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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLECOMM-1993-06-23 CABLE ACCESS ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of June 23,1993 Tompkins County Library Conference Room • In Attendance: - Advisory Board Members : Rick Grey (chair) , Harvey Gitlin, Dave Huff , Mary Milne, Lauren Stefanelli . Public: Jim Blizzard, Pauline Layton, Robin Palmer Voting quorum not present Minutes recorded by Harvey Gitlin Meeting convened at 7 : 20 PM Minutes of May 26 meeting read. No amendments proposed. • Public Comment : - 1) Pauline Layton inquired about the memory capacity of the character generation system for the county video bulletin board. Harvey offered assistance in determining memory requirements and options . 2) Robin Palmer requested clarification of Rick' s comment , as quoted in the last paragraph of the May minutes , that "a few. individuals should not be allowed to force policy-making decisions for the other 98% of users . " This referred to the dispute regarding alleged commercial content in the "Save-Our- Strand" telethon (Produced by Jean Finley) , and counter-charges that the complaints constituted harrassment , as discussed in the May minutes . Rick and Mary concurred that the alleged commercial statements were not Jean' s fault . Additional discussion ensued regarding the implications of this dispute, including : the need for clearly defined policies ; the definition of "commercial content; " the possibilities for dispute resolution mediation among the parties involved; and the relative degree to which the policies and the individuals contribute to disagreements among volunteers . . Report of the Access Coordinator: - Submitted by Lauren. See attached document . . Report of the Ithaca Cable Commission: - Submitted by Rick. See attached Resolutions from ICC meeting of June 8 . • Educational Committee: - No educational committee represent- atives were present at the CAAB meeting . Channel 53 is now cablecasting the NASA satellite feed, including live transmissions , as well as taped material from previous missions , during the times when the channel is not being used for other purposes . . . Governmental Committee: - Jim Blizzard requested that appropriate government representatives be added to the mailing list for cable-access related announcements such as the newsletter, regardless of whether they are subscribers . . Capital Spending : Harvey thanked Rick for bringing CAAB capital expenditure issue before ICC (see ICC 6/8 resolution #2) . Jim requested two additional time base correctors for the government channel , according to procedure set forth in the resolution. The funding for TBC's is dependent on its status as transmission (as opposed to production) equipment , currently being negotiated by ACC and the Cable Commission. . Brief discussion regarding extending the use of facilities on the I-Net to generate locally originated programming for cablecasting . Cooperative Extension should be contacted to see if there is any interest on their part, in participating on the I-Net • Minimal new business due to time constraints and lack of quorum. Matt Ryan missed two meetings in row, and should be notified of this previous to the next meeting. Meeting adjourned 9: 07 PM Report to Cable Access Advisory Board June 23 1993 . PR/OUTREACH Cross-channel notices on chanel offset are running on Marketplace. � : New access brochure is out. : June newsletter is out. : PEG-A-SYS Awards set for Sat, 6/26. Refreshments 7pm, live cablecast of ceremony at 7: 30pm. PERSONNEL : job search still underway./ : Greg requested 6-wk chan e to part-time in July-Aug, so ACC is researching a temp position1to fill in the time he' ll be off. POLICIES : request forum of some type to discuss producer limit issue, preferably before July CAAB mtg. : ACC requests that institutions using remote sites to program on access channel provide ACC| with a contact person for off-hours equipment problems. CAPITAL : negotiation meeting with ACC engineer and CAAB cap. comm. rescheduled 2x this month due to individual scheduling problems. Rescheduled for next week. : Ed. and Gov. committees have sent us some input on capital from their June mtgs. ' EQUIPMENT : Multi-channel switcher has not been working properly last 3 weeks. It' s been to SyracuSe and back once, and has just been sent back again. CABLE-NY suspended on 53 until it returns [hopefully next week]. . ''' Effective as of Fall 1993 scheduling season Series Reservation Procedure [Revision to Section VIIl.9 of PEG-A-SYS Policy Manual] 1. Definition of a Series A program series is defined as multiple programs by the same producer or co- producer which all use the same title. Each program in the series may have different sub-titles and talent, be of different lengths, or run at different times. 2. Eligibility to Produce Program Series Eligibility requires that a producer be in good standing and that either: 1) the producer has produced a regular series of programs at the PEG Access TV Center previously, or 2) the completion and cablecasting of a pilot program. 3. Term of Program Series Production and cablecasting time may be reserved on seasonal basis, or any portion thereof. Scheduling seasons are: Spring [January-April]; Summer [May-August]; and Fall [September-December]. Series programs may be scheduled on a weekly, bi- weekly or monthly basis. 4. Types of Program Series A series program may be live or pre-recorded. It may be locally-produced or "syndicated" [produced outside the Tompkins County area]. 5. Other Requirements Series programs are subject to the same program scheduling requirements and producer limits as individual programs [Sections VIII and IX of PEG-A-SYS Policy Manual]. 6. Series Renewal Procedure Series producers may renew their series reservations for each new season under the following terms: New or Returning Producers Up to 1 month before the start of a season, requests are accepted from certified producers who have not had a series during any part of the current season. These producers have their choice of all studio and cablecasting timeslots, and must make specific day/time requests. A producer who had a series cablecasting slot but no. accompanying studio reservation will also be given priority on studio time during this period. Continuing Series Producers One month before the start of a season, continuing series producers are given the opportunity to request renewal of their series. They will be given a 10-day period in which they have priority in doing so. Any continuing producer displaced by a new producer may use this period to reschedule. Series Confirmation Between the 10th and 17th of the month preceding the new season, the access coordinator will make any adjustments in limits needed [see below], and issue confirmation of series requests. Regular Reservation Period Starting on the 17th of the month preceding a new season, the regular reservation period begins. Any available time may now be reserved. 7. Production Limits Production limits may be set in the interest of encouraging diversity of and equitable opportunity to speakers on access. Production limits are also intended to balance the needs of series producers, who schedule large amounts of time in advance throughout a 4-month season, against the needs of others who may wish to schedule production or cablecasting time for programming within a season. Production limits are adjusted for each area by staff at the start of each season according to demand, and are posted on each facility schedule. Limits may be set per individual and for advance series reservations as a whole. Facility time counts towards an individual's production limit if: 1/s/he is the producer or co-producer of the program; 2/ s/he is not the producer, but contributed materially to the development of program content [i.e., served as program host, selected topic, scheduled talent, or produced material included in the program]. Time spent by volunteers assisting on access programs in a technical capacity [camera, audio, director, graphics] is not applied towards their individual production limit. Production limits are divided into 2 categories: Advance Reservations: 3 days thru the end of the current season [limits are posted] Short-Term Reservations: 48 hours or less in advance [no limits on production time: no cablecasting requests accepted]. Example of Suggested Amendment to Long-term multiple Reservations of Production Facilities and Cable-casting Time Submitted To CAAB by Rick Gray Sept. 1 -Dec. 31 Fall Season [Sept., Oct.,-Nov.,Dec.] May 1 -July 31 Advance requests for Fall Season accepted from qualified users who did not exercise their privileges of multiple reservation in the prior season. Requests permitted up to X hours for specific times [ day/time; weekly,bi-weekly, monthly] Aug. 1 -Aug. 10 Renewal of long-term multiple requests from prior season. Requests permitted up to X hours. Rescheduling of reservations would be permitted at this time subject to the same X hour limitation. Aug. 10 -Aug. 31 Additional blocks of time [up to a maximum limit to be set • by the access coordinator] would be allocated on the same X hour basis according to the following priorities: 1. Renewing users who had been dislocated by new users, 2. Renewing users who seek additional blocks of up to X hours. Priority given to users, lumped in this category,on an inverse basis to the amount of long-term multiple reservations received by them in the prior season. Sept. 1 -Dec. 31 Fall Season regular reservation period;first-come,first served. No priorities. Note: The value for X would be determined by the access coordinator based on her best estimates of demand for time[production and cable-casting]. It would take into account reserving times for individual programs and other discretionary scheduling needs. The value for X could very well vary from season to season. JUN 14 '93 14:54 ITHACA COLLEGE - FCS P.2 Resolutions Passed By the Ithaca Cable Commission at the Meeting of June 8th 1993 1) Passed unanimously: The Cable Commission wishes to go on record urging ACC, In any restructuring of its channel alignment, not to diminish services currently offered on the basic tier, and particularly not to relocate the popular services CNN and ESPN to the upper tier. Further, in any re-tiering of access channels we resolve that all of the following are highly desirable goals: 1) To keep the public access channel on channel 13 where it can be viewed on all sets without the necessity of using a converter. 2) To have access channels positioned adjacent to other access channels. 3) To have access channels positioned adjacent to other basic tier channels. Should it prove impractical to simultaneously realize all of these goals, the commission wishes state clearly its conviction that the goal of keeping public access on channel 13 should not be sacrificed In order to achieve the other goals. 2) Passed unanimously The Cable Commission wishes to go on record in opposition to ACC's decision to set aside certain funds in the access capital budget expressly for educational/government access, and to urge that this not be done in the future. The access capital budget should be based on the recommendations of the Cable Access Advisory Board. These recommendations come out of an established procedure which was agreed upon by the Cable Commission, the Access Advisory Board, and ACC, The Educational and Governmental Access committees are part of the Cable Access Advisory Board, and the CAAB makes its recommendations to ACC on behalf of the whole access community. The Cable Access Advisory Board should continue to actively solicit the Input of the educational and governmental access communities in developing its budget recommendations.