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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-1990-09-10 AAB Meeting September 10 , 1990 Present: Mary Jo Dudley, Chair ; Frances McKenzie , Eloise Greene , Bill McCormick, John Efroymson; Ex-officio : Peter Hess and Lauren Stefanelli. MJD: Chair proposed several agenda items , including some old business and a letter from GM Lukens . Finish up equipment list questions , and then lay out basic agendas for next several mtgs. August minutes approved unanimously. MJD: From NFLCP conference material, handed out duplicates of Benton Foundation Rpt. on organizational use of access across the US. And reported advisory from NFLCP on current congressional bills . Proposed Board resolution supporting : 1) guarantee PEG as basic service 2) adequate PEG funding 3) content neutrality and freedom from legal liability. EG : Seconded. Resolution passed: 5-0. FMc: Volunteered to draft a letter to senators and representatives for Board members' signatures. BMc: AAB should urge Cable Commission and ACC to support bills . Liability protection also in company's interest. FMc : Will include in the letter. FMc, MJD & EG: Commented on ACC survey in billing. Access-related questions seen as misleading and subject to misinterpretation, with results open to misuse . JE: Meeting minutes should strongly note Board's concerns about survey. LS : ACC saw these survey questions as responsive to Cable Commission inquiries about additional channels. MJD & PH: Board should send letter to GM re : survey concerns . JE: Should react before results come in. MJD: Should invite GM to next AAB meeting. 'Mc : GM meeting with Board could be less contentious. EG: Meeting with GM should cover a range of issues . MJD: Read 8/30/90 letter from GM (attached) : complimenting Board involvement, closing off possibility of studio expansion and refusing operating budget details. General discussion followed on possible topics for October mtg. with GM : 1 ) equipment purchase list 2) billing survey 3) future channel expansion and necessary facilities . PH: Reported on Cable Commission 8/ 14 meeting (attached) : no progress on NYS Cable Commission inquiries on additional channels and political endorsements ; CC interest in more details on A( capital purchases ; discussion of I-NET -and promotion of I-NET use ; GM Lukens nixed any studio expansion ; CC Chair Demo and R. Herskowitz resignations seen as interruption until replacements named. EG & FMc : Expressed interest in I-NET. LS : Explained I-NET as an 8-track, possible 2-way system among more than a dozen local institutions . EG: As head of ICB-TV, not aware of I-NET. Noted that institu- tions need more information on this , for instance usefulness for data transmission. MJD: Should include in agenda for discussion with GM for October, and ask for copy of ACC communications to potential I-NET users . BMc: Made proposal for conference /workshop for institutions on use of I-NET. FMc: I-NET and other technologies could be of great use , but outreach and education about them needed by public and local organizations . LS : Submitted ACC report. In general , ACC and AAB in agreement over priorities for equipment spending . Because of proximity of donew year, possibility that 2 years' spending could be combined to meet priorities . GM Lukens has instructed Chief Engineer Joe Powers to have specifics on routing switchers for additional channels by late October. BMc : Question as to whether hub costs would be taken out of 2% capital fund? LS : Yes . This issue was part of discussion at last Cable Commissison meeting. GM Lukens believes that hub-related costs are legitimate access capital expenditures . BMc : That sounds like the GM didn't think the Cable Commission had seriously challenged that ACC position. PH: He and Tom Terrizzi (Cable Commissioner ) will meet with City Attorney on hub cost issue and other franchise-related questions. MJD: Asked PH to get information/advice from NYS Cable Commission JE: Can State clarify whether labor costs are part of the 2%? 3 LS [continuing ACC rpt. ] : Access staff exploring access use and equipment by schools in Cortland and Cook Cablevision (Syr). There are now 2 access interns from TC3 : BOCES is cablecasating an AP Biology course from the studio Mondays-Thursdays. JE: There is of course a question of whether there are adequate facilities for programs like the BOCES one. FMc : It is good that the facilities are used. BMc: What if the Ithaca school district wanted to use the same studio hours as BOCES? Franchise and facilities were negotiated by the City for the City's franchise. BOCES is in Lansing. The needs of institutions outside of the City of Ithaca are rightly the question for those Town and Village franchises. fIJD & JE: Outstanding issues like this and others , for instance staff compensation to insure retention should also be discussed with the GM. MJD: Began discussion of agenda schedule for next 6 months. October meeting set aside for GM. November for equipment purchase specifics . PH: Suggested that all money on equipment be spent on priorities 2-6, thereby forcing ACC to assume Priority 1 , i. e. , additional channel costs. • JE: Proposed such a resolution. BMc : For lack of any other, seconded the resolution ; though made it clear he would vote against it. Vote : For : 1 [ JE] ; Against: 1 [ BMc ] ; Abstain: 3 BMc : Made known his intention to resign from the AAB, because the structure of the Board is ineffective and the City, the Cable Commission and the City government generally has been unwilling to pursue any assertive access policy in the public interest. Next meeting scheduled for October 1 , 1990 ; 7pm at the TCPL. Meeting ended at 9 :05pm. • Report to CAAB on Cable Commission Meeting of August 14 Pete will call Steve Shay at NYSCC to get information about access channel requirements. Richard will follow up to get written confirmation of NYSCC position on political endorsements. Barbara say she regrets that she did not reply to Mary Jo's June 15th letter,that it was an oversight. There was discussion of the need of the CAAB to have more information about capital purchases for access that is provided by Lauren's quarterly report. Barbara said that it should be possible to provide an itemized list The list can include prices except when items are bought on contracts where,for competitive reasons,ACC or the vendor do not wish them to be public information. The I-net is up. Participating institutions have been notified. So far only the fire dept. and BOCES have responded. ACC is using the I-Net drop at the courthouse for the Kinge trial coverage. Several suggestions were made to increase use of the I-Net -a conference -a board of directors -an I-net coordinator ACC has hired a part time staff member,Tammy Sackett, to work with schools to increase their use of cable programming. The Four Seasons lease was discussed. Barbara confirmed that,with guaranteed renewals,it runs to 1993. Richard recalled Mike saying that ACC's long term plan was to increase the size of the access studio. Additional developments Bill Demo and Richard Herskowitz have resigned from the commission. There will be no meeting of the commission tomorrow, and may be no further business meetings until a new appointment is made. • • g C• ,.. .A ,: , ,.:� ' ;t . 1. Ammommilememmm AMERICAN COMMUNITY CABLEVISION August 30, 1990 Mary Jo Dudley Access Advisory Board 31.2 First St. Ithaca, NY 14850 Dear Mary Jo: My apologies for taking so long to answer your letter. Since so much has happened since I received your letter, I will simply say that I have seen the prioritized list for equipment, and Lauren and I have discussed it. She will be reporting back to the •CAAB at the next meeting. It' s great to have the CAAB• creatively involved in generating a list of desired equipment because it makes our jobs somewhat . easier. At least we can see if priorities are at all aligned and attempt to serve the greatest need. I see no reason why we should not continue to have such input in the future . As regards expansion possibilities for the future , I can say only that ACC ' s lease with Four Seasons will not expire until June 30, -1993. While I don' t know that it is necessarily true , I am presuming that a fairly large amount of remodeling would be required to convert the space occupied by Four Seasons to a space which would be useful for access . I cannot promise that I would • be able to obtain funding for such a project. We will keep the lines of communication between the CAAB and ACC more open than they were in the past, though. I cannot provide detailed information on our operating budget; however, if the advisory board feels that ACC ' s access operation or-any function of access is not being performed adequately, we would certainly want to know that. Again, I 'm sorry I dropped the ball on staying in touch, but - let' s keep talking. Si cerely, Barbara L. Lukens General Manager cc : Lauren Stefanelli Peter Hess . • 519 West State Street Ithaca, New York 141350 607-272-345G