4/28/08 Elections Committee minutes - draft

[Yosh]

Draft - Minutes of Elections Committee
Monday, 28 APR 2008 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern

Present: Anthony Fest (KPFA LSB), Bill Crosier (KPFT LSB), Bob
Lederer (WBAI LSB), Bonnie Simmons (KPFA PNB), Carolyn Birden
(provisionally seated; WBAI PNB), Efia Nwangaza (Affililate PNB), Jan
Goodman (KPFK LSB), Leslie Radford (KPFK LSB), Steve Brown (WBAI LSB),
Wesley Bethune (KPFT LSB), Yosh Yamanaka (KPFK PNB).

Absent: George Reiter (KPFT PNB), Jane Gatewood (WPFW LSB), Rob
Robinson (WPFW PNB), Tico Chacin (KPFA LSB).

PROPOSED AGENDA

1. Approve agenda (5 min.)
2. Announcement of next meeting date - Mon., June 2 - 8:30 pm
and
setting of July meeting date (5 min.)
3a. Review and approval of 3/31/08 meeting minutes (5 min.) (if
available)
3b. Elections of Chair and Secretary.
4. Reports from WBAI, WPFW and KPFK signal areas on status of
elections (10 min.)
5. Report from Report Categories Working Group (see below) and next
steps (15 min.)
6. Committee priorities for year (20 min)
7. Motion by Rob Robinson referred by PNB: Task Force on Elections
(20
min) (text pasted below)
8. Motion re campaign finance reform (20 min.) (text pasted below)
9. New business

Proposed adjournment time: 10:30 pm
(Note: PNB motion adopted 3/20/08
limits PNB & committee meetings to
no longer than 3 hours after
meeting begins or midnight Eastern,
whichever comes first.)

The meeting was called to order at 8:41 p.m. by Bob Lederer (Chair pro
tem). Yosh Yamanaka (Secretary pro tem) called the roll and quorum
was achieved.

After discussion, Yosh withdrew his earlier proposal (3b) that we hold
elections for Chair and Secretary. With that deletion, the Agenda was
adopted as amended.

Steve Brown moved that Carolyn Birden be seated provisionally at
tonight’s meeting of the Election Committee. PASSED 6 yeas, 2 nays, 0
abstentions.

Next meetings were confirmed for Monday, 2 JUN 08 at 8:30 p.m. and
Monday, 30 JUN 08 at 8:30 p.m.

Review and approval of the 31 MAR 08 Minutes was tabled.

WBAI election status: The election was certified on 9 APR 08 and a
Delegates’ meeting was convened on 23 APR 08 at which time 4 Directors
[Nia Bediako, Carolyn Birden, Jamie Ross, staff rep Kathy Davis] were
elected. However, the lawsuit continues. The disqualified ballots
are presently being held by Foundation Counsel.

WPFW election status: W reached quorum of Staff but failed to achieve
quorum of Listeners. Caleb Kleppner of True Ballot conducted an
informal count. Present discussion that those LSB members whose terms
would have expired would voluntarily step down and the highest vote
getters would be nominated by the remaining local Delegates as
provided for in the Bylaws.

KPFK election recount by Caleb/True Ballot is still pending, tho no
more than a single change of an LSB member is expected. Jan Goodman
moved and the committee unanimously adopted the following for
forwarding to the Executive Director and Foundation Counsel:

The PNB Elections Committee recommends that Caleb Kleppner
be assigned to do the count of KPFK in order to facilitate
closure
of the 2007-2008 election cycle.

Report Categories Working Group could not be convened by Leslie
Radford due to insufficient response and concurrence on a meeting
date. Leslie, Bob, Jan, Bill Crosier, and Carolyn Birden affirmed
their interest in participating in the Working Group. Pursuant to
Bob’s suggestion, notice and a meeting of a minimum of three members
shall constitute a quorum of the Working Group. Bonnie Simmons will
inquire about the report on KPFA’s 2007 election; Leslie will inquire
about the report on KPFK’s 2007 election; Bill will inquire about the
report on KPFT’s 2007 election. Bill will ask Pete for an Elections
Committee webpage on www.PacificaFoundation.org where we can post
election results.

The Secretary pro tem will ask Rob Robinson and Jane Gatewood to
contact the Local Election Supervisor for WPFW for a copy of the post
mortems. [Jane later reported that,
to the best of her knowledge, there was no post-mortem or report
prepared by the LES
for their 2007-2008 election.]

Bob reminded the committee that in 2009, there will be a speedup of
the election process with the National Elections Supervisor to begin
work in March and with ballots being sent our at the end of August.

PRIORITIES FOR THE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE

• Reducing elections costs (from current $250k+)
• Secretary to ask CFO for an accounting of amounts raised from
Election fund raising appeals
• Maximize the public’s perception that the elections are being run
fairly
• Promoting the elections at each Station to get listeners recruited
and/or motivated to vote
• The PNB needs to discuss with management what is practical for
airing elections in each signal area.
• Move to Internet voting
• Clean up the mailing lists by sending out a confirmatory postcard
• Forensic audit per Memsys’s concern about multiple addresses
• Security and tamper-proofing of the membership lists
• Establish a working group to investigate the feasibility of
contracting elections out to a non-profit or for-profit organization
• Private financing of mailings should be discouraged
• Research the Staff lists and how those lists are compiled with a
mind toward minimizing conflict; clarify “staff” as defined in the
Bylaws.
• We now have a description of the qualifications sought for NES;
where were the postings for the job opening?
• Propose that stations be asked to mail candidates’ longer statements
[on both sides of 8 ½ x 11” paper] to all members in a single separate
mailing.

Submitted by Yosh Yamanaka, secretary pro tem