Some details of the October 'thon were gone over, as was the new cart policy. The Chief Announcer has requested that people not barge into Master Control while others' programs are on the air and that people not call into Master unless it's an emergency.

The PD also reported that there's an FCC “indecency” complaint pending against WBAI and that producers who violate the rules will face sanctions.

Afterwards I heard that there is not only an “indecency” complaint but also a more serious one regarding advertising on the air. There may be at least one other “indecency” complaint that hasn't been formally presented by the FCC yet. Producers need to watch out for this stuff, the fines are expensive now and will get worse soon.

At last we had the draft budget for FY06! The committee agreed with the Treasurer's suggestion of a budget projecting $2,500,000 in listener donations in 85 days of pitching. Faction members alternately said there should be no blame for the fiscal mess and then attacked non- faction LSB members for not answering phones in tally enough. (I think one of the problems is the toxic atmosphere brought to tally by some faction operatives.) Faction members also pushed their idea that the financial problems are caused by dissenting voices on the air, the iGM said that this was not affecting WBAI's listener base. An additional $120,000 legal bill from 2003, has been handed to Management. With the new legal bill the deficit is about $250,000. The Treasurer said that WBAI is causing a crisis for all of Pacifica by not paying its share of Pacifica's bills. The iGM noted that the Pier Party would have pre-printed tickets and that there would be accounting for the money, as per new rules from the National Office.

The iGM said that there will only be 2 Folios in FY06.

There was a discussion of possibly getting other stations to do a day of pitching for WBAI.

A motion at the August 23, meeting accepted the new numbers. The Treasurer said that there were major reductions in consultant expenses. The iGM also told us about some of the unbudgeted items that previous Management had spent WBAI's money on, and said that this was not happening again.

At this meeting the iGM's idea of hiring a Development Consultant came up. In the past I've been opposed to hiring a Development person while Staff are being laid off. Others have argued that we need to develop professional plans for off-air fund raising, as opposed to our many amateur efforts which, while well meaning most of the time, tend to either break even or generate insignificant funds for the station. In all likelihood the idea of raising about $25,000 to get development going again at WBAI is a compromise necessary on this issue. The alternative is even more layoffs in the future. It is because the faction and last year's Management played games with the FY05 budget, favoring patronage over fiscal responsibility, that WBAI now has layoffs and cutbacks.

WBAI's transmitter room rent has been increased by 30%.

The Treasurer has promised to do a report on Don Rojas' defunct digital Web radio studio that we're still paying for.

The iGM said that WBAI's Arbitron ratings were down in the Spring.

The Treasurer said that WBAI may need loans to get through FY06. In that case the PNB will give us a waiver so loan repayments will take the place of our one month operating reserve.

The committee passed a motion requesting that the iGM present a draft recovery plan for WBAI to the LSB.

This was the meeting where WBAI's budget was