HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-1992-07-28 CABLE ACCESS ADVISORY BOARD
Minutes of July 28, 1992
City Hall--2nd Floor Conference 'Room
Present : - Jim Blizzard, Harvey Gitlin, Rick Gray , Eloise Greene,
Peter Hess , Mary Milne, Lauren Stefanelli , & Tom Terrizzi , ( legal
advisor to Ithaca Cable Commission) .
Minutes recorded by Harvey Gitlin
• Meeting called to order at 7 : 15 PM
• Minutes of June 23 meeting read & approved
• No Public Comment
• Amendment to the Agenda: - Request information regarding leased
access options from ACC: Inquire regarding rate scale, hours of
operation, technical requirements , and equipment available for
"commercial - leased" use. Are rates , etc. consistent and publicly
available? Lauren volunteered to do further research into these
matters .
• CAAB Membership: - Mary Milne was appointed by the Cable
Commission to fill the vacancy left by Kathy Johnson as the new
city resident representative (along with Joe Powers , who was
appointed previously) . Matt Ryan was appointed by ACC to fill
Floyd Johnson ' s former city resident position. Alan Dunning was
disqualified because he does not reside in the city of Ithaca.
Graham Legitt was not appointed by ACC; Jean Dorancy and Joe
Edkin had not followed up on their applications at this time.
Access Coordinator ' s Report: - Ed Sergeant , with technical
advice from Joe Powers , obtained time and a bandwidth assignment
on cable radio for leased commercial use , n
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Renaming of public access was discussed, and a
subcommittee meeting to address this issue (and others) was
scheduled for Wednesday, August 12 at 8 : 00 PM.
• Cable Commission Report: - Written minutes of Cable Commission
meeting were submitted.
. Old Business : - Discussion of preference for 3 vs . 2 "first run"
showings of access productions tabled once again . Present policy
maintained in the meantime.
. New Business : - Peter Hess introduced discussion of the
possibility of relegating potentially offensive material (the WD-
40 show, in particular) to after 10 pm time slots , as a result of
subscriber complaints received by himself and Lauren. A general
discussion of legal , corporate, and access policy regarding
censorship or regulation of offensive or obscene programming
ensued. Tom Terrizzi provided a legal definition of obscenity .
Harvey objected to stigmatization of non-obscene "offensive"
material by unilateral corporate or access policy . An amendment
to the access policy manual was passed unanimously , asking
producers of potentially offensive material to voluntarily
schedule their cablecasts after 10 pm.
• Educational Committee Report : - Educational committee and CAAB
to explore the possibility of additional time and space at
community access or ACC facilities , as well as more staffing
(such as an extra outreach staff person) , for education related
purposes, according to the franchise provisions . Addendum to
educational committee policy statement not yet available.
• Budgetary Discussion : - Ongoing attempt to study ways to
compress the time period between CAAB budget ratification and the
"approval " (typically after reinterpreting their franchise
obligations) by ACC. Jim suggested making the purchases approved
by the budget , and negotiating the funding categories afterwards .
It will also be necessary to determine whether the labor
estimate of $576 for the setup of the new editing consoles was
necessary or inflated.
• Meeting adjourned 9 : 40 pm