KPFA monthly Local Station Board meeting in Rohnert Park this Saturday, June 18.

[Barrie]

The meeting will begin at 11AM with an executive session then opens to the rest of us at 12 NOON, at the Rohnert Park Library. They are having the meeting in Sonoma County to give us a chance to participate in what is/has been going on at the station. It would be great if we could show up and demonstrate that we care about KPFA.

If you want to do some research before the meeting, you can find relevant information at the KPFA Worker and SaveKPFA web sites. Other people may have other sites to recommend.

Barrie

["Mad" Miles]

Since the sites Barrie provides are the two that represent the "views" of the faction I think of as the "entrenched staff", the crowd that has been crying foul the loudest and the dirtiest with regard to changes in programming and staffing designed to save the network and station from almost certain financial ruin, a state of affairs in which the SaveKPFA and KPFAWorker faction holds much of the responsibility, then yes, please avail yourself of additional information before climbing on anyone's bandwagon.

Here are some other views:

https://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com...-activist.html

https://supportkpfa.wordpress.com/

https://archive.constantcontact.com/...393090780.html

The loudest voices, are not always the most accurate or honest.

By the way, the information I've received, after some lack of clarity, is that the public part of the LSB (Local Station Board, first level of democratically elected governance in the KPFA/Pacifica system of bylaws that came out of the court case first filed and fought primarily by our own Carol Spooner, starting back in 1999 in response to the lockout) will start at noon, 12:00 p.m., not 11:00 as Barrie has stated, but I just checked, Barrie is right:

https://lsb.kpfa.org/2011/06/18/june...meeting-notice

The discrepancy is because, if you look at the agenda, the time for Public Comments is not scheduled until an hour and twenty minutes after the meeting is called to order at 11:00 a.m.. For most people attending, that is the earliest time they will have to observe and comment. approximately 12:20 p.m. if all goes according to the agenda.

The agenda itself states, "approximately 12:00 noon", for public participation.

[anjaloba]

Thanks for posting a notice on Saturday's KPFA meeting at the Rohnert Park Library at 11. Thanks Mad Miles for posting the links to follow to get more information on the issues. Just like Isis Feral, My stance is clear cut: I vote for workers in worker vs. management issues and I don't cross picket lines. But by following the links provided by Mad Miles I saw for the first time how things are not always that clear cut, and this KPFA issue is very nuanced and tricky. Thanks.

[zenekar]

Since the sites Barrie provides are the two that represent the "views" of the faction I think of as the "entrenched staff", the crowd that has been crying foul the loudest and the dirtiest with regard to changes in programming and staffing designed to save the network and station from almost certain financial ruin, a state of affairs in which the SaveKPFA and KPFAWorker faction holds much of the responsibility, then yes, please avail yourself of additional information before climbing on anyone's bandwagon.

Here are some other views:

https://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com...-activist.html

https://supportkpfa.wordpress.com/

https://archive.constantcontact.com/...393090780.html

The loudest voices, are not always the most accurate or honest.

By the way, the information I've received, after some lack of clarity, is that the public part of the LSB (Local Station Board, first level of democratically elected governance in the KPFA/Pacifica system of bylaws that came out of the court case first filed and fought primarily by our own Carol Spooner, starting back in 1999 in response to the lockout) will start at noon, 12:00 p.m., not 11:00 as Barrie has stated, but I just checked, Barrie is right:

https://lsb.kpfa.org/2011/06/18/june...meeting-notice

The discrepancy is because, if you look at the agenda, the time for Public Comments is not scheduled until an hour and twenty minutes after the meeting is called to order at 11:00 a.m.. For most people attending, that is the earliest time they will have to observe and comment. approximately 12:20 p.m. if all goes according to the agenda.

The agenda itself states, "approximately 12:00 noon", for public participation.

____

The reason I posted on WaccoBB Events that the KPFA LSB meeting begins at 12 noon is because the Executive Session is closed to the public. If you show up at 11 am you will have to leave the room until after 12 noon, when the public session begins.

Thanks, Miles, for posting the other websites. There certainly is another side to what is published on the KPFA Worker site which represents a minority of workers at the station -- some of the entrenched paid staff. "Save KPFA" (another misnomer) is also a website by the same minority of the staff that purports to represent workers at KPFA. Note: most of the programming at KPFA is by unpaid staff that are not represented by a union.

This is Interim Station Manager, Andrew Phillips' report to the listener: May 26, 2011 https://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/70082 (The report starts 17 minutes into the recording.)
____

[theindependenteye]

Friends--

For whatever it's worth: Sorry that I don't have time to immerse myself in KPFA politics. We gave them a program, free, for four years, and contribute regularly, but that's it. But I'm moved to say this.

I've seen two progressive organizations that we had a deep stake in -- one artistic, one spiritual -- go belly-up in recent years. Or I should say, maybe, belly-blown-all-over-the-walls. In both cases, they were classic examples of the left-wing circular firing squad. In both cases, the people who were vehemently at each others' throats were dear life-friends of ours. It was horrible to see, and it was a grievous loss, to us and IMHO to the planet.

What I submit that's relevant to the situation with KPFA, perhaps (and I just urge all parties to give this some serious and something-like-prayerful thought, and to forward it to anyone who's actually going to raise a voice), is that in both cases, (a) each side demonized the other, exactly as if the other was utterly self-serving, corrupt, and financed by the Koch Bros.; (b) each side had a long history of feeling persecuted and marginalized by the world at large, with well-earned battle scars; (c) each side truly felt that it alone was carrying the banner for survival of the profound ideals of the group's vision; and therefore that (d) any form of compromise, even listening with an open heart to what the Other was saying, was tantamount to betrayal.

Does that ring any wind chimes?

Right now, I can't remotely imagine that any human being could fill the post of station manager or program director or dog-catcher at KPFA without being institutionalized after a year on the job. Activists of all stripes are accustomed to absolutes, to being on the receiving end of police batons and mace at the very least, of standing up in the face of overwhelming odds. That's the survival modality. And that amazing virtue is what makes them suck, absurdly, in the simple grubby process of getting along together.

If all your opponents, tomorrow, died of a stroke, would the problems be solved? IMHO, not. The hungry ghosts will sit at table, utensils ready.

Spare me the "No, you don't understand: George did this, Martha said that!" I've heard it too many times, and if you're totally honest with yourself, so have you. This shit can never be truly resolved unless all parties get rid of the idea of WINNING and actually commit to doing this TOGETHER, it's done for, my friends, it's fucking dead in the water, dead on the seashore, beached like a big stinking whale.

Talk to the people you can't stand talking to. Listen to their bullshit and, in the idiotic Quaker term, for what's true and valid in it. Give up all your favorite terminology of characterizing the Other. Someone a helluva lot wiser than I said this: What your enemy says about you is mostly true. What you say about your enemy is mostly true. What you say about yourself, and what he says about himself, is largely bullshit. The Commies and the Capitalists, the Radicals and the Reactionaries, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Christians and the Pagans, the Straights and the Gays -- think about it. Can you learn from them? Can you kill them, or should you talk to them?

Rant mode off. Right now we're in Hungary at a theatre festival. These people are doing extraordinary work, and in the face of a right-wing nationalist government, that again, as True Believers, wants to renew the "Magyar spirit" by force of power, are surviving. Makes KPFA look like a little hermit crab on the beach. And yet it's a hermit crab I love, and goddamn I hope it survives.

Clasp hands with your "enemy," my loves, and direct your rage where it truly matters.

Peace & joy--
Conrad Bishop

[zenekar]

Friends--

For whatever it's worth: Sorry that I don't have time to immerse myself in KPFA politics. We gave them a program, free, for four years, and contribute regularly, but that's it. But I'm moved to say this.

I've seen two progressive organizations that we had a deep stake in -- one artistic, one spiritual -- go belly-up in recent years. Or I should say, maybe, belly-blown-all-over-the-walls. In both cases, they were classic examples of the left-wing circular firing squad. In both cases, the people who were vehemently at each others' throats were dear life-friends of ours. It was horrible to see, and it was a grievous loss, to us and IMHO to the planet.

What I submit that's relevant to the situation with KPFA, perhaps (and I just urge all parties to give this some serious and something-like-prayerful thought, and to forward it to anyone who's actually going to raise a voice), is that in both cases, (a) each side demonized the other, exactly as if the other was utterly self-serving, corrupt, and financed by the Koch Bros.; (b) each side had a long history of feeling persecuted and marginalized by the world at large, with well-earned battle scars; (c) each side truly felt that it alone was carrying the banner for survival of the profound ideals of the group's vision; and therefore that (d) any form of compromise, even listening with an open heart to what the Other was saying, was tantamount to betrayal.

Does that ring any wind chimes?

Right now, I can't remotely imagine that any human being could fill the post of station manager or program director or dog-catcher at KPFA without being institutionalized after a year on the job. Activists of all stripes are accustomed to absolutes, to being on the receiving end of police batons and mace at the very least, of standing up in the face of overwhelming odds. That's the survival modality. And that amazing virtue is what makes them suck, absurdly, in the simple grubby process of getting along together.

If all your opponents, tomorrow, died of a stroke, would the problems be solved? IMHO, not. The hungry ghosts will sit at table, utensils ready.

Spare me the "No, you don't understand: George did this, Martha said that!" I've heard it too many times, and if you're totally honest with yourself, so have you. This shit can never be truly resolved unless all parties get rid of the idea of WINNING and actually commit to doing this TOGETHER, it's done for, my friends, it's fucking dead in the water, dead on the seashore, beached like a big stinking whale.

Talk to the people you can't stand talking to. Listen to their bullshit and, in the idiotic Quaker term, for what's true and valid in it. Give up all your favorite terminology of characterizing the Other. Someone a helluva lot wiser than I said this: What your enemy says about you is mostly true. What you say about your enemy is mostly true. What you say about yourself, and what he says about himself, is largely bullshit. The Commies and the Capitalists, the Radicals and the Reactionaries, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Christians and the Pagans, the Straights and the Gays -- think about it. Can you learn from them? Can you kill them, or should you talk to them?

Rant mode off. Right now we're in Hungary at a theatre festival. These people are doing extraordinary work, and in the face of a right-wing nationalist government, that again, as True Believers, wants to renew the "Magyar spirit" by force of power, are surviving. Makes KPFA look like a little hermit crab on the beach. And yet it's a hermit crab I love, and goddamn I hope it survives.

Clasp hands with your "enemy," my loves, and direct your rage where it truly matters.

Peace & joy--
Conrad Bishop

––––

Hello Conrad, Enjoy your stay in my former country, Magyar Ország. As for KPFA, as in your other examples of supposedly two sides in a dispute (like Israel/Palestine) it is quite possible that one side does have more credibility than the other. Listening to KPFA and even having a program on the air, one doesn't necessarily have the knowledge of the internal politics at the station.

I was on the KPFA Program Council and the Board and still stay informed about current issues. I've witnessed the way a few paid staff members/programmers behave as if they owned this public radio station. It's not just a tit-for-tat situation. KPFA is listener-sponsored community radio and it should operate as such.

The group that calls itself "Save KPFA," formerly "Concerned Listeners" (both names misrepresent their intentions), have been obstructing any change that promotes community involvement in programming, so that the status quo is maintained with their programs and dominance.

Attila
...

[theindependenteye]

>>>Hello Conrad, Enjoy your stay in my former country, Magyar Ország. As for KPFA, as in your other examples of supposedly two sides in a dispute (like Israel/Palestine) it is quite possible that one side does have more credibility than the other. Listening to KPFA and even having a program on the air, one doesn't necessarily have the knowledge of the internal politics at the station.
>>>I was on the KPFA Program Council and the Board and still stay informed about current issues. I've witnessed the way a few paid staff members/programmers behave as if they owned this public radio station. It's not just a tit-for-tat situation. KPFA is listener-sponsored community radio and it should operate as such.
>>>The group that calls itself "Save KPFA," formerly "Concerned Listeners" (both names misrepresent their intentions), have been obstructing any change that promotes community involvement in programming, so that the status quo is maintained with their programs and dominance.

Dear Attila--

Yes, very much enjoyed being in Hungary - some extraordinary theatre - though our friends there are very concerned with what's happening with the ultra-nationalist politics.

Re. KPFA: My point was not that both sides have equal credibility, ideas or values, or "there's two sides to every issue," but simply this: that nobody's going to win if the war continues. I hear that all the trouble is a few "entrenched" vets who want to preserve their power --*but apart from wondering exactly how they manage to do that, I very much doubt that they go to bed thinking, "I'm an entrenched vet who wants to preserve my power." More likely it's something like, "I've been in the trenches twenty years and KPFA is my life and I'll do anything to save it from these newbies who just want their own piece of the pie." Or something to that effect. You've surely been around long enough to see how people rationalize their own actions and demonize those of others.

No, I don't know any of the people involved, or the specific policies in dispute. And it truly is a problem to maintain "transparency" as an important value when there are serious fractures within an organization that depends on donations. Every part of this dispute parallels precisely the process of the death throes of the organizations I alluded to. In neither case did getting rid of the bad apples help, nor did the burning dedication of both opposing sides, nor did the non-negotiable demands.

Could consensus-building negotiations with a skilled faciltator have helped, or could that help KPFA? I don't know. I do know that with the outfits I saw, power struggle was just suicide, and suicide didn't help a bit.

Peace & joy--
Conrad