The original 26 requests to the board of Co-op Radio
by Korky Day,
korkyday (at sign) yahoo (dot) com A bit of progress 2011 Nov. 9. Last night, for the first time since my 26 requests to the board 11 months ago (on 2010 Dec. 19, listed below), I made some significant progress at a board meeting regarding 4 of these requests. I cannot tell you what specifically because the minutes have not yet been published, and that's the rule. I suggest you ask the board yourself: board-liaison at-sign coopradio dot org . Requested actions for the Board of Directors of Vancouver Co-operative Radio. Slightly revised and submitted to the board 2010 December 19. Greetings and congratulations to the new directors. I request you, our directors, to tell me if you have any hesitation to adopt any of these actions listed below. I think that they are pretty much self-explanatory. These all bolster the universal co-operative principles, especially number 2, "democratic control". When members feel they are in the dark, have been kept in the dark, or are being railroaded, decisions will be resisted, even if they are good decisions. Our co-operative will suffer. Right now we need a lot of healing. If you have any doubts about these requests, I shall be happy to communicate with you (in person or in any way you like) my reasons and explanations. Also, please tell me how these proposals can be improved. Below are my 8 general motions + 12 policy motions + 6 constitution and by-law motions = 26 proposals. General motions for the board G-1. The directors re-affirm to the members that the directors are not the highest authority in our co-operative, and that the membership (acting collectively and properly) has more authority, as in all co-operatives (and as in all true democracies--not Canada). G-2. The board shall arrange a special membership meeting without delay, as provided for in our Constitution and By-Laws, to gain approval by our owner-members of the momentous proposal to change FM frequencies. (See C-5 below.) G-3. At our general meetings, during the agenda discussion and then each time an item is proposed for the last portion of the meeting, the members shall be informed that the last portion of the meeting may not conduct a binding vote. G-4. When voting by acclamation (or other complicated procedural moves) are proposed, they shall be defined orally to the members assembled. G-5. We shall try to resume our previous practice of audio-recording our general meetings. G-6. Political and philosophical differences (etc.) within the co-operative, including programme content, shall be resolved openly, cordially, and democratically. G-7. Affirm our continuing policy that all members may attend all meetings, including staff meetings (but not union meetings, except with permission). As always, portions of a meeting may be held "in camera" for cause. (See C-2 below.) G-8. Marc Lindy is commended for stating reasonably at our 2010 AGM that children are not expected to be as quiet as others. Policy changes and clarifications To be championed by the board and approved by the membership, I request. P-1. Members have a right to question candidates at general meetings before voting. P-2. Programmers may use our computers for programming for long periods, and without necessarily being supervised, if no one is waiting to use them. P-3. When a person is barred from the premises because a staffer says that they feel threatened by the other person (or other reasons), that other person shall have a chance, without delay, to read and rebut the accusation, without any presumption of guilt. P-4. Each programme collective shall be fined 30$ for failure, for 3 years in a row, of at least one of them to attend a general meeting. The programme shall also have one of their programme episodes pre-empted after that action is published in the schedule in our Listener's Guide. Exempt are programmes which have no locally-resident collective members who are not broadcasting the programme during the meeting. The board may grant other specific exemptions for cause. P-5. Minutes of meetings of our general membership, board, staff, and committees shall be posted at the station and e-mailed to all members requesting them, as soon as possible and within 30 days. Announcements of all upcoming internal meetings (members, board, committees, staff, trainings, etc.) shall be distributed likewise, well ahead of time. The same for our union contract(s), licence applications, grant applications, and other contracts. Some e-announcements may be restricted for cause. (In other words, we can decide that anti-theft procedures, for example, should not go to all the members. Nevertheless, the general idea is openness whenever there is no reason for secrecy.) Public e-announcements shall go to everyone (including non-members) requesting them except for cause as passed by the board or membership. (See G-7 above and C-2 below.) P-6. Our licence, constitution, by-laws, broadcast schedule, updated list of directors and committees, and all upcoming public events shall be published on our Web publication ( www.coopradio.org ) without delay. (That is unlike our print newsletter, which we print only at specified times). P-7. Each programme collective shall be democratic, be self-governing (within its range of authority), enrol and expel its members as needed (who also must be co-operative members), and immediately inform the programme committee and staff about changes in its membership. Each collective shall be responsible for all its decisions. (In other words, if they take or neglect an action, such as expelling a collective member without cause, they are answerable to the programming committee, board, membership, etc.) A collective may include a programme's technical operators or not. Each programme collective comprising only one person is encouraged to enrol others. (Policy already says that new programmes must have more than one, I am told.) The board may grant exceptions for stated causes. P-8. We shall establish a "Democracy Committee" (or "Internal Harmony Committee"). One of its jobs will be to prevent disputes and fears from escalating to the point where mediation, arbitration, or heavier measures are resorted to. Any unnecessary escalation of disputes creates fear, anger, and resignation among our members--and damages our standing in the community. Therefore, when any member wants mediation or arbitration, we shall accommodate them as much as possible, even when we could avoid doing so. P-9. When candidates standing for office number no more than the number of positions to be filled, we members shall be reminded that, nevertheless, we have a right to reject any candidate. In that circumstance, if the voting is by the usual unranked ballot X's, then each candidate must receive a majority of the votes in order to be elected, or, if we adopt proportional representation (pro-rep), a candidate must achieve the quota to be elected. (See also the by-law idea C-6 below.) P-10. Work as a member of the board, of a committee, or training, shall count as volunteer work. So shall work preparing for meetings--and even just attending them. (See also C-3 below.) P-11. We create a new position, "time-keeper", either volunteer or paid, who shall remind programmers to fulfill their volunteer work requirement and to record their time worked. P-12. We create a new position, "supervising editor", who shall be answerable to our "outreach" liaison on our board of directors (or the 2 could be the same person). Our supervising editor shall not be a paid staffer and shall be subject to dismissal at any time by the board (or to suspension by order of a majority of the board). Our supervising editor shall oversee the production and publication of our newsletter (Listener's Guide), our Web publication ( www.coopradio.org ), pamphlets, outside advertising, etc., as drafted by our staff, volunteers, etc., and shall consult with them, and may revise said publications. (I offer myself as our first supervising editor.) Constitution & by-laws I propose that the board support these changes: C-1. Make it more clear to the members their inherent right to reject all the candidates by including at the end of the candidate list on any ballots the option "None of the above". If a voter votes for some of the candidates, then we recognize that the voter is rejecting the others. C-2. Repeal our new by-law (if it was indeed passed) which allegedly bars new members, guests, and outside media from attending our general meetings. Also, our voting requirements should be as they were for decades. That is, those voting rights start immediately after being accepted as members by the assembled voting members. As always, any meeting may exclude some people (that is, go "in camera") for cause. (See G-7 and P-5 above.) C-3. Members may complete the volunteering requirement to qualify for election to the board in a new, additional way. That is, they may volunteer for a total of 2 years any time, instead of volunteering only in the previous 6 months. (See also P-10 above.) C-4. The board shall meet within 30 days of a written request by 5 members for a specified matter(s). (That requirement may be fulfilled with either a regularly scheduled meeting or a special meeting, as long as it is within the time limit.) Until that is in our by-laws, the board is asked to volunteer to accept that procedure. C-5. Proposed and possible changes to our Constitution, By-laws, licence, station location, address, lease, name, call letters, broadcast frequency, reduction in broadcast strength, transmitter location, and all other major changes are important enough that the members shall be kept up-to-date by information and discussion at general meetings, board meetings, posting at the station, and by e-mail. The members have a right to such inclusion before all major decisions, so that they may accept, reject, or modify the proposal. (See G-2 above.) C-6. The board shall endorse some kind of proportional representation (as a new By-Law) to be used for our board elections. (See P-9 above.) Sincerely, Korky Day, Lifetime member-owner for over 3 decades, programmer for over 2 decades, former elected member of the Programme Committee, and current volunteer and programmer. The 26 requestst were published here unchanged 2011 April 6 with added introduction at top, revised later. End of page of Requests to Board. |