Save Grassroots Radio

This is the initial e-mail sent to the programming committee and board by the acting facilitator in response to Beth Flower's announcement the Eddie Author was being dismissed from the radio station.

Beth and the Board of Directors, as current facilitator of the KRFC Programming Committee I'm confused.

I've just taken a look at a memo by Don Flick (3/13/2004) detailing our roles and responsibilities sent to the Programming Committee which states, "Each committee is an autonomous entity working independently from and in alliance with staff, other committees, and the board of directors."

I've also looked at our existing PC charter (endorsed by the board of directors), which lays out explicitly how a member can or cannot be removed from this committee.

For everyone's sake, let me clarify how a member is removed:

"Term of Service: voting members shall serve two-year terms. No member shall serve more than two consecutive terms. Initial appointments shall be established so that approximately half of the members shall stand for renewal or rotate out every two years. Members may be removed by a two-thirds vote of the committee and the BOD must endorse removal."

Nowhere in either the bylaws of this station or in this committee's charter does it give either the station manager or the Board of Directors the exclusive right to remove a member of this committee without our being informed or consulted first.

As the facilitator of this committee operating as an 'autonomous entity' I formally request that a detail list of the exact incidents and violations Eddie is being charged with is presented to this committee so that we (as a committee) can decide properly whether he should or should not be removed from this committee.

Until this list is forthcoming, as current facilitator (e.g., nominal acting chairperson of this committee), I urge this committee to reject the Board's decision to remove Eddie from his position on this committee, in violation of the rules governing this committee endorsed by the Board of Directors.

And if this request is not granted, I formally resign my position as both member and facilitator of this committee, as programmer of this station, and as a paying member to this station.

I will not be associated with (nor give freely my creative time and effort to) a group of individuals who are turning this radio station into a Stalinist camp where no one has the right to voice his or her opinions as to how this station is run and operated.

I am sending this message to both the PC and all of our programming members because I feel an existing programmer is being treated unfairly and without a due process which is open to scrutiny to all members-especially given Eddie's contributions to KRFC in the past. Furthermore, this committee has been charged with the oversight of our programmers and to not have involved us is a gross disservice to the significant time and effort many of us have made in serving on this committee.

I was troubled at finding out this committee had not been advised or asked to participate in the decision to sell the Jazz vinyl collection. This committee is charged with oversight of the music library and to not include us makes me question whether this committee serves any actual purpose. Now, having not been consulted again with an issue that clearly should involve this committee, I can only surmise that both our station manager and the current board of directors sees this committee as little more than a means of legitimizing decisions made elsewhere.

Kevin Foskin
acting facilitator, KRFC programming committee

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