The Directors at the meeting reported on the June PNB meeting. Ambrose Lane Sr., the Chair of the PNB, is now also the interim Executive Director (iED) of Pacifica. It was reported that Mr. Lane is retired and has now moved to Berkeley. He may be retired, but he's still sending me spam!

I asked if Mr. Lane is being paid for being iED and I was told that he is.

Faction members insisted that the issue of Directors' rights to inspect documents and anything else owned by Pacifica is still an unsettled issue. Oh, it's settled, they just may not know it yet.

WBAI's finances were a big topic at the June PNB meeting.

The LSB voted to invite Program Director Bernard White to the next LSB meeting on July 27, to talk about ‘thons past and present along with plans for the future.

Some decent motions that have been languishing on the agenda for months were finally gotten to, and they torn apart by the faction.

Indra Hardat's first Staff meeting as iGM had a good turnout with producers who hadn't been to a Staff meeting in years showing up while some of the usual faction bullies were notably absent. The atmosphere of this meeting was so much better than those of the past couple of years.

Maybe the fact that the iGM is serious about not allowing Staff to be assaulted had something to do with that.

Money was a big topic here too. Turns out the long ‘thons are themselves a big expense now.

The iGM reported that WBAI's subscription base is not much larger now than in 1998.

The Program Director said that the July mini-thon's goal will be $25,000 a day and each time period will get a specified premium to pitch. He said the Program Dept. is planning monthly events and, “We will make a modest collection at the door however the major income will be derived from offering the audio or video as a premium.” Let's hope that the modesty of the door collection is not

The Program Director wants every program to produce 30 second promo carts. Very few have so far. Could this be related to equipment problems?

There was a lot of talk about finding new premiums and forming premium search committees. Some seem to think that this is our salvation.

Comment: Shouldn't the Program Dept. be concerned with programming? Doesn't the Program Dept. understand that programming is what attracts people to listen to radio stations? I think that the trend towards making WBAI into the radio version of the Home Shopping Network is not a healthy one.

There will be a mini-health fair during the mini- thon. There will be massages and a bunch of other offerings, most of which I look askance at. I sure hope that nobody shows up with an E-Meter!

The Folio Editor reported that Wake Up Call now has its own Web site. Gosh, sort of like Democracy Now! before that left Pacifica.

The Operations Dept. reported that 3 CD players are working in Master Control and 2 each in CR2 and CR3. Also, we're getting new headphones.

The Operations Director said that the crosstalk currently heard in Master Control headphones is being caused by damage to the delay system done when video equipment was installed in the Performance Space last year.

Pacifica Web master Pete Korakis reported that as of August 1, WBAI should have automatic archiving. Listeners will be able to access programs after they've aired and producers will have access to a higher quality archive for console checks. He also implored producers to partake of the Pacifica Audioport project to get exposure on other radio stations.

The News Dept. reported that it needed help because people were going on vacation. They also mentioned that they were short on mini-disc recorders. The Staff present at the meeting passed a hat and collected $119 for a new mini-disk recorder for the News Dept.

One producer raised the idea that the failed ‘thons were a problem related to being premium dependent. He asked how WBAI could be losing money in a time of war if it's not program related? The Program Director replied that maybe we