May 6, 2015 Minutes
MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven and West Haven
Meeting Date: May 6, 2015
Call to order: A regular monthly meeting of CTAC was held at CTV Offices at 843 State Street, New Haven, Connecticut, on Wednesday, May 6, 2015. President Tad Weinstein presiding. Don Levy Secretary. Meeting called to order at 6:06.
Members in attendance:
Tad Weinstein, Chair (WH)
Peaches Quinn, Vice Chair (NH)
George Alexander, Treasurer (H)
Don Levy, Secretary (H)
Johnes Ruta (NH)
Martha Brogan (NH)
Steve Gemmell, Local Manager, Field Operations, Frontier Communications
The minutes for the April meeting were discussed. Johnes wanted the minutes to reflect a discussion relating to internet service. Tad said CTAC is only authorized to act on issues relating to cable television. Minutes approved.
Tad indicated that New Haven Mayor Toni Harp sent him a letter with regard to her appointment of a new Commissioner to represent the City of New Haven. Tad said he would reach out to the new Commissioner and report on her status at the June meeting.
Steve Gimmell, local manager of field operations for Frontier Communications, was invited to update the Commission on issues relating to start-up and continuing operations of Frontier Communications, which took over from AT&T as statewide cable operator earlier this year.
Steve acknowledged that during the first two months after Frontier took over from AT&T cable customers experienced severe customer service, billing and cable access problems. He said these problems had not been anticipated by Frontier. Steve said the signal delivery problem was the result of radically different signal management protocols between Frontier and AT&T. He said these problems have been identified and addressed and that Frontier customers are reporting many fewer customer complaints.
Steve said he would work with CTV to make sure that local programs produced at CTV would be available to local Frontier cable subscribers. He also said that Frontier is considering installing FiOS at new multi-unit residential developments in our area.
Commissioners decided to hold a special meeting on Wednesday, May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at DiMatteo’s Restaurant at Hamden Plaza to discuss how to reshape what had been the CTAC junior high school TV production contest.
The May regular meeting of CTAC was adjourned at 7:18 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by D. Levy, CTAC secretary
May 13, 2015 Special Meeting
Notes on Special Meeting of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven and West Haven
Meeting Date: May 13, 2015
A special meeting of CTAC concerning the reshaping of the CTAC video production contest was held at DiMatteo’s Restaurant, 2100 Dixwell, Ave. Hamden, Connecticut on Wednesday, May 13, 2015. President Tad Weinstein presiding. Don Levy secretary. Meeting started at 5:30 p.m.
Members in attendance:
Tad Weinstein, Chair (WH)
George Alexander, Treasurer (H)
Don Levy, Secretary (H)
Johnes Ruta (NH)
Members voted to establish a grant program aimed at encouraging local video production to replace the video contest.
The grant program would provide grants for new video productions in the area of public service.
The following remarks are offered as a rough working outline of how the new CTAC Public Service Grant Pro would be administered. The details of the new CTAC Public Service Grant Program will be crafted and put to a vote at a regular meeting of CTAC.
Members formed a consensus that grants would each be of the same monetary value. The figure of three $1,000 grants during the first year was discussed.
Members felt that a wide cross section of community members should be encouraged to apply for the new CTAC Video Production Grants. Members considered establishing three categories of grants: 1) unrestricted and open to all community members, 2) A category limited to community members ages 15 to 18 and 3) a category for community members ages 14 and younger.
Grants would only be considered for new video projects. Grant applicants would be required to navigate a two-step application process. Step one requires a brief synopsis of the proposed video project. This synopsis could be submitted in writing or by using an electronic medium. These preliminary grant proposals will provide an overview of the public service content to be addressed. They will also identify who is going to participate in the video production, the ages of the participants, their towns of residence, and the approximate length of the finished video. A small committee of CTAC Commissioners will examine each of these preliminary proposals for appropriateness of its content and the eligibility of producing team with regard to which category of grant (unrestricted, aged 15 to 18, age 14 and younger) is being sought. Only residents of the three municipalities represented by CTAC are eligible to apply for grants.
Once the CTAC committee has considered all of the preliminary proposals only those applicants whose preliminary proposal had been deemed to meet the grant proposal guidelines could be eligible for the award of a grant. The second round of the program awards grants based on the merits of the video submitted for consideration. A subcommittee of CTAC, perhaps integrating members from the community with expertise in the area of video production or other applicable experience, will make the final determination for the awarding of the grants.
Grants are to be awarded based on the public service value and esthetic merits of the video submitted.
An announcement of the availability of the CTAC Public Service Grants will be widely disseminated in order to reach as broad a pool of potential grant applicants as possible.
Community institutions such as the libraries, arts organizations, government agencies, religious organizations, community service agencies, local print, broadcast, cable and internet providers will be sought as partners in order to reach out to community members as broadly as possible.