June 5, 2013 Minutes
Weds. June 5, 2013
Present:
George Alexander, Treasurer, H
Don Levy, H
Jennifer Sacco, H
Tad Weinstein, WH, chair
Peaches Quinn, NH vice-chair
Joe Schofield, CTV
Comcast representative not present
Meeting called to order 6:11 p.m.
May minutes approved by online vote.
CTV report given. AT&T is still not connected because CTV is month-to-month at their current location, and the landlord does not want the disruption or expense involved with the installation under the parking lot since they do not have a long-term lease.
The new location for CTV still has some environmental issues that the bank wants a costly process to look into further, which is delaying the process. Joe believes the concerns will be answered fairly easily, however, and they have new assessments ongoing. They are hopeful to close within the next month or so.
Comcast sent a written report of their public outreach and channel lineup changes.
The news release that Don drafted regarding the PEGPETIA grants was reviewed, with some additional clarifications suggested by Joe Schofield about stipulations of the grant program—that programs be aired on CTV, and that the support offered by CTV for grant-seekers is for residents of the three towns served only. Also, Joe raised the concern that the state may be raiding the PEGPETIA funds (again), so that there is a chance there will be no funds available, anyway. We will hold off on releasing our press release until we know that the funds are available, which Joe is looking into for us.
George summarized the contents of our mail received. We received a paper copy of price adjustments sent to the state by Comcast; Peaches suggested that we seek an electronic copy from Sharon so that we can post a link from our website. A general suggestion was raised that we seek all documentation from Comcast in digital format so that we can post on our website.
We revisited the issue of making grants to schools in the three districts; we had discussed in the past asking students to submit video public service announcements, possibly about the value of public access in a democratic society, or possibly about the value of voting. We had agreed previously that we would target the public middle schools as eligible schools (though George suggests that we reconsider this). The PSAs could be aired on CTV. We will continue our discussion online to firm up our contest specifications. We need to firm up: which types of schools are eligible, how many prizes to offer and for how much and for what, what format we want to receive the videos in (and length), how many students count as a team, what the subject of the PSAs should be, stipulations around ownership of the content (becomes property of CTV), how we’ll announce the contest, the deadline/timetable, our criteria for judging and when it can be judged.
July meeting will be cancelled because of proximity to the 4th.
Meeting adjourned 7:13 p.m.