During my campaign I said, “If elected I would put out a newsletter periodically to keep the Staff informed about what the LSB was doing.” This is the first of those newsletters. This is not an official publication and represents only my own take on things. I'll see if I can get through this first newsletter without using the word “faction.”

The newly elected WBAI Local Station board (LSB) met for the first time on February 19, 2004. Actually there were two meetings, the first was the delegates' meeting to select directors of the Pacifica Foundation's Pacifica National Board (PNB), and the second meeting was the LSB meeting. Dan Coughlin, Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation was there and the outgoing Chair of the interim PNB chaired the beginning of the meeting. The delegates' meeting started at 6:42 PM.

The following people were elected to be directors of the PNB as per the Pacifica Foundation bylaws:

At the end of the delegates' meeting Vincente “Panama” Alba made a speech and resigned from the LSB allowing fellow slate member Yvonne Liu to be seated. Ms. Liu was the runner up in the election and had been officially designated to take over any seat vacated before the next election, which will occur at the end of this year. The delegates' meeting ended at 8:59 PM.

The voting largely occurred along “slate” lines. Without naming names here are the de facto affiliations of the LSB members:

The two LSB members from Group Z tried to nominate each other for director but neither got a second. A consultation of Robert's Rules of Order after the dust settled showed that nominations don't need seconds. Oops! The LSB needs to get up to speed on Robert's Rules of Order!

It should also be pointed out that the “slates” met separately before the meeting to choose their candidates and there was some communication among them about what they were going to do.

The actual LSB meeting occurred immediately after the delegates' meeting. The following were elected as officers of the WBAI LSB:

During the LSB meeting WBAI General Manager Don Rojas stated that there would be no layoffs at WBAI before the end of February.

Public comments had been taken a couple of times during the meeting and the last 15 minutes of the LSB meeting was devoted to public comments. Perhaps it was fitting that the first public speaker was Monroe who launched into one of his tirades. Still, Monroe's decorum wasn't as disruptive as that of one member of the now dissolved Local Advisory Board who had to be chastised by the Chair. The LSB meeting ended at 11:00 PM.

The next meeting of the LSB will be on Thursday, March 4, 2004, at 6:30 PM at DC 1707, 75 Varick Street in Manhattan on the 14th floor.

All labor donated by and printing paid for by R. Paul Martin.