Pacifica is in crisis. It’s both a financial crisis caused by years of financial neglect and irresponsibility, and underlying that is a governance crisis caused by years of Boards that spend much more time and energy squabbling with each other than in solving Pacifica’s problems or ensuring that we reverse the dramatic reduction in listenership and membership.

As a result, all of our stations’ buildings are threatened by a $3.2 million loan approved by the Pacifica National Board (PNB) to refinance other debt, and which uses all of our buildings as collateral. This loan is due in 2022 and the PNB still has no repayment plan for it other than to auction off our buildings to pay off the loan.

And even the Pacifica mission is threatened by the above. If our listeners and donors continue going away, and we lose our buildings (or even just some of them), how are we to continue (and hopefully expand) serving our mission?

But you, Pacifica members, can reverse this, and help to resuscitate our precious Foundation and its stations, by supporting changes needed to reform Pacifica governance. New Day Pacifica proposes new Bylaws for the Pacifica Foundation, and transition provisions to get from our current Bylaws to those new ones. These are urgently needed to reform how our governance works – both for the survival of Pacifica and our stations, and to better fulfill the Pacifica mission.

The current Pacifica Bylaws date from 2002-2003, with minor amendments since then, but have resulted in governance that struggles to function (five 24-person Local Station Boards and a 22-person Pacifica National Board). Meanwhile, listenership, membership, and donations have declined and debt is strangling the Foundation and our stations.

In the fall of 2019, another set of Bylaws were proposed for Pacifica and voted down by the members in 2020. The New Day Pacifica Bylaws are totally different and will fix the very serious problems with our current Bylaws.