Minutes of January 6, 2009

Present were Lucy Edwards, Pat Adams, Donna Bunker, Ken Curley, Renee Camille and Ken Camille. Gary Garnett arrived at 6:25.

Meeting was called to order at 6:05 pm by Chairperson Lucy Edwards.
The minutes of the 9/02/08 meeting were approved as corrected.

LRPA – Mr. Curley said he was not able to attend the Nov. 24th meeting because he and the Franklin representative to the board were inadvertently locked out. Measures have been taken so that it does not happen again.

Board of Selectmen liaison – Selectman Curley said he was asked by the other selectmen when the new video system will be operational.
 
Ms. Edwards said since Mr. Garnett has not arrived she would skip to Old Business – Cable contact renewal on the agenda. The committee agreed.

Cable Contract renewal – Chair Edwards said she was concerned because a signed final version of the contact was not available at the last meeting. With the contact expiring at the end of 2009 we should be appointing a sub-committee to go over the details before the Town enters negotiations. She added that is how she first got involved with the cable advisory committee by volunteering to be on the contract negotiations team. Mr. Curley said he received a copy of the signed contract which was signed in December of 1999.  There is a clause in the contract that states that the 10 year term begins when Metrocast cablevision finishes rebuilding the cable system. The rebuild was finished in July of 2001. The contract will expire July 31st 2011 not December 2009.  Ms. Edwards said that after town meeting the committee should recruit a subcommittee to research the details of the existing contract and what the town may request in the next contract. All agreed. Ms. Bunker stated she would like to be involved in the cable contract subcommittee.

Mr. Garnett arrived at 6:25pm.

Cable Coordinator Report
New members – Mr. Garnett welcomed new members Ken and Renee Camille to the committee. He mentioned the Camilles had recently attended a taping session at the school.

External Hard Drives – Mr. Garnett said he received the external hard drives and explained how he was using them to transport video sessions from system to system.

Audio recorder –At the request of the selectman Mr. Garnett said he is installing a digital audio recorder at Town Hall. It will be used by the secretaries to create minutes of the meetings.

DVD Duplicator – Mr. Garnett said he is experiencing intermittent problems with the DVD duplicator.  It stops and hangs near the end of writing a DVD.

Recent Events – Mr. Garnett said that he taped the SAU#44 hearings held in December. They should be airing in the next couple weeks on channel 26. He also stated that he was not able to tape the event on Nov 8th featuring Becky Rule and Cordwood because he was not allowed to hookup to the audio system.

Missed Meetings – Mr. Garnett said he needs people to contact him when meetings are added or the schedules have changed.

Video Workshop – The event in November went well, 3 people attended. They had many questions. Ms. Bunker said that scheduling them on the weekend was probably the reason no one attended the previous workshops.  She will try to schedule another workshop for a weeknight in April.

New Business

Ms. Bunker submitted her resignation from the committee saying that she enjoyed her years on the committee. Increased family commitments and conflicts in schedules prevent her from regularly attending the meetings. She will keep in touch.  Ms Edwards stated that the committee accepts her resignation with regret.  Mr. Curley stated that it was a pleasure working with her over the years and wished her luck. 

Upcoming Events to tape - Budget Committee Hearings   Sat. Jan. 10 & 24

The next scheduled meeting is on Tuesday February 3rd, 2009 at 6 pm at the Town Hall.

The meeting adjouned at 7:05 pm.

Minutes approved February 3, 2009.