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RESULTS
The results of the 2007 Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO), in order of voter preference are:

Unpaid Staff Organization Council
MALIHE RAZAZAN
ANTHONY FEST
BONNIE FAULKNER
NICK ALEXANDER
RUTHANNE SHPINER

PROGRAM COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES
SHAHRAM AGHAMIR
MARY BERG
LISA DETTMER
J R VALREY
SERGE MOREL (alternate)

21% of the unpaid staff voted.
Of 208 available voters, 43 ballots were counted.

COUNTING PROCEDURES: Ballots were opened by Preeti Shekar in front of
members of the election committee. Votes were read by Yvette Hochberg and Adrienne
Lauby; entered into ChoicePlusPro voter count (STV) software in separate computers
by Brian Shiratsuki and Preeti Shekar; with close observation by Tracy Rosenberg and
Shelley Berman. Other observers of the vote count were LSB members Mary Berg,
Richard Phillips and Sasha Futran. After the official results were read aloud, Adrienne
Lauby took charge of the votes, envelopes and other election material. (See Page 19
for more complete vote reports)

2
NARRATIVE
We offered to serve on this committee in order to fill a gap in KPFA’s democratic
organizational structure and participate, in this way, with Pacifica’s experiment in media democracy. The unpaid staff at KPFA, of which we are part, produces well over half its on-air programming. Most produce programming as a service to their community and to bring critical information about their area of expertise to our listeners. Most of us do this work with no expectation of fame or career.
The national so-called Healthy Station Project destroyed many structures that had
supported unpaid staff at KPFA. Since then, the unpaid staff organization (UPSO) has
been painstakingly reconstructed through the efforts of many people and we are proud
to take our place in that number.
Our committee worked in good faith with no ulterior motives, and no one attempted to
bias our work. None of us was a candidate for office. We made our decisions independently.
This is an uncontested election. We were able to recruit a full slate of candidates (but
none to spare.) Our mistakes were due to ignorance and time constraints, and we
worked to rectify problems as quickly as we found them.
The previous UPSO Council who was charged with electing and assisting us was in
disarray, in part due to a traumatic period in their recent past. Two of the outgoing
Council members actively hampered our work with criticism, despite the fact that one of these critics ran as a candidate. We began this work with no written procedures,
money, or up-dated list of unpaid staff members.
n the disorganized, politicalized climate at KPFA, we found it extremely difficult to do
the work we had volunteered to do. Some staff members tried to hold us to an unfairly
high standard, particularly for an uncontroversial, uncontested election. Tasks that
should have been simple, such as informing staff of the election, required tedious and
repeated effort to complete.
We have been part of other non-profits and know that much improvement is possible in this area. We call on everyone, especially managers, to put fair and transparent
procedures in place in all areas of KPFA and to set an example of institutional
impartiality and evenhandedness. The lack of such things is especially negative for
people of color and others who are traditionally discriminated against in the US. We
support a climate of cooperation and support where elections are possible with less
work, money and discord.
Despite the problems, we received a great deal of appreciation and support from some
outgoing UPSO Council members and other unpaid staff at KPFA. It was a pleasure to
serve this hard-working group with such deep community roots.

Full report available at: http://www.pacificana.org/filebrowser/KPFA/UPSO