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LEAD-IN BY HOST: The Pacifica Foundation is in the process of amending its bylaws in an effort to make the network more democratic. Volunteer reporter Brandon Moeller explains why they are doing this and how the process is coming along. STORY: In 1787, 55 white males got together in Philadelphia to argue, spit and curse at each other until they accomplished their mission: to write the constitution of the United States of America. The process lasted four months. Fast forward 216 years, and the non-profit Pacifica Foundation, the corporation behind the scenes of everything heard on this FM signal, is struggling to revise its own constitution. This amendment process has lasted for the past 12 months and is still underway. The Pacifica Foundation is making dramatic changes to its bylaws because of an agreement reached between the network and several radio activists. The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed by the activists against the network for what they termed the quote "hijacking" unquote of the educational radio network. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits was Carol Spooner, who now holds a position on the Interim Pacifica National Board. Spooner explains who makes up the agreement-mandated National Board: "First, the Interim board was established with the descendents of the old lawsuit having the power to appoint five directors, and the old board dissidents having the power to appoint 5 directors and each of the 5 local board chairs having the power to appoint one director... the interim board was given a 15-month term which is supposed to expire 15 months after the first meeting of the interim board, which would have been the end of march this year." The interim board, which held its first meeting around this time last year, had to accomplish three things before the March 2003 deadline. They first had to amend the bylaws and get them approved by three of the five Pacifica stations. They then had to hold local board elections according to those bylaws. Then those newly-elected local boards had to select new directors for the entire network. Because the bylaws portion of their mandated tasks has yet to be completed, Pacifica asked for and was granted an extension until the end of June of this year. The bylaws haven't been ratified yet because of differences of opinion between the five different interim Local Advisory Boards. Three stations, KPFT here in Houston, KPFA in Berkeley, California and WPFW in Washington, D.C. have tentatively agreed to a Local Board elections model that has been used at KPFA for the past two years. KPFT Local Advisory Board member Hep Ingham explains: "It's my understanding that yes, KPFT, KPFA and WPFW accepted the KPFA method for elections. The only things that were in question were the total number of local station board members, the total number of national board members, and a few other items. . ." The KPFA model states that half of the total local board must be ethnic-minorities, while half must also be women. Board members who are both ethnic-minority and women would count in both categories. The concept was developed to keep white males from ever holding a majority on the local board. Ingham talks about the Houston reaction to the KPFA model: "A lot of people who were in the governance committee, who were not on the lab, felt that proportional representation would automatically reflect diversity in the community and they didn't feel that you had to have mandated diversity requirements. The fear being that those would be taken advantage of. People are afraid that this is a way that ideological ideologues with less than good agendas could be put on the national board or the station boards." Such differences of opinion about this aspect of the bylaws and others must be worked out and compromised on in time to fulfill the other mandated stipulations of the agreement. Spooner explains what will happen if extended deadlines are not met: "If we don't get agreement on bylaws at all, have to go back to court to litigate the bylaws." Brandon Moeller, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Brandon Moeller at brandonmoeller@hotmail.com . This story was broadcast on January 8, 2003.