Thursday, August 28, 2008

ECAT Board meeting of 8/27/08

Easthampton Community Access Television

Board Meeting

August 27, 2008

All members and employees present





1) Southampton

Diane Schindler visited from Southampton; she is a town advisor. The Southampton selectmen are interested in getting their meetings filmed, and Diane is interested in getting even wider services through PEG. They are just starting to renegotiate for a new contract with Charter, and it is a year overdue already. She is going to begin the process of negotiating for 3% in their next contract, and look into hiring an advisor to help them. ECAT would like to help build public support in their town by filming some meetings and school events, so residents can see the benefits of public access. ECAT will work up some prices for our services and stay in touch with Diane, since combining Southampton into ECAT’s operations in the future may make sense.

Southampton town meeting is Oct 7, and the next selectmen meetings are September 2, 9 , and 30



2. Minutes were passed – Becca motioned, Bob seconded



3. Ex Director Report



-Greg spoke with Karen at Mayor’s office about the remaining funds. The 20,000 + 56,000 received in May was the accrued money from the past few years, minus expenses that had been paid since the signing of the contract on April 1. This total was 76,000. The 56,000 received in June was the first installment for the year from Charter. The second installment will come in January, equaling roughly 56,000. After that, ECAT will receive one installment in full annuall yfrom Charter, in July for the beginning of the fiscal calendar each year.



-Van

The board would like the van to look finished and aesthetically pleasing, so Greg is going to work up quotes for this work and contact local contractors for trading their services and goods for advertising. He will do this after the board has come up with underwriting numbers for van advertising, as well as pricing for website, newsletter, Community Calendar, and pre- and post show underwriting spots.

Glyffy will get information from Greg about what kind of wood is needed and ask her husband about donating.

Lettering will be put on the van ASAP. Greg will submit to Puffer the design changes which include leaving room for sponsors on the right side of the van.

The van will be how we connect to the community in the coming months, so it is exciting to get it looking good (and functioning), and on the road!





Idea: park the van on a busy road location to increase the value of van-side advertising

Idea for slogan: “Hands on TV” with outline of hand for number 5





- Fall Festival, Sept. 20th

Things to Have:

We will bring van and park it in lot, as a visibility prop. Dohan will contact Eric at the Chamber about this.

A raffle with material donated from the Advocate, where people give contact info for our mailing list

Sign up sheet for workshops and program guide

Monitor with looped video of people walking by

Big computer monitor with text about what we offer, hooked up to laptop with loop playing

Donation bin for new van costs

We can walk to each table and talk to businesses about underwriting on van

One page flyer with bullet points – Dohan can get graphic design help, or Brian will do this

Suggestion box



Dohan spoke about using our current situation as an opportunity to garner interest and support, both with the community’s interest, and financially.





Timeline for upcoming projects:

Get van lettered and bring to concert series

Organize flyer, and several materials for Fall Festival

Work on carpentry and material donations and underwriting support to finish van

Work on equipment installation for van



After Fall Festival:

Van will get finished and get up and running with equipment

At least one workshop will be offered before January or so

New edit labs will be purchased and set up

Using the workshop example (community members in our studio in WBMS) we will continue to fundraise

More programming can be done with van to continue to increase visibility

Flywheel wiring installed





Next Board Meeting:

September 24 6:00 pm. Can be held at WBMS or Senior Center - TBD

On agenda:

Remaining items from this meetings’ unfinished agenda



Next Ex. Session: Tuesday September 2 6:00 pm Senior Center

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