Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Date: September 8, 2017 Place: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL Members Present: Peter Folk; Dana Mancuso; Carol Inskeep; Andrew Wadsworth; Dale Sinder; Marie Polk Staff Present: Jason Liggett; Jake Schumacher; Sanford Hess I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Folk called the meeting to order at 12:06 pm. II. ROLL CALL Attendance was noted. Commissioner Polk notified the Clerk that she would need to arrive late. III. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved as it stood. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the June 9, 2017 meeting were unanimously approved, after Sanford Hess amended the wording to exculpate Commissioner Fuller of a typo. V. CORRESPONDENCE There was no correspondence to the Commission the past quarter. VI. STAFF REPORT Jake and Jason attended the national Alliance for Community Media conference in Minneapolis in July. Among the benefits of attending, aside from the many workshops: we gained a contact at Gracenote to assist in any electronic program guide issues; and we were able to meet with representatives of the vendor for our automation system. Jason, at Jake’s urging, was nominated for and accepted a position on the ACM Midwest Regional Board of Directors. Volo Broadband became UPTV’s first underwriter, for the weather from Total Info for a year beginning in July. Jake is redoing the underwriting brochure for a second campaign. After mentioning there had been no word from Commissioners on underwriting Page 1 of 3  contacts, Commissioner Sinder reported on the three businesses he had approached to no avail. We accepted the resignation of Production Assistant Josef Kash and thanked him for his service. Jason expedited a hiring process that resulted in six candidates (eventually four) being selected for in-person interviews. Final hire was made of Ethan Young, who has considerable video training and experience and was highly recommended by references. Following the interviews UPTV also hired Jacob Bernard as an addition to the part-time camera operator staff. UPTV’s revised Policies and Procedures went into effect July 1. Jason produced a number of local features including new video collaborations with Mayor Marlin and Public Arts Director Rachel Storm, pieces on the KRT opening, the Crystal Lake Park Rehab and the annual kale-eating contest at Market at the Square. The League of Women Voters has returned to live monthly meeting broadcasts. The Freedom Celebration July 4th parade was recorded and broadcast, as will be the CU Pride Parade this fall. New local productions included: a feature on the solar eclipse by Jacob Bernard; a new weekly sports talk show about basketball from Ricardo Vargas and Gavin Campbell; and a new weekly show about wheelchair athletics at UI from Will Gerard. Jason presided over a session with 41 students aged 5-12 years from the Urbana Park District Summer Arts Camp. UHS sports have begun the fall season and we previewed in a special half-hour show hosted by senior Joey Wright. Jason reported on UPTV’s social media for the quarter: --the most popular Facebook post (Farm Credit Illinois at the MATS) was seen by 5,500 people, and was also the subject of the most popular tweet; --the most popular YouTube video was the Freedom Celebration. A clips reel of highlights from the last quarter was shown. VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Carol McKusick asked if there could be an “elapsed-time” clock that would be the same for the live meeting in the room and the on-demand rebroadcasts, for city meetings, as well as an image of the agenda. Jason had followed up with the vendor on these issues: sizing of the image would probably preclude effective simultaneous broadcast of the approved agenda; and there Page 2 of 3  would have to be something developed to provide a running elapsed-time clock (nothing is currently available), and then the City would have to purchase additional equipment to put that into effect. Commissioner Folk provided an alternate solution involving a live countdown clock visible to the attendees of a meeting in the Chambers. Jason said that he could look into it. VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS There is no unfinished business. IX. NEW BUSINESS Equipment purchases were from the previous FY: some microphones and cables and XLR connector kits were acquired. X. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Folk recommends the UPTV YouTube channel. He clarified that the UHS sports broadcasts are included on that channel. XI. SET THE NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT The next regular meeting was announced for December 8, 2018 at 12 noon in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The annual general meeting of UPTV is tentatively scheduled for the following day at noon. The meeting was adjourned by unanimous vote at 12:54 pm. Page 3 of 3