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Minutes Cable TV Teleprogramming 1 8 08MINUTES OF CABLE COMMUNITY TELEPROGRAMMING COMMISSION MEETING January 8, 2008 CITY HALL ANNEX -1st FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM #3 MEMBERS PRESENT: Sr. Carol Hoverman, Pauline Maloney, Jennifer Tigges, Burton Everist. MEMBERS ABSENT: George Herrig. Two seats remain vacant on the Commission. OTHERS PRESENT: Jim Barefoot, Mediacom Craig Nowack, City of Dubuque Cable TV Coordinator Sr. Hoverman called the meeting to order at 4:10 p.m. 1. Acceptance of the Agenda. Upon a motion by Mr. Everist, seconded by Ms. Maloney, the agenda was accepted unanimously as published. 2. Approval of the Minutes of the December 4, 2007, Meeting Upon a motion of Ms. Tigges, seconded by Mr. Everist, the Minutes of the December 4, 2007, Commission meeting were approved unanimously. 3. Public Comment Mr. Nowack reported that he had been contacted by a Cynthia Cirksena, head of the Dubuque Chapter of the Parents Television Council. She has asked to be on the February agenda to address the Commission. 4. Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School Presentation Mr. Nowack reported the Roosevelt students have not had time to finish their presentation because of the recent school delays and cancellations. 5. Access Equipment Expenditures Mr. Nowack reported $1,400 in interest was received on December 31, 2007. He is expecting a quarterly adjustment by January 20. He noted that there was not much activity in the fund over the past month. 6. Access Programming and Promotion Mr. Barefoot reported that a representative from Iowa Legal Aid is putting together a promotional video telling how individuals with legal issues can come in and get legal assistance. Central High School people are now being trained on how to use the equipment. They have plans to put together a video on the hidden talents of students and staff. Senior High School is at the studio now producing their annual student newscast. This is a statewide competition and lost out to a college because there were not separate categories for high schools and colleges. He also noted that there is quite a lot of political programming being produced. Over the holidays Mr. Barefoot reported that Channel 15 was dedicated to Christmas programming. Mr. Barefoot relayed an idea he has had to write an article on how non-profit organizations can use public access television to promote themselves. This article would appear in Business Times, a publication that gives Mediacom some regular space. Ms. Tigges inquired about Mr. Nowack's plans for his booth at this year's City Expo. He said he planned to focus on the digital television transition. Mr. Everist raised the question of outreach to get the word out about the PEG channels and PEG programming. He suggested some kind of a festival, perhaps funded by a state grant, in order to publicize this opportunity for local residents and organizations. Mr. Barefoot stated that he is pretty busy with all the programming coming in. He thought the next logical step would be to reach out to the local schools that are not contributing much in the way of local programming, specifically Wartburg Theological Seminary, University of Dubuque, Emmaus Bible College, and Clarke College. He said the educational channel is especially light in terms of programming during the summer months when not many students are around. Various methods of publicizing PEG were discussed. Mr. Nowack made the suggestion to revamp the public access channels. If one of the problems is that there is not enough programming to fill all the channels, why not consolidate down to four channels? Use the fifth channel as a community bulletin board to let organizations publicize various events. This channel could also display listings for the other channels so viewers would know when programs will run. Mr. Barefoot thought this idea had merit, explaining that he regularly receives a substantial number of notices that local groups want to get on the air. There was a discussion on the Dubuque Community School District channel. Mr. Barefoot stated that the technical quality of the programming seems to be getting worse, that the video, once just out of sync, now freezes and seizes up occasionally. Mr. Nowack reported that he had had a conversation with Gary Olsen's supervisor at the school district, Jim Puls, in which Mr. Nowack offered his assistance in reaching a solution to the problem of using the new Cablecast equipment and actually scheduling the channel. Mr. Everist moved to place on the agenda items that relate to establishing a community bulletin board and programming on the school district educational channel. After a period of discussion, he withdrew the motion. Mr. Barefoot reported that the third season of Kids in the Kitchen begins taping next Wednesday. Another episode of Maestro and Me will be taping in February. 7. Channel Programming Policies Mr. Everist wondered about a program he saw in which it was announced that viewers could purchase a book related to the program subject by writing to a certain address. He thought this might violate some policy related to solicitation in PEG programming. Ms. Tigges thought that if the announcement did not specifically mention a price or that they were selling something, it probably would be permissible. Mr. Barefoot stated that he has always gone by the policy that as long as the price is not mentioned it is all right. 8. Mediacom Cable Report Mr. Barefoot said he had nothing further to report. 2 9. Cable TV Division Report Mr. Nowack announced that he has hired former Cable Franchise Administrator Merrill Crawford for 6-10 hours per week to help with scheduling, graphics preparation, and field production work until he fills his full-time position. That position has been advertised since Christmas weekend. People need to request the exam by the end of day Friday and have those exams postmarked by January 31. Those that pass the test are eligible to be interviewed. The City's Personnel Director is expecting 30-40 tests to be returned. He informed the commission that the Cable TV budget presentation is Monday, February 11. Cable is the final presenter that evening. Mr. Barefoot offered his assistance that night. Mr. Nowack has a number of shows in production. A show on the budget process has just been completed, there is a show in the works now on the library's renovation, the Finance Department wants to do a show, and there is a program planned for the winter farmers market. 10. Future Agenda Items Sr. Hoverman talked about the iwo items - a community bulletin board and programming on the school district channel -which will be incorporated into the Access Programming & Promotion agenda item in the future. Ms. Maloney brought up the use of Roberts Rule of Order during the course of the meetings. She wondered if the meetings should be structured along the lines prescribed by Roberts Rules. Ms. Tigges said the commission uses a lax form of the Rules. Ms. Maloney thought the meetings might be more productive if the chair recognized speakers so multiple conversations were not occurring at the same time. This tends to get the conversation off subject, away from the agenda item at hand. Mr. Everist suggested that anyone on the commission can raise a point of order when this occurs. 11. Adjournment Upon a motion by Ms. Tigges, seconded by Mr. Everist, the meeting was adjourned at 5:34 p. m.