November 2018

CTAC   – Monthly Meeting Minutes – November 7, 2018 revised

Members in attendance:
Tad Weinstein (West Haven), Chair
Yvonne Manning-Jones   (New Haven) Advisor
Johnes Ruta, (New Haven), Advisor, Acting Secretary
John Jessen (New Haven Free Public Library System)
Peaches Quinn (New Haven)   Vice-Chair   – teleconference attendance

Meeting called to order 6:10 PM.

1.   October 3 Minutes
No changes needed.
Peaches makes Motion to accept: with changes.
2^nd by John Jessen .   Vote unanimous.

2. CTV
   Tad reads CTV Report filed by CTV Executive Director Joe Schofield to members present and Peaches
   Quinn on phone.1. Community Utilization – CTV continues to operate at full-studio program utilization.
   We have twenty-two regularly scheduled monthly studio programs, nineteen of which are live.
   We also do an average of three random programs monthly,

   We have more than three dozen field-produced and sponsored programs.

   We continue to expand and utilize our live productions thanks to the internet technology
   that does not require us to be hard-wired at the source of the event,

   2. Production Classes – CTV continues to provide basic video production classes at no charge to
   community residents. Our most recent classes certified eight new studio and field producers,
   three of which will be doing a sports, music, and children’s program.

   3. Developmental / Fundraising – CTV continues to be concerned about the “cable cord-cuttimg”
   phenomenon across the country, which has a direct impact on public access funding in
   Connecticut.   Since 2002, CTV has lost twenty thousand subscribers, which amounts to
   a loss of nearly $200,000 annually. Accordingly, CTV has undertaken a number of streams
   which are proprietary and cannot be disclosed here.

   4. FCC – The Federal Communications Commission has launched an offensive against public
   funding, allowing cable companies to reduce the 5% gross receipts paid to the state by an offset

   of “In-Kind contributions.”   we encourage the CTAC to go to the FCC website and comment

   on this action.

CTAC members discussion about phenomenon of “cable-cutting” – that is, cable subscribers
dropping their service because of the high monthly costs of cable TV.   Johnes notes that the only
regulation of cable rates is on the Federal level and not in the jurisdiction of state regulators.
Also, Network digital local broadcasts (over airwaves) has dropped because of lack of enforcement
of franchise requirements, leaving much of the non-cable-subscribing public without network programming.

3.   December CTAC annual holiday rotating dinner-meeting will take place in West Haven Tuesday
December 11 at Apps Restaurant on Captain Thomas Boulevard. 6:00 meeting has been booked.

Comcast Representative Sharon Codeanne, CTV Executive Director Joe Schofiled, and
former member Jennifer will be invited to attend.

4.   Treasurer Report – not available because CTAC Treasurer George Alexander is absent from this meeting.
Therefore, the amount of money in CTAC fund is not available.

5.   2019 Video Contest – Tad Weinstein and Peaches Quinn advise that we should take a break from having
a Video Contest this year. Johnes Ruta advises in that case that we should use the time to develop
new strategies for public outreach.

6.   Annual Report – Tad Weinstein is working on the Annual Report to be submitted to PURA.
Tad states that his report should be available in December.

7. New Business – Peaches recommends that CTAC develop a new Customer Satisfaction Survey,

with random selection of survey.     Results to be broken down by towns, rated how public
reaction to subscription Pricing and Rates, Price and Value. Further categories should be
determined and results reported.

8. Digital Broadcast Reception issues – Many people receiving digital television broadcast over airwaves
report that directional signals change reception quality from day to day.   Johnes suggests that
this is also because of lack of enforcement of network digital broadcast requirements.

CTAC RECOMMENDATION: PURA should investigate TV non-compliance with digital
            broadcast requirements.

9. By-Laws update – Yvonne Manning-Jones, who is working on this update for the CTAC website,
notes that CTAC By-Laws are not corresponding to State of Connecticut Statutes. Yvonne will
make wording changes to our local Hamden/New Haven/West Haven CTAC By-Laws to
correspond to ST CTAC’s By-Laws.

10   Next CTAC Meeting will take place Tuesday, December 11, 2018 6:00PM, at Apps Restaurant,
Captain Thomas Boulevard, West Haven. This meeting will not be open to the public.    

11.   Meeting adjourned 6:45 PM.

November Minutes Submitted 11/27/2018 by Johnes Ruta, CTAC Acting Secretary, New Haven Rep #2