Vajra Kilgour Candidate Statement

I’m asking my fellow workers at WBAI to re-elect me to the Local Station Board. During the past three years, I’ve done my utmost to make sure that the LSB respects staff contracts. Along with the rest of the board majority, I’ve worked to minimize cuts in paid staff advocated by some board members, which would only weaken the station. I’ve also worked with the Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee (USOC) to prevent the Pacifica National Board from curtailing staff voting rights, and personally lobbied fellow board members to keep the long-standing arrangement of a staff majority on management search committees.

In addition, I donate as much as I can to the station while soliciting donations elsewhere and volunteering in the tally room during fund drives, where one volunteer more or less can make a difference of thousands of dollars per day. I’ve joined with other members of the board in calling for a permanent full-time development director as soon as financially feasible, and will work toward better coordination between the board and management in fundraising events.

I’ve served as board chair for the past three years. As chair, I quickly ended the practice of hiring private security guards and made arrangements to purchase inexpensive sound equipment we could operate, rather than having to pay an engineer for travel and recording – thus greatly reducing expenditures by the board. Chairing this board has been an enormous challenge: so many board members are ideologically locked into their perspectives to such a degree that practical considerations are often overridden, making it extremely difficult to facilitate the legitimate business of the board. In addition, there are serious differences on the part of listener and staff members with regard to what is most beneficial for the station. I will continue to represent the best interests of the staff.

I’ve served on the Pacifica Affiliates, Technology, and Governance committees, and am now chairing the local Management Evaluation Committee, which is ready to begin a new round of evaluations, pending a go-ahead from the Local Station Board.

A series of personal tragedies in the past year has made it difficult for me to stay in touch with other staff members as much as I would like, but I pledge to be more communicative in the future. I also plan to be involved in finding a way to fund equipment purchases with more input from staff, and to help find a permanent, affordable home for WBAI.

You may be asking why anyone would want to continue to serve on the Local Station Board given what very hard and thankless work it is. The answer is, because it matters. The future of WBAI is hanging in the balance, and I want to help assure that the station continues to survive and to move forward in the fulfillment of its mission in a time when it’s needed more than ever. Please vote for me and for Louis Reyes Rivera and Cerene Roberts.

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dostart: ...

I'm writing max schmid in for election. he works with his heart & sweat.
B r a d D o s t/ member

March 14, 2008

robmgold: ...

I have attended many LSB meetings and can attest to Frank LeFever's comments. The majority on the LSB has functrioned to block any change at WBAI, except to push through irresponsible annual budgets that have produced large deficits each year. The LSB is mandated to provide oversight of management and programing and Vajra and the rest of blocked this.

November 16, 2007

fflefever: Incompetent. http://radioactivist.net

"...I quickly ended the practice of hiring private security guards.."

Of course. After your gang achieved a majority it no longer needed to incite riots to disrupt meetings and halt LSB business.

"...Chairing this board has been an enormous challenge..."

Primarily because of your inadequate understanding of procedure and/or arbitrarily ignoring proper procedure.

"...so many board members are ideologically locked into their perspectives to such a degree that practical considerations are often overridden, making it extremely difficult to facilitate the legitimate business of the board..."

Come off it, Vajra: anything the JUC majority wants to push through, it pushes through; with little or no discussion. Apparently it does not even want draft Minutes presented for discussion, let alone approval and publication. You have been hiding your motions and your votes from the public for a year.

You ignore tasks mandated by the ByLaws because your mandate is to protect the status quo (especially Bernard White, the program director on whom you depend for your bit of turf). You fulfill THAT mandate by insuring that the LSB does not do anything.

However, in relation to the outside world, you have to keep moving just to stay in one place. That's why we are slipping farther and farther behind. That's why we have lost members every year during your reign.

Your gang tries to hide that by asserting on air that membership is not declining but increasing and making the absurd claim that membership is "28,000" when anyone who is truly in touch with what's happening knows that the actual total is scarcely more than half that: 15,519 by last count.

Election Supervisor Dale Ratner says we shouldn't mention this because it was an "honest mistake". If it was an "honest mistake", it is evidence of a serious disregard for day-to-day station business and incompetence to serve on the LSB.

--Frank LeFever

November 15, 2007

tom: ...

WBAI is bankrupt. Dan Siegel of the Pacifica National Board is corrupt. He has been temporarily placed on the national board for one month to sabotage the elections and allow the WBAI and Justice and Unity corruption to continue

November 03, 2007

parse: ...

Is it true that under your tenure as chair of the board, the LSB has not published the minutes of a single meeting?

October 30, 2007

Phil T. Rich: ...

WBAI is bankrupt. These elections should be cancelled and redone due to the censorship of the candidates that is taking place.

October 28, 2007

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