CABLE ADVISORY COUNCIL
P. O. Box 87
Newtown, Connecticut
~ Minutes ~
Minutes of Public Regular Meeting –
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Newtown, CT
There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2012 by Chairman Jim Lang at the Charter Communications facility, Newtown, Connecticut.
ATTENDEES: Chairman Jim Lang (Trumbull), Vice Chairman Carmella Amodeo (Newtown), Douglas Branson (Kent), Gregory Davis (Roxbury), Ray Juskiewicz (New Fairfield), Paul Katzmark (Southbury), George Linkletter (Sherman), Stephanie O’Rourke (Kent) From Charter: Greg Van Antwerp (Public Access)
PUBLIC INPUT: None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Ray Juskiewicz made a motion to approve the minutes of the May 8, 2012 meeting as presented. Carmella Amodeo seconded the motion.
Vote: 6-0-1 (Motion approved- George Linkletter abstained)
TREASURER’S REPORT:
Chairman Jim Lang read the Treasurer’s report in Carl Braun’s absence. The checking account balance is $4,585.57, the money market account balance is $6,158.08 and the 12 month CD has a balance of $13,463.72 for a total of assets at $24,207.37.
Gregory Davis made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented. Stephanie O’Rourke seconded the motion.
Vote: 7-0-0 (Motion approved)
(Treasurer’s report attached to the minutes of this meeting)
COMMUNICATIONS:
Jim Lang spoke of a letter he received from Kimberly Santopietro from PURA asking the Advisory Council to help spread the word regarding the PEGPETIA Grant program. Mr. Lang encouraged members to have their town apply for grants. These grants must be used for equipment. Mr. Lang spoke of the application process and noted that a report of how funds are spent must be submitted. It was noted that the Town of Trumbull received $40,000 for new equipment.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The following members were nominated at the May 8th meeting:
Stephanie O’Rourke as Secretary of the Council.
Carl Braun as Treasurer of the Council
Carmella Amodeo as Vice Chairman of the Council
Gregory Davis as Chairman of the Council
Ray Juskiewicz made a motion to close the nominations for these positions. Paul Katzmark seconded the motion.
Vote: 7-0-0
Ray Juskiewicz made a motion that the secretary cast one ballot for the nominated officers. Jim Lang seconded the motion.
Vote: 7-0-0
Gregory Davis led the rest of the meeting as Chairman.
CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS REPORT:
Greg Van Antwerp: Director of Communications Access handed out Press Releases regarding Charter brining more than 100 HD channels to Western Connecticut. One of the Press Releases related to Fairfield County and one related to Litchfield County.
Greg Van Antwerp spoke of the Public Access report dated May 9th to July 10, 2012. An internship began on May 31st with nine participants. All participants in the internship are required to produce something. The next intern session will be held in late September.
Everyone is encouraged to visit the Facebook page.
Three Mobile Truck productions occurred in the last two months.
There was a discussion of CTV-21 blogging on Patch.com which is an on-line newspaper. An experiment was done to see if Charter can establish regular coverage for Patch readers. It was noted that this is only valuable if on the front page.
OLD BUSINESS:
The PEGPETIA Grant website has been updated and the application is available on-line.
School Grant Offerings
There were discussions at previous meetings about the Advisory Council offering grants to schools. It was noted that Treasurer Carl Braun has withdrawn his motion for this until further notice.
Subscriber bills
There was a discussion about identifying the name and contact information of the Council President on subscriber bills. It was suggested that it may be more likely to get comments from subscribers if there is a specific contact person. It was noted that notices are often not received in a timely manner since the Council only meets every other month. There was a discussion as to whether or not this was required by PURA.
Jim Lang made a motion that Charter come to the Advisory Council at the next meeting to be held on September 11th with proposed language that will appear on subscriber bills that identifies Advisory Council contact information in compliance with PURA rules and regulations. Ray Juskiewicz seconded the motion.
Gregory Davis made a motion to amend the previous motion to give Charter the language that the Advisory Council would like to see. Paul Katzmark seconded the motion.
Paul Katzmark made a motion to table the previous motion until the next meeting. Stephanie O’Rourke seconded the motion.
Vote: 6-0-1 (Jim Lang abstained)
There was a discussion of putting the information on the website instead of the bills. It was decided that Jim Lang will send the link that shows the rules and regulations from PURA regarding this in order for the members to be able to make an informed decision at the next meeting.
NEW BUSINESS: None
ADJOURNMENT:
Jim Lang made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:05pm. Ray Juskiewicz seconded the motion.
Vote 7-0-0 (Motion approved)
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