3/5/08 Minutes of Elections Committee - draft

[Yosh]

Draft Minutes of Election Committee – 5 MAR 2008
Telephone Conference – 8:30 p.m. Eastern time

Present: Anthony Fest (KPFA LSB), Bill Crosier (KPFT LSB), Bob
Lederer (WBAI PNB), Bonnie Simmons (KPFA PNB), Cerene Roberts (WBAI
LSB), Efia Nwangaza (Affiliate PNB), George Reiter (KPFT PNB), Leslie
Radford (KPFK LSB), Jan Goodman (KPFK LSB), Jane Gatewood (WPFW LSB),
Rob Robinson (WPFW PNB), Wesley Bethune (KPFT LSB), Yosh Yamanaka
(KPFK PNB).

Guests: NES Casey Peters, PNB Director Jack VanAken (KPFK).

Meeting was called to order at 8:38 by Convenor, Bob Lederer.

Agenda was adopted as amended:

1. Approve agenda (5’)
2. Election of Chair pro tem and Secretary pro tem (10’)
3. Setting of next meeting date (5’)
4. Review and approval of 11/26/07 minutes (10’)
5. WPFW report – Jane Gatewood (5’)
6. Report from National Elections Supervisor with Q&A (45’)
7. Committee priorities for the year (20’)
8. Motion by Rob Robinson referred by PNB: Task Force on Elections
(10’)
9. Motion re: campaign finance reform (10’)
10. New business
11. Adjourn time: no later than 11 p.m. Eastern.

Bob was elected Chair pro tem by acclamation; Yosh was elected
Secretary pro tem by default.

Next three meetings are to be:
Monday, 31 MAR 08 at 8:45 p.m. Eastern time
Monday, 28 APR 08 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time
Monday, 2 JUN 08 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time

Approval of Minutes of the last meeting was postponed to the next
meeting.

Jane Gatewood of the WPFW LSB reported on the status of their
elections. The National Elections Supervisor (NES) certified the
staff election results but stated that the listener election failed to
reach quorum as specified in the bylaws. Jane expressed concern that
quorum was initially stated to be about 1600, then 1300. Having
failed quorum, the bylaws specify that all of the listener-sponsor LSB
members are entitled to retain their seats until the next election in
2009. She expressed concern that all 18 listener-sponsor seats would
have to be filled in that election. Jane reported that the WPFW LSB
is presently considering how to resolve this situation.

Casey Peters joined the teleconference at 9:17 p.m. Eastern time to
give his NES report and for Q&A.
The biggest problems with Pacifica elections stem from its faulty
membership lists which are essentially generated by telephone room
volunteers during fund drives. Donors who subscribe via PayPal are
excluded. There is poor tracking of volunteers so many volunteers are
excluded. There is no standardized definition of excluded
“management.” Casey recommends that ballots be made available to
listener-sponsors as downloads on the Internet and that cards be sent
which advises the listener-sponsor of the membership expiration date.
Replacement ballots at T and at BAI were not readily forthcoming;
callers were kept in the dark as to their ineligibility, etc.
Marilyn Peters had proposed that elections be staggered rather than
having all 5 elections run concurrently.
There were software problems and voided PINs were not always
flagged. Jack has learned that hand-scanning of the bar codes would
avoid problems with the Form Reader. ABBYY Form Reader requires about
20 hours of training.
Choice Plus Pro cannot run on Microsoft Vista but will run on XP.

Rob proposed the following motion which was seconded and passed
without objection:
Whereas computer counts of STV elections are more efficient, less
subject to error and save listener dollars, in contrast to hand
counts;

And, whereas nearly all Pacifica Delegate elections prior to 2007 were
tabulated by computer;

Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED that the PNB Elections Committee
strongly urges the National Elections Supervisor to arrange that any
remaining ballot counts of the current Delegate elections be performed
by computer.

Further, that the Committee creates a working group to meet with the
National Elections Supervisor next Wednesday, March 12 at 8:30 p.m.
Eastern time to review progress in implementing this motion.

At 11 p.m. Eastern time, the Committee thanked Casey for his
participation and adjourned the public portion of the meeting.

The Committee then reconvened in Executive Session to discuss an
election-related personnel matter.

The meeting adjourned immediately thereafter (circa 11:30).

Submitted by Yosh Yamanaka, secretary pro tem