HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-11-21-CAC-min.pdf Minutes of the Lexington Communications Advisory Committee (CAC) for November
21, 2002.
Present were: Jane Gharibians (Chair), Dave Buczkowski, Tim Counihan, Howard
Cravis, Steve Ellis, Mike Greene, Diane Pursley, Connie Rawson, and Miriam Boucher
(minute taker). Additional attendees were: Katie Kirkpatrick representing RCN and
Peggy Sullivan representing AT&T
The meeting was called to order at 5:55 The minutes from the previous meeting were
approved without amendment. Committee members signed up to be the complaint person
for a month in 2003
Jane handed out pocket cards listing the channel lineups for both RCN and AT&T The
complaint person can now respond knowledgeably to complaints about what channels
subscribers should be getting for their level of service. Jane will update and distribute a
list of important contacts for the use by committee members; especially the complaint
person. The plans for the access survey were well received. Two more meetings of the
task force have been scheduled for December 4 and 11 The initial meeting was taped
and Jane will coordinate showing the tape to people so they can become and remain
involved.
The Police have requested that both carriers allow them to display bulletin board
announcements so they can disseminate information. For instance,promoting wearing
seat belts, and information about the bicycle auction.
Peggy Sullivan: Scola s problem at the head end has been resolved. Customer service
representatives have been told not to call Wendy Wilson but to forward calls to the Town
Manger's office where they will be forwarded to the complaint person for that month.
Getting drops into the schools is being investigated. The deal with Comcast closed on
Monday The new entity will be called Comcast Corporation. Her new email address is
Peggy_Sullivan@cable.comcast.com. Video on demand will be offered soon.
Katie Kirkpatrick: The connection to Scola has not been made. She will contact Wendy
Wilson at the school on the afternoon of 12/4 She has not heard back from the fire chief
about the emergency alert system. She will try and contact him directly The religious
channel is all set up to use the new room at the hub. The process to dedicate this room to
use by Lexington subscribers is proceeding. At AT&T everyone who needs to sign off
has done so. The room still needs to be converted. The physical security issues remain to
be worked out. Both AT&T employees and people dropping off tapes from Lexington
need access to the building. However access to the room would be restricted to
designated people from Lexington and people from AT&T who would need access.
Access to the hub would be available to AT&T employees only AT&T needs the names
of people who would be allowed access. Jane will follow up on this. Who would be
responsible for getting the tapes to this room for the nonreligious programming is an open
issue. Connie will contact the selectman's office to try and resolve this issue. Scheduling
can be performed remotely Connecting to Scola is primarily a technical/hardware issue.
The remaining issue is determining exactly what the scope of the problem is. Jane will
have Mike Morrissey contact Katie directly as there is some misunderstanding about the
connection to the head ends for broadcasting selectman's meetings and what equipment is
available. There will be a rate increase in 2003 of 5-6%. Special committee meeting in
December will be out of Clark school, to which there is no live feed. Steve mentioned
that before the renovation, there were live feeds out of Clark.
One of the committee members asked about a channel dedicated to video games,neither
carrier offers it. However since there is some interest from the committee, they will look
into it.
Mike Greene mentioned that he used to work for AT&T and that this may be interpreted
as a conflict of interest. He feels that he can be neutral. He expressed some concern that
since he will be splitting his time between here and Arizona that he might not be able to
chair the negotiating committee effectively A lot of work on the contract has been done
- some issues still to be negotiated. Nothing will happen until after the task force
completes and produces its recommendations. At that time Mike should be able to devote
more time to the committee.
No new antenna applications.
Connie Rawson: She received an email from Wendy Wilson explaining that her position
as cable liaison will no longer be supported. In this role she distributed materials,
changed where the antenna was pointing to so it could receive specific shows, taped
shows as needed, etc.
Mike Morrisey has not reported on the request for a new camera. Inet was down for the
entire day, the day after Veteran's day There is now a reporting structure set up to
facilitate communication. Since the problem was totally a hardware issue, a reporting
structure in place at the time would not have helped. The question is why didn't the
network center operations people pick up on this immediately
The next meeting will be on December 19 Pictures will be taken and Howard Cravis will
take minutes.
The meeting was adjourned at 6.45
Respectfully submitted,
Miriam Boucher