Vermont Community Access Media

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes from May 8, 2006 6:32pm
First meeting of 2006/07 Board

1) Call to order/Approval of minutes:
Present: Joe Merone-Chair, Sharon Randall-Secretary, Barbara Shatara- Treasurer,
Carol Richman, Kitty Martin, Tyler Radtke, Greta Lockwood, Seth Mobley (newly elected), Brad Ingalls (newly elected).

Absent:
Guests: Rob Chapman (Executive Director)

The minutes for March were approved
Welcome to new Board members and introductions
Election of Officers: Joe Merone – Re-elected unanimously as Board Chair. Sharon Randall nominated for vice-chair and Barbara Shetara nominated as well. Sharon declined nomination and expressed interest in remaining as Secretary. Barbara elected unanimously as vice-Chair. Sharon re-elected unanimously as Secretary. Rob then explained role of Treasurer and Greta Lockwood expressed interest and was elected unanimously as Treasurer. Motion accepted to change all VCAM accounts to Rob, Joe, and Greta as authorized signers. Recap of Board terms. Board of 11 members. Re-election of 5 members annually for 2 year term. One appointed Board member for one year term. Board members can serve 3 two year terms, for a total of 6 years. Tonight we should fill appointed member seat and also need to fill Monica’s seat (1 year term) since she resigned. Cynthia Newton will potentially fill Monica’s seat pending her notification and approval, Rob will f/u with this. Appointed Director Seat – Joe suggests that the board may want to take a month to search for a potential candidate. Brad talked about maybe getting someone with a fresh outlook. Tabled until next meeting.

2) Public Comments: Acknowledge Producer Ron Ruloff. Ron presented movie promo posters that were considered porno in past. Ron suggests that each board member volunteer five hours per month to be a “gopher” at studio so that board is more aware of what’s going on. i.e. Police coming to VCAM. Ron states that pornography is a part of every culture and always will be. States he doesn’t choose to show porn on his program but argues that board should view the J.L. tape in question and talk before any decision is made whether to air it.

3) Committee Reports

Programming: Description of committee duties. P.C. handles day to day rules/regulations as it relates to policies and procedures. i.e. Adult content, hours of operation. Sharon remarks that although Bill’s term is up he has stated he will stay for f/u on issues related to obscene material and attorney feedback. Bill stated at annual meeting he has more questions for attorney since we receives attorney response to on-going issues of liability when airing obscene material.

Outreach: Publicity ads, designs logos, surveys members

Executive Committee: Made of four Directors Chair, co-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer. Responsible for Rob’s annual evaluation.
Joe passed out paper for Board members so that they can express what committee they want to be a part of. Joe will assign committees.

Director’s Report: Rob addressed Doug’s (attorneys) memorandum, pointing out that it has quite a bit of fuzzy law lingo regarding adult content. Asked board to please read and jot down questions. J.L. stated to Rob that he is not breaking rules according to VCAM policy but we aren’t airing his program. Re-cap for Seth re: John Long’s program posing a potential liability. Seth states he has read prior minutes so he has some background info. Seth will be sent a copy of attorney memo for review. Rob talked about pulling a recent show of J.L.’s which contains cartoons engaging in sexual intercourse. Rob put show to “Miller test” to decide whether the program met criteria for obscenity. Carol asked for a copy of the Miller Test, it’s in a memorandum. Rob read it aloud. Some discussion about whether it’s illegal depends on how person perceives it. Greta points out that attorney stated that we, as a board, are perfect group to decide community standards. Program committee will follow up on this. Rob states we have spent $5,000.00 so far on Attorney memorandum.

Rob talked about Annual Report and note that what’s lacking is usage reports and Rob wonders if that should be included or not. States CATV does a nice job (glossy report) and Rob states we can do same if Board agrees. Greta asks if we can give feedback at next meeting. Rob states yes. Joe states format looks good. Greta recommends cover page with logo. Carol feels a lot of info. in last years report isn’t included this year. Carol would like to see breakdown of classes offered, programming, etc. Tyler states that looking back to see what was done in 2006 might be nice and suggest sprucing it up for municipalities with cover etc. Joe suggests when complete, send it electronically. Rob states comparing last year with this year is a good idea and we can come up with what looks good, and what is extraneous and give feedback next meeting.
Rob states Burlington telecom still has contract. Board received draft contract and we have no questions. Rob will sign contract and VCAM will be on Burlington Telecom in a month or two. Brad and Seth will be sent a copy of contract to update them.
Rob talks about Capital Expense Report. Rob’s chance to figure out if he has enough to spend. At $233,000 in capital. $140,000 total cost of refitting new studio equipment. There is almost $100,000 left. Greta suggests getting some servers. Rob shows Board new Panasonic SX800 camera. OOH-AAW from crowd.

Staffing Report – Rob talks about staffing levels. Developing a plan to deal with Karen leaving. Rob talks about keeping studio manager title but he would do more administrative duties. Bill would move to day shift and rename his title as Production manager. Then we would need to hire a Prod. Technician and a studio manager.
Rob read letter of resignation from Karen to the board. A party for Karen is on Thursday June 22nd from 3-5pm. Board will present Karen with a gift for 20 years of service to Community Access. Brad will research gift from board to Karen.

Seven Days covered John Long’s on-going programming issue “Hate Debate” Rob has extra copies if anyone is interested in reading it.
Rob also has a copy of CCTV’s disaster plan and he is working on implementing a plan for VCAM
Rob talked about Vt. Statewide Peg Networking/ Interconnect update. If board has any questions after reading they should bring them up at next meeting.
The Annual meeting of Vt. Access Networks is Friday June 2nd from 9am until 5pm. If anyone from the board is interested in attending feel free.
National Scene – National franchising authority wants to have all control over public access. Log onto: saveaccess.org for more information
Hometown Video Awards National Access is happening and we need judges. Tyler volunteered to be a judge on Thursday for 6 hours. Kitty volunteered for Sat. 10am-4pm.

Old Business: None

New Business:

Discussion about meeting times. Board decided that 2nd Monday of the month at 6:30pm is fine for now. Greta talked about sexual harassment policy in our Policy & Procedures pamphlet. Rob states it is already included in VCAM’s employee handbook. Rob asked Greta if she’s willing to draft something. Joe questions whether this is a bigger legal issue. Greta questions if we can be sued if a person of public feels they are a victim of harassment at VCAM. Rob and Greta will talk and Greta will propose language. They will decipher who is being protected and who is the language for?

Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm

Next meeting is June 12, 2006 at 6:30 pm