PNB Meeting - Jan 2007 - Executive Director Report

Article Index
PNB Meeting - Jan 2007 - Executive Director Report
Initial Goals and Assessment
Duties and Activities
Programming
Licensing and Distribution
Station Issues
Governance
Vision, Goals and Objectives
Footnotes
Appendix A
Appendix B

VISION, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES

Throughout the past year, I have attempted to develop and outline a vision of how Pacifica can meet the challenges it currently faces. The essence is that the organization should begin to restructure itself now, so that it functions more effectively as a national network and stations become audio production centers within the next few years.

Whether Pacifica stations decide to pursue high definition conversion or not, it’s apparent that there is already more than one way to access content. In other words, Pacifica has no choice but to prepare to offer content via multiple platforms. In meeting this challenge, stations should resist the temptation to create more staff positions for on-air talent, and instead retool themselves as resource centers offering state-of-the-art training and a variety of platforms to get messages --- news, information, opinions, music, humor, drama and more -- out into the world.

Pacifica stations can become places where people converge and contribute – often on a short-term basis, laboratories for the cultivation of talent and the testing of new ideas, central hubs for the development of informative, educational and entertaining programs with community partners and like-minded organizations.

This will require a revised staff structure at some stations, and the recruitment of a new generation. In the future, a key aspect of work at Pacifica should be nurturing, teaching, and enabling others to freely and effectively express themselves. For that to happen, managers will need to encourage vigorous and dynamic discussion of difficult issues, and in the process send the clear message that principled disagreements aren’t feared but rather necessary and unavoidable as we restructure to meet the challenges of a new era.

Pacifica could and should become a fully functioning national organization in which diversity is a cause for celebration rather than conflict, and where programs offer people hope and alternatives. Further, it should be a clearinghouse that promotes the sharing of ideas, talent and programs, a truly national network that educates and entertains by stimulating dialogue and asking hard questions.

For this to happen, however, Pacifica must avoid making war on itself, so that talented and dedicated staff members and volunteers can accomplish what the Pacifica mission says: looking at the “causes of conflict” and seeking “lasting understanding” between people. When that happens at home, it becomes much easier to project the same mission out into the world.

Management

2007 GOALS
Re-align national and local management relationships and expand effectiveness, bringing resources and personnel into a more coherent, accountable structure

Continued work toward organizational reconciliation, restoration of mutual respect and trust, and the creation of a civil culture

OBJECTIVES
Increase the ability to make timely national programming decisions

Reorganize management, improve supervision, and revise job assignments where needed

Coordinate various outreach, development and marketing efforts

Encourage efforts to discipline those who abuse their power, violate clearly defined rules, or are insubordinate

Impose sanctions on those who engage in defamation and consistent obstruction

Emphasize positive reinforcements and incentives for initiative and excellence

 

Programming

2007 GOALS
Encourage collaboration and involvement across the network, emphasizing diversity, credibility, and free expression

Influence public dialogue by effectively coordinating national efforts

Nurture new voices and project talent/progressive programming, lifting local voices to the national and global level

OBJECTIVES
At least 3 hours of national programming daily on each station; e.g, DN!, FSRN, and 90 minutes of national programs developed by stations, affiliates, or the national programming division, e.g. From the Vault, Informed Dissent. (4)

Distribute more local shows, based on more clearly defined network editorial priorities, e.g., environment, race, labor, education

Maintain two half-hour network newscasts five days a week (English and Spanish) using the skills of staff at stations, and emphasizing collaboration

Collaborate with FSRN, leading to integration into Pacifica

Negotiate a new contract with Democracy Now!

Implement effective program evaluation and assure periodic program rotation

Revisit and gradually revise local schedules and formats

Evaluate the current approach to Headline News service; cultivate a correspondents’ network using existing Pacifica resources

Reduce the negativity in news and public affairs programming; bring fun back into radio

Implement a voluntary creative commons license to expand program distribution

 

Development

2007 GOALS
Fully fund the rapid enhancement of technological capacity, including digital conversion, expanded streaming capacity, and Internet platforms with open source content

Implement coordinated marketing and promotion efforts, identify new revenue streams, and plan major donor and planning giving campaigns that ensure intermediate and long-term financial sustainability

OBJECTIVES
Invest in new equipment, conversion, increased distribution that empowers listeners as virtual programmers, and technology training programs

Clearly define local training needs for stations and affiliates, and develop a unified strategy

Support expansion of the affiliate network through funding of needed services, engaging programming, and the creation of opportunities for local involvement and mutual support

Create and fund an adequate, consolidated development and outreach budget

Create a development and outreach team include the Affiliates Coordinator, Archives Director, national staff, and station representatives

Solicit funds from non-profit foundations to cover the expenses of instituting major donor and planning giving campaigns

 

Final Thoughts

In early December, after reading an article in the New Yorker about Pacifica pioneer Bob Fass, I distributed some of my own impressions. Here’s an excerpt that perhaps sums up, at least in my view, a few key aspects of Pacifica’s current situation:

In Los Angeles recently, I was talking to the Local Station Board and noted that I felt that some aspects of the Pacifica mission may no longer be "that relevant." My point was that it's important, from time to time, to revisit the basic purposes of an organization -- re-affirming those that remain appropriate, identifying new ones, and acknowledging that some may need to be revised. Apparently, some felt that my use of the word "relevant" was inappropriate -- that I was perhaps even "trashing" the mission. Not at all. But the fact that there was such a focus on a single word points to a fundamental problem. Should an organization that says it is devoted to free speech -- Pacifica has, after all, called itself "Free Speech Radio" at times – spent its time questioning, criticizing or sometimes even banning people for alleged infractions of "appropriate speech?"

On the issue of just how free speech ought to be at Pacifica, the mission seems silent. It talks about providing outlets for creative skills, contributing to a "lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors," promoting the full distribution of public information, and "the public presentation of accurate, objective, comprehensive news."  But what about the idea that the best way to promote understanding is to let the broadest possible dialogue occur? The key is not "objective, comprehensive news;" that's part of a myth -- perpetuated by corporate media -- that long ago outlived its usefulness. What we need is more truly open and spirited debate.

When I first came on board, some people argued that Pacifica should be a vehicle or even a "tool" of certain movements. Which movements depends on who is talking. But that type of thinking has led to a struggle for ideological hegemony that, in my view, is currently keeping Pacifica from achieving a more noble and important purpose -- creating connections between people in disparate communities.

Pacifica was founded by non-violent activists, among others, and it remains dedicated, I think, to the notion that violence does not solve problems. But opposition to violence doesn't imply the complete rejection of conflict. Sometimes airing conflicting views is essential to clarify group values. 

In the search for harmony, peace should not be confused with liberation. Peace can be imposed through repression; in many organizations and some societies it is implemented through forms of "group-think." What I hope Pacifica will support going forward is full and free expression, since liberation is possible only when dissent and disagreement aren't just tolerated but also encouraged.

It has been almost a year since I came to this remarkable, tumultuous, troubled and yet also inspiring organization. My hope has been to stimulate a process of reconciliation and reconstruction. Given the evidence at hand, I'm not too impressed with my progress to date. Too many people still focus on keeping "enemies" out of stations or off the air, others accuse those on the "inside" of plots to rig elections, or try to control programming for political purposes or financial gain. What I've described as a deficit of trust remains almost as large as it was when I arrived. And this deficit, combined with an organizational structure created to prevent another "coup," is instead preventing natural evolution, the emergence of new voices, and a full appreciation of the contributions of people like Bob Fass.

…Taking risks -- and sometimes making mistakes -- is one of the things that makes radio and other forms of communication exciting and creative. We need more, not less, such risk takers and system changers, people who can help to liberate society from repressive structures -- including repressive structures of thought.