Minutes of May 7, 2007

Present were members Pat Adams, Donna Bunker, Lucy Edwards, Pete Jones, BOS Liaison Ken Curley and Coordinator Gary Garnett.

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. at Town Hall by Selectman Curley.  The April 20, 2006 minutes were reviewed and approved.

The regular order of business was suspended for the purpose of electing officers.
Ms. Bunker nominated Ms. Edwards for the position of Chairman, she accepted. No other nominations for chairman were made.  Vote to elect Ms. Edwards as Chairman was unanimous.
Mr. Curley nominated Ms. Adams for the position of Vice Chairman, she accepted. No other nominations for Vice Chairman were made.  Vote to elect Ms. Adams as Vice Chairman was unanimous.
Ms. Edward nominated Ms. Bunker for the position of Secretary, she did not accept, stating that she would rather spend one year as just a member. Mr. Curley submitted his name for nomination for the position of Secretary.  No other nominations for Secretary were made.  Vote to elect Mr. Curley as Secretary was unanimous.

Selectman Curley turned the meeting over to Ms. Edwards.

REPORTS:

LRPA - Northwood’s representative on the Lakes Region Public Access Board of Directors Mr. Curley talked about recent equipment failures experienced at LRPA which temporarily halted program airing on Metrocast cable channels 25 and 26. He also talked about the problems Northwood subscribers are having in getting a schedule of programs for the two public access channels. Two ways to solve this issue were discussed: one was creating an LRPA website the other was having LRPA upload the schedule to the Metrocast guide channel. Ken agreed to bring them up at the next LRPA Board of Directors meeting. Mr. Jones said that if they decide to reactivate the LRPA website to get him the contact information of the person doing it so that he could assist.

BOS Liaison Report – Mr. Curley welcomed the two new members.  He stated he had little to report since he has been in office a short time but hoped that the Committee would continue the work that the previous Committee had started.

Cable Coordinator Report – Mr. Garnett stated that his Historic Northwood project is progressing; he will be contacting Joanne Bailey because he has more sites to tape. He also said he has obtained many color and black & white photos to add to the production from a member the Northwood Historical Society, Don Carlson. The school editing system is almost complete he just needs a couple small things before he can complete the installation. He has been using the system at home to produce the BOS meeting DVDs and will have to do that at the school once it is installed.  He is in the process of generating a proposal to purchase a similar system for the Town Hall to make it less labor intensive to tape the meetings. He is still editing the “Northwood Garden Tour” which should be ready soon.
  

OLD BUSINESS:

The updating and operation of Northwood’s cable bulletin board on channel 24 was discussed. It was agreed that we could alleviate viewer frustration by standardizing on a display format and decrease the loop timing. The only way to decrease loop timing is by eliminating messages. Mr. Jones suggested making it more user accessible by having multiple 5 or 10 minute loops that ran at the same time every hour.  Mr. Curley agreed to research whether the bulletin board software had this capability. The list of approved message types in the Northwood Bulletin Board Policy was discussed and everyone agreed that it should be revised. It was mentioned by Ms. Edwards and Mr. Jones that the copy of the policy distributed with the agenda was different than the one reviewed last year.  Mr. Curley said he copied it off the Town website. Mr. Jones said he would try to get a copy of the other version. It was agreed that all members will go over the policy and bring in suggested changes at the next meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

Taping of upcoming events was discussed and it was agreed that taping and airing the School Board meetings will be our next milestone.

The next meeting will be held at the Town Hall on Thursday, June 7, at 7 p.m.

The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Minutes approved August 2, 2007