TOWN OF BEDFORD
BCTV BOARD MEETING MINUTES
October 4, 2007
BEDFORD MEETING ROOM
Present were: Coleen Richardson (Asst. Station Manager), Bill Jennings (Station Manager), Richard Rawlings, Chairman Gene Mackie, Mike Izbicki (TC Rep), Terry Wolf (School Bd Rep), Mike Robinson, Mary Lou Wilson and Mike Sills at 7:10 p.m.
Chairman Mackie opened the meeting at 7 p.m.
Old Business – Approval July 19,2007 meeting minutes
MOTION made by Mr. Thomas. Seconded by Ms. Wilson. Vote taken – all in favor. (Ms. Wolf abstained) (Mr. Robinson abstained). Minutes approved.
Chairman Mackie said first item on the agenda is recap of BOTD activities. Jane O’Brien put the whole thing together and we had a nice day despite the rain in the morning. Thank goodness the rain cleared up in the afternoon. The day started with the dedication of the Middle School and High School and we owe a thank you to Coleen and the Bill who recorded an important part of the history of the Town. I was over there at the school for part of the day and the work that it took in setting up the equipment in the gym/auditorium and the interviews with Bedford parents and dignitaries. Coleen and Bill spent their whole weekend working for the School, the Town and BCTV they deserve a lot of praise for doing a tremendous job. If you haven’t had a chance to see the Portsmouth show it
was really well done. At first I thought we borrowed it, not that our quality isn’t good, but I was impressed, it was Bill and Coleen with a tour of the Portsmouth Harbor and I enjoyed the show. Learning about the captains and the first mate, it was very well done. After the dedication ceremony then they came down to join us at BOTD. It was so cold and Mary Lou was wearing Coleen’s gloves and it was windy and you could hardly see your breath and it was still summertime in Bedford, but again Mary Lou and Mike thank you for being there.
Ms. Richardson commented and Gene thank you for emceeing and Mary Lou and Mike for handling the BCTV booth and you brought all the equipment back. Ms. Wilson said and the sun came out right after we packed everything up. Mr. Mackie said we quickly learned how to disassemble the tent.
Mr. Mackie again said thank you very much. Bill congrats on the dedication of the Middle School and High School and I hope everyone has a chance to see what was taped that day. Great interviews with lots of people, parents, dignitaries. It was great fun. I also mentioned the Portsmouth show and I hope that is what you will submit for judging. Mr. Jennings said thanks, I appreciate that.
New Business –
Mr. Mackie said on the agenda it we were going to talk about the frequency of the Bd meeting and then we will review the strategic session information, but let’s do the strategic session first. Ms. Wilson said you’re the boss. Mr. Mackie said what I have handed out is a spreadsheet of the major items that we talked about at the planning session in 2007-2008. What I would like to do is go through them briefly and say high priority; low priority or it has been done. The one thing I want the people to keep in mind in addition to the BCTV policy board and helping Bill & Coleen when they come up with situations and policy has to be written we are here to support the BCTV management in whatever way we can. Whether that is to build up knowledge of BCTV or interests in groups and
continue to be at least in NH the #1 PEG access station. Bill and Coleen you do a great job. Let’s take a look at what we have here. Unless someone has a better way to prioritize these just say high, medium and low. Mr. Sills commented that low, medium and high is a good start.
Mr. Mackie said Item #1 Increase and we need ownership I would say high, we have a good number and since Comcast cannot tell us, we have to build up the community and school will do that and now if we can get parents watching themse4lves that should be a high item.
Item #2 Bob you town leveraging of primary. Mr. Thomas said I talked to Doug today and he has had no luck. He is not hitting the right people anyone that he felt could help with contacts he sent out e-mails to both Republican and Democratic and he expected to get some hits, but it has not happened like he thought it was. Mike & Doug and I will get together to get a strategy, but I know Doug has been swinging away at this.
Mr. Jennings said now that we have changed our policies we can take in something that comes from Manchester.
Mr. Mackie said recap Bill for those who are involved in political campaigns. Mr. Jennings said go to our policies. Mr. Mackie replied and if they have an interest they should? Mr. Jennings said if anyone is looking for answers give us a call. Mr. Mackie said call Bill at 472-8888. What level would that be considered, high? Ms. Wilson said not high. Mr. Thomas said medium, it would be nice to have it as a high priority. Mr. Izbicki said not at this late in the game.
Mr. Mackie said Item #3 Scheduling flexibility. Mr. Jennings said it is done, all taken care of.
Mr. Mackie said how about Pursue Interactive TV Guide? Mr. Jennings said dump it, I spoke to Comcast Rep and it is not possible.
Mr. Mackie said what about Coverage of High School events, would that be considered high. Mr. Jennings said this is still a work in progress, as equipment needs to be installed by Comcast. Comcast goes in Friday and each classroom will be on line in, but there are some restrictions due to when Comcast can go in because students are in classes and Comcast needs to go into the ceiling and they would be opened ceilings and kids walking in the hallway. They will be in Friday walking around the students and running their lines in the auditorium and also working on lines for the High School athletic complex. There is infrastructure involved as well, not only our end, but A needs to be done before B and C is done and then D is major testing. Mr. Mackie asked will it be done some time next spring?
Mr. Jennings said sometime before that. I am hoping that the testing and all the lines are done by Dec 1. I have dates that I am working with regarding Concerts and School Bd meeting for their hearing and when the Town has it budgetary meeting so I am looking for Feb/March timeframe, but January would be great.
There are problems at the school and it is a growing challenge when we work out of that control room no one has ownership they are trying to determine a point of contact. As they get organized we will get organized. I do not foresee BCTV putting microphones there or up on the stage, there will be someone else doing that. We have identified the challenges so we are on top of it.
Mr. Mackie said so as of right now at the school everything is taped and then re-broadcasted? Mr. Jennings replied we will be taping it as we did traditionally and it will not be going out live. Mr. Mackie said thank you.
Mr. Rawlings asked with respect to the wiring internally or was that done during construction phase and not linked into it? Mr. Jennings said we tried to link into it during construction, but there are some things that did not get done, fortunately we do not have to open up walls.
Mr. Robinson asked about the lines to the field? Mr. Jennings said there is a box out there, but there are some additional stuff that needs to be out there and fiber as well. That probably is the further along in the athletic field then the auditorium and the gym we have nothing.
Mr. Mackie asked is there an addition cost to put it in the gym? If there is, is that a BCTV cost or School District? Mr. Jennings said that is negotiable it may be neither it may be Comcast cost.
Mr. Mackie said Address the issues of the day through programming. Mr. Thomas said when someone needs it or wants it. Ms. Richardson responded that they are two separate issues. Identify who produces or will produce the current event shows and Chuck had come up with recruit new and identify issue Town, Government and School District? Mr. Mackie asked who wants to take that ownership? Ms. Wilson said that is redundant it is almost like a live poll would take care of political issues. Mr. Thomas said if you have questions and a show you can call or email in. Ms. Wilson said it could be. Ms. Richardson said there are several items that overlap, like a survey would identify that as well as increase the # of viewers. Ms. Wilson said some of these increase involvement in
sports or programs being offered to seniors or educational program and that would fall under the same then you were talking about Board meetings and budget and shows so that wouldn’t fall under that. Mr. Mackie said let’s hold off and come back to it later.
(Discussion continued going through each item of the Strategic Goals and it was decided that Ms. Richardson would do a summary with ownership to the various areas as a summary which will be included in the minutes for review.)
Strategic Goals and Supporting Programmatic Goals
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(Results from BCTV Board Meeting October 4, 2007)
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Strategic Goal
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I
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Increase the number of viewers
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{Strategic Goal I Leaders: Mary Lou, Mike Sills, Dick R.}
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Programmatic Goal
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A
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Put more people on BCTV with a focus on youth programming
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B
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Leverage the New Hampshire Primary
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(Bob, Mike R.
, Doug P.)
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C
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Coverage of High School events
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(Bill J & Coleen)
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D
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Address the issues of the day through programming
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E
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Live polling
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(Bob Thomas)
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F
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Bring BCTV to the web
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(Bill J./Coleen)
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G
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E-mail broadcasts to Community regarding upcoming events & shows
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(Bob Thomas)
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H
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Surveys
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Strategic Goal
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II
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Increase involvement
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{Strategic Goal II Leaders: Gene Mackie, Mike Izbicki}
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Programmatic Goal
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A
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Host & attend events like Olde Towne Day & the Open House
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(Coleen)
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B
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Increase involvement from schools
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(Terry W.)
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C
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Use BCTV to promote BCTV
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(Bill J & Coleen)
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D
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Create a “How to Get Involved in BCTV” brochure
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(Bill J & Coleen)
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E
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Facilitate production from the home
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F
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Outreach to non-profits
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(Gene Mackie
& Mike I)
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Strategic Goal
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II
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Increase Educational Programming
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{Strategic Goal III Leaders: }
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Programmatic Goal
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A
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Increase the involvement of schools
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(Terry W.)
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B
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Target programming to seniors
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C
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Target programming on hobbies
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D
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Increase educational programming for adults
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Mr. Mackie stated the next item is the Managers Report, are the reports available on the website? Mr. Jennings said no, they are made available to this Board, the Town Manager and Town Council. Mr. Mackie suggested that they should be. Mr. Thomas commented that it is a public document. Ms. Richardson replied that other Department Heads do not put their reports on the Towns website. Mr. Thomas said it is the same as the Town Manger report. Ms. Wilson said if there is a resident who has a concern they can call the station or the Town Manager. Mr. Mackie said so they are available through the Town Manager. Mr. Izbicki said to your point Gene we should just say they are available.
Mr. Jennings replied really if you go to the website you will see what the programming is and all I am doing is a narrative of our programming. It is time consuming and I have too much to do and the report was set-up so that the Town Manager, Russ requires his Dept heads to do this unless there is something more specific that you want. Mr. Mackie said no I do not think so.
Mr. Mackie asked is it the same thing on the Financial report? Ms. Richardson said it is available, but not on the website.
Mr. Mackie asked are Town meetings available for viewing and/or borrowing at the library? Mr. Jennings stated that storing at the library might be an issue. Mr. Izbicki also commented that he did not know if the library has the storage capacity. Mr. Thomas said I think we need to ask the library before we do something like this. Mr. Jennings commented that he knows some Towns do have it available, but I know the Town charges for copies of documents. Mr. Mackie asked what if a resident wanted his or her own physical copy. Mr. Jennings said we would charge $20 to make a copy.
Mr. Thomas said we would have to change the policy and I like the way the policy is. If a resident is hostile over some issue, having Coleen or Bill make a copy and they can buy it and take it home. Ms. Wilson said we really don’t want to open a Pandora box every meeting in Town is taped.
Mr. Thomas said he had a question on Bill’s report you talked about a new server and that you are able to do public scrolls across the screen. We should inform the Journal and the Bulletin so they can let people know when school closings occur so that Tim can put it on so it will be on Channel 16 & 22 because when you watch Channel 9 news, it is always Candia that I see and I miss Bedford so you have to wait and go hook up the computer and thanks to Microscoft it takes 10 minutes. BCTV will have it on when Schools are closed and when Roads are closed due to trees being down. The only concern I have is if Cable works without power.
Mr. Mackie asked Bill who will have access to that? Mr. Jennings said members of the Town and School side. Mr. Mackie asked can you use them for remote shows. Mr. Jennings said any resident can do a PSA and send it to us it will go into a reserve bucket and then we can authorize it. Mr. Mackie asked like the bulletin board?. Mr. Jennings said if they have a Power Point slide or sending us text and we have to create a slide they will have access to our system with the fonts and everything so they can type their message, a simple notice about a nonprofit event that is going on. They can type the information send it to us we can open it and we okay it and it is good to go, we do not have to recreate it. This will make us a little more productive. Mr. Izbicki asked do you get a
lot of that type of information down here. Mr. Jennings said yes. We try to educate the community and you will see something about nonprofits we had, like the Lion’s Club on the Haunted House and they decorated it and they want to advertise it. Mr. Mackie asked is there anything else.
Mr. Thomas said how about when Bedford Basketball League closes their gyms? Mr. Jennings said I will offer this service to the League presidents. We can give that to anyone. Mr. Thomas said as this is a new technology step, I thought to highlight it.
Mr. Mackie asked is there anything else, what about the next meeting, are we going to go every 3 months or quarterly? Mr. Izbicki said how about every other month? Mr. Mackie said I like every other month. Ms. Wilson suggested four times a year or every other month. Mr. Izbicki said like Town Council we go every 4 weeks during the summer. Mr. Robinson asked Mary Lou what is your thought. Ms. Wilson said I think we should have subcommittee meetings done on your own without full board and then at our next Board meeting we will have substance rather than still brainstorming. I don’t know that you need to meet every other month. Ms. Wolf said meeting every other month we don’t have enough to talk about. Three times a year is better and we can present our
subcommittee reports at the next Board meeting.
Mr. Mackie said just be aware that if you have a subcommittee meetings and if there are 5 members that is a quorum and it has to be publicized and an agenda. Ms. Wilson said that is why we have less than 5 on a subcommittee.
Mr. Izbicki said we had a meeting last month in August and we had a lot to discuss tonight and this is what will carry us through until next year with subcommittees. Mr. Mackie said unless a policy item comes up. Ms. Wilson said if something happens you can call a special meeting. Mr. Robinson said quarterly Board meetings are good. Mr. Thomas replied that he would encourage group subcommittee meetings more often.
MOTION made by Ms. Wilson for the Board to me quarterly every 3 –months beginning tonight so our next meeting will be January 2008. Seconded by Mr. Robinson seconded. Vote taken – all in favor. Motion passed.
Mr. Mackie asked is there anything else? Ms. Wilson commented that this puts more responsibility on the board members so we have a report when we come to the meeting rather than a discussion with the whole board, so our meetings will have more substance.
MOTION made by Mr. Izbicki to adjourn. Seconded by Mr. Rawlings.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20. p.m.
Submitted by Jane O’Brien
#22972
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