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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-12-CAC-MIN Communications Advisory Committee Minutes for April 12, 2007 CAC Members Present: Jeanne Canale, Jim Baker, Dave Becker, Jim Gonzalez, Dave Buczkowski, John Rommelfanger, Linda Roemer AlsoPresent: Alan Lazarus, LexMedia; Jane Lyman, Comcast; Richard Wadman and Tom Steel, RCN; Bill Johansen, Lexington Veterans Group George Burnell, Selectmen Liaison, arrived at 8:20. Recorder: Linda Roemer Action . The Committee agreed that the chairperson should write to members who have missed 3 consecutive meetings to ask if they wish to continue on the Committee. Their continued absence puts a greater burden on members who do attend and makes it more difficult to obtain a quorum. th Minutes. The minutes of February 15 were discussed. Action . Jim Baker was encouraged to make them less personal and shorter and emphasize facts. th The minutes of March 15 were approved with the deletion of the question mark after Michael Esposito’s name. The Committee reaffirmed that minutes should not be distributed outside of the membership until they are approved. Comcast. Jane Lymanreported that Comcast and RCN had worked together to develop a temporary solution to the I-net problem which will be in place until the move to Kline Hall. The Committee commended both RCN and Comcast for their efforts to solve the problem. RCN. Tom introduced Richard Wadman who is the Senior Vice President/General Manager of RCN in this region. Dave Becker and Dave Buczkowski reported that they were working on the RCN ascertainment and were developing a time line. Verizon. There was no Verizon report. Financials. Weredistributed.Jeanne reported that she was told the reason the totals had not changed (discussed at previous meetings) was that no bills had been paid during the period. 2 Jeanne raised a question about the Verizon payments and the account into which they are put. It was thought that it did not matter. Action . The Committee will ask if the bills can be processed more quickly. Dave Becker showed a rough scheme of how he thought the financials should be presented to be useful and understandable by the Committee. Action . He will clean this up and send it to Maria who will be asked to comment and then it will be reviewed by the Committee with the idea that we will ask if we can get our financials in that form. Sunshine Law. With permission from the Editor, Jim Gonzalez circulated an article that appeared in the Minuteman about the sunshine law. The Committee discussed what was meant by a substantitive discussion via e-mail which is to be avoided. Action. The Committee will be asked to be notified of the next training session. LexMedia. In George Preston’s absence due to family issues, Alan said that he assumed that George had received responses from the three operators about their needs in Kline Hall. Alan said that they hoped that they could have one channel for education from the high school. SCOLA is not available due to antenna problems. The high school is using web streaming which costs $600 compared to $1700 for the antenna. Alan said they hoped that students, as community service, could find free web sites in foreign languages which could be used. Alan said they are hoping to show Patriots’ Day live. Bill Johansen, from the Lexington Veterans Group, inquired about getting the tapes of their monthly programs put onto DVDs to go to the library. The Committee felt that this would be wonderful programming and that the individual doing the taping could be trained to follow the process through so that the talks could be shown on TV. The issue of the lack of a switcher in Cary Hall per George Preston’s note was discussed. The Committee felt that it had to be obtained and that perhaps the Committee would have to pay the $5700. The Committee expressed some disbelief that this was not included in the project and that AdTech felt that it should have been specified. Complaints. Maria had passed on a complaint about FIOS which was addressed and John, who is doing complaints in April, had one about SCOLA. The Committee agreed that anyone inquiring about SCOLA should be told that it will not be available for the indefinite future because of an antenna problem but it is being noted. LexMedia Committee Report. JimGonzalez asked Alan about the inventory control system. Alan replied that he knew all the new equipment is in the data base but is not sure about the old stuff. 3 Alan also reported that it was likely that $400,000 is available for Kline Hall construction. But $300,000 more will be needed over time for equipment and furnishings. A plan of how to obtain this was being worked on. Old Business. The Committee voted, after discussion, to maintain the policy adopted in 2001 not to provide I-Net services to non-profit organizations in Lexington. New Business. The Committee voted torecommend to the Selectmen that they send either the letter drafted by Peter Epstein or their own letter pursuant to the FCC proposed rulemaking regarding cable television franchising. WIFI. John reported that he was making progress in pulling together his report and emphasized that he had concluded that WiFi was not good for business but was in fact a more private good. When George Burnell arrived he confirmed that the $400,000 was available for Kline Hall and that a capital campaign was being developed to help raise money toward the $300,000 additional that was needed. Communications Advisory Committee Minutes for April 12, 2007 CAC Members Present: Jeanne Canale, Jim Baker, Dave Becker, Jim Gonzalez, Dave Buczkowski, John Rommelfanger, Linda Roemer AlsoPresent: Alan Lazarus, LexMedia; Jane Lyman, Comcast; Richard Wadman and Tom Steel, RCN; Bill Johansen, Lexington Veterans Group George Burnell, Selectmen Liaison, arrived at 8:20. Recorder: Linda Roemer Action . The Committee agreed that the chairperson should write to members who have missed 3 consecutive meetings to ask if they wish to continue on the Committee. Their continued absence puts a greater burden on members who do attend and makes it more difficult to obtain a quorum. th Minutes. The minutes of February 15 were discussed. Action . Jim Baker was encouraged to make them less personal and shorter and emphasize facts. th The minutes of March 15 were approved with the deletion of the question mark after Michael Esposito’s name. The Committee reaffirmed that minutes should not be distributed outside of the membership until they are approved. Comcast. Jane Lymanreported that Comcast and RCN had worked together to develop a temporary solution to the I-net problem which will be in place until the move to Kline Hall. The Committee commended both RCN and Comcast for their efforts to solve the problem. RCN. Tom introduced Richard Wadman who is the Senior Vice President/General Manager of RCN in this region. Dave Becker and Dave Buczkowski reported that they were working on the RCN ascertainment and were developing a time line. Verizon. There was no Verizon report. Financials. Weredistributed.Jeanne reported that she was told the reason the totals had not changed (discussed at previous meetings) was that no bills had been paid during the period. 2 Jeanne raised a question about the Verizon payments and the account into which they are put. It was thought that it did not matter. Action . The Committee will ask if the bills can be processed more quickly. Dave Becker showed a rough scheme of how he thought the financials should be presented to be useful and understandable by the Committee. Action . He will clean this up and send it to Maria who will be asked to comment and then it will be reviewed by the Committee with the idea that we will ask if we can get our financials in that form. Sunshine Law. With permission from the Editor, Jim Gonzalez circulated an article that appeared in the Minuteman about the sunshine law. The Committee discussed what was meant by a substantitive discussion via e-mail which is to be avoided. Action. The Committee will be asked to be notified of the next training session. LexMedia. In George Preston’s absence due to family issues, Alan said that he assumed that George had received responses from the three operators about their needs in Kline Hall. Alan said that they hoped that they could have one channel for education from the high school. SCOLA is not available due to antenna problems. The high school is using web streaming which costs $600 compared to $1700 for the antenna. Alan said they hoped that students, as community service, could find free web sites in foreign languages which could be used. Alan said they are hoping to show Patriots’ Day live. Bill Johansen, from the Lexington Veterans Group, inquired about getting the tapes of their monthly programs put onto DVDs to go to the library. The Committee felt that this would be wonderful programming and that the individual doing the taping could be trained to follow the process through so that the talks could be shown on TV. The issue of the lack of a switcher in Cary Hall per George Preston’s note was discussed. The Committee felt that it had to be obtained and that perhaps the Committee would have to pay the $5700. The Committee expressed some disbelief that this was not included in the project and that AdTech felt that it should have been specified. Complaints. Maria had passed on a complaint about FIOS which was addressed and John, who is doing complaints in April, had one about SCOLA. The Committee agreed that anyone inquiring about SCOLA should be told that it will not be available for the indefinite future because of an antenna problem but it is being noted. LexMedia Committee Report. JimGonzalez asked Alan about the inventory control system. Alan replied that he knew all the new equipment is in the data base but is not sure about the old stuff. 3 Alan also reported that it was likely that $400,000 is available for Kline Hall construction. But $300,000 more will be needed over time for equipment and furnishings. A plan of how to obtain this was being worked on. Old Business. The Committee voted, after discussion, to maintain the policy adopted in 2001 not to provide I-Net services to non-profit organizations in Lexington. New Business. The Committee voted torecommend to the Selectmen that they send either the letter drafted by Peter Epstein or their own letter pursuant to the FCC proposed rulemaking regarding cable television franchising. WIFI. John reported that he was making progress in pulling together his report and emphasized that he had concluded that WiFi was not good for business but was in fact a more private good. When George Burnell arrived he confirmed that the $400,000 was available for Kline Hall and that a capital campaign was being developed to help raise money toward the $300,000 additional that was needed.