MINUTES

ACTV Board of Directors Meeting

Thursday, August 9, 2007, 7:30 pm

 

Call to Order:

The meeting convened at 7:38 PM, Isaac BenEzra presiding.

 

Board Members present: Isaac BenEzra, Paulette Brooks, Josna Rege, Anna Carter, Alan Root

 

Board Members absent: Lacey Johnston, Jean Haggerty, Vladimir Morales

(Lacey Johnston and Jean Haggerty gave prior notice of their respective absences to Mr. BenEzra.)

 

Quorum status: This constitutes a quorum of the Board.

 

Others Present: Harry Brooks, James MacAllister, Sean Kinlin, Mary Janes Laus, James O’Connor, Gretchen Saathoff, Laurence Shaffer, Alice Swift, Ed Wilfert

 

1. Board Response to Two Inquiries                                            

a. Re: Bruce Arbour’s email inquiry dated July 12, 07

Mr. BenEzra read the following excerpt from the June 2007 minutes, in order to clarify the Board’s policy on Bruce Arbour’s query about the lack of coverage of the July 4th Parade:

Mr. BenEzra commented briefly on the status of coverage of the upcoming July 4th parade, noting that ACTV has received no requests from the Fourth of July Committee or the community to either participate in or cover the parade. Isaac has made it clear to the staff that staff or members are free to participate in any way they choose, but the staff will not be working on paid time.

In addition, a detailed written response has been sent to Rev. Arbour.

 

b. Re: James MacAllister’s email request dated July 19, 07

Mr. BenEzra informed the meeting that James MacAllister, formerly Interim Executive Director of ACTV until his public resignation in February, sent the board, and widely cc-ed, an email message requesting that the Board report the finding of an investigation. After careful consideration of Mr. MacAllister’s request, Board Members drafted the following statements:

 

1.   There have been no properly signed, notarized, written allegations delivered to an officer of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has not initiated any investigation concerning Mr. MacAllister's e-mail comments or his personnel file.   

2.      It is the policy of the Board of Directors to maintain confidentiality in all personnel matters.  The issue Mr. MacAllister raises falls within the scope of employment and is therefore inappropriate for a public forum.  Without a written release of all parties involved in any alleged incident, the Board of Directors refuses to comment. 

 

Mr. BenEzra asked Mr. MacAllister to hold any comments until the public comment period.

 

 

2. ED Search Committee Report  (Paulette Brooks, Chair)                 

Review:

The Search Committee has met regularly since May. 

Members: Alan Root, Jean Haggerty, Anna Carter, Isaac BenEzra, John Strickland, and Paulette Brooks.

In the last report:  Committee created job description,  criteria for evaluation,  process and timeline.  Process includes interviews, as well as public participation in the final candidates’ evaluation. Nancy Richard, Plymouth Access Television ED, and Mass Access Board member, was hired as a consultant.  Outreach included job postings on several websites, and personal contact by phone and e-mail to leaders of minority groups in our community.  This effort resulted in a limited selection of candidates.  The Board then voted a budget amount of $1000 to spend on the search.

 

Since last month,

The revised job description focusing on non-profit management skills was posted on ACTV’s website on July 18th. 

The job was posted on Craigslist for Western Massachusetts, and MIRA non-profit jobs website.  As an alum, I posted the job nationally through Smith College Career Services agreement with Monstor.com (saving over $300. cost of monster.com for a 60 days posting)  Membership was required  to post on Third Sector New England.  Looked into a posting at Human Services Forum, there was no job posting venue, but a mailing list of their membership would cost $100.  and required a mailing expense.  It did not specifically target the market of available candidates, so I decided against the purchase. Massnonprovit.org did not respond to my inquiry.

Ads were purchased in the Greenfield Recorder and Hampshire Gazette for the weekend of July 21st,  Amherst Bulletin for July 25th and Springfield Republican for Sunday July 29th, specifically to alternate weekends.  Total expenditure under $300.00.  Collective Copies will be another expense, as I duplicate the resumes and distribute them to the committee.

Nancy Richard posted the job description on Mass Alliance,  and the National Access Media Site.  She left 100 job postings on the information table at the Minneapolis Access conference.  As a Mount Holyoke alum, she posted the job with their career services. 

            We now have a pool of 17 qualified candidates and will begin to review the resumes this coming week.  Each candidate has received a personal response acknowledging their application.

            The cut-off date for applications is August 15th. 

 

3. President’s Report                                                         

Mr. BenEzra gave the following report:

from Executive Committee Meetings of July 24 and August 6th:

a) Cablecasting the July 12th Meeting: The Executive Committee scheduled the cablecasts of the July 12 Board Meeting. There have been five screenings of the meeting to date. As agreed at the July meeting, the President will be convening a group of interested people to plan the videotaping of meetings starting in the Fall. Tonight, our UMass work-study student is kindly videotaping the meeting, with help from volunteer Ed Wilfert.

b) Two email inquiries: The Committee considered the concerns raised in the email inquiries sent by Bruce Arbour and Jim MacAllister, and, in consultation with other board members, drafted ACTV’s responses.

 

from staff meeting of Wednesday, August 8t, attended by Mr. BenEzra:

--Email request from Sean Kinlin re: problems with the air conditioning at the station. I have a call in to the Town’s operations department for an AC technician.

--Thanks to the staff for the work they have done to date generating the data for our Annual Report.

--As voted at the January Board meeting and reaffirmed at the May meeting, Mr. BenEzra asked the staff to start running the board-approved disclaimer in between programs. The details are still being worked out.

--The staff gave an update on the wiring for the new phone network, which is proceeding apace.

 

Announcements:

--We received and responded to a letter from the 250th Anniversary Committee.

-- ACTV wrote a letter of recommendation for Youth Action Coalition in support of a grant for which they were applying.

--Congratulations to Board Member Lacey Johnston (away on vacation at the moment) on the completion of her documentary, two years in the making, on the Mary Vazquez Women’s Softball League in Northampton. A premiere screening was held at the station on July 25th. We are tentatively planning a second screening for the fall. Double congratulations are due to Lacey, who also got married last month, in conjunction with her father’s 90th birthday celebration in Provincetown.

 

Guest of the Month: Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer  

Staff were invited to join the meeting for this agenda item. Introduction by Isaac BenEzra, Q&A session followed.

 

Approval of July Minutes                                                  

MOTION

A motion was made and seconded to:

Approve the July Minutes.

The motion passed unanimously.

 

Treasurer’s Report                                                                               

   MOTION to approve June Budget Report

Also, report on Meeting with John Musante (Anna)

MOTION

A motion was made and seconded to:

Accept the Treasurer’s Report, subject to audit.

The motion passed unanimously.

 

Annual Report Update                                                                                  

Josna Rege reported that we are on track in the preparation of our 2006-2007 Annual Report. We have received hard copy submissions from the staff at yesterday’s staff meeting and electronic copies via email. Some additional materials are still forthcoming. Our timeline calls for a complete first draft to be ready for review by August 15th. The Executive Committee will then be reviewing that draft and delegating the various tasks needed to prepare the second draft by September 1st.

Production Manager Sean Kinlin was able to locate electronic copies of last year’s Annual Report in two different formats, and we hope these will enable us to import this year’s data into the existing template.

We will soon be able to determine whether we will need to pay someone to help design and format the Annual Report, or whether we will be able to take care of it in-house.

 

New Business                                                                              

Use of ACTV Logo:

MOTION

The following motion was made and seconded:

In accordance with accepted broadcast practices, the use of the ACTV logo within any program using ACTV equipment or facilities requires prior written approval by the Board of Directors or its authorized designee.

The motion passed unanimously.

 

Public Comment

Member and former IED James MacAllister spoke to the issue he had raised in his letter, and responded to the Board statement from Agenda Item #1.

 

Executive Session                

The board convened in Executive Session for the remainder of the meeting.

 

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Josna Rege

Clerk, ACTV Board of Directors