MRVTV Board meeting October 5, 2017
Present: Lisa Italiano, John Daniell, Lisa Loomis, Dan Eckstein, Ilse Sigmund, Liz Levey.
Absent: Rob Williams (proxy to Dan), Brian Shupe (proxy to Lisa L.)
Members of the public: Ian Sweet
Approval of the minutes from the last meeting:
Changes made:
paragraph nine-sponsorship fundraising discussion, please change section 9, middle of paragraph
“Liz made the point that things have changed in the past 17 years and in light of the declining revenue stream we might have to change to stay both relevant and solvent.” and continue to be mindful etc.
Paragraph seven- “as they can” changed to “as they cannot” and spell Waitsfield correctly
Pp “Lisa, on behalf of the board” instead of “Lisa, in honor of the board”
Liz moved to approve the minutes as amended, Dan seconded, motion passed.
Board Member elections:
Liz made a motion that we accept the slate of officers
Ilse seconded, motion passed and Ian is elected to the board, welcome Ian and welcome back Rob. New board member Ian Sweet now present and voting.
Lisa Italiano informed the board that she was resigning from her term after this meeting due to time constraints.
Director’s Report:
Keith shared the social media report, please see attached.
Based on the geographic data, we may want to consider how we approach sponsorships
Keith is running a Facebook ad campaign
He recommends that we continue to spend ~$50 per month until we get to ~1000 likes. This would come out of the advertising budget
Trying to focus on organizations that have a good FB following, because of the aforementioned be multiplying effect
Lisa will reach out to Eric at MRG about the interview video.
Keith will make Lisa a FB administrator
Keith has been posting short versions of the videos on Instragram
Twitter account had been inactive since 2015, Now the accounts are linked and every time Keith posts a video YT subscribers are automatically tweeted
Keith would appreciate board member input, via email, about events and stories that others might want to know about. We will give board members editor status so that we can post immediately anything that might be of interest
Suggestion for FB posts: Short posts related to special programming that people might want to see- alerts that help people to see specific content
Q. How does gathering likes help us?
Answer: It drives business back to the website and it has a multiplying effect.
Keith shared the new website. We want to encourage people to share videos and YouTube posts etc. Keith will send us the link after the meeting. There is a paypal/donate button for tax-deductible donations. If we receive donations, we would like to be able to thank them, with a letter etc. The website includes the launching of the streaming service. Most programs that are aired on MRVTV are also available on the website. Note: Change “Play” to “Watch Now” Keith hopes it is intuitive and easy to use and hopes that the purchase of programs will be made easier through paypal. MRVTV live: Pocket Park and other local events and potentially a live web-cam in the Valley somewhere. Contribute content here is a bulletin board on one of the pages of the website.
We are shifting the agenda to accommodate Board Member schedules.
HD Discussion
GO HD in 3Q, please see attached)
The intended outcomes of this shift are increased free speech, improving the quality of the signal and making MRVTV more relevant to potential producers.
Can we move to a 12 month option beginning January 2018?
Liz made a motion that we approve the 18 month plan, from October 5, 2017, with the understanding that the transition would be completed within that time. Additionally we will explore accelerating the timetable,
Lisa I. seconded, motion passed.
Technology Update:
We are slowly moving toward HD and we are getting there sooner than we had maybe anticipated. Local shows are continuing: Amanda Campbell is planning a show; Welcome to Reality and Rob Williams’ shows are continuing. More local videos are coming into the station. Tony is changing his title to Program and Media manager, which better fits his role at the station. We will continue to work with the work flow so that it supports the HD transition.
Financial Update:
Please see attached
Lisa L. will ask Alex about contacting the towns for the funds that were committed at Town Meetings this past spring.
Keith is currently averaging ~20 hours per week with some weeks heavier and some time away. He will continue to monitor his hours for the future.
Capital equipment purchase: Includes the website work, which wasn’t budgeted. Telvue, which is the “insurance” on our server, needs to be renewed.
Live Web cam:
Lisa L. made a motion to amend our electronic motion of this summer to move $6500 from the reserve account to the general fund, making a change in the amount from $6500 to $7200. This money will now be used for a webcam and Telvue care as well as the balance of the website construction costs, as website bills were paid out of capital funds this year. After discussion, Lisa amended the amended motion:
The change now is that we are voting on total funds of $5600, rather than the original $7200
Dan seconded, motion passed.
LIz seconded.
A lively discussion about webcams and privacy ensued, including whether an MRVTV webcam would be set to simply display in real time or whether it would record for playback purposes.
Some members of the board are curious to know if there are other options/workaround that would prevent having the rewind feature or the recording feature, or if there is another way to work with YouTube.
Keith strongly believes that the YouTube connection, building the brand and audience, is a keystone to the sponsorship effort.
Sponsorship discussion:
Lisa L. recapped the history of the past 10 years of discussion about the issue of sponsorships
Please see attached, Rate Card and Guidelines
A lively discussion ensued.
Liz moved to direct Keith to pursure sponsorships for online content. John seconded,
Motion passed.
Fundraising:
Local Folks Smoke House
November 17th
Donations at the Door
50/50 raffle
Big Basin Band
Looking at an acoustic set for the beginning as Phineas Gage is unable to play
The fundraising committee hopes to do the morefancy fundraising “Game Night” for next year
Kudos to Keith and Tony for the work, the energy and the partnership!
Liz made a motion to adjourn, John seconded. Motion passed.
Meeting