At a packed meeting tonight of the KPFT LAB that was attended by over 200 listeners, the new General Manager of KPFT, Duane Bradley, was introduced. Duane is a former KPFT program director ('88-'89) and the host of the "Spirit" program on KPFT for 8 years. He was also a leading figure in the Pacifica reform movement throughout the 1990's and has been active in the Houston Committee for People's Radio (HCPR) since its founding in 1999.
Duane briefly addressed the crowd remarking that change was inevitable but he hoped that everyone would participate in shaping the future direction of the station.
This was followed by some LAB business that included passing motions encouraging the new GM to establish a news department and to return fired and banned programmers to the air (including George Reiter formerly of Thresholds). Then Lyn Gerry, visiting Houston for the day, addressed the crowd giving background and context for the struggle to reclaim Pacifica to a hushed audience.
The meeting closed with public comment and breakout into two subcommittees (programming and governance) that were open to all attendees. Most current (and many past) programmers from KPFT attended the meeting and participated in the conversation with board members and listeners.
(Brief report from D. Jones)
At the request of the interim Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation, Dan Coughlin, the KPFT LAB will meet in Executive Session on 1/23/02 and 1/30/02 to review the applications and interview candidates for the new KPFT General Manager position. The open search for the GM position will close 1/25/02. Interested candidates should fax cover letter, resume and references to Joyce Snowden, Pacifica Human Resources Director at 202-234-7488 Fax or email them to hrpacifica@aol.com
A report of the process will be given at the 2/6/02 General Meeting.
Meeting ReportA brief report of the 1/18/02 meeting follows:
The meeting opened at 7:01 PM with a role call vote of all KPFT LAB and iLAB members then (per the request of the national board) both LABs were merged. The new merged LAB is composed of 24 members (with prior LAB member Barney Goodman having submitted his resignation and iLAB member Ben DeSoto having stepped aside).
The meeting moved to election of officers. Echoing some objections from the audience, Doug Darrow proposed tabling the officer selection. This table motion was rejected. Deb Shafto was unanimously elected Chair. Dan Jones was elected Secretary by voice vote. Mary Ann Martinez was elected vice-chair by voice vote (after Russ Setzekorn declined to be nominated).
The minutes from the 1/10/02 meeting were approved. Then a summary of the plans for future LAB elections was given by Dan Jones and Greg Gieselman; a summary of the national board meeting was given by iPNB members Teresa Allen and George Barnstone. Update on the beginning of the KPFT GM search (which is now open and will close 1/25/02) was given by Dan Jones. Interim GM Steve Brightwell was introduced.
The next public LAB meeting was agreed on as 2/6/02 at 7P, at a site to be named shortly. The LAB publicly committed to finding a space to accomodate a larger number of people for the next meeting.
Then the meeting moved into public comment, which will be summarized separately. Formal meeting was then adjourned for another hour of small group meetings in 6 different rooms with LAB members facilitating the discussion in each room. The meeting disbanded at 10 PM. Total attendance was approximately 400-500 people with a number of people turned away for lack of space.
(Preliminary notes provided by Dan Jones, formal minutes to be presented at next public meeting)