September 11, 2013 Minutes

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven and West Haven
Meeting Date: September 11, 2013

Call to order: A Regular meeting of the CTAC was held at CTV, Hamden, Connecticut
on September 11, 2013. President Tad Weinstein presiding. Don Levy acting secretary.

Members in attendance:

Tad Weinstein, Chair (WH)

George Alexander, Treasurer (H)

Don Levy, (H)

Johnes Ruta, (NH)

Peaches Quinn, (NH)

Joseph Schofield (CTV)

Chairman Weinstein called the meeting to order at 6:05.

Approval of Minutes of August 6, 2013. Motion was made by J. Ruta and seconded by P. Quinn. Motion carried.

Joe Schofield reported that CTV has closed on its new building on Lower State Street in New Haven, adjacent to its old studio. CTV will be hiring a contractor to move equipment and should be ready to begin limited production in January. CTV has accepted the services of a New Haven architectural firm on a pro bono basis. The decision has
been made not to undertake any substantial renovations to the building until after the move is complete in order to better determine what changes to the building will need to be made. The most important decision will be to determine if the studio will be constructed on the first or on the second floor.

J. Schofield indicated that there will be a space in the new building suitable for CTAC to hold its monthly meeting, and he said CTAC is welcome to use the space for its monthly meetings. He also said that he is looking forward to overcoming the technical issues which heretofore have blocked AT&T from carrying all three channels of CTV local
programming on its cable system in the three communities.

D. Levy asked J. Schofield if he had learned whether or not any of the funds set aside from subscriber fees intended to provide grant money for equipment purchases throughout Connecticut to encourage the production of local programming (the PEGPETIA Grant Program) were still available. Schofield said that all of the 2013 funds had been reallocated to cover a projected deficit in the Connecticut General Fund. Schofield indicated that he was working through local elected officials to determine if there would be funds available in the 2014 fiscal year to support a grant request he was planning to submit on behalf of CTV. The fact that there is currently no money for 2013
PEGPETIA grants makes moot the CTAC plan to encourage local applications.

T. Weinstein reminded the members that the CTAC Secretary Jennifer Sacco was absent due to the birth of her healthy baby earlier in the week. D. Levy made a motion to send J.Sacco a token of CTAC’s appreciation of her work over the years by sending a baby gift. A discussion followed as to the administrative appropriateness of such a gift. It was
decided that precedent had been set with CTACs small gifts to acknowledge the passing of former board members. A motion to allocate funds for a gift certificate from Baby Gap was made by D. Levy, seconded by P. Quinn and passed unanimously. P. Quinn indicated that she would purchase the gift card and would send the receipt for Treasurer
George Alexander for reimbursement.

The board revisited the discussion regarding the contest CTAC is planning which would provide cash awards to outstanding student-produced video projects. It was decided that T. Weinstein and P. Quinn would brainstorm to establish a series of issues which need to be addressed prior to making public the news of the CTAC Video Contest. The board will discuss each topic and then vote on whether not to adopt the proposed rule. They will report their progress at the October meeting.

The September CTAC meeting was adourned at 7:04.

Respectfully submitted by D. Levy, acting CTAC secretary