For much of this year, KBOO has operated without a Station Manager-- so what's happening with that?
For much of this year, KBOO has operated without a Station Manager. In keeping with KBOO’s tradition of trying innovative ideas to address challenges, the board accepted a proposal by the staff to give collective management a trial run.
Initially, we started out by apportioning the essential responsibilities inherent in the Station Manager’s job description, to the remaining staff. The goal was to make sure that all essential duties were being filled, and to utilize the skills of the staff to cover them. As we met obligations, dealt with challenges, and looked at alternate staff management structures, the staff decided to make a formal proposal to institutionally change KBOO’s staffing to a worker-collective. We think that this structure is culturally the best fit for the station, and recognizes and utilizes the interdependency of departments.
The staff are meeting several times per month to finish this proposal. We are currently looking at ways to hold accountability amongst the staff, and to conduct evaluations of staff members.
As always, your feedback is important! We invite anyone with ideas or with experience with collective staffing to give us your thoughts and ideas. Please contact me with any ideas, information, concerns or questions you have about this process, or leave your comments here. You can reach me at this link, or at 503-231-8032 ext. 213. You can reach the staff as a whole through this link.
Comments
Station Manager
It is difficult for KBOO to be able to pay enough to attract and keep top talent for any staff position, especially that of station manager. Instead, KBOO can and does provide valuable job training for those who want to gain experience, and the best of the best may have either the internal motivation and/or the economic necessity for moving on.
That brings me to one of my main concerns about this proposal. It may be a way to allow each current staff member to function at an even higher level, or it may simply be making a virtue out of necessity.
Low staff turnover can cut both ways: it may indicate a high functioning and happily productive staff or it may mean too many people getting comfortable in the KBOO "cocoon" and those who evaluate them being too close to make changes when necessary.
Thus the formation of a worker collective management could simply reinforce what seems already to be a pattern of the same people doing the same job year after year after year, while year after year the station fails to gain audience and membership. It seems hard to imagine that forming a collective would stimulate people to hold each other to an even higher standard and produce better results than they do now, but I honestly don't know.
And, to raise this issue should not be interpreted as criticism of any current staff member....it is simply something to think about.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
<p>Your comments are taken to heart, and get to an important issue that we are trying to address as a staff. The very high rate of high rate of turn over we've experienced in the station manager's position has allowed us several different "styles" of managers, from the laid back to punitive, over the last 20 years. And while we've had some managers of great skill, we run into many of the same issues, including what should happen to get all staff function well in a collaborative environment.</p>
<p>We certainly aim to inspire one another to our highest level of functioning, and our commitment to the organization as a whole must remain a higher priority than coddling ineffective colleagues.</p>
<p>We will keep your comments in mind as we move forward to put in place a structure that will serve the organization as we work to address the many challenges there are to face in this changing media environment.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>