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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2022-03-01 1 MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC) (as approved April 5, 2022). Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 5 PM The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM conferencing. Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, Common Council liaison Jorge DeFendini; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; members of the public Patrick Pinney, Tony Ingraham, Will Metro. 01. Call to Order 5:03 by DePaolo. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments. Pinney: Jim Blizzard and I find that the Twitch platform successfully streams broadcasts; we are working on a set-up that can be easily administered by others also. An additional laptop might be needed. Stefanelli will check with Blizzard. Ingraham asks about progress in making PEG channels available on the Spectrum app. DePaolo: this question will be included in the planned letter from the City Attorney to Spectrum. Metro: the Governor has lifted mask mandates. DePaolo: we'll discuss COVID policy later in the meeting. 04. Comments by AOC members: none. 05. Approval of Minutes of the February 1, 2022 Meeting. Moved by van Leuken, seconded by DePaolo, adopted without change 4-0-0. 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report: submitted by Stefanelli in writing (attached). a. Report on equipment use and program analysis for 2020 and 2021. As expected, due to Covid closings, fewer people used the studio to make programs and more used their own equipment to do so ("Non-PEG production"). Overall, more shows were produced in 2021 (584) than the year before (548). b. Discussion. Van Leuken asks if Stefanelli can now mail letters. Stefanelli: Yes, I have a supply of stamps, can send and receive mail. Van Leuken: Are City meetings still not telecast on channel 15? Stefanelli: The City Clerk knows how to send files from Zoom for cablecast, but hasn't yet. DeFendini: City meetings remain virtual (till full expiration of Governor's order next month). DePaolo asks DeFendini to let the Clerk know of AOC’s concerns that City meetings should return to Channel 15. 07. Member Reports a. AOC's 2021 Equipment Purchase Report to City. Charter reported 1/4/22 that no equipment purchases were made in 2021. The AOC is reporting this information to the City by way of these Minutes. b. 2023 Budget. Van Leuken: AOC needs the 2023 budget recommendations from Charter by the April meeting. DePaolo: hopes that by then we'll have more info about apportionment of funds (equipment for the iNet that Charter is obligated to provide vs. equipment for the studio). Stefanelli: Charter manager knows of the April deadline. Concerning last year's quote: the vendors' prices may have changed since then. 2 Charter had Audio-Video Corp. look at the mini studio which operates with old equipment; no quote from AVC yet. c. AOC Vacancy. AOC needs a person from the City of Ithaca to fill the 5th seat. Van Leuken has sent another notice to producers along with the Agenda; no responses yet. DePaolo: please ask again, separately from sending the Agenda. d. PEGASYS’ operations. Re the Governor's relaxation of Covid regulations: Stefanelli hasn't heard from Charter on this. DePaolo: if there were to be no more mask mandate even for unvaccinated persons, how will this work for Stefanelli? Stefanelli: when alone, no mask; if people come in from outside, they are required to mask. DePaolo: Should AOC change its policy? Van Leuken: Let's advocate masks except in the ministudio and editing room (where producers are by themselves). DeFendini: has seen friends be lax and catch Covid, so, for group presence favors masks. DePaolo: So we favor: no mask when alone, masks when with others if social distancing cannot be maintained. I'll e-mail this request to Lauren Kelly (Director, Government Relations - Finger Lakes, Charter) Van Leuken: a new producer told me that he couldn't upload his programs to the PEG server with his Mac. He was in touch with staff and the Server’s administrator. Tried various ways. Stefanelli: sometimes uploads are not successful but any number of producers use it regularly. Everybody has different experiences. I forwarded his e-mails to our administrator, but the admin still needs computer-specific info from him. Van Leuken uses the system, has occasional problems with it, but needed technical assistance before Filezilla worked on her computer. Ingraham was able to gets things to work on his desktop Mac, but not on his laptop Mac. AOC would like to know the experiences of other producers. DePaolo asks if there are further problems. Stefanelli: Bill McGill is waiting for the mask mandate to be lifted so that he can come back to the ministudio. Van Leuken: At the last meeting we discussed removing educational and governmental equipment funding from our February agenda. I found that we cannot do that because the Franchise Agreement requires us to submit a budget for all of PEG. e. Website. DePaolo has looked at simple websites; sent to members a link to a Wix sample. Typically these cost $100-200/year. But the question remains: who would administer a site? Stefanelli now posts the series grid and 1-time shows on the webstarts.com site. Charter managers place the text for the first page of the webstarts site. DePaolo: Inform Charter that we want a modern website with staff administering it? Van Leuken: Let's add a website item to the next budget. DePaolo: will raise the subject in my Email to Lauren Kelly. 08. Old Business. Stefanelli: Charter staff asked me to ask the AOC to remove ongoing agenda items that were covered at previous meetings and provide more information on agenda items so that they are better prepared for the meeting. DePaolo: when these items result in actions of concern to Charter, they are relayed to them. He asks van Leuken if she could put more explanation on agendas. Van Leuken wonders how this would work. After discussion, the AOC agreed that (1) van Leuken will send a draft agenda not just to DePaolo, as was customary, but to all AOC members; (2) members have 24 hours to give their comments to DePaolo; (3) DePaolo prepares the final draft and (4) this final draft will be mailed out by van Leuken to all concerned. 09. New Business. None. 3 10. Next meeting: Tuesday, April 5, 5 pm, in person (?). Location: TBA. 11. Adjournment 6:27. ================ Authority: City of Ithaca code Chapter 18, "Cable Access Oversight Committee". Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca 11-5-2003 by Ord. No. 2003-17. Available at https://ecode360.com/8386207. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2022 Jorge (George) DeFendini <gdefendini@cityofithaca.org> City of Ithaca: (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: https://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 Lauren Stefanelli COMMUNICATIONS PEG Coordinator Access Oversight Committee Meeting, Ithaca, NY Coordinator Report 3/1/2022 Equipment Maintenance/Repair Issues:  No issues this month. Equipment Recommendations:  Vendor recommendation is still pending. PEGASYS Production Equipment Production Equipment 2020 Access Users 2021 Access Users Edit Computer (Field) 6 0 Edit Computer (On-site) 4 0 Field Equipment 6 6 Main Studio 12 0 Mini-Studio 6 1 PEGASYS Programming Information Type of Program 2020 Shows 2021 Shows PEGASYS Production 167 131 Locally Produced (Non-PEGASYS Production) 140 210 Syndicated (Produced out of area) 241 243 Total 548 584 Ithaca 2022 Equipment Purchase Report Vendor Quantity Item Individual Cost Total Total 0 519 W. State St. | Ithaca, NY 14850 P (607) 272-7272 Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com 2022 February PEGASYS Fees Report Name Municipality Description Amount Total 2022 Beginning Total $441.81 Andy Finkle Dryden Membership Jan - Jun 2022 $20.00 $20.00 Erin Leidy Ithaca Equipment Rental 1/27/22 $10.00 $10.00 Current Total $471.81