Letter: CKLN managers on board meetings

Posted on 02/12/08
Written by

Your article regarding CKLN last week was at best misleading. The Board of CKLN voted unanimously to appoint Tony Barnes as Program Director.

Samih Abdelgadir did attend the meeting in question. He just forgot to inform you that he arrived very late. Samih sat down and listened for a few minutes, received a phone call and left the room. When a Board member went looking for him he had disappeared. He knew the position was open – Tim May’s resignation had been public information for
some time and before that was circulated to all Board members upon its receipt. If Samih was shocked by Tony’s appointment perhaps you should have been shocked by how a
supposedly responsible member of the board could be so ill informed.

Most members of the current board have resisted making public comments about other members or the previous board on principle. However, your readers should know that Mr.
Abdelgadir was appointed RSU Rep on the CKLN Board in mid November 2007. Out of four meetings since he was appointed he has missed two completely, attended one and
made the aforementioned brief attendance at the last one. Hardly a stellar attendance record not to mention his other questionable behaviour.

Samih and his predecessor, Chris Drew knows that the Board’s appointment of a Station Manager and Program Director are in accordance with the bylaws. In fact Mr. Drew was on the Board when Mike Phillips was appointed. Odd that he wasn’t encouraging the students to ask questions when he was on the previous Board and RSU paid for the Human Resources Report Re: CKLN. Did he encourage the students to ask questions when the Board and the Board members personally became embroiled in a lawsuit that
questioned their governance? A lawsuit that the current board has successfully settled.

Mr. Semple, whom you also quote, was also on that Board as well as at The Eyeopener.

He was Chairman of the Board last July. In spite of the fact that he assured the Board when elected Chair that he would attend meetings he was habitually absent. He resigned as Chair in August at the request of other Board members due to his many absences. He vacated his position in accordance with the bylaws before his term expired.
The Board consciously made the decision to appoint a station manager and program director as interim management positions as allowed within the existing bylaws. The
hiring committee as set out in those bylaws was not feasible at this time.

The previous Board prepared new bylaws in draft form but understandably did not have time to get them approved. This Board was concentrating on passing new bylaws and
policies regarding dispute resolution as well as negotiating new contracts with staff leaving the next Board the ability to fill the permanent management positions in accordance with those new bylaws. The interim positions are one-year contracts that contain provisions that they will resign from the Board as soon as the new bylaws are in place. This information has been discussed at Board meetings.

If “CKLN is going downhill” as suggested by Samih Abdelgadir perhaps it is because too many of its members, like himself are acting in their own best interests and not those of CKLN Radio Inc.

Mike Phillips, Station Manager, CKLN Radio Inc.
Tony Barnes, Program Director, CKLN Radio Inc