Q 1.
Q. What is the Local Station Board?

A. Each of the five Pacifica radio stations will have its own elected Local Station Board (LSB). One function of the local station board is to see that the needs of the station and the community are being met, from programming to budgets. A second function is to elect Directors to sit on the new Pacifica National Board of Directors.

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Q 2.
Q. Is the Local Station Board (LSB) the same as the existing Local Advisory Board (LAB)?

A. No. The prior-existing LABs are not continued under the new bylaws. While LABs may continue to meet during the interim period, they do not have any authority under the Bylaws, and after the new LSB is elected, the LABs will presumably cease to meet.

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Q 3.
Q. Do candidates for LSB Delegate have to know something about running a radio station?

A. No. The bylaws do not require any such special qualification. The Local Station Board is not allowed to insert itself into internal station operation, but will instead focus on things like budgets, evaluating the General Manager, diversity outreach, fundraising, and general guidance to assure the station meets community needs.

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Q 4.
Q. What are the powers and responsibilities of the Local Station Board?

A. Each Local Station Board will have the following powers and responsibilities established by the recently adopted bylaws of the Pacifica Foundation.

• Each local station board appoints directors of the Pacifica Foundation, which manages the radio stations in New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and Northern California (Berkeley). Each local station board can recall the Foundation directors it elected by a simple majority of the local station board.

The local station board also appoints from its own membership representatives to serve on committees of the national foundation working on finances, programming and governance, for example.

• The local station board will have to power to screen and select a pool of candidates for the position of General Manager at each radio station. From this pool of candidates, the Pacifica Foundation Executive Director will hire the station General Manager. The local station board and Pacifica Foundation Executive Director may initiate a process to terminate a station General Manager. However, both the Pacifica Foundation Executive Director and local station board must reach a mutual decision to terminate the General Manager. If these two parties cannot agree, the decision will be made by the Foundation’s board of directors.

• The local station board will have the power to screen and select a pool of candidates for the position of Program Director at each radio station. From this pool of candidates, the General Manager will hire that station’s Program Director.

• Annual and separate evaluations will be written by the local station board on the job performances of the radio station’s General Manager and Program Director. In addition, the Pacifica Foundation Executive Director will be subject to a yearly review and recommendations by the local station board.

• The local station board will be required to review and approve the radio station’s budget. Quarterly reports by the local station board must be forwarded to the Pacifica Foundation board of directors on the station’s budget, actual income and expenditures.

• To ensure that the radio station’s programming fulfills the purposes and mission of the Pacifica Foundation, the local station board will work together with station management. The local station board will guarantee the station’s responsiveness to the diverse needs of the listeners (demographic), and communities (geographic) served by the radio station. The local station board also has the responsibility to see that station policies and procedures for programming decisions and program evaluations are working in a fair, collaborative and respectful manner to provide quality programming.

• The local station board is charged also with the following responsibilities: assist the station in fundraising activities; conduct Town Hall-style meetings at least twice a year which are devoted to hearing listeners’ views, needs, and concerns. Community needs assessments must be performed by the local station board, or by a separate Community Advisory Committee formed by the local station board for that purpose.

• The local station board also has the mandate to actively reach out to underrepresented communities to help the station serve a diversity of all races, creeds, colors and nations, classes, genders and sexual orientations, and ages. The local station board is directed also to help build collaborative relations with organizations working for similar purposes.

Finally, the local station board will ensure that the radio station works diligently toward the goal of diversity in staffing at all levels and maintenance of a discrimination-free atmosphere in the workplace.

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Q 5.
Q. What will be the relationship between the Local Station Boards and the National Board of Directors of the Pacifica Foundation?

A. The national board will primarily relate to the national Executive Director, and focus on policies relevant to all Pacifica stations, while the Local Station Boards will primarily relate to the station General Manager and the National Board, and focus on policies unique to that station. Each LSB may recall their representatives to the national board.

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Q 6.
Q. Will Delegates to the Local Station Board be paid for their time?

A. No. The bylaws only allow Delegates to receive reimbursements (or advances) to cover reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their regular duties.

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Q 7.
Q. How many Local Station Board Delegate seats are up for election?

A. Because this is the first election under the new bylaws, all seats are up for election. There are 18 Listener seats and 6 staff seats. In future elections half of each class of seats will come up for election at a time.

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Q 8.
Q. How will diversity on the boards be assured?

A. Diversity will be dependent on recruitment of candidates and the will of the voters. Some bylaws provisions were considered that would have mandated set diversity targets. But these were not included in the adopted bylaws for a variety of reasons, including concerns about legality. The bylaws do, however, call for the creation of “committees of a inclusion” to monitor diversity in the future, in terms of station staffing, programming, and elections.

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Q 9.
Q. How will the national Board members be elected by the Local Station Boards?

A. At the first meeting of the newly elected LSBs, three of the four national Director seats from each station will be elected from among the Listener-Delegates using the same single transferable vote (STV) method used to elect the Local Station Board itself. The fourth seat must be a staff-member Delegate elected using instant runoff voting (also a rank-order ballot, but with a single majority winner). However, these elections is not separated by class, with all Delegates voting together to fill the three listener Director seats and then the one staff Director seat.

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