Posts filed under HCTV Minutes of the Board of Directors

HCTV Board of Directors Minutes Nov 3, 2014

Hardwick Community Television
Board of Directors Meeting
November 3, 2014
Memorial Building, Hardwick, Vermont

Present: Monty Shatney, President Kurt Bos, Secretary/Treasurer Leif Goldberg, Executive Director Rachel Kane Nancy Kellogg John Klee Jon Lussier Dave Mitchell Minutes (as taken by Rachel Kane)
Meeting called to order at 6:03.

Motion to accept the minutes of the July 31, 2014 meeting – made by Monty, seconded by Rachel. The minutes were corrected to include a discussion which had occurred on the idea of embedding HCTV videos into business websites, such as the Town of Hardwick website. A motion was then made to accept the amended minutes, moved by Monty, seconded by Jon. The board voted to accept.

Financial Report The Balance Sheet as of November 3, 2014 – motion to accept made by Monty, seconded by Jon. The board voted to accept, with little discussion. The Profit and Loss, with Previous Year Comparison, as of November 3, 2014. Moved by Monty, seconded by Jon. On a detail, Rachel thought that in future the Workman’s Comp insurance ought to be grouped with payroll expenses rather than with general insurance, to more accurately reflect the total payroll costs. The recommendation was made to do this on subsequent reports. Jon and others were pleased with the financial status of the station. The board voted to accept.

Station Report by Leif The station was asked by the Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union (OSSU) if we could tape and subsequently broadcast a series of 10 public forums which the OSSU has set up in the district to take place this fall and winter. Leif told Marina Groenewald, their communication coordinator, that we could not commit volunteer hours for this, but could do so if the forums had financial sponsorship, which has been arranged. They will pay us $80 per taping. The station will pay operators to film the meetings, unless volunteers turn up. The OSSU coordinator hopes to involve students with some of the filming. The first OSSU forum was being filmed this evening by a contractor, to whom we will pay $50. Apropos of sponsorships in general – the usual charge is $50, but with a lower charge if someone sponsors several events. Monty questioned why we should offer a lower rate at all, and Leif answers that he feels it is a good idea, as it increases support and involvement with the station. Monty is unconvinced. Some of the Woodbury School Board meetings are taped thanks to a paid sponsorship. The next volunteer training will be held in early December. Leif felt it would be a good thing to let volunteers know that, if they are competent enough, that the station might be able to pay them for taping/editing events, and this could be an incentive. The station aired Meet the Candidate interviews with the two candidates for the House seat, which received over 100 views, which was felt by all to be a good response, and something we should continue with in future.

Technical Report by Leif Several pieces of equipment have died or gone wonky recently. One of the editing computers died, and its replacement has just been installed. One of the external hard drives has been giving a lot of trouble too, but may be fixable. A smaller PC appears to have died, and this is the computer that controls the Community Calendar, so the calendar has not been up for nearly three weeks. Dave will see if he can fix this PC. The station was down completely for 2 or 3 days in September, due to a glitch at Comcast, and this was out of our control. Robin has not been able to put many hours in recently, and Leif worries that the station is beginning to fall behind in maintenance and repairs, and editing obligations. Monty will set up a meeting shortly with Leif and Robin to review hours and responsibilities.

Fundraising Jon says we might as well move on from the grocery raffle, which we have run for several years. The return and the effort no longer seem to be worth it. The idea of a coin drop was brought up again – Leif will investigate the idea with the Hardwick Town Manager’s office, and Monty will ask in Woodbury. Jon also suggests we tie our fundraising in with an existing event, such as Spring Festival. The board is encouraged to brainstorm, and bring ideas to our next meeting in January.

Other Issues Jon says that he is planning on filming all of the Hazen girls basketball games this season, and some of the boys games too. He is hoping to involve students with the taping and calling of the games, which would add some color to the game, and hopefully lead to these young people getting involved with the station. The board feels this is a fine idea. Monty moves we adjourn the meeting, seconded by Jon.

Meeting adjourns at 6:55

HCTV Board Minutes: July 31, 2014

Hardwick Community Television
Board of Director’s Meeting

July 31, 2014

Memorial Building, Hardwick Vermont

Attending:
Monty Shatney, President
Kurt Bos, Secretary/Treasurer
John Klee
NancyKellogg
Rachel Kane
Leif Goldberg, Executive Director
Robin Grant, Technical Director and Recording Secretary

Called to order at 6:30 PM

Minutes:
Motion:
Monty moves to waive reading and accept the minutes of the April 14, 2014
meeting, John seconds.

Finance:
Motion:
Monty moves to accept the balance sheet as presented, John seconds.
Rachel says it’s would be great for a workshop to explain how the balance
sheet works. She has been looking at the document for the last couple days
and thinking about that. Monty asks Leif if, in the future, he could include
several past year’s report for comparison.
Vote unanimous

Motion:
Monty moves to accept the profit/Loss statement, Kurt seconds.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous

Executive Director’s Report:
Leif invited previous trainees back in for more training. He brought 4 or 5
people up to interview Robin Cheruby. But Leif wound up doing the editing. People were intimidated by it. Monty says we should follow up to see how
valuable it was. Leif got people to work on parts and got it up on the air in time
for the ‘studio crawl.’ The interview process was good, but the editing portion
was less so.

Kurt has been doing lots of shows. He’s got a new series on local artists and
has done 6 episodes.

Monty suggests doing editing training before the shooting, that way people see
what they need to do to complete a video and what they are getting into, before
the shoot (which is the easy part).

Tax Issue:
The employee’s payroll Social Security deduction was increased in Jan 2013,
and while the Company did pay the increased rate, the employees did not have
the increased amount deducted from their paychecks. This means the two
employees have been overpaid.
Robin has been overpaid by: $260.62
Leif has been overpaid by: $321.85
Total: $582.47

Motion:
Monty moves to waive repayment from the employees, John seconds.
The station is in good shape, Rachel says, it should be a bonus.
Vote unanimous (Robin and Leif abstain, of course).

Employee wages:
Monty says the employees certainly do deserve a raise. He thinks at least 50
cents / hour.

Motion:
Nancy moves to increase wages for both employees by one dollar an hour, Kurt
seconds.
Robin explains that we make $16/hour and have since the station openend in
2005. Robin’s line is $10,000 and Leif’s is $11,500.
[Monty does some math…]
A one dollar raise for both would add $1350 to our annual budget.
Rachel asks some questions to make sure this is affordable… The station is
operating at a surplus…
Vote unanimous (Robin and Leif abstain, of course). Monty says the increase will start tomorrow (August 1, 2014).

Fundrasing:
Raffle didn’t go as well as we had hoped. Leif says made about $465. [Rachel
and Kurt sold their 20 tickets!]
Raffle seems to not be working. The October meeting will have time to discuss
other options. Rachel asks is the fundraising is for increasing visibility or for
funding along with the taxpayer’s appropriations? Discussion about a coin-drop,
and other options. Robin points out that the Town has limited the number of
coin drops.

Other Discussion:
Leif got more training last August…

Discussion of the station’s Facebook page.

Leif notes that we haven’t been selling a lot of DVDs. We sold some Basketball
DVDs, but no Hazen graduation. It’s the result of being on the web. We
decided that it’s more important to have programming on the web, than it was to
sell DVDs. So we have been selling less DVDs…
Leif

Monty asks if we have ever had a Woodbury business sponsor a Woodbury
Select Board meeting, such as Shatney Autobody or the Woodbury Store?
Robin says no. Monty asks about having Hardwick companies cover the
Hardwick Select Board.

Leif mentions that he is doing more technical things and would like to meet with
Robin and Monty about job definitions.

Meeting adjourned at 7:20 PM.

HCTV Minutes of the Annual Meeting: July 31, 2014

Hardwick Community Television
Annual Meeting

July 31, 2014
Memorial Building, Hardwick Vermont

Attending:
Monty Shatney, President
Kurt Bos, Secretary/Treasurer
John Klee
NancyKellogg
Rachel Kane
Leif Goldberg, Executive Director
Robin Grant, Technical Director and Recording Secretary

Called to order at 6:07 PM.

Minutes:
The minutes of the HCTV Annual Meeting of 2013, having been previously
emailed to board members, is up for approval.
Monty moves to accept, Kurt seconds.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous

Annual Report, by Leif Goldberg
Produced 98 programs in-house
Imported 160 from other Vermont AMOs (VMX)Another 40 from beyond
Vermont (PEG Media)
Have been archiving almost all of our locally produced programming on our
website, either using Ustream (live), or Vimeo (edited playback).
We do live broadcasting from here and Hazen High School. We did not use
the live feed at the Town House this year, nor at the Hazen Auditorium. Monty
says we should use those more. Nancy asks about broadcasting school
plays. Leif says that copyright usually prevents that.
There have been 6 days of training so far in 2014 alone.
No serious tech problems, just minor things. Comcast has been consistent.
Inventory changes: bought a second tapeless camera. A match to the JVC
HM-100 we already bought (to replace the aged Canon GL2s).
Comcast’s funding has been going up steadily. Robin explains that this
means more people have been signing on and/or they are increasing the cost of Basic Cable (since we get 5% of only basic cable and not the High Def
channels).
Nancy asks about taking advertising from VTEL. Leif explains that we can’t
take advertising. (Discussion ensues about various internet transmissions)
End of report.

Monty moves to accept the report, John seconds.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous.

Elections:
Monty’s term is up. (He finished Steve Freihofner’s term)
Robin nominates Monty as President for a two year term.
No other nominees.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous.

Monty nominates Dave Mitchell as Secretary/Treasurer for a two year term.
No other nominees.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous.

Nancy Kellogg is nominated by Monty for a two year term as director. No
other nominees.
No discussion.
Vote unanimous.

Community Comment:
None.

Other Discussion:
Monty raises questions about quorum requirements for the Annual Meeting,
which we didn’t think we were going to get for this meeting. No action taken.

Annual Meeting adjourned at 6:30 PM

HCTV Minutes of the Board: April 24, 2014

HCTV Board Meeting
Hardwick Memorial Bldg
April 21, 2014

Called to order at 6:05
Present: Monty Shatney, Leif Goldberg, Kurt Bos, Rachel Kane, Dave Mitchell, Jon Lussier, Nancy Kellogg
Leif:
• Monty Shatney nominated for board president and accepts
• Minutes for 1/8/2014 accepted as read
• Profit & Loss Statement
o Very general
o Total income $11078.69
o Total expenses $8047.65
o Net $3031.04
• Better than last year by approx. $2300
• Expenses are under control
• Motion to accept P&L statement passed and accepted
• LG is working about 14 hours per week, enough to keep things going
• May need more hours to work with volunteers
• Volunteers may want to do more creative stuff
Nancy & Rachel:
• Need more editing classes, especially more advanced classes
Jon & Monty:
• If there’s a need for mour hours for Leif to teach volunteers, 2-3 more hours per week is OK
• Moved and accepted balance sheet
Leif:
• Lots of raffle tickets still available
• Sold 20-25 at Town Meeting
• May want to see at Grange function
• Could sell tickets at Spring Festival and have drawing at 1:30 p.m.
• Need to coordinate with Kiwanis club to get tent space

• Committee to meet May 19, 2014 to coordinate Spring Festival activities
• May need a new camera approx. $2200-$2400
Monty:
• Asked LG to email budgetary info to board members before meeting so we would have time to
go over beforehand
• Need to plan for annual meeting
• Are we bound by open meeting rules? JL: don’t think so, will ask Steve F
• We should post minutes to website
• Should send letter to editor about food raffle

Meeting adjourned 7:00
Minutes recorded and submitted by Dave Mitchell