[WXBH-Discuss] wxbh bummer and its forthcoming options

Sun Jul 22 10:18:25 EDT 2007

Thanks to Anita for taking her time to come to the special session of the Brycc Board because she understands the value of the time that folks have put in year after year in this complex reality.  This radio project illustrates its ongoing lesson of how non-profit issues address federal and personal boundaries challenges at every level of intention and integrity.  We agreed unanimously for the studio within the listening area as a board of directors because we believe in cooperation even though we do feel that there is some accountability yet to be resolved as regular maintenance where approving contractual terms in the name of the entire organization is concerned and managing finances are concerned. 

  It is my wish that these issues not be taken personal while being forwarded by the work of individuals and such is the tough stuff that all of us are going through in our continued effort to make something of lasting value for future participants and communities who need this project and these examples of how to navigate complexities of law and liability.

  I welcome any member of our organization to financially assist or work directly with WXBH alongside the Newburg Youth Council as a partnering organization providing studios in our Buechel area;  its clear that this radio project could provide accessible resources for our entire community and region with better planning and facilitation of accessibility for all those who have expressed interest and donated to this project over the years with adequate volunteer development and outline of processes of maintenance at each of our sites.

  The are mutual concerns which both radio governance board and board of directors still need to define as a part of creating partnerships as sound partial economies/autonomies (intra-autonomy?) within this organization;  my appreciation goes out to everyone who strives through the obvious obstacles of social organizing and political durress to continue forward in the desparate call for cultural change.  Its clear to me and everyone else that complete autonomy is an ideal which has never been achieved by Brycc Inc. or any of its individual members due to the nature of the synergy found in cooperative effort and social change as individuals at home, in business and/or the work of democratic process.  

  If our board were to define anything other than financial and long term operating standards, it would be to address the liabilities and current effectiveness of assembly process and collective function.  What we can learn from the efforts of WXBH and other collectives such as Food Not Bombs or Freewheel Bike Project is that complete autonomy leads to a crucial lack of accountability when it comes to organizational resource maintenance/development.  The reality is that each of our collectives suffers from advance planning of independent and reliable ongoing revenue stream management through volunteer development and regular skillsharing which relates to outreach and active programming. Teaching the members of our community to fish in the streams of legally and ethically sound waters of financial decison-making is much better and a more lasting value engaging the individuals involved in our project as long term skillsharing and will likely prevent the toxicity experienced
 in collective engagement.  The truth is that we can lead the horses to the water but they choose to drink, regardless the board needs to stick with the legally sound and ethically sound water.

  I would love for our BRYCC acronym to become Building Resources Yielding Cultural Change so that we can further directly democratic processes of cooperation and collective engagement which enriches not only the lives of those directly involved in our programming but also those influenced and indirectly contributing to our community growth.  There is no reason why this process of defining collective, assembly and committee responsibilities to their partnering agencies and governing bodies will not grant us a giant step forward to both adequate management and proper sustainability for all participants in this community.

  There are a few other terms and standards of organizational accountability/ethics/methods which need to be better defined within BRYCC mission and bylaws so that collectives might apply them and thus be recognized to have appropriate autonomy.  Making further concessions without these specific protocols in place is to compromise our entire organization as an entity accountable legally and ethically as a function of the responsibilities of our board of directors who are liable for all collective and individual processes associated with the 501c3.  The board simply does not have the flexibility to overlook the negligence in allowing WXBH full autonomy to deviate from organizational protocols which might further make BRYCC unmanagable on paper and as a financial entity without accuracy if other collectives and WXBH are allowed full immunity from organizational imprinting of ethics and terms of appropriate financial redress through assembly process.

  This issue has not deviated course since the Radio Collective was initially granted the opportunity to take a 2 year contract for Bellsouth phone service out in Brycc radio's name and then refused to take responsibility for those terms.  The reality is that many of the same people in this discussion now chose to ignore this same financial obligation by changing the name of Brycc Radio to WXBH as some sort of arbitrary distinction and thus saddling the organization itself and its Board of Directors with a neglected burden of cleaning up of the outstanding issue legally and contractually to the degree that the contract is in default and headed for court;  the board was well informed of this issue when it took office and even before that as they convened to work on this project as individual radio collective members in 2004-2005.  The issue of good faith with regards to doing business is not about the money indeed but more to the point of addressing legal issues in a
 responsible manner.

  Regardless of current contributions from WXBH in a monetary form, the obligation was simply for the radio collective or committee to address this specific term of legal accountability regarding its Bellsouth accounts as a part of organizational accounting it incurred at the expense of the entire organization.  The tailspin of a 'dying Brickhouse' was never so much the money as it was refusal to outreach appropriately during times of need;  all of us were lacking in ability to address longterm outreach consistently at one time or another.  At this point, I am concerned that, no matter how much money we raise or continue to raise for particular projects, this outstanding legal issue which stems from irresponsible collective action remains unaddressed in the form of board members refusal to address appropriate collective function and accountability through adequate membership development.  It might well be a stake in our roots ;  it is a core issue of trust which should
 prevent collectives from acting on behalf of the entire organization thus allowing for direct abuse of 501c3 priviledge, outright theivery and sabotage of community resources unless adequately addressed in specific bylaw articles at this point in our process.  

  Many of my concerns as a board member were shifted from any fundraising or programming I might have provided to the broader spectrum of ethical operations of an organization so that our legal and social terms of accountability remained above the board.  As the only person active in promoting WXBH beyond non-publicized meetings and minimally active website(not as neglected as the brycc website.. thank you aron for the good work on radio html) during the fall of 2005 as a part of the Highlands Farmers Market, I became sorely aware that the funds we had collected were not being used to address the outstanding bill nor the questions of needed update which contributors were demanding.  This awareness and lack of community engagement on the part of our radio collective brought the larger organizational concerns to my consideration and now I am certain that the lesson of the issue is that all collectives need accountability to an active board beyond regular reporting to
 assembly;  we have yet to make collectives accountable to the volunteer and donor base as well as to the board of directors whose job it is to maintain the entire organization with their resources and planning.  

  It is clear that simple cooperation between WXBH and BRYCC board of directors is muddled by WXBH's governance procedures which can be worked out with due process on the part of developing articles in the bylaws for both committee function as both responsible and accountable agents acting on behalf of collective engagement as opposed to acting on behalf of the entire 501c3.  The FCC finds the issue of radio governance to be an acceptable compromise releasing the board of directors to manage their affairs of our entire organization accordingly as well.  Furthermore its clear that collective function and assembly processes must become accountable in specific terms to the board of directors and its volunteers on behalf of our mission statement and vice versa if we are to be consistent regardless. 

  The WXBH situation could be seen as a bummer in anyones opinion but its the only way for the entire organization to move past poor management of resources and bad decisions based upon partisian interests.  I point no fingers and accept my share of working through what is obviously a life long quest for access to resources yielding cultural change.  However, I personally happen to believe that the issue of the building and its 'greenovation' is a worthwhile vision for our organization so that local folks can come to understand not only the value of needed lifestyle changes but also conservation through planning and decisions which direct the long term stability of all of our resources and skillsharing options.

  As a matter of record, this obligation of contractual accountability is still an outstanding issue to be resolved and needs to be defined as a collective issue of accountability and not a board issue of contention and liability given that the board never approved this expenditure by radio;  such terms need to be clarified before any collective be given power to represent the entire organization legally or financially because this particular contract was approved only by assembly which has yet to be defined in terms of accountability by the board.   I do not see collective censure or individual reprimand as the issue here but rather a correction of liabilities and acceptance of prior deposit/repository for active resources and lending process for all collectives who access BRYCC resources generally and specifically. 

  Kristin 

anita solomon <solomonanita at hotmail.com> wrote:
        Oh for crying out loud!!  After so many of you have literally spent hundreds of hours to make this station a reality, don't let it slip away over stuff that will, in retrospect, be peripheral.  
  WXBH can't save the Brick House although the Brick House can probably kill WXBH if it wants to.  But why would it want to?  
  Can't we figure this out together, folks?  Or does everything have to crash and burn?  Because it all will, you know, unless everyone steps up to salvage what we've all been working toward for so long.  Anita

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From:  "Mark McKinley" <markmck48 at hotmail.com>
Reply-To:  "WXBH General Discussion List (Open to all to subscribe andpost.)" <wxbh-discuss at wxbh.org>
To:  brickboard at wxbh.org, wxbh-discuss at wxbh.org, wxbh-tech at wxbh.org
CC:  lmr-announce at louisvillemediareform.org, rlightsyjr at aol.com
Subject:  [WXBH-Discuss] wxbh bummer
Date:  Sat, 14 Jul 2007 13:05:17 -0400

Friends,

LPFM Community radio:  it’s not about the money - it’s about authentic voices having access in their own community to the airwaves. Local. Diverse. Public interest.

This past Thurs afternoon WXBH was positioned for the next plateau:  the Brick House Board’s Radio Committee had reached an agreement ($250/month utilities included, immediate move-in condition) for studio space  (at Bardstown Road and Hikes Ln) in our broadcast listening area .  No more need to pre-record, transfer, download, edit, upload, blah, blah,
..Finally, feasibly within a week, programmers such as the Newburg Youth Council would have a studio in their own community - turn on the radio:  on-air!

Transparency:  As previously shared at other meetings and with other Brick House Board members including BH Chair John Hicks, our plan was modeled after our mentor, highly successful lpfm sister Radio Free Nashville, WRFN.  WRFN operates a studio in its broadcast listening area as well as an urban studio. Hicks responded to me:  “Makes sense.” The Buechel studio location not only validates our position in the broadcast listening area for programmers, it positions us within walking distance of hundreds of potential underwriting neighboring businesses - revenue for BRYCC, Inc.

Transparency:  As I’ve shared previously with Hicks and others at open meetings, this is no plan to undermine or split off from the Brick House. I’ve continued to support the Brick House - recently writing another check and only last Sunday afternoon working a concession stand at Slugger Field to raise money for the Brick House.  Last year alone, the WXBH radio project contributed $7,000 or so to keep the organization’s building afloat,  a building without a heating or cooling system and other safeguards to protect studio recording and broadcast equipment.

Rather than celebratory, Thursday evening’s Board meeting was toxic: more than once, Radio Committee members were lectured by other Board members with limited or peripheral WXBH engagement - a litany of biased voices raging that a studio in the broadcast listening area was divisive.

And then one of the loudest voices,  David Morrison, new to the Board this spring, honestly admitted in the meeting:  “IT IS ABOUT THE MONEY” -  David wants the money that would go to the studio in the broadcast listening area to go to the Brick House.  Throughout the rancor, John Hicks  was laryngitic, his Makes Sense voice shrilly silent.

Passion fuels our drive.  Fanaticism blinds and people drive off the cliff.  Jim Jones probably began innocently passionate before eventually blindly dispensing his deadly kool-aid.   I hold no personal grudges (or icepicks) against anyone at the Brick House.

IT IS ABOUT THE MONEY - that’s corporate media’s kool-aid. Holding the WXBH project hostage is unacceptable.  After 2 years+ actively engaged in the WXBH project,  I’m  not drinking or dispensing that kool-aid.

Bummer.  I guess pissing and spinning will begin.   No cheers. - Mark

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