[grc] Records to be turned over at sale of NCE station?

Fri Jan 1 15:32:32 PST 2016

Sorry Danny you are n ot right

There's a distin0ction betwqeen the "public file" which the FCC requires 
to 
contain ceratin items including the bylaws and the articles of 
incorporation --
 and the records/archives of a non-profir corporation which are not public 
and whach are not even necessarily open to the corporation's members ( if 
it has any ).

 If your non-profit  corporation has no members, then  apart from the 
articles of incorporation which are in thew Secretary of State's public 
files are accessible in the Secretary of States office, and oother 
documents are open to the public at the corporate office only if that's 
what the bylaws say.

There's a lot of complication, but tthe  matter is governed to a great 
degerr by common law principles  -- if the corporation  has members who 
vote on thoings like bosard mrm,b rtdhip, then the membership list can be 
inspected and copied b y any member who wishes to raise money the 
publicize particular candidate.

Michael

ex grc ;ist-cop

 On Fri, 1 Jan 2016, Danny wrote:

Hi Donna,

I appreciate that they are publicly accessible by law. But by law we can also request ID from those asking and try to surmise the interest. The group that bought our old station has tried repeatedly to shut us down over the years. I just don’t want to make that effort any easier going forward. During this process they’ve learned far more about our operations than we’ve learned about theirs. Many years ago I physically visited a different NPR station and asked to see their Public File. They were understandably nervous and fished around to see what my intent was. 

When you’re a mouse trying to not be crushed by an 800lb elephant, it’s best to avoid them to the extent you can. I’m just trying to understand where the line is.

Thanks!

Danny

From: Donna Dibianco [mailto:communityradiogoddess at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2016 3:01 PM
To: Philip Tymon; Danny
Cc: grc at maillist.peak.org
Subject: Re: [grc] Records to be turned over at sale of NCE station?

Hi Danny,

     The station logs and Public File are legal and public documents that should be accessible, no matter if the person requesting them is a member of the general public, an attorney, the FCC or the new owners.

    The Articles and By-laws are also publicly accessible.

Donna DiBianco

Station Start-up Specialist
503-960-1068
http://grc2015.net/

 <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco/2b/13b/459/> www.linkedin.com/pub/donna-dibianco
www.facebook.com/communityradiogoddess

On Wednesday, December 30, 2015 11:11 PM, Philip Tymon <philiptymon at gmail.com> wrote:

Well, you can also call David Trout or someone at the FCC.

I haven't had occasion to call FCC staff for quite awhile now, but when I
did they were usually quite helpful.

And/or don't you have an FCC attorney you use at least on occasion?

(It would seem to me that public file, certificate of incorporation and
bylaws are public documents anyway? So what's the harm? By "give it to
them" do you mean giving them copies or giving them the originals? I would
assume they are their own corporation--- so what is happening to your
corporation? Is it the same corporation running the new station, are they
taking it over, is it being disbanded? Etc.?)

Philip Tymon

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Danny <danny at wspj.org> wrote:

> Monday we finally closed on the sale of our 49 watt “full power” NCE
> signal that’s 19 miles from both our studio and listeners (it’s a long
> story) so we can switch instead to a new 100 watt LPFM actually in our city
> – YAY!!
>
>
>
> But at the closing, the big local NPR station that bought our white
> elephant demanded a full copy of our Public File and Station Logs in
> addition to items we already brought. Fortunately, their attorney told them
> over the phone it wasn’t a big deal and we got the check anyway. But they
> still want the Public File and Station Logs. They claim David Trout at the
> FCC told them that "...the Public File follows the station" which I suppose
> makes sense on a certain level. BUT, this is the same station that’s made
> major efforts over the years to shut us down any way they could (albeit
> under a now deceased GM) , so I’m leery of giving them more than I have to
> on this. I feel weird giving them our Certificate of Incorporation and
> Current Bylaws, for example. And I’m really leery of giving them the
> Station Logs.
>
>
>
> Advice and/or feedback on this?
>
>
>
> Happy New Year,
>
> Danny
>
> WSPJ-LP Syracuse NY
>
> Coming to an electronic device near you in 2016!
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
> _______________________________________________
> grc mailing list
> grc at maillist.peak.org
> http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc

>
_______________________________________________
grc mailing list
grc at maillist.peak.org
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_______________________________________________
grc mailing list
grc at maillist.peak.org
http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc