Category: HCTV Government
Minutes of January 29, 2025 HCTV Board MeetingMinutes of January 29, 2025 HCTV Board Meeting
Meeting called to order 3:10 pm. Present: Steve Freihofner, Rachel Kane, and Jim Kelty & Macy Molleur. Absent Kurt Bos, Rip Keller
Additions to the Agenda: none
Public Comment – none.
Minutes of the December 4, 2024 meeting were approved.
Director’s Report
Macy has sent the board a summary of activities for her report.
Bookkeeping has been assisted with Beth Springston, but she is busier than she wants to be, and it is time to find someone new. Macy estimates that Beth worked for about 4 hours per month. Steve will ask someone he knows in Woodbury, maybe she could take this up.
A new sponsorship for basketball is the Village Restaurant. We have 6 full time sponsors now, and a few part-timers. Currently the cost to sponsor is $45 per game, or roughly $800 for a full season. Macy muses that we might charge more for late season or championship games, but the board does not support this idea.
Macy met with a Comcast rep. Within two months they plan to upgrade the station to High Definition. Comcast is expanding into Greensboro, and the board has questions about whether Greensboro will now be part of our PEG area. We await to hear back.
Hazen Union does not currently have space for a studio, we had hoped they would – but maybe some time in the future.
Could we build a studio on the first floor of the Memorial Building? Rachel will sound out the town manager.
The hoped for reciprocal arrangement with WGDR/WGDH has not come to pass for this basketball season. They have not been running our ads.
The station website upgrade is happening, slowly.
President’s Report – Steve asks Macy and Jim to track hours spent on the cable tv tasks, so we can compare income vs expense under our Comcast arrangement. It has been 20 years since HCTV was incorporated, shall we have a celebration party? The board approves.
Other business:
Jim says that a report to VAN is due the end of May.
The board votes to pay Kurt Bos $100 per production, starting on January 25, plus a lump sum of $500 in recognition of the past work he has generously donated to HCTV.
Preservation/disposal of the old tapes in the studio. The historical society will take them, we will transfer these over there when the weather warms up.
Macy advises the board that she will be moving out of state this year, as early as late August.
The board enters executive session at 5:05.
Meeting adjourned at 5:20 pm. Next regular meeting is scheduled for March 12, 3 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Rachel Kane, secretary HCTV
DRAFT Minutes of December 4, 2024 HCTV Board MeetingDRAFT Minutes of December 4, 2024 HCTV Board Meeting
Meeting called to order 6:06 pm. Present: Kurt Bos, Steve Freihofner, Rachel Kane, Rip Keller and Jim
Kelty & Macy Molleur. Guest Ada Marotzke.
Additions to the Agenda: Discuss meeting schedule.
– Discuss whether and when HCTV could begin to ask to be paid to cover events.
– Request for HCTV to participate in a Hardwick Equity Program.
Public Comment – none.
Minutes of the October 23 meeting were approved. Motion to accept by Kurt, seconded by Steve.
WGDR/WGDH Funding Request. – HCTV has been underwriting a radio show on WGRD/WGDH for a
few years, the question being shall we continue? For approximately $700 a year we get a mention twice,
during one radio show (currently Relocalizing Vermont with Carl Etnier), once a week, during drive time.
We need to begin economizing more, given the uncertainty of future funding, and the continuing
shortfall of income vs expenses, but it was pointed out that this expense would not sink us. It is good for
HCTV to support other local media, and maybe we could expand the connection. Macy will stay in touch
with the station manager. Voted to sign up for another year, proposed by Kurt, seconded by Rip.
FY 2025 Budget: The budget lays out the situation that HCTV continues to spend beyond its means.
Discussions about where to shave expenses, but no substantial savings can be seen right now. New
equipment is a big item, approx. 14,000$ proposed for equipment for both the station and Hazen Union.
We hope that in future the school will be able to film their own games, at a substantial savings to the
station. On a plus, we will be getting more funding from Hazen to cover the sports games. We will
continue to look into more funding sources, including charging a fee to cover some events, and grants.
The budget does not include anything coming from state funding, but we anticipate that there will be
something coming, albeit it might be a small amount. Budget was passed, Rip proposed, Kurt seconded.
President’s Report – More on the Hazen Union connection. Hazen received a Community Scholars
Grant, and this can be used to build a studio at the school. Students could receive credits for training
and for filming events. A great thing about this is that HCTV staff could access the studio outside of
school hours, and have a dedicated space with more elbow room. The next step will be to create a
memorandum of understanding, and Steve will be working on this.
Director’s Report – Macy distributed a written report. Some updates at the meeting are that we got
$544.44 from the bottle drop in November. She continues to look into draping or somehow protecting
the server rack, in case the sprinkler system is triggered. Comcast has not been forthcoming with ideas.
Buying a proper housing is quite expensive, and hard to know how to choose. It is settled that we cannot
simply drape the rack with plastic, because that might overheat the equipment. Macy will ask around at
other stations for ideas. The ‘Lawn Sale’ referenced would be for the old equipment and cameras, sometime in late winter or spring we could have the sale. More input from the board is asked for, to
work on the website.
Meeting Schedule – it is decided that we will meet approximately every two months.
Payments for Filming Events – We now see how much it costs us to film and edit the various meetings
and events. We have never charged so far. It is a big topic, we need to work on this outside of regular
meetings, and will continue to create a policy.
Request for HCTV to participate in a Hardwick Equity Program – the time commitment is substantial,
and the board does not see it in our mission to participate. Steve will write to tell them.
Meeting adjourned at 8:03 pm. Next regular meeting is scheduled for January 29, 3 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Rachel Kane, secretary HCTV