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Response to "Notes from the Trustees"
Response to "Notes from the Trustees"
After we sent out a letter to KOOP's membership calling for a general membership meeting to discuss recalling the board of trustees, the board sent out a newsletter ("Notes from the Trustees") to the membership defending their actions and encouraging the members not to pursue a recall. Below we provide:
KOOP Needs Community Support
by Teresa Taylor, President of
KO.OP's Board of Trustees
KO.OP Radio is in a precarious financial situation which may get worse due to recent negative publicity and a campaign to recall the Board of Trustees.
The Trustees hold ourselves accountable to KO.OP's entire membership and Austin's diverse communities. We believe that KO.OP's airwave is a public resource and is not owned by anyone at KO.OP.
Unfortunately, a number of our programmers and volunteers appear to believe that the trustees are only accountable to the volunteer staff at the station. Some of these individuals are uncomfortable with the trustees' commitment to remain accountable to the entire membership that elected us and to Austin communities.
The trustees are willing to work with volunteers and professional resources such as the Non-Profit Center and the Dispute Resolution Center to identify and resolve problems in our station's structure and democratic process. We believe these changes should be thoroughly studied and made with expert advise.
We encourage our members to use the elective process described in our bylaws to affect change in our organization. Our members should vote in the upcoming Community Board election and consider running for the Community Board and Board of Trustees. Members should also attend our membership meeting which will be held this fall.
The campaign to recall the trustees is likely to result in decreased funding from individual supporters and our fall pledge drive. Continued negative publicity could also decrease our city funding and make it impossible to get grants from local foundations and other funders. Our lawyer has also advised us that the recall campaign is subject to a legal challenge.
KO.OP's financial situation has limited us to a month-to-month existence without the ability to accrue funds to pay debt or make needed capital expenditures. In the near future, KO.OP needs to build a broadcast tower and possibly find new studio and office space. These activities require a major acceleration in our funding. Any decrease in our funding now threatens to bankrupt KO.OP and take us off the air.
Our station needs your continued financial support and participation. Needed change must be accomplished through legal methods that do not threaten the station's existence.
Our
response to the board's open letter
We called for a general membership meeting to discuss recalling the board of trustees and the community board because they have been abusive to employees and volunteers, failed to follow either the spirit or the rule of standard meeting procedures and democratic processes, and made substantial changes to KOOP's mission, bylaws, and programming without seeking -- and even ignoring -- input from the membership and volunteers. We have backed up these claims in exhaustive detail on this website. (See our Why Recall the Board?)
To address the board's specific claims:
"The Trustees hold ourselves accountable to KO.OP's entire membership and Austin's diverse communities."
The truth of the matter is that the board does what it wants without regard to what anyone else thinks. The board has made a number of bad decisions over the objection of the overwhelming majority of the volunteer members, and has justified doing so by claiming that they represent "the community". But how does the board even know what "the community" wants? In any event, if the board really feels that they are accountable to you, the membership, then why did they threaten the membership meeting with a legal challenge?!
"Unfortunately, a number of our programmers and volunteers appear to believe that the trustees are only accountable to the volunteer staff at the station. Some of these individuals are uncomfortable with the trustees' commitment to remain accountable to the entire membership "
This is entirely untrue. Our point is not that the board fails to listen to us exclusively, it's that they fail to listen to us at all! Here's an example of the board acting with hostility to a KOOP member who dared to express her concerns to the board. And again, if the board really feels accountable to the entire membership, then why did they threaten the membership meeting with a legal challenge?! Why are they so afraid of letting the membership speak?
"Our members should vote in the upcoming Community Board election and consider running for the Community Board and Board of Trustees. Members should also attend our membership meeting which will be held this fall."
Here's something we agree on: We strongly support KO.OP members becoming more involved in the operation of the station, especially persons from underserved communities. Voting and running for board positions are excellent ways to become involved.
"The trustees are willing to work with volunteers and professional resources such as the Non-Profit Center and the Dispute Resolution Center to identify and resolve problems in our station's structure and democratic process."
This is news, because up until now, the board has made it clear that they had no interest in hearing members' concerns. The board also fails to mention that we already had professional facilitation from the Dispute Resolution Center, which failed to move us forward. We believe the station should be operated democratically and we're simply not willing to negotiate or compromise that away. Nevertheless, we agreed to have a discussion with the board. The ball has been in their court.
"Any decrease in our funding now threatens to bankrupt KO.OP and take us off the air."
We agree that KO.OP cannot survive without continued financial support from its membership. But we also feel that the membership will not be willing to give to KO.OP if it doesn't trust the station leadership. Further, what's really hurting KO.OP is the board's extreme financial mismanagement. If anything leads us down the path to financial ruin, it will be the poor management by the current board of trustees.