Thanks for voting and stay safe

Dear WBAI Family, 

We have something to say to those of you who phoned, texted, sent email and postcards, and most of all, VOTED "NO" in the just-completed Bylaws Referendum: "THANK YOU!!"
Gracias … mahalo … asante … arigato … salamat … xie xie … merci … spasiba … obrigado!

Yup, you did it, again!
You came through for democracy, WBAI, and Pacifica!

We soundly defeated the Bylaw Referendum that would have, among other things:

• Disfranchised staff and fired low income members

• Eliminated Local Station Boards that bring "ordinary" listeners to the table

• Seated an unaccountable board that never addressed the members

• Halved the percentage of members needed to sell: a station, the Pacifica Radio Archives or a building

The referendum saw the greatest level of participation of any Pacifica election!
Where the rules are that for election results to stick, 10% of listener-members and 25% of staff-members must participate, twice^* as many — 22.9% of listeners and 51.6% of staff — made their voices heard.

Sixty-five percent of staff and 66% of listeners who voted, rejected the proposed exclusionary bylaws that specifically struck out Pacifica's commitment to diversity in programming, staffing and governance.

THAT challenge is over, but we know change is needed in many aspects of station and network operation, including amending the Bylaws and improving how the Local Station Boards conduct business. We'll also focus on increasing interactive communication between WBAI and our communities.

PLEASE:

• Keep your membership current because your vote will be needed again

• Stay in touch at JusticeUnity.org and subscribe for periodic updates

• Visit the sites of WBAIfightback.org – the local group formed after the Oct. 7 station invasion and PacificaFightBack.org — the national "Vote No" coalition

• Support WBAI online or call 516-620-3602

• Tell people about WBAI and that they can listen live at 99.5FM or wbai.org/listen-live/ and listen later at wbai.org/archive/

Stay current on COVID-19 info through our local weekday news at 6pm, our personal health and environmental programs and by monitoring these websites:

• New York City or call 311; Text “COVID” to 692-692. Spanish/Español "COVIDESP" to 692-692

• New York State or call 1-888-364-3065

• New Jersey or call 211; Text "NJCOVID" to 898-211

• Connecticut or call 211

• Pennsylvania or call 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258)

• Centers for Disease Control

Stay healthy and emotionally connected.
And as Bernard says, stay strong and pay close attention!

In Solidarity,

Sharonne Salaam & Ralph Poynter
For the WBAI Justice & Unity Campaign

* MORE ON THE NUMBERS

Required: 10% of 42,491 listener-members or 42,491 divided by 10 = 4,249
Actual: Participation was 9,714 — Yes 3273 No 6340 Abstain 101
251 paper ballots were included.

Required: 25% of 993 staff-members or 993 divided by 4 = 248
Actual: Participation was 512 — Yes 177 No 331 Abstain 4
2 paper ballots were included.

Abstentions: When voting online, one could choose "abstain". For paper ballots, returning the ballot even if you chose neither "Yes" of "No", was likely treated as an abstention.

Full election report to be posted at the Elections website: elections.pacifica.org