March 1, 2017 Minutes

CTAC – Monthly Meeting Minutes – March 1, 2017

Meeting called to order @ 6:10 PM.

Members in attendance:
Tad Weinstein (West Haven), Chair
Peaches Quinn (New Haven), Vice Chair
George Alexander (Hamden), Treasurer
Johnes Ruta, (New Haven), Advisor
Ashley Sklar (New Haven Library System), Advisor

Joe Schoefield – CTV Executive Director.

1. February Minutes submitted by Johnes Ruta require corrections: Frontier is not required to be represented
at CTAC as they are technically NOT a cable company. However, Peaches Quinn states that she thinks we
must contact Frontier to have a representative attend, as Steve Gimmel’s job area was changed and he will
not longer be in the area to attend. The Cablevision Call Center was moved to Long Island, and the Shelton
staff of 400 workers was mostly laid-off.
Johnes will make edit changes to Feb. Minutes George motions to accept Feb. Minutes with pending
changes. Peaches seconds this motion.

2. COMCAST Report — submitted by Sharon Codeanne.(absent) via George.
a. Comcast sponsored the New Haven Free Public Library Annual Mardi Gras Celebration on Feb 28.
b. Comcast was a sponsor of the Annual MLK Legacy Celebration at the Yale Peabody Museum
and raffled-off a laptop to attendees at the Celebration Teen Summit.
c. The annual Comcast Cares Day will be held on April 22nd. Comcast employees will be volunteering
their time with the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven.
d. Comcast was named to the Hartford Business Journal’s annual list of the Best Places to Work in
Connecticut.
e. Comcast and Google have announced a deal that will launch the YouTube app on XFINITY X1
across the country later this year. X1 customers will be able to easily browse and seamlessly access over the internet the entire YouTube catalog of billions of videos.
f. Beginning March 5, 2017, WNET will discontinue broadcasting its “V-Me” service and it will
no longer be available on their channel line-up.
g. The YES Network will return to the Comcast line-up as of March 31, 2017. YES will be relaunched
in the areas in which it was previously carried, and customers will be able to watch the March 31
New York Yankees – Atlanta Braves pre-season game on YES at 7:30 pm.

3. Frontier report – no representative from Frontier is present.

4. CTV Report – Joe Schoefield.
World Vision producers’ controversy with PURA against CTV has still not officially resolved. CTV has
been complying with the PURA ‘s findings. CTV has now made a Motion to PURA to close the docket.

5. Video Contest status: The Applications and entry process are now live on the cableadvisory.org website.
Questions of contest criteria: Does the on-line entrant’s application comply with the rules ?
If NO- the application must be rejected and reapply. If YES – the video will be graded from 1 to 4,
for each category and the content message, according to the Rules Rubric.

Peaches Quinn asks: “Can we put together a Procedures Manual ?” George Alexander: “Who
will volunteer to “Chair” the Video Contest Application Review for approval. Tad volunteers
Peaches. “Tad and Peaches should co-chair.”
Publicity: Who will write and distribute publicity for the Video Contest ? Johnes requests
talking / bullet points for a Publicity Release with which to put into announcement format.
Johnes will distribute to his curatorial email list. Ashley will distribute to the New Haven
Free Public Library email list. Peaches will contact the local Boards of Education; her contact
there is Carlos Torres, a member of the Board. Also distribution to Hamden Weekly Newsletter,
CTV PSA, also a PSA to WTNH-8.

Contestants will contact videocontest at cableadvisory.org

6. CTAC Website and Video Contest status:

a. George Alexander presents an Invoice for work done on the CTAC website by Adina Alexander
in the amount of $1,420. George states that the website is now operational with the Video Contest
Guideline, Application, and Submittal forms.
b. Johnes contests the amount to be paid as being in excess of the originally budgeted and Estimated
amount of $1,200, and may be intrusive into the budget amount ($4,000) for the allotted two Video Contest Prizes of $1000 each. Johnes reminds George that he had recommended that the web design
contractor submit a professional statement of Hours Worked with the web designer’s final Invoice.
The hours stated are general totals and not timed. George informs Johnes that there is more money
available than $4000 for the project, so that the web designer can be paid their Invoice amount.
Johnes makes a Motion to limit the payment to $1,200, the original Estimate amount. All members
vote against Johnes, and his motion is defeated. A check will be written to Adina Alexander for $1,420.

c. Peaches Quinn again states that we need to have a Procedures Manual for the Video Contest.
There is a discussion of publicity strategies: communication to be directed to the New Haven
Board of Education, the Mayors’ Offices of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven; also the
New Haven Commission on Cultural Affairs, Facebook for New Haven, and the CTAC
YouTube account.

CTAC March Meeting adjourned at 7:26 PM.
Submitted by Johnes Ruta, CTAC New Haven Rep #2