EASTHAMPTON COMMUNITY ACCESS TELEVISION
BOARD MEETING NOTES 5/23/07
The board reviewed additions and changes made to bylaws by the the lawyer Greg has found, Peter Epstein. The Outreach and Membership committees were combined into one committee named Membership. The name of the Fundraising committee was changed to Finance committee. There were several repeated parts or unclear changes that the lawyer made that Greg will work on bringing to the attention of the lawyer.
Greg will add all of these changes to the final text and distribute to board members via email for review. A final version will be printed out for the next meeting for final vote.
Dan Rist and Melissa Zawadzki from the City Council’s Rule Committee visited the meeting to discuss their recommendation to the City Council for ECAT to become a non-profit organization. It was explained that they will make a recommendation, but it is the Mayor’s decision to see it through. Rist expressed interest in favor of insulating ECAT from the City’s liability, and giving ECAT financial independence. He expressed concern that ECAT employees won’t have city health insurance under this new plan to become non-profit, but understands the benefits to being a non-profit as well. A large majority of the access stations in the state are non-profit, and this made him in favor of the change as well.
If the route to becoming non-profit is approved, ECAT will dissolve the current board, since it is a Mayor appointed board, and form a new board for the non-profit entity. A contract will be created between the city and ECAT, regarding transfer of equipment, cable funding transfer, annual audit, meeting coverage, etc. ECAT will have 2 local government seats on its board: one appointed by mayor and one by School Committee.
Dan moved and Jennifer seconded the motion to recommend this structural change to non-profit status at the next City Council meeting, June 5.
Mayor Tautznik will be invited to the next meeting at ECAT on Wednesday, June 6, to discuss the next steps.
An annual conference for local access workers is being held in Minneapolis July 25-28. The board voted not to send Greg and Brian, in light of all of the other changes the station is working on, and the high cost.
Search for a new space was discussed. It is necessary to move the station to give public members access to the station, as WBMS isn’t open past 3:00 pm throughout the summer, or accessible on most weekends for staff or volunteers throughout the school year. It was decided that it is not too soon to contact a realtor to start looking for buildings for us. Greg would like to buy, not rent, so that our money isn’t being wasted on rent.
Next meeting: Wednesday June 6 6:00 pm
Agenda:
Discuss final bylaws
Discussion with Mayor Tautznik
Realtor update
