Thursday, January 14, 2010

Revised agenda for tonight's meeting of Cable Access Television Board of Directors and minutes of December meeting: Public welcome at 6 p.m. meeting

COMMUNITY ACCESS TELEVISON BOARD OF DIRECTORS
JANUARY 14, 2010 MEETING

The January 14, 2010 meeting of the Board of Directors of Community
Access Television will be held in the studio of the City of
Fayetteville Television Center at 101 W. Rock St. in Fayetteville,
Arkansas at 6:00 P.M.

BOARD MEMBERS
Marietta Camillieri; Bruce Perry; Bernard Sulliban, Secretary; Roger
Henry, Treasurer; Dedra Leaf, President

Call meeting to order

Address of complaint about Bylaw violation by Board

Bylaw change
Change e-mailed to Board Members on 12/16/09

Approval of November and December minutes

Treasurer’s Report
2010 Budget approval

Committee Reports
Outreach/Fundraising Committee: Set meeting for January
Policy Committee: Policy changes
(Changes e-mailed to Board Members on 12/16/09)
Set meeting for January to address complaint procedures
Finance Committee: Reschedule January meeting/ change names on bank
signature card
Personnel Committee: Next meeting scheduled for 1/19/10 at 5:30 P.M.

Manager’s Report

Old Business
Meeting with Telecom Board
Vice President consideration

New Business
List needed of technology priorities and needs for 2010 to be given to
the City Station Manager before end of the month.
FOIA requests
Need for a Board retreat in February to plan the coming year

Interview of Board Member Applicant: David A. Young (application
e-mailed to all Board Members on 12/30/09)
Public Comment

Adjournment



Minutes
December 10, 2009 CAT Board Meeting

The December 10, 2009 meeting of the Community Access Television
(C.A.T.) Board of Directors was held in the studio of the PEG center
at 101 W. Rock St. in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dedra Leaf,
Vice-President of the Board, called the meeting to order shortly after
6:00 PM.

Board Members Present
Dedra Leaf, Vice-President; Roger Henry, Treasurer; Bernard Sulliban,
Secretary; Bruce Perry; Mariette Camillieri. Also present was Sky
Blaylock, C.A.T. Manager and Sheree lliariBurnett, Certified CAT
Producer and volunteer.

Vice-President Leaf began the meeting by announcing that President
Pancake had resigned. She then asked Bernard Sulliban to read the
letter of resignation for the record (see attached). Vice-President
Leaf then thanked Formal President Pancake for her many years of
service to the organization.
Vice-President Leaf then noted that the Board needed to address the
issue of the bylaw stating the minimum number of board members, as the
current number of members was now five. She asked if anyone wished to
make a motion to amend the bylaw. Ms. Blaylock noted in a point of
order that the Board should read the last amendment of the bylaws,
which states that changes proposals to amendments must be submitted in
writing to all board members at least 15 days in advance of the vote.
After the board members read the bylaw article Secretary Sulliban
apprised the board that long as the quorum number for 7 was reached,
which the number of 5 exceeded, the board could conduct business. He
advised that the issue would have to be addressed, but it would not
prevent the performance of business at that meeting. Leaf made the
suggestion that the copies of the suggested bylaw changes be sent out
to the board members in the next few days and the issue be addressed
at the next board meeting. The other members gave their assent. Leaf
said she would send the changes to the board members in the next few
days.
Vice-President Leaf then announced that there were no November minutes
to read at that time, but that she would have them for the next board
meeting.
Treasurer Henry then read the Treasurer’s report. The Board members
did not have copies of the report, so Treasurer Henry highlighted
items of interest for them. He announced that numbers for the month
were quite satisfactory. He stated that there were no untoward
expenses. He noted that producer fees were down, probably due to the
economy. He surmised that more people were producing videos with their
own equipment, requesting it to be aired on the CAT and thus affecting
the cost of the producer fees. He then announced that the Manager had
paid off the credit cards and there was no credit card debt as of the
December meeting. He noted that the cost of web-streaming was high,
but said that that cost would be reducing at some point. The Manager
noted that the web-streaming expenses for 2009 included installation
and that would not be part of the expense for the service for next
year. Henry then encouraged board members to print their own copies of
reports in order to save the CAT that expense. The .03 cents per copy
can add up to five dollars per meeting and that was one way to curb
expenses. He reported that the total operating expenses were
approaching 100% of the budget, but what is not noted in the report is
the last check from the city, which would reduce that number.
Advertising (for the Media Conference) and outreach expenses were high
than budgeted, but they had paid for the March Media Conference and
the October Spooktacular event at the Town Center, events that should
be considered an investment in the community that are coming back in
contract shoots.
Henry then commented that the previous night had been an exciting
event and asked when it would air. The Manager replied that the Rat
Pack portion of the taping would air on Saturday before they left
town. She added that they were performing at the Walton Arts Center.
She then told the board about “The Inger Show”, a show contracted by a
vice-principal from Rogers. Ms. Blaylock stated that two shows were
taped with elaborate sets and was probably the second biggest
production they had ever done, next to the Lion’s Club Auction. She
announced that Inger would be back and wants to open a series time
slot, but that would happen after five shows were ready for playback.
Henry then concluded the Treasure’s report.
Vice-President Leaf then asked if any of the members would mind if she
moved the Manager’s report to the position on the agenda above
Committee Reports. There were no abjections. Leaf then asked the
Manager if she was ready to give her report at that time. Ms. Blaylock
read her report, which recapped highlights of the year’s outreach
activities and noted the busy end-of-the-year production work the
staff was currently doing, due in large part to the success of the
outreach events in connecting the CAT to members of the community as
well as other organizations. Post production works were listed as “The
Grid Iron Show”, “The Amazing Race”, Goeff Olsner’s CD release party
and two music videos, a public meeting for the Fayetteville Parks
Department, two Indonesian International workshops, one with the Ford
Fellows, the Spooktacular and the underwriting spots for The Farmers’
Coop, Cajun Gypsy?, Greenhouse Grill, Adventure Subaru, and Arkansans
for Equal Access. Contract studio productions were listed as the
“Lion’s Club Auction of the Air”, “The Monthly Ministerial Alliance”,
“Diversity en Espanol” featuring Claudia Steele and “The Inger Show”.
She also noted that the outreach event had resulted in a number of new
trainees. The Manager stated that she expected those numbers to grow
in the coming year with the upcoming 30th Anniversary. She also
apprised the Board of a letter she had received from Delani Bartlett,
who had coordinated the Media event in March and is now teaching at
NWACC. The letter from Ms. Bartlett announced that NWACC would be
sponsoring events from April 5-9, 2010 to build awareness and bring
information to the community about the First Amendment and invited the
CAT to participate. She also mention Chris Carson Shane Houston as
people we might want to include in our 30th Anniversary. Leaf thanked
the manager for her report and noted that the outreach for 2009 had
been phenomenal.
Under Committee Reports, Camillieri said that the Outreach Committee
would set a day to meet in January.
Leaf announced she had passed the chair to Bernard Sulliban, who had
agreed to take it, and that at the last meeting they had discussed
changes that needed to be made to Policy to reflect the changes in the
current contract with the City of Fayetteville. She offered to get the
four pages of suggested changes to Sulliban. Sulliban set the next
Policy meeting for Tuesday, December 15 at 5:00 PM in the break room
of the PEG Center, at which time he and the committee would review the
changes as well as the change to the bylaw that had been mentioned
earlier.
Finance Committee set a meeting for January 5 at 5:00 P.M. in the
break room of the PEG Center to discuss the 2010 budget and make final
adjustments before presentation to the Board at the January meeting.
Leaf announced the Personnel Committee had a little more work to do on
the Manager’s evaluation in order to give it to the Manager at the
meeting. She stated that they would need to go into executive session
in order to conduct that business and asked if anyone wanted to make
that motion. Sulliban asked Leaf if there was other committee business
or other business that needed to be addressed at the meeting. Leaf
replied that there was the old business of the proposed joint meeting
with the Telecom Board, but that business could wait until January.
Sulliban made the motion to table the Old Business until next month
Camillieri seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. Sulliban
next made the motion to undertake the New Business and defer on the
Personnel Committee action in order to hear Public Comment before the
board retired to executive session. Perry seconded and the motion
carried.
Under New Business Sulliban stated that the Board needed to seat a new
president. He made a motion that the Board vote in Dedra Leaf
officially as the Cat Board President in light of the recent
resignation of former President Pancake. Leaf asked if there was a
second. Perry then asked Leaf if she wanted to be president. She
stated that it was not something she had chosen, but that she would do
the job. Perry further stated that he didn’t want Leaf to obliged to
take the job and wanted to offer her a choice. She stated that the
Board held elections in April and she would be willing to hold the
position until then. Camillieri then seconded the motion. Leaf was
unanimously accepted as President of the Board of Directors of
Community Access Television.
Sulliban brought up the need for a new vice-president, but suggested
the members might want to wait until a later time to address that
issue. Leaf and the other members agreed and Leaf said they could
address the issue at the next monthly meeting.
Perry then stated to the audience that that the Board had just lost
it’s president and was trying to regroup and figure out how to proceed
and asked for patience.
Leaf then called for Public Comments. Sheree Barnett, a producer and
volunteer, presented a petition to the board signed by 16 producers
stating:

“We, the undersigned producers of Community Access Television would
like to make the following statement:
We fully support Sky Blaylock and the entire staff of CAT. We feel
their job performance has been exemplary. We feel the current
complaints against the staff are unfounded. The staff has always been
fully available to assist us in our endeavors.”

Barnett stated that the petition was in response to the six hours the
Board spent in executive session during the personnel committee
meeting the previous Tuesday. She also stated that she felt the staff
was overworked and the Board should look into getting more producers
to volunteer or hire help for the staff.
Leaf asked if there were other comments. There were none. The Agenda
then moved to the Personnel Committee. Leaf stated that Personnel
issues were private business between an employee and the personnel
committee. She asked the public to respect that.
Perry made the motion to move to executive session. Camillieri
seconded the motion. The Board the adjourned to executive session to
complete the manager’s evaluation and to give it to her.
When the board returned Leaf announced that the personnel committee
had given the manager’s evaluation to Sky Blaylock. She asked if there
was any other business. Sulliban reminded her that the Personnel
Committee needed to set a date to meet with the manager to follow up
on the evaluation. The board agreed to meet on Tuesday, January 19 at
5:30 P.M. at the PEG Center in the break room.
Sulliban thanked the producers for coming out in support of the
station and staff, especially at this point in time.
Camillieri wished the public ‘happy holidays’.
Sulliban made a motion to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded by
Camillieri and agreed to by the members. The meeting was adjourned.

--
Sky Blaylock, CAT Manager
Community Access Television
101 W. Rock Street
Fayetteville, AR 72701
(479) 444-3433
Watch Online at: www.catfayetteville.org
"Empowering Community Voices & Visions"

Pass The Community Access Preservation Act - HR 3745
Go to www.alliancecm.org/CAP for more
information

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan Coody should be on the Board of CAT.

Anonymous said...

Coody's blathering would make that bunch look good!

Anonymous said...

The majority of that remaining five before last night probably voted for coody and he would be able to lead them further down the road to perdition.
Then they would give Nock a contract to build a new CAT at Southpiss or maybe on the big-hole parking lot downtown.

Anonymous said...

And they would limit the opinion expressed on CAT to Tracy Hoskins and Rick Alexander.