Category: HCTV Minutes of the Board of Directors

Hardwick Community Television
Minutes of February 9, 2016

Present: board members Kurt Bos, Corrina Colsen, Rachel Kane, Nancy Kellogg and David Mitchell, and Station Manager Leif Goldberg.

Meeting called to order at 7:04.

Minutes of the previous meeting of October 28, 2015 were approved.

Balance Sheet:
Leif reports that some discrepancies seen in the last set of balance and profit/loss reports have been resolved after he made the entries specified by the bookkeeper.

The funds not required by the actual 2015 budget (due primarily due to payroll hours being fewer than planned for) were added as a new line item to the budget.

Rachel has spent some time looking at our Quick Books, and has made some clarifications and clean ups in the chart of accounts. She recommended that we hire a bookkeeper who can come in to carry on with the organization, and to make correcting entries as needed. We have not had a bookkeeper look over the entire system for some time, and it was felt that a person who could come in to the office as needed would be useful to the station. We will need a solid set of books to take to the bank, should we pursue obtaining a loan for the new broadcast system. Rachel will contact Hazel Greaves to see if she can do this, and perhaps also take over the year-end payroll filings this year. The board approved this move. We will plan to do an audit sometime later in the year.

Balance Sheet approved.
Profit and Loss Report approved.
Budget approved. Corrinna made the motion, Kurt seconded.

Station Report:
Jon Pepe has told Leif that he will not be able to work as many hours as originally arranged, due to personal reasons. Leif will try to get more volunteers to film some events. Some volunteers may be paid a stipend for this work, depending on their experience. Corrina asks if we should be looking for a new hire? Leif thinks we should keep this in mind over the next few months.

Jon Lussier and Lance Hall have been doing a fine job calling the school basketball games.

The station employees are strongly recommending that it is time to upgrade our broadcast system to a web-based system, as many other community television stations have done. The current cable system has some components that are giving problems, and some of the equipment will not be repairable or replaceable at some point. An advantage to a web-based system is that it takes much less time and equipment to put shows on the air, and is especially valuable for live feeds. It will save much time in putting shows up. There was discussion about whether or not there is fiber optic cable in the Memorial building, which would affect the setup of the new system. One of the members will find out for sure.
Leif has looked at two different providers, but the proposals are somewhat difficult to compare in their current form. Leif will get more information so that we can compare apples to apples. Leif is continuing to collect information and advice about the systems offered. Kurt thinks he may know of someone with technical advice to help with the choice.
There was some talk of buying into the Montpelier Community TV web system, which would save us some money, but we do not have definite numbers on this yet. The savings may not be large. Leif has spoken with the bank to get information about a bank loan to pay for a new system, in case we go that route. Corrina asks about writing a grant to help pay for it. Leif says we haven’t written for grants in several years, but we could look into it.

Other Business:
There was talk about the survey idea for HCTV subscribers. It would be good to have something ready at Town Meeting. Board members decided to email questions ideas in for Leif to make something with.

Meeting adjourned 8:29 pm.

Meeting of Hardwick Community Television
October 28, 2015
Memorial Building, Hardwick, VT

Present:
Monty Shatney, Chair
Kurt Bos, Treasurer
Leif Goldberg, Executive Director
Jon Pepe, Station Assistant
Board Members: Rachel Kane, David Mitchell.
(Board Members not present: Nancy Kellogg, Emily Lanxner)
Corrinna Colson arrived 6:35.

Meeting opened at 6:30 pm.

The minutes of the 7/30/15 meeting were accepted by the board (motion made by Dave, seconded by Rachel)

Financial Reports:
Balance Sheet & Profit and Loss Reports : There was discussion about the setup of the financial reports, as some of the descriptions/columns were unclear, especially in the liabilities. Rachel asks when, if ever, we have our books audited, and by whom. Leif tells the board that the books are dealt with by Marckres Norder in Morrisville –that is, they prepare the year end filings, and the payroll reports. Rachel suggests that we get a review of the setup of our books, and investigate if the bookkeepers can do a thorough audit, and to get a quote for the service. She offers to have a look at the QuickBooks accounts at HCTV after the meeting. Kurt makes a motion to accept the financial reports, Dave seconds.

Station Report:
Jon Pepe is introduced to the board. He is now a month into working at the station, and both he and Leif feel it is going well, that he is comfortable with the equipment and that he is picking up fast.

Robin Grant is now employed by HCTV as an outside contractor to help with technical work and the computers, on an on-call basis, and has worked a little bit, but there has not been much need of his services lately. Leif and Jon are keeping up with work needed at this point.

Discussion of the upcoming basketball season at Hazen, and can Leif and Jon cover the 25 or so live games. We may need to hire camera people from time to time. The board thinks would be ok. Game sponsorships would help to pay any extra stipends.

The HCTV live feed at the Hardwick Town House was used during a recent event with the writer Howard Frank Mosher. The Hardwick Town Meeting may move back to the Town House, which we would then be able to broadcast live, something that has not been possible at recent Town Meetings held at the school.

Corinna asks how many subscribers we have – the answer is that we don’t know, as Comcast does not reveal that number. But the total number of cable customers in Hardwick is around 800.

Leif did a presentation on storyboarding at Hazen for a performing arts class, and the hope is that some students will become interested in the station.

There will be a one-day training in November for middle-schoolers, again to encourage students to get involved.

Leif brought to our attention that a program had been produced and aired on HCTV that received a complaint from a viewer. The program was on a sensitive and personal matter, but anonymous. Leif told the board that it was well crafted, and not sensational or slanderous, but as this was the first time we had received a complaint, he took the program off the air until there was time to discuss it with the board. The board felt that there appeared to be no reason to take it off the air, and that if in future people have a complaint, they should submit a complaint in writing. This program will be put back up on the air. Leif will talk to Orca media or other community tv stations to see what liablilty issues there may be with controversial programs, to be sure that our station and board members are not liable.

Other Business:
Monty reminds the board that we are one member short, after the resignation of Jon Klee. Corrinna Colson is asked if she would serve on the board, and she agrees. The board is unanimous in welcoming her to the HCTV board.

Meeting is Adjourned at 7:33 pm.

ANNUAL MEETING, MEMORIAL BUILDING HARDWICK VERMONT JULY, 30 2015

PRESENT:
Monty Shatney, Board President
Kurt Bos, Treasurer
John Klee, Board member
David Mitchell, Board member
Emily Lanxner, Board member
Leif Goldberg, Executive Director
Stephanie Fraser
Diana Peduzzi
Mary Gagnon
Sherrie Olmsted

HCTV Annual Meeting

Annual meeting was opened at 6:33, the minutes from July 2014 were voted on and accepted.

Members voted in for two year terms were John Klee, Kurt Bos, Rachel Kane, and Emily Lanxner.

Leif presented the Annual Station Report, and touched on goals and accomplishments for 2015. Some of these include, creating better space and training for volunteer editing work, increasing collaboration with schools and non-profits, increasing use of social media to share programming, developing a regular program dedicated to birthday wishes, greetings or congratulations.

Community Comment
Diana said she was sad that Robin Grant had been let go, that he had always did a good job for Woodbury, Mary and Cheryl echoed the same feelings, they all thought that Robin should not been let go. Stephanie did not think Robin should have been let go after all of the years he had work at the station, and that he should get a severance package.
Annual meeting was adjourned.

HCTV Regular Meeting

The regular meeting was opened after the annual meeting.

The minutes from April 2015 voted on and accepted

The balance sheet was voted on and accepted

The profit and loss sheet was voted on and accepted

Station updates and personnel. It was voted and passed to advertise for a Production Manager, and to contract with Robin Grant on a as need bases for any IT issues as we need. We will be having a coin drop in August 2016 in Hardwick. Barb Howard had contacted HCTV about setting up an internship at HCTV for Hazen students. Leif had met with OSSU to discuss covering more community forums in the coming school year and indicated interest in covering more school board meetings. Leif had been contacted about the possibility of offering workshops for young people at HCTV and he is excited to work on this.

With no other business to come before the Board, we adjourned at 7:40p.m.

Respectively submitted
Monty Shatney

HARDWICK COMMUNITY TELEVISION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES
MEMORIAL BUILDING, HARDWICK, VERMONT – APRIL 23, 2015

Present:
Monty Shatney, Board President Kurt Bos, Treasurer
Rachel Kane
Jon Lussier
Leif Goldberg, Executive Director
Robin Grant, Technical Director and Recording Secretary

Called to order at 6:18PM by President Monty Shatney
Monty moves the minutes, Kurt second. No discussion. Vote unanimous.
Monty moves the balance sheet as presented by Leif, Rachel seconds. No Discussions, Vote unanimous.
Monty moves the profit and loss sheet, Jon seconds. Monty asks about the increase in gross pay over this time last year. Rachel asks if the number of hours worked has increased. Leif says that is good because this is where our hours should be at this time. Rachel points out that payroll and equipment are higher than before. Leif says we spend about 1/4 of our equipment so far this year because we bought some lights. No further discussion. Vote unanimous.

Station Report:
Leif tallied up all the shows from 2014 for the VAN Annual Report. We’ve made about 10% more local shows than last year. There have been more shows in general, new programming going up a lot more often.
Leif has been working on Facebook, hired a friend for the same rate as Camera Ops, $50-fee. He’s been copying all of our website embedded shows to our FB page. He also looked at our website and got into WordPress, updated it and the theme, fixed some links, added FaceBook box to webpage to cross-pollinate. Another way to get our material out there. It’s just one more added step to changing the programming.
Covered all the basketball games this year, Robin did them all. At one game Robin and Tim tried to get a couple of students but they are all shy. Jon also points out that the rigidly enforced breaks in high school sports don’t give time for a color person to get a word in edgewise.
Monty tells Leif to feel free to get his friend back in if he needs more FaceBook tutoring.
The revenue form the WES and OSSU meetings has created $450 so far, another $400 to be billed, and even more coming. That’s more than $1000 more than last year. There’s one more OSSU to go before the end of that run.
Leif is doing the talent show, “5 Minutes of Fame’. In the past we’ve had volunteers that want to be in front of the camera. We’ve had a couple of calls from people we don’t know.
Leif reports on a meeting with Monty and Robin, the resolution was that Robin and Leif will meet more often. Robin was eager to come in to meet with Leif on Monday, only to forget that
Leif wasn’t there that week. Rachel asks about job descriptions and Leif would like the board to review them. Monty wants Robin and Leif to review the job descriptions and write down what they are actually doing with their time.

Technical Report:
Robin reports that he installed PrintCD on the MiniMac after hearing from Kurt that he had to reboot into OS10.6 in order to do so. The driver/software packages are in the MiniMac Downloads folder and can be put on any 10.7 (or newer) machine. Since Photoshop is now broken, Robin made a New Label Template that has the Meredith Holch logo and “Produced By HCTV” already on the disc when you open it, you then use Print CD to make your label (which sucks because there is not even one level of ‘undo’ on this software). One can still reboot into MacOS10.6 to use Photoshop.
The Office computer is slowly dying. Robin and Leif have had a discussion on merging the Office profile into the VMX computer. To do it ‘right’ the station needs to purchase software: QuickBooks, Office and PhotoShop. Robin and Leif have more to discuss on this front. Robin wants to offer the old 45MHz Dell to a PC vendor in town for parts.
Chad and Wendy Tanner are shooting a video with their daughter on Sexual Assault. This could be a huge thing, given the topic.

Agenda Item: Fundraising
Monty suggests the idea of the raffle like before, but only one prize of $500.
Rachel suggests TV Valentines where someone can out a message on a BBS page at a certain time of day. And Jon says we could do anything and do it year round. Jon also points out that there are dozens of fundraisers during Spring Fest, and we’d be just another one of those. For a small fee they can get a message out. Rachel says there could be a basic version for the set fee, add features for more. Jon would like an on-camera version where people can come to the station and record a message, they might not be so shy then… Birthdays, anniversaries, graduation is coming up. Rachel is starting her busy time, can we get this ready in time for graduation? Leif says we need a name and a set time of day when it’s aired. Robin says the easiest way to do it would be a PPT file exported to a QT file and put on the broadcast computer.

New Business:
Monty is no longer on the Select Board and by-laws state that one board member has to be in town governance. Leif spoke to Sherri Cornish who is on the board of the Town House and the Select Board, but she is really busy. He mentions the live feed down there that we almost never use. [Discussion on who is eligible. By-Laws are not clear, even the Weigher of Coal could be our board member.]
Monty asks if the meetings were to start at 6:30PM, would it be easier to get people there.

Old Business:
None.
Jon moves to adjourn, Rachel seconds, no discussion, vote unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 7:01PM