Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Date: June 10, 2017 Place: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL Members Present: Peter Folk; Dana Mancuso; Carol Inskeep; Chris Fuller; Andrew Wadsworth Staff Present: Jason Liggett; Jake Schumacher; Sanford Hess I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Folk called the meeting to order at 12:07pm. II. ROLL CALL Attendance was noted. Commissioners Sinder and Polk both notified the Clerk they would most likely not be able to attend; however, Dale did arrive late. III. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved as it stood. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the March 10, 2017 meeting were unanimously approved, after the correction of a typo by Commissioner Fuller. V. CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence to the Commission the past quarter. VI. STAFF REPORT Urbana High student Joey Wright, who works with Jason on the UHS Sports broadcasts, placed third in the IHSA State Journalism Competition. His new weekly summer program starts this week. Volunteer Jacob Bernard is now producing WEFT Sessions, and produced a feature on the Urbana St. Patrick’s Day parade. He is producing other programs and interstitials as well. Other local productions were aired from members Brian Jackson, Carletta Donaldson and Paul Mueth. UPTV also aired: the national marches in Washington, D.C.; the annual Busey Bank Economic seminar; Champaign County EDC’s Page 1 of 3  Innovation Celebration videos; new Urbana Park District PSAs; monthly meetings of the CUMTD Board of Directors; and meetings of the Regional Planning Commission. Jason produced a welter of new spots and features on various City services and events, as well as the regular Art Now!, Cop’s Corner and All About U programs. Commencements from Urbana High School, Middle School and Adult Ed were recorded and broadcast. UPTV provided footage from the City Meeting archives of the late Michael Pollock for a news report on WCIA-3. UPTV fees will remain the same for the coming fiscal year. Jake and Jason will attend the national Alliance for Community Media conference in Minneapolis in July. Archiving will move to an all-digital format to save time and money. Jake will go through the existing DVD archives in the coming year and select programs of historical significance for preservation by, hopefully, the Urbana Free Library or the Champaign Historical Society. Public access programs that have been uploaded to YouTube since 2012 are now available at the Internet Archive. Members can download a copy of their productions directly from the archive. Jason reported on UPTV’s social media for the quarter: --the top story on Facebook reached over 2300 people (Urbana Playscape feature) --the top tweet was an interview with Bill Gray on the MCore Project; --the most popular YouTube video was Urbana v Oakwood baseball, with 200 views. A clips reel of highlights from the last quarter was shown. Chair Folk asked about ways to find out when new programs are added to the schedule. In response to another question from Chair Folk, Jake elaborated on the archiving process and guidelines that he’d be following. VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Carol McKusick said she’d like the France 24 World News to air every night (it currently airs Mon thru Wed nights). Jake agreed, and explained some of the logistics behind the scheduling, and some of the maneuvering of the schedule that the quarterly Free Speech TV fund drive entails. VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Page 2 of 3  The final iteration of the revised UPTV Policies and Procedures is finished and goes into effect July 1. Members will be notified about the revision and their need to sign a new agreement of compliance. Most of the revisions were for the sake of conciseness and to eliminate outdated technology references. IX. NEW BUSINESS Potential underwriters have been identified, a brochure has been printed, and contacts will be pursued. Jake spoke of the need for Commissioners to become personally involved in UPTV underwriting, as the Commission is the closest thing to a Board of Directors that UPTV has. He requested that each Commissioner deliver one underwriting brochure to a prospective business that they patronize. Sanford asked Jake to outline the underwriting opportunities currently offered by the station. Underwriting rates are tied to the actual cost of the productions involved; they are not tax-deductible. There is also a “donate” button on the UPTV website for individual, tax-deductible contributions to UPTV’s community fund. Equipment purchases included three new HD studio cameras and associated hardware. X. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Chair Folk said he was watching more UPTV than ever before, and enjoying the YouTube selections. XI. SET THE NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT The next regular meeting was announced for September 8 at 12 noon in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The meeting was adjourned by unanimous vote at 1:01pm. Page 3 of 3