MINUTES of ACTV Board
of Directors
Meeting Date: April 20, 2006, 7:30 pm
Call to
Order
The regular monthly meeting of the ACTV Board
of Directors was held in the ACTV Conference Room on April 20, 2006. The
meeting convened at 7:41 PM, Vice-President
Ernie Urvater Presiding.
Board Members present:
Ernie Urvater,
Mary Paris, Anna Carter, Josna Rege, Paulette Brooks, Jim McAllister
The Board
welcomes our new Board member, Jim McAllister, elected at the special
replacement election on April 3rd. His term will run until October
2007.
Members absent: Isaac BenEzra,
Rusty Rowell, Rev. Bobby Wallace,
Quorum status: This
constitutes a quorum of the Board.
Others Present:
Bruce Arbour (Interim
ED), Julia Shively (Bookkeeper),, Diana Souza (Member, Outreach Committee)
Presentation of March Minutes:
MOTION:
A motion was made and seconded to:
Approve the March Meeting Minutes.
The motion passed
unanimously.
Treasurer’s
Report
Bookkeeper Julie Shively was on hand to review
and answer questions about the report.
Ms. Shively also reviewed the April 19th
“Proposal re: budget report” from the Finance Committee, in which she had
proposed the simplification of the monthly budget reports as follows:
...that executive committee and
finance committee members routinely get all the reports currently submitted
(balance sheet, summary and detailed income expense report, and notes) and that
all other board members get everything except for the detailed income and
expense report. If questions arise about any one category on the summary
report, there will be a detailed report available. Also, any board member can,
of course, request a copy of the detailed report.
MOTION:
A motion was made and seconded to
Accept the February 2006 treasurer’s report, subject to audit.
The motion passed unanimously.
The
Board also took up the question of liability insurance coverage for Board
Members, both coverage for Directors and Officers and coverage for Employment
Liability.
MOTION:
A
motion was made and seconded to
Approve
$1,000,000 USLI coverage, and revisit the question after 6 months.
The motion passed unanimously.
Report on
PEG Meeting with Olver
Isaac BenEzra and Paulette Brooks attended a PEG meeting with Congressman Olver on April 17th
at his Holyoke office. ACTV’s contract attorney Bill August was also in
attendance, as was Amherst CAC Chair Bill Venman. Below is a paragraph on the
pending legislation from Attorney August:
Our contact person at
Olver's Office is the District Director Jon Niedzielski who has been very helpful
re scheduling meeting. There are 2 strategies underway in Congress: to get
Congress to amend Rep. Barton's bill (now in House Energy and Commerce
Committee Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet) or to just try
to get the bill stopped altogether.
The bill is criticized
primarily for not mandating telco buildout of service areas (creating redlining
risks); for not mandating net neutrality (open architecture for Internet
users); for transferring customer service complaints to the FCC (like a Washington agency can really follow-up on
local complaints); for transferring franchising from local government to
federally-imposed standards. The fact that the bill does not mandate
build-out of service area is rather odd, as the premise of the bill was
supposed to be to help rollout broadband to service areas. Even small Mom
and Pop cable companies used to agree to build-out service area
requirements. But not the telephone companies. So this issue has
some traction. The bill is also very vague about the mechanism by which
franchise fees are determined as the bill merely states that franchises fees
shall be in accordance with Section 622 of the Cable Act, and Section 622
assumes there will be a licensing process for setting franchise fees (but there
won't be a licensing process under the federal law). There are many more
problems with the bill and I will update you all later on. There is a
hearing today in Subcommittee on proposed amendments. We are not that
hopeful re the Subcommittee, so we need other Congressmen to work on opposing
the bill.
Status
Report: Ad Hoc Contract Negotiating Committee
Committee Chair Paulette
Brooks reported that the final draft of ACTV’s proposed contract with the Town
of Amherst has been completed and sent to Attorney August to review. She noted
that Atty. August was pleased with the language and was looking to write in a
10-year contract with a 5-year renewal. A discussion ensued on ACTV’s 10-year
capital budget and the capital projects that would be included in it. Bruce
Arbour was requested to have a capital plan ready by May 1st. Julie
Shively noted that ACTV would also need a first-year operating budget for FY
2006-2007.
Personnel
Committee Report [Executive Session]
Following the executive
session,
MOTION:
A
motion was made and seconded to
Approve
the IED’s recommendation on Program Manager Ken Carroll’s evaluation pending a
review and positive recommendation by the Personnel Committee.
The motion passed unanimously.
MOTION:
A
motion was made and seconded to
Approve the IED’s per diem policy
proposal.
The motion passed unanimously.
Board
Development:
Mass Access is holding a
mini-conference on Friday May 5th. There is board development
funding for any and all board members who are able to attend. Also the national
Alliance for Community Media conference is coming up, July 5-8 in Boston. Funds
are available for both board and staff members to participate in this important conference.
IED’s
Report, March 2006 (attached)
—PEG report: P—low turnout
for ACTV-produced programming, but an increase in studio-produced programs.
E—See agenda item on upcoming coverage of ARHS event. G— New temporary
part-time production assistant. will begin increased government coverage this month
as directed by the board.
—Youth Groups: Request that board consider a number of issues raised by the facility use and equipment demand by the two youth groups who meet regularly at the station.
—Training workshops report: Production Manager Sean Kinlin ran a Field Production Workshop, but had to cancel a studio production workshop due to low enrolment. He also conducted two different training workshops for the youth group Video Vanguard, and several individual iMovie training sessions.
—Nine-month report provided, in preparation for Annual Report. Still needed for Annual Report: recent capital purchases; financial report; IED.'s statement; Board President's statement.
—Request for purchases:
MOTION:
A
motion was made and seconded to
Approve the IED’s request for 3-in-one cables @ $160 for town meeting and request for a new fax machine ($160 at Staples)
The motion passed unanimously.
—Chart presented of random samples of # of hours that Community Calendar airs on the 3 channels from 3 years show some improvement (less hours currently).
—Bar Code progress: Mike Muller found that the software that came with the hardware does not provide the functions needed by the station. He is on vacation this week, but is researching downloadable freeware or shareware that will provide the capabilities needed for ACTV.
—Discussion about optimal hours for station to be open, we should explore opening on the weekends and evenings, restructuring staffing possibly using more part-timers, etc.
Old
Business
—April 29th ARHS
Event School Action Day
Ernie Urvater reported on April
29th ARHS event: he interviewed Wendy Kohler, Special Projects director and
Famer Ned, initiator of event to build Alumni Association. The interviews are
being aired, promoting the event and coverage of the event has been arranged.
New
Executive Director Search: Preliminary Discussion
Discussion of initiating the
Search for a new ED was tabled, but it was agreed that it will be an important
item on the May meeting’s agenda.
Board
Development:
—New Board Member
Appointments (discussion)
—Upcoming Mass Access and
ACM conferences
MOTION: That the
Board table this item until the May Board Meeting
The motion passed
unanimously.
Adjournment :
The meeting adjourned at 10 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Josna Rege
Clerk, ACTV Board of Directors