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Home My WebLink About2014-10-31-LexMedia-AnnualReport-July2013-June2014 Executive Director Florence DelSanto Board of Directors David Ilsley Chair James Shaw Vice-Chair Tim Counihan Treasurer Colleen Smith Secretary Kathleen Bell Steve Isenberg Fred Johnson William Kofoed Jeffrey Leonard Betsy Reynolds Sue Rockwell Ephraim Weiss October 31, 2014 Carl F. Valente, Town Manager Town of Lexington 1625 Mass Ave Lexington, MA 02420 Dear Carl: Pursuant to Exhibit A Section 13:Reporting Requirements of the contract between the Town of Lexington and LexMedia for the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017, please find attached LexMedia Annual Report for FY2014 and supporting documents. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Sincerely, Florence DelSanto Executive Director, LexMedia 1001 Main Campus Drive, Lexington MA 02421, 781-862-5388 LexMedia Annual Report From the Executive Director The LexMedia Board of Directors and I are pleased to present you with the FY2014 Annual Report. LexMedia has fulfilled its contractual obligations to the Town of Lexington and is in sound financial health with excellent financial controls and oversight provided by the finance committee. Our volunteer membership numbers have grown to over 500 individuals and organizations. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the hours of their time and for their support of our mission. It is the interests of our membership that drive content of the LexMedia channels. This past year LexMedia has produced over 800 hours of original local programs. This is consistent with the past two years. Roughly 50% of original programs are dedicated to the government channel, 30% to the education channel and 20% to the education channel. One of our biggest accomplishments from this past year was the launch of the RCN high definition (HD) channel. It was the first public access HD channel on a privately owned cable television system in Massachusetts and one of very few in the country. Although there have been technical challenges getting the new channel running smoothly, it has increased our reputation within the access community and established LexMedia as an industry leader. So much so that we were invited to speak at the Alliance of Community Media national conference on HD technology. This past year LexMedia was also recognized with two national awards. We won two First Place Hometown Media Awards for programs produced by our volunteers. The Hometown Media Awards are presented by The Alliance of Community Media, which is an umbrella organization that connects over 1500 community TV studios nationally. The competition is stiff with programs from cities and towns large and small competing directly against each other over dozens of categories. “This Mom Needs Help” won in the Instructional category and “From Scratch” won in the Entertainment and Art category. These accomplishments represent significant maturation for LexMedia. I would like to thank The Board of Directors for their support and guidance and the LexMedia staff for their hard work and dedication. A) Complete financial review by independent outside auditor. A financial review of LexMedia, performed by Anstiss Certified Public Accountants, is attached to this report. B) Inventory of all equipment. A check of the inventory was conducted in person by CAC members Linda Roemer and Steve Iverson on May 19, 2014 C) Budget for the next year by category. A budget was a submitted with the Business and Capital Plan. That plan was approved by the LexMedia Board of Directors and submitted to the CAC in June 2014. It is also attached to this report. D) Fundraising Plans for the next year to meet the fundraising targets We have set our fundraising target at $11,500 for FY2015. We plan to place increased emphasis on studio rental opportunities and are forging new relationships with professionals in need of studio space, especially the kitchen studio. We also plan to increase special interest classes like the summer movie making class and will target DVD sales opportunities. We continue to de-‐emphasize fundraising from donations and membership fees. We believe this is appropriate, given that residents are already making a contribution through the PEG access fees in their cable bills. E) Number of hours by type of programming planned for the next year The total number of programming hours for FY2014 was 1182 hours. The breakdown of categories is: 424 of government programming, 191 hours of education programs, and 568 hours of public programming. Locally produced original programming made up 828 of those 1182 hours across all three categories. Next year we project that we will produce roughly the same 800 hours of programming: 50% government, 30% public, and 20% education. F) Plans for expanding existing services and adding new services for the next year, and planned sources of funding for this expansion. Working within the approved budget we plan to make additional use of our studio to host programs for the Special Town elections. We also plan to continue working with, and encouraging, community groups who want to produce their own shows in the studio. The League of Women Voters has expressed interest. Lexington High school students have also planned shows on the subjects of 1) sports and 2) technology reviews. Upgrades to our HD program server will provide easier access to the emergency notification system on all four channels. We plan to provide town departments with direct links to the server. This will allow them to make town-‐wide notifications without the need for LexMedia oversight. We also plan to explore the possibility of adding cost effective technology for close -‐ captioning service to some government programming. This will only be possible with an outside source of funding. Possible sources include the Town PEG Access fund, business or corporate underwriting and grant awards. As plans for the new community center come to fruition we will also investigate and pursue the ability to broadcast using Internet protocol from that location. G) Plans for equipment upgrades for the next year 1) Facilities Upgrades: Air-‐conditioning for the edit room and master control -‐ $10,000 New Inventory/ Check-‐out Management System $5,000 2) Broadcast Equipment Upgrades Broadcast Server -‐ $50,000 3) Field Recording Upgrades Two new (members) field cameras -‐ $6,000 4) Studio Upgrades IFB In-‐Ear monitors -‐ $2,000 H) Plans for expanding training capabilities for the next year. We will continue targeting our training to the needs of the community. Emphasis will be placed on improved lighting and audio training to take full advantage of our HD channel and equipment. We have plans to work more with teachers at the Diamond and Clarke middle schools. We are developing a student journalism training program at Diamond and at Clarke we have partnered with the drama department to train them in documentary production. Additional: Updated List of LexMedia Board Members DAVID ILSLEY, Chairman JAMES SHAW, Vice Chairman COLLEEN SMITH , Secretary TIMOTHY COUNIHAN, Treasurer WILLIAM KOEFED EPHRAIM WEISS SUSAN ROCKWELL STEVE ISENBERG BETSY REYNOLDS JEFFERY LEONARD KATHLEEN BELL FREDRICK JOHNSON Attachments: Independent Auditor’s Report Business and Capital Plan FY2015-‐17, Approved June 2014 Business and Capital Plan Lexington Community Media Center FY2015-2017 Approved June 16, 2014 Lexington Community Media Center (LexMedia) is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization, which manages the community access channels for the town of Lexington, Massachusetts. The channels are broadcast on Comcast, RCN and Verizon. They are also streamed live on the LexMedia.org website and on the LexMedia mobile app. The center offers television production and media training to support its members and encourages creative expression. LexMedia Mission Statement The Purpose of LexMedia is to develop, establish and maintain a Media Center to facilitate learning and to meet the needs of the Lexington community by offering media education and community programming. Over the course of the first three years of this contract, FY2012-2014, LexMedia has demonstrated both managerial and financial stability. LexMedia has met and exceeded expectations in serving the community with critical programming – public meetings of Town government, school events, churches and other community organizations, in addition to the creative expression of individual residents willing to invest the time, talent, and energy in program development - whether the format be interview, cooking, pet care or other. LexMedia has worked to stay abreast of new technology such as improvements to the “state of the art” production facility and equipment. We are leading other PEG cable stations by collaborating to deliver high definition broadcasts. We upgraded our equipment to provide Internet access to on demand programming, live broadcast streaming and a mobile platform. LexMedia Vision Over the next three years, LexMedia will direct the majority of its efforts to further understand the communication environment, media and our audience, to ensure that LexMedia remains a vibrant local brand. LexMedia will strive to make strategic investments in the content produced and the ever-evolving platforms through which the audience is engaged. LexMedia Goals LexMedia goal for the next phase of the contract is to maintain this high quality of performance in operational and financial management and in programming. We have also defined the following new goals for growth. 1. Diversifying the audience to be representative of the demography of our community. An objective of the plan is to engage all segments of our community both in production and viewership. We will work to achieve greater participation by all groups. 2. Continuing the application of new technology by upgrading or replacing equipment as it becomes obsolete. Anticipated actions include installation of equipment for remote broadcast and recording in sites with the highest likelihood of being points of program origination. Commitment has already been made to equip all such spaces in the Cary Memorial Building as it undergoes its renovation in 2014-2015. Our goal is to secure similar commitments to other spaces, e.g. the Lexington High School Gymnasium, the Historical Society’s Depot, the new Community Center. We plan to investigate cost effective technology for close-captioning service of some government meetings and the ability to broadcast using Internet protocol. 3. Right-sizing, and market compensation for our staff. For the scale of our operation compared to those of similar communities around us, we have fewer full-time people and the ones we have are paid less. This has two outcomes: It limits our ability to attract new talented people, and it limits our ability to retain qualified staff. Our current staff accomplishes remarkable work despite these limitations. But that accomplishment is not sustainable under current budgetary constraints. Projected Capital Plan FY2015-2017 In order to accomplish the above goals we will require additional funding as outlined below. We believe capital funding is sufficient for projected equipment needs. However, if we are successful in finding cost effective options for close-captioning, broadcast over IP and additional program origination sites we may seek additional funding. 1) Facilities Upgrades Air-‐conditioning for edit room and master control -‐ $10,000 Increased exterior signage $1,000 Inventory/ Check-‐out Upgrade $5,000 2) Broadcast Equipment Upgrades Broadcast Server -‐ $45,000 Master Control Room upgrades -‐ $10,000 3) Field Recording Upgrades One Beyond Portable Camera & Recording System -‐ $30,000 Two heavy-‐duty field tripods -‐ $2,000 Two new (members) field cameras -‐ $6,000 Two new field (advanced members) cameras -‐ $10,000 4) Edit System Upgrades Additional Edit system for Production Manager -‐ $5,000 5) Studio Upgrades IFB In-‐Ear monitors -‐ $2,000 Wide-‐angle lens for studio camera -‐ $ 5,000 New Set Pieces -‐$5,000 LED Lighting -‐ $38,000 Studio Tripod -‐ $6,000 Projected Operating Budget 2015-2017 Expenses going forward are substantially proportional to what they have been year-to- date in FY2014. Included is an additional $40,000 in FY2015 over FY2014 in personnel costs to address right sizing and market compensation for the staff. We also have estimated 2% for the annual cost of living increases for the next 3 years. FY15 FY16 FY17 Personnel $260,025 $265,226 $270,530 Benefits $50,581 $51,592 $52,624 Outside Services $31,228 $31,853 $32,490 Occupancy $6,048 $6,169 $6,292 Studio $12,645 $12,898 $13,156 General/Administrative $25,400 $25,908 $26,426 Total Expenses $385,927 $393,645 $401,518