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Public Meetings bylaw integrated
8-16-02


This revision of the Public Meeting (formally General Meeting) bylaw proposal is integrated into the Spooner draft(B) of proposed Pacifica bylaws. It is striped down from the last version which was put together by Gregory Wonderwheel and most of the recommended policy has been set aside for a written guidelines manual. (These recommendations are included below the bylaw on this page)

The intention of this proposed bylaw is to:
1) To draw more people into each local Pacifica community, hopefully generating more listener-members, volunteer resources etc.
2)To provide greater in-person connectivity between the LOCAL station staff, management, listener-members and listening public.
3)To provide a little structure and insurance that, in the future, that the stations stay more responsive to the public and to give the public a few meetings a year where their end of the Pacifica process is the priority.

Roger Manning, NYC

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ARTICLE SIX
COMMITTEES OF THE BOARD

SECTION 1 "LOCAL STATION BOARDS":


(D)  OPEN PUBLIC ADVISORY MEETINGS : In effort to ensure compliance with ARTICLE SIX, SECTION 1, part B-3 above, each Local Station Board (LSB) shall conduct Open Public Advisory Meetings of Pacifica listeners, staff, and management four (4) or more times a year in their station area.
 1)  The meetings will be publicly announced over the airwaves and the internet at least seven (7) days in advance and broadcast on their respective Pacifica radio stations.
 2)  The chair of the LSB shall be responsible for scheduling Open Public Advisory Meetings. A formal request for the scheduling of an Open Public Advisory Meeting may be made by any member of the Board of Directors, station staff or any listener-member and must be honored if approved of by a simple majority of the LSB though this approval is not required to schedule an Open Public Advisory Meeting.
 3)  Open Public Advisory meetings shall be conducted according to the written Operating Guidelines and Procedures regarding Pacifica Public Advisory Meetings.*
 4)  Open Public Advisory Meetings will be open to the public and any person present may participate in discussion and in any votes conducted regarding non-binding advisory items.
 5)  Subject to any specific rules adopted by the Station Governing Boards, Robert's Rules of Order (revised edition) shall apply to the proceedings of Open Public Advisory Meetings.

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* Some Suggested Operating Guidelines and Procedures regarding Pacifica Public Advisory Meetings:

A. The chair of Open Public Advisory Meetings shall be appointed by the Station Governing Board for a term and with such other conditions, requirements, or restrictions as provided by the Station Governing Board. The Chair of the meeting will be responsible for reporting to the SGB and the National Board about the meeting.

B.Open Public Advisory meetings should be conducted according to the following:
1.) Be at least 3 hours in length;
2.) Open with a period (of 30 minutes or less) for members of the attending public to add items to the meeting's agenda including proposals for non-binding advisory items (resolutions, requests, or suggestions to national and local boards and management or other entities) to be discussed and voted on later during that meeting;
3.) Give no more than one third of the total time allotted for the entire meeting for the total time of any reports from various Pacifica board members, management and staff and any corresponding question and answer periods;
4.) Provide an opportunity to organize advisory or assistance committees of listeners and staff as a station resource (e.g., for input, fund raising, outreach etc);
5.) If held during an election cycle, provide a reasonable platform for station board candidates to communicate with potential voters.
6.) Facilitate communication regarding proceedings of any recall of local or national board members [defined in Article __ Section __ ];
7.) Facilitate communication of portions of the procedure for binding Listener-member directives [ defined in Article __ Section __ ];
8.) Facilitate discussion and presentation to appropriate boards or committees of concerns and proposals regarding on-air programming; and
9.) Provide educational presentations or information on Pacifica governance and history as appropriate to the agenda.

Wonderwheel's version
Pre-Wonderwheel version


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