[to be augmented when strength allows]

https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art6sec1.html

And being a Pacifica meeting that requires public comment:

[n]o person shall be required, as a condition for attendance at any public meeting or to publicly comment, to register his/her name or to provide any other information. With the exception of telephone meetings, all public meetings of the Board and its committees shall include public comment periods. Public comment periods at Board meetings shall be not less than one hour, and at committee meetings, not less than one-half hour.

https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art6sec7.html

“[N]ot less than”: so it can be more.

And if ‘there aren’t enough speakers’ for 30mins ÷ 90secs, or 2mins, then if only one person wants to talk out the 30mins then talk out they shall: the delegates are powerless . . . the delegates serve the members (& the other listeners), & the constitution is the instrument of the collective. Yes, the hierarchy, the relationship of superordination/subordination, isn’t what you think.

2006

The first audiofile of public comment at a PNB meeting is from F27Jan2006, at a Hilton, Washington, DC area: https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnb060127/pnb060127b.mp3 (~43mins). Some angry peeps – plus Duane Bradley. The then station manager of KPFT, started off with white privilege (he was playing away, you understand), before pushing advertising on Pacifica, using the euphemism “underwriting”, spinning a folksy spiel, welcoming spots for mom & pop stores (27:10). Way to go, Duane!

Swift on his heels was Richard Phelps (KPFA LSB Chair) – author of this retrospective, http://www.unitedforcommunityradio.org/?p=1388. Then Carolyn Birden (WBAI listener-delegate). Followed by Grigsby Hubbard, introduced by PNB Chair pro tem Dave Adelson (KPFK), as “the founder of WPFW” (35:55) – guess the historiography of Great Men envelopes PacificaWorld too. The audiofile ends with a WPFW listener, with a lament: “[w]here are the young people?” (41:41).