Comrade Hadrian: Loyal Cadre or Corporate Gatekeeping Stooge?

This missive was rushed though our secure sekrit Inner Party channels (aka blog comments) and gives us some intelligence on the activities of those who would undermine our goal of a Radio Worker's Paradise:

From: mark sherman
Wednesday, June 12th, 4:16 PM
to Jill

Hi folks,

I would like to hear from all of you.

Jill Severson and I attend the governance committee meeting. There are five board members that sit on this committee: Matthew, Jeff, Rabia, Michael, and Hadrian (chair). As there was no quorum, there was no meeting. Hadrian was kind enough to discuss our concerns. Hadrian was the only board member to show up for this meeting--a committee he helped create in which members have no potential vote. It went down hill from here.

Hadrian spoke to us for over two hours, explaining his interpretation of how the board functions and how the bylaws and the new board policy manual are used to guide the board.

These are the most unsettling issues that Hadrian brought up

KBOO is not a member organization, but a public benefit corporation. The members pay their dues for a better Portland. Once we elect our board members they are under no obligation, legal or otherwise, to listen to any member. Our only option for input at board meetings, are two 10 minute public comment slots and through committees.

All of the current members who are concerned about KBOO's problems are organized by a select few programmers who are opposed to any change. None of us have valid concerns because we are manipulated by the few. He called us all "friends of the [kboo] staff", "incestuous", and "the kboo club". Hadrian: "Really what you have is a MOB."

The staff is unmanageable. At least 3 need to be fired. He said repeatedly that all staff need to be fired, when he stated, "Get me a new staff"... although when asked, it was clear he did not mean the Executive Director.

Hadrian will NOT support any effort where members ask the board to rescind the corporate oriented board policy manual. He sees himself as Gatekeeper and Knower of correct board policy as chair of the recently created governance committee, offering to educate us at his own [future] training.
 The membership votes for board members and can recall board members. This is one of our few forms of participation in governance at KBOO. Hadrian invited us to recall him. This is a good idea. Thanks Hadrian.

Even though Ms. Fitch said she would not make any programming changes, Hadrian stated this was incorrect, and he would work to correct that misconception.

He believes KBOO needs to recruit board members and advisory committee members from outside the organization. These people would be ethnically diverse leaders already established in the greater community, with a following. They would then advise KBOO as to who to put on the air. What would happen to the current, active programming committee is unclear. These outsider leaders can simply send in their membership dues just before they are appointed.

It is unacceptable to have anyone sit as a board member who has no respect for the KBOO membership or staff. I would call him hostile to the membership. All criticism is discounted as being controlled by a select few, "friends of (long-term) staff".

Now for the good news. Hadrian is running for another term on the board in September. We can do one of 3 things:

Ask the board to vote him off the island

Take up his kind offer to recall him immediately

Recall him at the next annual meeting

Please consider: If you want to recall Hadrian, it will take 20 - 30 volunteers working a few hours a day to gain sufficient signatures to call for a special meeting. Then we'll need to get 300 members show up and vote. It takes 2/3 of the members voting to recall a board member. Depending on how the next board meeting goes, we may need to ask more board members to step down.


See what you are missing by not going to committee meetings 8-)

Mark Sherman


p.s.

I would never have believed anyone could say these things and be on a KBOO board. I am glad that Jill was there as well. The non-committee meeting was worse than this. These are simply the highlights.

 We would never believe it either!  Actually we'd believe almost anything!  The lack of Critical Thinking Skills explains our unwavering support of Our Glorious Leader! 

But that's beside the point.  The point is Hadrian is undermining The Cause by:

-Being the only board member willing to speak at length with lunatics who don't know how a not for profit corporation is run or even that it is a corporation.(Not sure this is the best choice of words for The Struggle....get lower cadre to edit.)

- Explaining exactly how The Inner Party, in spite of having members who have worked at KBOO from it's inception, HAS NO IDEA what business model KBOO was/is or how it legally operates.  Clearly this is all Hadrian's fault...for giving us information that may lower the morals, er, morale of the Outer Party.

-leaking to the Outer Party their true place in the Struggle(patsies for the Inner Party)

 -wanting to fire incompetent unproductive staff.  The Iron Rice Bowl is the Key to the Revolution. It must be protected at all costs.

-refusing to support efforts to make changes by membership who have no idea what they're talking about.

-wanting  new blood in KBOO who would possibly be immune to established Inner Party propaganda

It is unacceptable to have anyone who sits on the board who has no respect for the delusions of grandeur the Inner Party as instilled in some Outer Party cadre.  Hadrian is clearly hostile to membership, wishing to inflict an opressive regime of FACTS and COMPETANCE and RESPONISBILITY.

Our only chance to fight this insidious force is to mobilize 30, er, 300 cadre to storm te barricades!  We need 20-30 patsies, er, volunteers to work the equivalent of a part time job without pay, to convince the Outer Party that membership needs a special meeting to REMOVE HADRIAN.

How we'll convince regular membership to reject Hadrian's FACT/COMPETENCE/RESPONSIBILITY platform, we don't know.   It looks like we might have to LIE again.    But no sacrifice it too great for The Cause!!


After all, who is this Hadrian to waste two hours of the Inner Party's time explaining complicated business facts in a good faith interview the Inner Party had no intention of respecting?  We suspect Hadrian may have even brought up MATH.  Horrors.

His implication the Inner Party needs to understand how things work before taking them over undermines years of Inner Party Propaganda we have no intention of abandoning at this late stage. 

Comrade Sherman's recommendation of voting Hadrian off the island is extreme however necessary to keep our Iron Grip on our Iron Rice Bowls.

Our Leader has shown us the way by example.  It is the Right of the People to make unworkable, disastrous plans to take over organisations they don't understand how to run.  Only then can there be fertile ground for the Radio Worker's Paradise to BLOOM!


Final note:  Cadre will remember Comrade Jill was presented the TinFoil Star of The Heroic Struggle not too long ago for bravely facing Fitch in public. She continues to prove her worthiness of the Inner Party's commendation.  We need more suggestible comrades who are ready to tag along and nod their heads to anything the Inner Party says.  There is no greater glory than being a patsy for the Inner Party.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE


-Meresa Titchell