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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2006-02-28Cable Access Oversight Committee minutes Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 4:30 -6 p.m. Present: Will Burbank (chair), Elizabeth Bauchner, Wayles Browne, Wies van Leuken, Lauren Stefanelli (ex officio) 1) Notetaker: Wayles Browne. 2) Approval of January 17 minutes. Approved with amendments, 4 -0. 3) Public comment: none. 4) Wies has received a reply to her letter to the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC). She circulated copies of the reply. In it, Carol McTague of the PSC staff wrote on Feb. 17 that the Town of Enfield is not a part of the Time Warner Cable (TWC) service area, and that therefore a producer from there should not be able to submit tapes for broadcast. However, having consulted with TWC, McTague understands that the producer in question "has found someone within the City to sponsor his programs and they are currently being shown." 5) Wies was sworn in for her new term on the AOC on Feb. 6, 2006. She has asked Ithaca mayor Peterson to follow up with the Assistant City Attorney in order to clarify whether the City has delegated authority to the AOC, or whether AOC must go to Common Council for decisions. TWC had asserted that AOC didn't have authority to make decisions on studio fees without going to the Common Councils of the three participating municipalities. Will, in his capacity as member of the Town of Ithaca Board, attended a workshop of the New York State Association of Towns on telecommunications. Concerns that came up at the workshop: a) Verizon is offering cable service in various places. If it wanted to do so in the Ithaca area, according to the existing franchise agreement presumably Verizon would have to operate under the same terms as TWC. Question: would it offer Public Access? b) Federal proposals to do away with all local control of cable TV franchises were mentioned. 6) Studio Manager's report: Lauren Stefanelli submitted her report in written form (appended below). Answering a question, she said that the 8 $20 checks for user fees have been turned over to TWC. 7) Wies proposed a month -by -month work schedule for the AOC. Her draft was referred to a subcommittee (Wies, Wayles) which will report to the next meeting. Discussion: when is the time for schools to apply for loans of equipment -- presumably now, for the coming calendar year? Lauren has to put their "wants" into a proposal in April. Elizabeth will draft a message to presidents of PTA's, saying that some video equipment is available for students to use for video production. She will consult Lauren on wording by Mar. 15. Lauren: The Lansing Board of Education is interested in broadcasting its meetings on the Educational Access channel, as was done at one time previously. Perhaps Lansing will be interested in becoming a Participating Municipality. • Dryden schools have produced 12 videos for broadcast in recent years. 8) Lauren has created a Record Book which contains AOC minutes and AOC resolutions. 9) Lauren understands from public- access - oriented e -mail lists that the situation with proposed federal cable legislation is unclear. Multiple bills are being proposed but not passing. Such bills are advocated by telephone companies, which want to compete with cable companies in the cable -TV market. 10) Next meeting: Monday, March 20 at 4:30. Adjourned 6:05. Minutes respectfully submitted by Wayles Browne. Addendum to item 6: Access Manager Report February 2006 Policies /AOC Jan 10, 2006 Letter Carol McTague spoke to me. She said that she would respond in writing to the AOC's letter. The PSC's opinions was that use of PEGASYS could be restricted to franchise area residents. She invited AOC members to call her anytime, she said, to have their questions answered and the perspective of the PSC on any issue. Her direct line is: 518 - 473 -2939. Administration /Fees 8 people residing outside the PMs have paid $20 fees for 6 -month memberships in PEGASYS. PR /PEGASYS Awards Were held Feb 17 and went very well. 29 entries in 7 categories were judged by 3 independent judges. Clips of all entries were included in a 90 minute award ceremony shown on live television. The 4 top- scoring programs will be sent on at TWC's expense [$40 each] as contestants in the national Hometown Awards. The event was well- attended and included a reception with food and soft drinks. Outreach /Tour. A cub scout group toured PEGASYS on Feb 7, and produced a small program. Outreach /Training The February portable production class is overly full with 11 students. The class is going very well, despite the change of class length from 3 hours to 2 hours each week and the coverage of both linear and non - linear editing within the basic intro course [previously, non - linear editing had been an advanced course]. The March studio production class is enrolled and will produce 3 30- minute call -in shows for local doctors specializing in asthma. Outreach /Ithaca City School District I met with Kathy Hovis of the ICSD on February 7th. She said that the district was interested in looking into developing video coverage of school board meetings. I told her about Marnie Kirchgessner of the Town of Ithaca, who met with me last month saying she has funding to put kids to work doing video, and about the possibility petitioning the AOC for access capital funding if they had a viable plan for video programming on channel 16. We will likely hear from them when they are ready to pursue their idea further. Outreach /Participating Municipalities Dan Cogan asked me to prepare some talking points he could use with the Town of Dryden for encouraging them to become a "Participating Municipality." I sent him the following memo: "Why the Town of Dryden Should Consider Supporting PEGASYS 1. Dryden schools are already benefiting from PEGASYS Two Dryden educational institutions, Dryden High School and Tompkins Cortland Community College, are currently active users of PEGASYS. • Margaret Grace of Dryden H.S., whose video class is made possible in part by a substantial amount of equipment on long -term loan from PEGASYS, has submitted a dozen new programs representing her students' work for each of the past 3 semesters. These programs are cablecast weekly on educational access channel 16. [Look for them every Friday at 8 pm] • Don Bazely's class at TC3 has just won a "Best Educational Access" PEGASYS Award last week for a program produced with his video class last fall. Individual TC3 programs and the "High School Challenge" series are also currently playing on channel 16. You can look up the current schedule of Dryden programs on our website: http://www.pegasysaccess.org/info/ch1 6sched.shtml 2. Dryden individuals are already benefiting from PEGASYS A number of Dryden residents have taken advantage of PEGASYS services, including access to free video training, production and cablecasting on public access channel 13. • John Finnegan, a Dryden Town resident, submits to channel 13 "Eckankar," a weekly series of programs representing the Eck faith. • Basil Kazameas, another Town of Dryden resident, submits to channeI13 "Words of Peace," a weekly series of programs representing his faith. Both John and Basil use our production facilities to add local titles to the end of their programs, so that people can find out about local meetings, etc. • Baseema and Ward Krkoska, Town of Dryden residents, have taken PEGASYS training and been using PEGASYS equipment for about 5 years to produce documentary programs. They have won 2 PEGASYS Awards, and several national Hometown Awards for their efforts. • Tim Knolls, a Town of Dryden resident, submits to channel 13 "Tomorrow's World," a weekly series of programs representing his faith. • Joyce Kantor, a Town of Dryden resident, has taken PEGASYS training and used PEGASYS equipment to produce a number of programs about Tompkins County history. She has interviewed town historians and visited historic sites for her programs. She has expressed concern that as a senior citizen on a fixed income she will not be able to afford to utilize PEGASYS if she must pay a fee. • Steve Adams, a Town of Dryden resident, has taken advantage of our free video training classes. • Tom Hatfield, a Town of Dryden resident, has taken advantage of our free video training classes and produced a program involving his daughters' athletic team. • Katrina Schickel, a Town of Dryden resident, has been submits to channel 13 "Aging & You," a series of programs that support her efforts to do outreach to senior citizens. 3. PEGASYS Augments Resources for Professional Development for Dryden Residents • Students who graduate from Ms. Grace's high school video courses will find that PEGASYS offers them a way to continue to develop their video production skills. • TC3 video students who complete their coursework there will find PEGASYS an ongoing resource as well, and will benefit particularly because PEGASYS has chosen the same editing software as TC3 to maximize compatibility with TC3 students' skills. 4. PEGASYS Augments Resources for Civic Involvement for Dryden Residents • Many Dryden residents, particularly political representatives or candidates for political office, have benefited by appearing on television programs on PEGASYS. "Finger Lakes Forum," which invites every candidate for every County office to a 30 or 60- minute studio interview, is one example. • The opportunity to point a camera at an event of your choice to gain a wider audience, or to make your own show, is available to all Dryden residents. 5. A Minimal Level of Support, through a Portion of Franchise Fees, for PEGASYS Will Yield Greater Benefits for Town Residents It is true that even if Dryden does not choose to support PEGASYS, Dryden residents will be entitled to submit tapes for cablecasting on the public access channel. And that Dryden schools will be eligible to submit programs to the educational access channel. And that all Dryden cable subscribers will be able to view PEG channels. However, supporting PEGASYS will provide the following additional benefits: • Free participation in video training classes to Town of Dryden residents. • Free use of video production facilities to Town of Dryden residents for PEG access use. • Eligibility of Dryden High School to continue to use PEGASYS equipment and to request additional equipment support for their video production classes." Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Department of Linguistics Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A. tel. 607 - 255 -0712 (o), 607 - 273 -3009 (h) fax 607 - 255 -2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE) e -mail ewb2 _ cornell.edu