HCTV Board Meeting
Hardwick Memorial Building
Jan. 8, 2014
Called to order by Vice President John Klee at 6:05 PM
Present: John Klee, Jon Lussier, Dave Mitchell, Rachel Kane, Board Members; Leif Goldberg
(Executive Director), Robin Grant (Technical Director).
Members read the minutes of the October 30, 2013 silently to themselves.
Jon moves to accept the minutes as presented, Rachel seconds.
Vote unanimous.
Kurt Bos arrives 6:08 PM.
Leif has an agenda:
Report from the Staff
Petition for appropriation from Hardwick
Election of President of the Board
Decide on the fundraiser
Budget 2014
Staff Report: Begun Basketball programming. Getting some sponsors. Planning on doing every
home game, as has been our regular plan. Sponsors are slow to get started, with the schedule and
holiday break. $50 per slot, two slots per game, $40 each if someone buys 4 or more, there are ten
slots left.
Still haven’t received the town appropriation money from last year, so that’s not in the profit/loss
standard. Jon says this clearly throws our numbers off for the budget, but if you factor them in, we do
look close to last year. Lief says we seem to be getting more from Comcast every year.
Kurt says he sees some issues with our signal. Jon says it’s clear on his, colors are fantastic.
6:20PM
Bought a new camera out of our capital fund. This new camera is HD compatible, as well as still
shooting in the Standard Definition Digital Video format we used from the start. We have a three year
plan to set aside $3000 each year from our budget. Lief and Robin explain some of the issues that
we’ve been having with the new camera.
Training session this week, there hasn’t been one for a while and people have been clamoring for it.
Dave asks if we could afford a new hard drive recorder. Robin says they are going extinct and are still
very expensive. Rachel suggests asking other stations if they might have one they don’t use
anymore.
6:32 PM
Nancy Kellogg arrives
Petition update.
Lief asked about the petition procedure from the townspeople, we need to get up to 125 to make sure
that we get the minimum needed (is it 105?). Rachel wants to know if the amount can be reduced
back to $2500 at the town meeting. Jon says that there are numerous ways to do that procedurally,
but we would risk getting voted down and passed over, and getting nothing.
Jon says he was against the increase of $500 for the appropriation. The first thing we’ll hear is that
not everyone gets Comcast. Nancy says that the important videos are online and someone that
doesn’t have internet can go to the library. Lief and Robin explains that the justification for the
increase is that we are doing more online videos that are available to the non-cable customers.
Motion:
Dave moves to reduce the request from the town back down to $2500, Jon seconds.
Rachel is not sure, and points out that this locks us in for three years at this rate. Robin says that an
increase can be submitted by petition, and Lief says that would really stand out. Nancy argues in
favor of the increase. Kurt asks if the appropriation could be increased at the Town Meeting, and Jon
say that anything is possible at Town Meeting.
Lief has a couple of pages of signatures on the table already and Patti Coultas has a full one and has
started another. Rachel is more convinced to go ahead with the current wording. Dave doesn’t want
to get shot down for $3000, but he is not against asking for the money.
Dave withdraws the motion.
Motion:
Nancy moves to approve the current petition request of $3000, Kurt seconds.
No further discussion.
3 votes aye, Jon votes no.
Motion passes.
Election of President
Jon asks if anyone here would like to do it? Rachel says she’d be more comfortable next year, but
this is her first meeting and she doesn’t know enough yet. Nancy says she’s do it the year after that.
Motion:
Jon moves to nominate Monty Shatney for President, should he accept it, Dave seconds.
Motion tabled until next meeting (April).
7PM
Fundraiser:
For the last two years, we have sold 200 tickets for $20; while the first year was great, last year we
sold only a little over half. Lief went to The Store Formerly Known As Hall’s Market looking for
sponsors and hasn’t met the new owners, but a manager told him that they are not interested in
sponsoring anything. Jon says that the first year we offered a choice of three places to purchase
from, and last year we had several smaller prizes with local businesses and that list would change
from year to year. Jon now thinks that the five $50 prizes seem to cut into the raffle and confuse
things. We had Charlie Smith, who’s 95 or so, draw the ticket. There were people here and we
broadcast it live. And there was a contribution of the food shelves, which perceived as a selling point
by the public.
The goal is that we make some money and we put some back in to the community. Rachel says that
it is a noble goal, but we were short by half last year; we made several hundred dollars last year. Kurt
suggests not giving out the lesser prizes. Rachel says $1000 is a lot and $500 would be plenty. Kurt
is dismayed by the lackluster sales last year. Jon sold almost half of the tickets last year, he had no
trouble selling tickets. Rachel wonders if the ticket price is too high. Jon says that is the reason for the
limited number of tickets.
Rachel asks about adjusting the amount that we hand out. Lief asks how it would be to give a
percentage to the foodshelves, rather than a hard number. We gave $250 to each food shelf for the
last two years. Dave suggests that we give 5% of the winnings to each foodshelf (10% of the total).
7:15PM
Jon suggests drawing the raffle at Atkins Field at Spring Festival. Rachel says that we start selling
them at Town Meeting.
[Discussion continues regarding price and number of tickets.]
7:30PM
Motion:
Jon moves to offer 250 tickets at $10 each, with $500 of groceries as grand prize, $100 cash second
prize, and 5% each to the Hardwick and Woodbury food shelves, Rachel seconds.
This would net us $1650, minus expenses. Lief suggests 3 $50 gift certificates instead of one $100
second prize. Rachel agrees, that is more happy people. Jon says that last year we also put the
lesser prize winner’s ticket back in for the Grand Prize.
Amendment to the motion:
Jon amends his motion: 250 tickets at $10 each, with $500 of groceries as grand prize, three $50
cash prizes, and 5% each to the Hardwick and Woodbury food shelves. Drawing to be held at Atkins
Field on Memorial Day with tickets going on sale by Town Meeting Day.
Vote unanimous.
7:35PM
Dave leaves.
Budget:
Lief presents a 2014 proposed budget.
There are a few small questions and no objections.
We will save several hundred dollars on tape stock.
Jon is pleased with the variety of programming and the quality of it.
Motion:
Jon moves to pass the budget as presented, Kurt seconds.
No further discussion.
Vote unanimous.
Petition redux:
Lief says we are going after 125 signatures. At this date we have about 80 already.
Rachel says that we can always get more signatures, it gets us more awareness in the community.
Rachel asks Lief to write up a brief statement to support our increase appropriation.
Lief says to get the petitions back to him by the end of next week.
Rachel moves to adjourn, Nancy seconds.
There being no discussion.
The vote is unanimous.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM.