Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Date: March 13, 2015 Place: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL Members Present: Peter Folk; Chris Fuller; Dale Sinder; Dana Mancuso; Andrew Wadsworth; Carol Inskeep Members Absent: Marie Polk Staff Present: Jason Liggett; Jake Schumacher I. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Sinder called the meeting to order at 12:06pm. II. ROLL CALL Attendance was noted. Dana Mancuso and Peter Folk had notified staff they would not be able to make the meeting. III. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA Agenda was approved as it stood. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the December 10, 2014 meeting were unanimously approved, noting one typo. V. CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence to the Commission this quarter. VI. STAFF REPORT American Community Television notified stations that the CAP Act has been amended and is being reintroduced in Congress. UPTV will air live a town hall forum featuring Representative Ammons and Senator Bennett, and a live presentation for RFPS for South Vine development. UPTV recorded and broadcast: a public forum with the IDOT Traffic Stop Data Task Force; the recent Business and Development Luncheon; recent League of Women Voters meetings; the University YMCA’s Friday Forum lecture series; a University Extension panel discussion on pollinators; the Urbana Page 1 of 3  Police Department Awards ceremony; and a new series of Cop’s Corner programs, now being hosted by Preston James. Jason has just completed a month-long collaboration with the Urbana Middle School’s SPLASH program, in which 13 students produced a full-length newscast. We also recorded and aired the Wiley Elementary School fashion show. Restoration Urban Ministry will begin a weekly hour-long broadcast. UPTV continues to broadcast Urbana High School sports on a weekly basis. There are now both Mandarin and Spanish editions of the Malayalam Health show. UPTV collaborated with CGTV to record the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. CU Immigration Forum has resumed a weekly broadcast. There is a new comedy program called Park Rangers of the Chesapeak [sic], produced in Danville and airing in a late- night slot. Staff suspended public-access production over the holidays to catch up on back-burner projects, and restore the broadcast library in the new Nexus. A retrospective of 2014’s best programs aired the last week of the year. UPTV has 437 followers on Twitter and 455 friends on Facebook. We have issued 1600+ tweets. Jason will be attending the regional ACM conference this spring representing UPTV. UPTV has won two awards in the Best of the Midwest video competition, a Merit Award in the Professional Documentary Feature category for Jason’s Hackberry Tree feature, and the Significant Community Program Award (for the second time in two years) for “Steven Salaita Speaks about His Termination.” A highlights reel from the past quarter was shown. VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION There was none. VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS The first draft of the revised Policy and Procedures was presented at the annual membership meeting, to no comments. IX. NEW BUSINESS Equipment purchases included a new background for our mini- studio, and several replacement camcorders. Commissioner Sinder asked about the features included in the new camcorders. Page 2 of 3  The UPTV Commission’s official Public Input Policies were presented by Chair Folk, as mandated by state law. The Policies were approved unanimously. The Urbana Free Library, the Urbana Park District and the Urbana School District will for the first time be asked to cover the costs of recording and producing the broadcasts of their meetings, until such time as those entities are able to fully take over those tasks themselves. X. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Mancuso asked about any FCC developments in Washington affecting PEG stations. The net neutrality issue does not affect UPTV. XI. SET THE NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT The next regular meeting was announced for June 12 at 12 noon in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The meeting was adjourned by unanimous vote at 12:35pm. Page 3 of 3