Q 1.
Q. How many staff Delegate seats are up for election at each station?

A. There are Six staff Delegate seats on each Local Station Board. The first three seats filled will have terms through December 2006, and the next three will have terms through December 2004.

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Q 2.
Q. How many seats do staff get on the new National Board of Directors?

A. One staff person will be elected to the Board of Directors from each Local Station Board.

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Q 3.
Q. How is it determined if an individual staff member is eligible to vote?

A. Any non-management full-time or part-time paid employee of a Foundation radio station on the “record date” is eligible to vote in the staff Delegate election. An unpaid staff person is also eligible to vote in the staff election if he or she is a member of a Foundation radio station “Unpaid Staff Organization” or “Unpaid Staff Collective Bargaining Unit” which has been recognized by station management, or, if the station has neither such organization or bargaining unit, then a volunteer or unpaid staff member of a Foundation radio station who has worked for said radio station at least 30 hours in the 3 months prior to the record date, exclusive of fundraising marathon telephone room volunteer time and volunteer work on committees of a local station board. Based on the election schedule established by the court the record date for this election will be November 21, 2003. An unpaid staff member must have performed the 30 hours of volunteer labor between November 21, 2002 to and November 21, 2003.

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Q 4.
Q. At a station that DOES have an unpaid staff organization, can an unpaid staff person who has done over 30 hours of staff work qualify to vote even if he or she is not a member of the unpaid staff organization?

A. No. At such stations an unpaid staff person must be a member of the organization on November 21, 2004 to be eligible to vote.

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Q 5.
Q. What if I have performed over 30 hours of unpaid work producing station programming, but am not a member of my station’s unpaid staff organization – am I still eligible to participate in the staff Delegate election?

A. This depends on whether your station has a recognized “Unpaid Staff Organization” or “Unpaid Staff Collective Bargaining Unit” (such as at WBAI and KPFA). If so, then according to the Bylaws, you must be a member of that organization to be eligible to vote or run in the staff Delegate election, regardless of how much staff-like work you may have done in the past three months. If your station does not have such an unpaid staff organization, then the 30 hour requirement applies.

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Q 6.
Q. What sort of unpaid staff work can be included in that minimum of 30 hours of work?

A. The work must have been performed under the general supervision of station management, and may not include work such as answering phones during the membership drives, or serving on station committees. It may include both on-air, and behind-the-scenes preparations for programs, etc.

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Q 7.
Q. What if I believe I have performed the necessary 30 hours of such unpaid staff work, but the station records don’t include me as a member?

A. First try to resolve this with the station management who supervised the unpaid staff work you performed. If there is still a dispute, you can appeal to the Local Election Supervisor, who will hear from both sides and issue a decision on whether you are eligible to vote in this election. Remember, if you are not eligible to vote in the staff election, you can qualify to vote in the listener election by contributing $25 to the station before the record date, or perhaps seeing if at least three of your unpaid work hours qualify as listener volunteer work under station management supervision.

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Q 8.
Q. What about collectives of unpaid individuals that produce programs? Are all members of the collective entitled to vote in the staff election as long as the collective has done more than 30 hours of volunteer work in the three-month period?

A. Not unless they are all members of a recognized “Unpaid Staff Organization” or “Unpaid Staff Collective Bargaining Unit.” Otherwise, only the individual members of the collective who have actually and personally performed over 30 hours of volunteer work during the three-month period are entitled to vote in the staff election. Volunteer work of less than 30 hours can only count towards membership rights as a Listener if it was performed under station management supervision – not normally the case for producer collectives.

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Q 9.
Q. What if there aren’t detailed records of hours worked by unpaid staff? How is it determined if an individual qualifies?

A. In the future, unpaid staff should document hours worked. For this transition election, the National Election Supervisor will establish a series of bench-marks for different categories of programming (news, music, etc.) relating hours of on-air time to accepted hours of off-air preparation. Station management will propose a rough-cut of eligible unpaid staff members based on the information available. Individuals who wish to appeal a determination by station management may appeal to the Local Election Supervisor, who will make a final determination of eligibility.

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Q 10.
Q. Are station management and national office staff members allowed to vote in the station staff or listener elections?

A. Station management and national office staff and management may not vote in the staff elections, but can join the foundation as listeners the same regular listeners – give $25 – and vote in the listener election at one station.

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Q 11.
Q. What about staff of the national office, or free speech radio news – are they entitled to vote in station elections?

A. Generally, no. Only if an individual has worked under the auspices of a particular station’s management is that individual eligible to vote in that station’s staff election. They may, however, qualify the same as other listeners by contributing to a station, and vote in a listener election.

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Q 12.
Q. Can an individual vote in both a station staff election and listener election if they meet both sets of qualifications?

A. No. An individual who would otherwise qualify for both classes of membership shall be deemed a staff member and may only vote in the staff election, and is prohibited from voting in the listener election.

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Q 13.
Q. What is the dividing line between management and staff?

A. WBAI, KPFA, KPFK, and WPFW all have collective bargaining agreements that define what positions are management. Using the dividing line between management and non-management in these station collective bargaining agreements as a guideline, any of the following job titles at KPFT are considered “management” and thus excluded from the staff election process: General Manager, Program Director, Development Director, Business Manager, and Operations Director.

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Q 14.
Q. Are candidates for Staff Delegates prohibited from on-air appearances, or just candidates for Listener Sponsor Delegates?

A. Staff are allowed on air regardless of whether they are candidates, but may not discuss the LISTENER candidates. Listener candidates are allowed on air, but ONLY as part of a Local Election Supervisor-sanctioned equal access election program, in a bona fide news story unrelated to the Pacifica election.

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Q 15.
Q. What if a programmer refuses to sign the fair campaign pledge not to put candidates on-air?

A. There is no "pledge." Merely a statement that the staff person has read and understood the fair campaign rules. The bylaws REQUIRE all paid and unpaid staff to sign this statement. Refusal to read and sign the statement would be grounds for dismissal. A staff person who violates the fair campaign provisions (whether the statement is signed or not) can be dealt with as deemed appropriate by the election supervisor, up to and including keeping that staff person off the air until the election is over.

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Q 16.
Q. What is the distinction between volunteer Staff and volunteer Listener Sponsors? Does everyone who puts in 3 hours per year vote in the Staff election rather than the Listener Sponsor election?

A. Three hours of volunteer is no where NEAR enough to allow voting in the staff election. The bylaws recognize unpaid staff members of a staff unit or if no organization exists at a station, who have done 30 (not 3) hours of work during the past three months (not year). The 3 hour volunteer work for eligibility only applies to listener-members. Any disputes about who qualifies for inclusion in the staff election should, if possible, be resolved internally with station management, with an appeal to the Election Supervisor as a next option. The Election Supervisors have the ultimate authority In setting the voting lists.

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Q 17.
Q. What about quasi-station staff like Free Speech Radio News people? Do they vote in the staff or the listener elections?

A. if a FSRN individual is under the general supervision of one station's program director, then that individual could qualify (if they meet the other staff criteria) as station staff. But if they do their work outside the organizational structure of any particular station, they cannot be deemed "station staff," but are more like independent contractors. In this case they would be allowed to join as listeners (the same as national staff are allowed). Then they could vote in the listener elections, but not be a candidate unless they stayed off the air until the close of balloting (due to the fair campaign provisions).

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