public service announcements) to air on radio, publishing in local media (in press, blogs etc.), posting on various websites, expanding virtual social networks, and organizing in person community forums and other potential candidate gatherings where members can talk to candidates and candidates can gather petition signatures.

 

The objective is to get the station's community involved and get as many candidates to run as possible.

The LES is responsible for following up with all potential candidates and making sure all nomination petitions and candidate information is complete by the deadline.

 

 

·      The Local Election Supervisor is responsible for ensuring that all candidates and station staff follow the fair campaign provisions of the Pacifica bylaws, including the interpretation of the bylaws by the National Election Supervisor.

·      At the end of the Candidate Nomination phase, the LES will make sure candidate nomination submissions are complete and finalize the list of candidates.

·      Verify eligibility of candidate, and petition signatures.

·      Candidate names, their 500-word statements, and responses to a campaign questionnaire need to be converted to computer format (this may entail re-typing or scanning with OCR software), proof read, and sent to the NES quickly.

 

2. Campaign Period: September through late October

 

    This involves ensuring that all listener-member candidates prepare oral statements to be recorded and played on air in rotation (candidate statement production) and ensuring that candidate statements are aired both regularly and fairly by radio station staff. All candidates are to receive the same amount of air time during the campaign period.  It also involves producing and moderating live radio forums/debates for listener-member candidates. For the listener-member election, the LES will organize in-person forums/community meetings in partnership with local community based organizations to give listener-member voters opportunities to meet the candidates.

 

The LES serves as the election judge enforcing Pacifica’s Fair Campaign policy. this involves investigating allegations of violations, and issuing warnings, or more severe penalties up to and including revoking a candidate’s eligibility. Sometimes the elections are contentious, and the number of allegations of violations can be substantial.

 

One of the primary tasks is auditing and correcting staff and listener member lists, as these are the lists of eligible voters who will receive ballots.

 

3. Voting Period: 45 day period from mid October to end of November

 

·      Ballots will be produced and mailed centrally (not by the LES). The LES will be in charge of making sure everyone who is eligible to vote gets a ballot. This will require responding to requests for ballots from those who did not receive a ballot in the mail, which means investigating any problems with the member lists, seeking proof of eligibility and managing a large database (listener ballot information).

·      The candidate campaign (on-air scheduling of candidate statements and forums, etc.) must continue through the voting period

 

4. Possible Election Extension Period:

If a quorum of ballots have not been returned by the end of November the voting period may be extended for about two weeks to mid December. In this event, a major publicity campaign, both on-air and by phone may be needed to reach the quorum.

 

5. Wrap Up Period: by end of December

Write a Final Report describing the joys and pitfalls associated with the job, to help the next LES. This is to be completed by December in order to receive the final pay check.