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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2018-03-06 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, 6 March, 2018 at 5 PM - (As approved April 3, 2018) Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Present: Chair Rich DePaolo, vice-chair Wies van Leuken, secretary Wayles Browne, member Sue Perlgut, Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo, 5:08. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Approval of Minutes of the February 6, 2018 Meeting: Approved 5-0 with small corrections. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached) a. 2017 Usage Fees Report showing receipts, uses & final balance. Stefanelli reports that the current balance is $340. The funds are kept in a secure cash box at the Spectrum facility. See also Appendix 4 of the attached report. b. 2017 Subscriber Fee Report ($ 0.15/subscriber/Mo revenues): This report was due at the February meeting. No report was submitted. Spectrum has been unable to access the data for this report. AOC will contact Spectrum’s director of government affairs Chris Mueller to press for the information. The subscriber fees are earmarked for purchasing PEG equipment. Without the report the AOC cannot recommend an equipment budget to the municipalities, which is a requirement under the F ranchise Agreement. c. PEGASYS Awards ceremony on March 23. Stefanelli reports that the judges have completed their work. Expenses for the ceremony are covered. 06. Member Reports a. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City, Town and Village: van Leuken said that reports are due from the City for Q1-4 of 2017, from the Town for Q3 and Q4, and from the Village for Q4. The Town received its Franchise Fee for Q4; it included the accumulated .5% deductions for PEG staff that had not been withheld for about a year. DePaolo and Nguyen will make sure that the reports are filed. The Village of Cayuga Heights is receiving their Franchise Fees on time, but the required worksheets arrive about 3 months later. b. PEGASYS and the Ithaca Festival Parade. The AOC appreciates Stefanelli's suggestions in her Report and is in favor of having a PEGASYS float in the parade. c. Funding equipment for educational institutions: there have been no expressions of interest. AOC decides to drop this agenda item. d. AOC's 2018 Equipment Purchase Report to City. It had been resolved to let the 2018 budget funds accumulate and become part of the 2019 budget. The AOC reports that indeed none of the funds available for 2018 were used. 2 e. Request for Usage Fees funding. Van Leuken: Can we cover expenses for the Open House from these funds? The AOC asks Perlgut to ask Tom Stern about his out- of-pocket expenses for organizing the Ithaca in Jeoparody contest and the costs of the art supplies for the show’s mural on the back-drop curtain, and to bring that information to the next meeting. The AOC proposed buying Stern a $50 gift card as a thank you for the work he has put into the contest. Perlgut agreed to get one. f. Publicity & Outreach Committee - report on Open House set for April 2, 2018. Perlgut sent the press release out today. The program showcases the possibilities of public access television. There will be demonstrations on how to use the studio’s equipment and facilities, light refreshments and as a finale a live cablecast before a studio audience of Ithaca in Jeoparody. Brent Bossard, Executive Director of Cinemapolis will MC the show with contestants Mayor Svante Myrick, School Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown and graphic artist/producer Mickie Quinn. Information is posted on https://www.facebook.com/ithacainjeoparody. g. PEGASYS issues. Members of the public have expressed dissatisfaction with Charter dropping Public Radio/TV station WSKG-TV from Binghamton. Dropping this station was announced in an ad that Charter put in the Ithaca Journal's legal notices. Also, on the back of monthly Charter bills is info about where to look to find out about program changes. The Ad-Hoc committee discussed renaming PEGASYS the “PEGASYS Community Media Center” to better reflect what it offers the community. The AOC agreed. Ithaca College TV and BronxNet (New York City) have websites with links to click on in order to get all previous shows in a series: http://ictv.org/; https://www.bronxnet.org/. Van Leuken says that the new system for uploading PEG programs is a problem for people who do not have their own computer. Also when there are problems, a producer must bring his or her computer to the Studio for technical assistance. She proposes that one of the Studio computers be made available for these purposes. Stefanelli states she was told by Charter not to do that. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo understands that Charter would like to see a municipal or non-profit entity administering PEG. DePaolo and City Attorney Ari Lavine are opposed to such a change in the short term. Rochester has shifted to a city-run entity and the company gave it the old building after having built a new one out of town. 08. New Business: none. 09. Next meeting: Tuesday, April 3, 5 pm. 10. Adjournment 6:45. ================ Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Ducson Nguyen, continuing Common Council liaison <dnguyen@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member Sue Perlgut <sperlgut@gmail.com>. 3 Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>, <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>. Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4@cornell.edu>. Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http://pegasys.webstarts.com/index.html studio location: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York mailing address: 519 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 phone (607) 272-7272 fax (607) 277-5404 PEGASYS staff: studio manager Lauren Stefanelli <Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com> 4 March 2018 Access Studio Coordinator Report  2017 Channel and Facility Usage Reports Usage of channel 13 and PEGASYS equipment for 2017 is attached [App. 1 -3]. 2016 data follows 2017 data for comparison. Equipment usage is up significantly in all equipment areas over 2016. Programming is also up over last year. More new locall y- produced shows, more syndicated new shows. Note that the dollar amounts for equipment use reflect our rental rates, and provide an idea of the in -kind value to the community.  Usage Fees Usage fees available as a cash fund for at-will spending as authorized by the AOC totals $340. We have a secure cash box for keeping these funds. Report attached [App.4]  PR Activities PEGASYS Awards: The awards preparations are underway. Judging is completed, trophies ordered. The awards ceremony will be held on Friday, M arch 23, at the PEGASYS studio. Socializing from 7-8 with a live awards ceremony from 8-9:30pm. PEGASYS Open House: The open house committee, led by Tom Stern with his celebrity game show, has continued to meet. We have solved the issue of connecting a laptop through our control board, celebrity contestants are on board, ICTV crew agreed to help, press release sent. Several producers agreed to demonstrate equipment or screen their work. The event is scheduled for Monday, April 2, 5:30 -7:30pm. PEGASYS 40 Year Anniversary in Ithaca: Public access started in 1978 in Ithaca, making 2018 our 40th anniversary. I had the idea of having PEGASYS personalities participate in the Ithaca Festival parade, and several people have expressed interest. One producer can get the loan of a hay wagon to use as a float, so I will be putting together another group to work on this project.  Institutions Ithaca H.S.’s video instructor Jonathan Shyne is now working in our main studio to train 2 of his students to run a weekly live sports show, which is meanwhile running from the mini-studio. Mr. Shyne was also a judge for our awards, and promises to start playing his students’ work on channel 16 so they can enter the PEGASYS Awards next year.  PEGASYS Equipment Maintenance and Repair We have 2 broken wheels on our studio ladder. We ordered and received 4 new wheels. Our engineer promises to get them installed this week.  Cablecasting Policies Charter’s access policies and program paperwork will be issued to Ithaca in April.  Cablecasting File uploading and downloading now in use by 8 producers. I wrote a handout to help producers understand how to use the system. 5 Appendix 1. 2017 PEGASYS Equipment Usage 2016 PEGASYS Equipment Usage 6 Appendix 2. 2017 Channel 13 Programming Summary 7 Appendix 3. 2016 Channel 13 Programming Summary Appendix 4.