Month

September 2020

5
Sep
2020

September 2, 2020 Minutes

CTAC Meeting Minutes   September 2, 2020 – ZOOM TELECONFERENCE
            (due to virus pandemic)

Attending members:

George Alexander – (Hamden) – Treasurer
Yvonne Manning-Jones  – (New Haven) – Advisor
Laurel Coleman – (Hamden) – Advisor
Anthony Cardo – (Hamden) – Advisor
John Jessen – (New Haven Library System Delegate)
Johnes Ruta – (New Haven) – Acting Secretary

Peaches Quinn – (New Haven) –  Acting Chair (absent from meeting, but has set up the Zoom call.)

Sharon Codeane – Comcast Represntative – not in attendence.
Joe Schofield      – CTV Represntative – not in attendence.

Call to order 6:05 pm.   Teleconference members on Zoom.

1.       July Meeting Minutes            No changes proposed.
Yvonne makes Motion to accept.   Anthony 2nd this Motion. Vote carried.

2.       COMCAST       Sharon Codeanne – Comcast Representative – not in attendance.
George Alexander reports that Comcast has lost of 90,00 of its cable television subscribers,
and Comcast is not counting as subscribers customers without television and therefore
reducing its required monetary grants to dependent agencies such as Citizens Television
and the CTAC.

George makes a recommendation that ALL Comcast company customers – not only those
subscribing to television services, but those subscribing to internet and/or telephone services
– should be included in the count of Comcast customers. Therefore, the current 90,00 count
of subscribers “lost” would change to only include those who canceled all Comcast services.        This would require a modification of Connecticut State Law of 20 years.standing which
George states is out of date,

George proposes this change be proposed to the Connecticut Legislature, and proposes that
Joe Schofield write to the Legislature and that other agencies and customers write to their
legislators.

3.         Old Business

(a) Laurel reports that she does not have an update from Andrew at CTV regarding the                      release of the CTAC Public Service Announcement recorded in the CTV studio in
the summer of 2019. The CTAC PSA has not yet been released to be shown on CTV.

(b) Anthony Cardo reports that there are no updates on the development of the
CTAC Community Awards. This us due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
(c) Yvonne reports on the status of the new CTAC FaceBook page. An inivtation has been                  posted for members of the publis to join. George compliments Yvonne that the
FaceBook page “looks very nice.”     George requests Johnes to delete the old FB page.

4.     CTV Report     Joe Schofield – Executive Director CTV – not in attendence.
No report.

5.     New Business
   (a)   Yvonne says that each child in the New Haven School System has been provided
with a laptop computer or a tablet with WiFi services in order to enable them to
attend virtual classes during the pandemic.

(b)   John Jessen states that kids will be given Chrome Books and also XBox by the
New Haven Library System. A new technology is being implemented that will
push WiFi three city blocks out from the school location.

(c)   George asks: “Does Hamden have WiFi for students?”   Status is not known.

(d)   Peaches asks Johnes for the status of Comcast Abuse Department investigating
fraudulent “phishing” emails directing Comcast/Xfinity subscribers to “validate
their email address and personal data” for the new Comcast Email roll-out.
These emails come largely from email addresses that decode as ****@comcast.net
Johnes reports that he receives receipts from Comcast Abuse Department for most
of the phishing emails that he forwards to them.

George expresses doubt that these emails can be identified, but Johnes explains
that most email program inboxes shows the decoded email address.

(e) Discussion ensues regarding Comcast trade policies. Johnes relates a conversation
with a client who complained “Comcast is a total ripoff, with poor customer relations
and no government restraints on rate increases.
Other members offer personal suggestions for Johnes’ cultural preferences. Johnes
states that he is not solely concerned for his own viewing, but for the community.

Note: Earlier in the week, Peaces has spoken to Sharon Codeanne about this issue and tells         Johnes to expect a telephone inquiry from a person in the Comcast Administration.

Next meeting set for October 7, 2020 as ZOOM teleconference.

John Jessen makes Motion to Adjourn, seconded by Yvonne Manning-Jones. . Adjourned 7:03 pm.

September 2nd, 2020 CTAC Meeting Minutes respectfully submitted by Johnes Ruta, (New Haven)
Acting Secretary, September 24, 2020.