KPFA's Fall Fund Drive is on! - Learn how you can contribute.
The Need for Volunteers During the Fund Drive - Writer and KPFA Volunteer Jim Schnitzen Breaks it Down
Familiar Faces in New Places - Nicole Sawaya and Mitch Jeserich
Obituary: Jane Jackson - longtime human rights activist
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib - Inconvenient Truths, a Study in Black and White
Network with KPFA - eNewsletter Archives now available, plus new Video and Photos

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Audio: More about Volunteering at KPFA

The fall fund is underway, and as always we're depending on you, our listener-volunteers, to answer the phones. Our programmers will be pitching their hearts out, the phone-room supervisors will be working their behinds off, but without you to take the calls, it's all for naught.

The decision to volunteer is much like the decision to pledge money. In either case, you can sit back and listen, telling yourself "Someone else will do it," and then try to ignore that small but relentless gnaw of guilt. Or you can acknowledge the fact that a community of "someone else's" is not a community at all, that it really is up to each of us to pitch in.

Our need to have sufficient volunteers is very real. In every fund drive there are times when we have less than a full table of volunteers, all the lines are full, and some callers can't get through. Many of these callers, if they can't get through by the end of that pitch segment, do not call back. This is badly-needed money that we just don't get.

Then there are times in the evening when there may not be that many callers, but when we have only one or two volunteers (and sometimes none!). Again, we lose money from would-be donors who simply can't get through.

So, please, come and help. KPFA depends on all of us working together.

Jim at KPFA For those of you who haven't done it before: it's easy and it's fun. We provide you with a quick and simple training, and we're always there to answer questions that inevitably come up from time to time. You get to meet other listeners, kvetch about politics and issues, meet favorite programmers you've been listening to for years and get the tremendous satisfaction of actively participating in the work of keeping your favorite radio station going.

The times we're most likely to be short on volunteers are weekdays 6:30 to 9 am and any days 7-12 pm. But you're welcome at any time, 6:30 am to midnight Monday-Friday or 7 am to 11pm Saturday & Sunday, Oct. 16-31.

Just drop by 1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Berkeley. Or call ahead to reserve a spot, 510 848 6767 x618 or contact eden [at] kpfa.org.

We look forward to seeing all you regulars again and to meeting all you new volunteers!

Learn more at: kpfa.org/volunteer

Audio: Nicole Sawaya on the Morning Show

Nicole Sawaya Hired as New Pacifica Executive Director: Nicole Sawaya has been in noncommercial media - primarily public radio - for over thirteen years. She started as a news reporter, then segued into management. Since then, she has been general manager at KZYX, KPFA, and KALW. She also worked at NPR in Washington DC. Sawaya, who is Lebanese-American, has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Milestone Award from American Women in Radio and TV, Golden Gate Chapter; several Silver Reel Awards from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters; and the 2005 Journalist of the Year Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, for her work in building news and public affairs programs at KALW in San Francisco. Read more about Nicole Sawaya.

Mitch Jeserich Hired as Executive Producer of KPFA's Morning Show: Mitch Jeserich takes over as the Executive Producer of KPFA's Morning Show. Jeserich is an accomplished radio journalist, producer and anchor, who until recently was the News Editor for Wakeup Call, the morning show of Pacifica station WBAI in New York. He's also the co-founder of the New York City-based Community News Production Institute, a project of People's Production House, which trains members from historically marginalized communities to make their own media news stories. Read more about Mitch Jeserich.

KPFA mourns the loss of longtime supporter, board member, and human rights activist Jane Jackson. SF Chronicle writer Meredith May has written an article detailing Jane Jackson's many achievements, entitled "Jane Jackson dies - lifelong civil and human rights activist." Her work included activist actions to call for troop withdrawal from Iraq, lobby for AIDS research funding in the 80's, and taking over a federal building to call attention to the Americans with Disabilities Act in the 60's.

Donations in Ms. Jackson's name may be sent to:
Episcopal Relief and Development,
c/o St. James Episcopal Church,
1540 12th Ave., Oakland, CA 94606.

Remembrances may be sent to: janejackson7555 [at] sbcglobal.net.

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Want to see more? Visit Khalil Bendib's website. Khalil can be heard on KPFA's Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, Wednesdays at 7:00pm. Listen to past shows or subscribe to the podcast.

KPFA eNewsletter archives now online: Have you missed any of our past KPFA eNewsletters? Visit our online eNewsletter archive, which is now complete.

New KPFA Video clips: Check out new video clips from Naomi Klein, Alice Walker, and Hard Knock Radio! Visit our video page at kpfa.org/video, and check out Hard Knock Radio's complete video coverage of the recent Living Word Festival Graffiti Battle at kpfa.org/hardknock.

New photos in our KPFA Flickr group: Besides posting photos from the Living Word Festival, Hard Knock Radio has been hard at work uploading photos from their recent trip to New Orleans. Check these out and more at the KPFA Flickr page.