ECAT Channel 5 Board Meeting 24 Oct 07

ECAT Channel 5 Board Meeting
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October 24th, 2007 6:00 pm
White Brook Middle School
Absent: Nancy Dirocco

1. City Contract

Board reviewed the changes Greg has made to the contract between the City and ECAT, before he sends these changes to the lawyer to review. Several more suggestions of changes were made. Greg will make these and send to lawyer. After the Board approves of the lawyer’s changes, the contract will be sent on to the Mayor for review. A hopeful date for signing the contract is December 1.

2. Non profit Status

The non-profit application for federal status is being reviewed by lawyer and should be sent in within the next week or so. The state application was sent in in July

Greg will check into when our state non profit status officially started. The November deadline for our first non-profit report depends on this knowledge.

Greg will look into the November date that the report is due

Greg will also look into how the mayor views the importance of Federal non-profit status for releasing of funds to the station.

3. Real Estate Search

Several efforts by board members were discussed, and several renting options (1 Cottage St. space, Liberty Street building below Riverside’s van parking). The agent of the old heel building is going to check into the possibility of breaking up the property into units to purchase. The board discussed the possibility of purchasing a residential property that is in a correct zoning area and renovating it / adding an addition on for a studio.

Greg will look into getting a zoning map of Easthampton

4. Other

-There is a city van up for auction in early November. The Board was hesitant to make a decision regarding it, so Greg is going to speak to the Senior Center and get it inspected and priced out. If it seems like a bargain not to pass up, the board will vote via executive session. Greg will also look into how the station would purchase such an item with its current financial connection to the city.

-Arts Easthampton is interested in involving the station in Arts Walk, and the station would like to have volunteers to film and edit the events. Anyone who is interested may contact the station.

-Becca distributed ideas for no / low cost programming for the station on a variety of subjects, and a series that was produced about Democracy for airing on ECAT. Greg and Brian will choose and order several of the most interesting program series.

-The Fall Festival was filmed and aired in the past month, with Glyffy’s help in the interviews.

-Brian presented a flow chart of the digital server technology’s present state and future goals. This helps everyone sort out the computer flow system for files, and see what other purchases may come up in the future that tie into this system.


The next meeting will be held on Wed. November 28th at 6:00 pm in the White Brook Middle School.