[Kzyxtalk] Nurturing the Seeds of Change

[Dennis OBrien]

Although the candidates proposing the most change at MCPB/KZYX lost the recent board election, it now appears that a majority of the new board will support greater engagement with the members and the public, and more involvement in managing the station.
At the February board meeting, three of the directors - Jane Futcher, Meg Courtney, and Holly Madrigal - said that they were bored and wanted to spend more time doing committee work.  They were particularly interested in the Infrastructure and Outreach committees.  Other standing committees include Finance, Personnel, and Strategic Planning.
At the candidates' forum in March, all of the candidates agreed that more engagement with the members and public was important.  And, although returning director Ed Keller was willing to leave everything to management, new directors Benj Thomas and Clay Eubank acknowledged the oversight role of the board, though each wants to avoid micro-managing day-to-day operations.
The new board would not need to adopt any new policies to begin work on these goals, it would just need to implement policies already in place.  The standing committees mentioned above have been board policy for several years, and each director is required to be on at least one committee, no more than two.  Committee assignments should be the second order of business at the annual meeting next month, right after the selection of officers.
The Program Advisory Committee is also dormant.  Naming its members and setting a deadline for the first meeting is an appropriate board action, since the current management has failed to implement the policy.
Implementing the Community Advisory Board's (CAB's) recommendation for a regular "News of the Station" call-in show is also an appropriate board action.  Although the composition and procedures of the CAB are themselves questionable, they did come up with one specific proposal, but even that modest proposal has been ignored by the current management.
Finally, the board should require management to activate the membership email list.  We know that email addresses have been collected during membership sign-up.  The renewal letter we send asks people to supply one so we can save trees and other resources.  And an email address is a required field when donating online.  So the information is there.  Once established, it could be used to send a quarterly e-newsletter.  Since we already have a relationship with the members, this would not be spamming, although an opt-out option must be available.
Although use of the email list would need to be controlled, the quarterly reports could include a link to a page on the KZYX website that lists all of the websites currently maintained by programmers - a "Programmers Page" that could be a subheading of "About Us" on the main page.  A similar link and page could be created for a "Members Page", which provides links submitted by members to related discussions/resources, e.g., the KZYXTalk list serve.  The station could include a disclaimer so that there is no confusion about supporting any particular view.

All of the proposals above are consistent with the majority's support for more engagement and increased board involvement.  There were, of course, other proposals for change, most notably shifting personnel decisions from the general manager to the board.  It is unlikely that the new board will even consider such changes.  But it is proper to hold the new board accountable for the two issues where there was general agreement - greater engagement with the members/public and greater involvement in making sure that existing policies are implemented.
If the new board fulfills the promises that were made during the campaign, then the station can still move forward.  But if it does not, then the station will continue to lose the support of the community, and it will fail.
Dennis O'Brien
PS - My personal thanks to all who supported my candidacy and who joined in the discussion of important issues.  The last four months were an exciting exploration of the potential of public radio.  I am disappointed that the turnout was so low; many people, including me, did not receive their ballots, which calls into question both the maintenance of the membership rolls and the integrity of the election process.  I am also disappointed that the board officially sanctioned the general manager's use of the programmer email list to campaign against me.  However, my opponent Clay Eubank acted honorably, and I wish him well.
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