Minutes from April 25, 2001
The CAC met in the Judge
Welch Room at Town Hall at 5:30 P.M. on 4/25/01.
Present were members LouAnn
Bowen, Su Hoffman, and Tim McCarthy, as well as Assistant Town Manager Mark
Latour.
Members discussed
chairmanship of the committee after the resignation of Chairman Greta Holman.
LouAnn made a motion to
appoint Tim McCarthy as Chairman.
Su seconded this. All voted
in favor.
LouAnn and Tim discussed
their desire to focus on getting the Town’s video studio up and running. Tim also discussed his video mentoring
project at the high school, and commented on the need to have a clear policy
from the school about editing, censorship and broadcasting guidelines. Tim indicated that with few exceptions,
Channel 17 must show whatever is produced. If they consider content to be questionable or
objectionable, they may switch the program to late night hours.
Su reiterated her desire to
keep abreast of changes in the cable industry, and the need to have input into
proposed state and federal legislation on these changes. Assistant Town Manager Mark Latour
agreed to keep Su abreast of any such items which came to his attention, and to
route this information to Su.
Tim discussed wiring the Town
Hall auditorium for webcasting.
Sue mentioned that James Paul Ludwig in Broadband’s Orleans office is
involved in scheduling for Channel 17.
The Committee agreed to look
into the Broadband contract to see if the Town receives any annual funds from
Broadband, which can be allocated to for video/technology/audio/ or computer
equipment and maintenance which could be utilized by the Cable Advisory
Committee for the studio.
Tim suggested that the issue
of censorship, and of development of the studio, could proceed on more solid
footing if other organizations such as the Fine Arts Work Center, Campus
Provincetown, the Center for Coastal Studies, the National Seashore, etc, join
together to push these things forward.
It would be great if a large group of community based agencies wanted to
work with a community video studio.
Committee members agreed that
Greta Holman should be invited to the next Committee meeting. Tim indicated that it is important to
find a space we can have keys to, and that we and the public can get to easily
in evening hours. Access to a
space in the schools is not always that easy in the evenings or weekends.
LouAnn indicated that the
studio must be handicapped accessible.
Tim mentioned that the High
School Annex may be a good space for this studio, but that security is poor,
considering there would be some expensive shared equipment.
Su said she would ask James
Paul Ludwig to send written content guidelines to Tim on what can and can not
be broadcast. Su also indicated
she would invite James Paul to attend a meeting of the Provincetown Cable
Advisory Committee to discuss a range of issues.
The meeting was adjourned at
6:30 P.M.
(These minutes were
unanimously approved by TM, Licensing Board and SH on 5/16/01.)