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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2018-12-04 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes December 4, 2018 at 5 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Community Media Center 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Present: Chair Rich DePaolo, vice-chair Wies van Leuken, secretary Wayles Browne, Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; member of the public: Tom Stern. Excused: Common Council liaison Ducson Nguyen (illness). 01. Call to Order 5:13 by DePaolo. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments. Tom Stern, update on Jeoparody. The new edition of it can't be in December. Stern is holding a preliminary reading of a screenplay Dec. 9, seeking a cast, and most of his energy has gone into that. 04. Approval of Minutes of the November 6, 2018 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo, seconded by van Leuken, approved 3-0 without change. 05. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached). Stefanelli is now (Dec. 2018) inviting requests for timeslots which will cover the whole year 2019. She will ask again in Dec. 2019. Producers seem happy with this proposed pattern of scheduling. Van Leuken notes that the volume on the 3 PEG channels is lower than on other channels, and asks Stefanelli to look into this. DePaolo suggests using audio compression on programs being broadcast, to increase the average volume level. Stefanelli says that there is compression at present. a. Podcasts - update. DePaolo inspected a microphone the studio has; he finds it is usable for podcasts because it has a built-in connector to digital, and suits the frequency range of speech well. For beginners at podcasting, there is no need to invest in high-end audio equipment. -- Van Leuken will ask Nguyen, an experienced podcaster, to do a demonstration, and will also discuss putting his podcasts on TV. b. Archiving public access shows – update. Lauren will contact the Public Library once again. c. Equipment purchase: no response from Spectrum. 06. Member Reports a. Usage Fees – Resolution. 2 Resolution Access Oversight Committee Tuesday, December 4, 2018 Resolution to amend the level of Usage Fees WHEREAS, Section 15.6-4 of the Franchise Agreement between the City of Ithaca and Time Warner Entertainment-Advance/Newhouse Partnership (TWC) of January 2003 requires that the participating municipalities (City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights) assess a Usage Fee to users of the PEGASYS Community Media Center (“PEG users”) who do not reside in these municipalities, and WHEREAS, a Usage Fee Schedule was first adopted by Reso lution by the City of Ithaca at its regular meeting of December 7, 2005 and endorsed by Resolution by the Town of Ithaca at its regular meeting of December 12, 2005 and by the Village of Cayuga Heights at its regular meeting of December 19, 2005, and was put into force effective January 1, 2006, and amended by Resolution by the AOC on October 9, 2012, and WHEREAS, TWC and its successor Charter Communications Inc. d/b/a Spectrum Networks has collected said Fees, pursuant to Section 15.6 -4 of the Franchise Agreement and the AOC resolution of February 6, 2018, and therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the current Usage Fee Schedule shall be amended as follows: PEG Access Users not residing in the Participating Communities shall be charged a fee of $20.00 for Individuals or $50.00 for Organizations, which is due when Users first receive training, and every six months thereafter, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution will take effect upon the date of approval. Moved by DePaolo Seconded by Browne Approved unanimously, 3-0. b. Publicity & Outreach. The P&O subcommittee is still on hiatus pending new membership (in view of the resignation of AOC member Sue Perlgut). We will consider new publicity or outreach events (including Jeoparody) at the next meeting. Van Leuken has drafted a write-up for Not-for-Profit Organizations, to tell them about opportunities for using the studio and the Bulletin Board; Stefanelli will look through it and distribute it. c. AOC board membership. Sue Perlgut has resigned (by letter of November 26, 2018). DePaolo has e-mailed Nguyen asking him to forward Sue's letter to the proper person in the City of Ithaca staff. d. 2018 Q3 Franchise Fee Report from City, Town and Village . Van Leuken requests DePaolo, Nguyen and the Village of Cayuga Heights to re-send to her the latest information on franchise fees received by the Town, the City, and the Village respectively. 3 e. PEGASYS' Access Rules. Van Leuken suggests that Stefanelli put a binder together with all forms and existing rules. 07. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement. DePaolo has spoken to City Attorney Ari Levine, who has e-mailed Charter. No response yet. Some members of the negotiating committee feel it's an impasse and the New York State PSC (Public Service Commission) should be called in. 08. New Business. In view of Sue Perlgut's resignation, the AOC adopted the following Resolution Access Oversight Committee Tuesday, December 4, 2018 Resolution in Appreciation of Sue Perlgut’s service to the Access Oversight Committee WHEREAS, Sue Perlgut has served as a member of the City of Ithaca Access Oversight Committee (the Committee) for two years, and WHEREAS, Sue enthusiastically promoted the profile and visibility of local access television through her participation in the Publicity and Outreach subcommittee, and WHEREAS, Sue shared her expertise in social media by organizing a workshop for members of the public, and WHEREAS, Sue was integral in the organization and promotion of the inaugural “Jeoparody” show, which was a resounding success, and WHEREAS, Sue was an effective advocate for public participation in access media, and WHEREAS, Sue resigned from the Committee, effective December, 2018, therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Committee wishes to recognize Sue’s invaluable service and extend its sincere appreciation. Moved by van Leuken, seconded by Browne. Approved unanimously, 3 -0. 09. Next meeting: 5 pm, Tuesday, February 5, 2019. 10. Adjournment 6:50 pm. ================ Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Ducson Nguyen, Common Council liaison through 2018; Rob Gearhart, Common Council liaison 2019- <rgearhart@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member [vacancy] 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 Community Media Center 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 4 fax (607) 277-5404 PEGASYS staff: studio manager Lauren Stefanelli <Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com> 5 December 2018 Access Studio Coordinator Report  Public Relations We did a marvelous experiment of outreach last weekend. The local Amnesty International chapter held their letter-writing meeting at PEGASYS. They created a video project component to the meeting by offering members the opportunity to record a short video in our mini-studio about one of the Declaration of Human Rights articles and why it was meaningful to them. A group of local people with no video experience and no prior history at PEGASYS were able to record moving stories that will run on channel 13. In addition, Amnesty member Wies van Leuken introduced quite a few participants who staff other local non-profit groups to me so that I could explain how PEGASYS can be of service to them. The event met all of Amnesty’s goals while giving PEGASYS more visibility as well. I will help AOC and AI member Wayles Browne complete the Amnesty video right after this month’s AOC meeting.  PEGASYS Equipment Maintenance and Repair Our laptop [#4] with power issues was sent for evaluation in September. No word on its status yet.  PEGASYS Series Renewal Series renewal for 2019 is in progress. As a streamlining measure, starting in 2019, I will have series producers/providers request their timeslots only 1x per year instead of 3x per year.  Local Organizations Local theatres The Cherry Arts and Running to Places have started submitting their theatre promo videos to channel 13, as well as running them on their websites. We are running promos for both theatres’ December shows. I worked with the directors of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and Historic Ithaca to produce 2 programs that are a video version of their summer walking tour of development projects in Ithaca.