A motion that would have allowed the LSB to look at the Staff survey that evaluated the PD wasn't even allowed to be brought to the floor. The Chair of the Management Evaluation Committee, which has had the surveys for months, is now serving as the PD's private secretary.

During the Programming Committee report a certain viper tongued faction operative lied about a meeting having happened. In fact I, as presiding officer of that committee, had canceled that meeting for lack of a quorum after an hour. She showed up later in the evening and declared that she and another person made a quorum and had chosen the next meeting date of the committee. Her prevarication got busted when a meeting announcement on wbai.org had to be retracted.

The LSB then passed a motion calling on the PNB to prohibit “must carry” national programs and demanding that Pacifica's ED meet with local Management before trying to start national programs.

The iGM basically gave the same report she'd given to the PNB three weeks earlier. The Spring ‘thon came in more than $200,000 short. Our transmitter is starting to have problems and WBAI will need $25,000 to $50,000 to repair it. I made my usual speech about Staff needing to be trained regarding F.C.C. “indecency” regulations and illegal advertising. There was talk of getting someone to speak to Staff about it.

The Chief Announcer said that WBAI is now on delay permanently, given the increase in F.C.C. fines, and will be so for the foreseeable future. There was a discussion of training people to use delay better.

The PD announced that there are more pier parties coming up. I wonder if they'll break even as usual?

The issue of Pacifica trying to claim ownership of everything that goes over its air came up. About 10 years ago when Valerie Van Isler was trying to bust the Union some of us had a producer who was a lawyer look into the copyright issues. The bottom line is that Unpaid Staff own what we do and unless we are paid for it Pacifica doesn't own our work. Pacifica does own what Paid Staff are paid to do on air.

Everyone in the room agreed that we didn't want Pacifica trying to own our work for free. A faction operative had language that she wants inserted into a PNB motion about this. I know one thing: I do not want that phony baloney USOC to end up owning what I do!

After starting almost an hour late the Chair proposed a mysterious agenda item consisting of an announcement and a motion by the faction leader. The announcement turned out to be an E-mail from ED Greg Guma, via his assistant, saying that the iGM, “... has chosen to return to her regular position as WBAI's Business Manager.” And the motion proposed that the GMSS choose a new iGM. But the next day the iGM sent out an E-mail refuting this assertion saying , “The reports of my resignation have been greatly fabricated.” As this newsletter gets printed this issue is still up in the air, but it sure sounds like the ED is firing the iGM.

The LSB then had a 90 minute discussion about fund raising. The Treasurer projected a $310,000 surplus for FY07, largely based on a hoped for $200,000 income from a mailing that the Pacifica National Office will do. The PD mentioned that he gets a lot of complaints about late premiums and he said that our ability to deliver our premiums is a problem. The LSB voted to recommend a 10 hour per week Development person for FY07, we already have one, and also voted to try to get the money from WBAI's sub-carrier to go directly to WBAI rather than Pacifica, after which WBAI would give Pacifica its 20% cut.

This was an executive session teleconference. I can't report what happened, except to note that the statement issued by the LSB “Regarding the status of the WBAI Interim General Manager,” seems designed to stir the issue and does not inform Staff about the situation regarding the iGM.

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