April 12, 1999
CALL TO ORDER: Board Chair Margaret Barlow called the meeting to order at 11:50 a.m.
Members in attendance were: Roberta Taylor (vice chair); Robert Bradley, Lela Estes, Mark Madry, Aaron Sheaffer, Vicki Souve, and Mary Wiseman.
M. Madry moved to excuse the absences of Beverly Jones, Ed Dorsey and Tony Capizzi. R. Taylor seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Also attending were: Cable Administrator Tim Strach, TCI General Manager Dan Van Zandbergen, DATV Executive Director John Rocco and DATV Receptionist Dee Jividan.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: Since no changes were proposed, the agenda was allowed to stand as presented.
BOARD CHAIR COMMENTS: M. Barlow thanked Vice Chair R. Taylor for her leadership during the chairperson's business emergency and encouraged members to read the DATV annual report, for which she commended J. Rocco, citing the report's positive statistics and professional appearance. She encouraged members to attend the Alliance conference in Atlanta in July and to let John know about their plans as early as possible.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: On a motion by R. Taylor, seconded by R. Bradley, minutes of the February meeting were unanimously approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT: J. Rocco reported that the final certificate of deposit had been cashed and invested. On a motion by A. Sheaffer, seconded by R. Taylor, the report was approved.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: None.
PERSONNEL COMMITTEE: M. Madry reported on the February 24 committee meeting. J. Rocco reviewed possible benefits to be offered to staff and recommended changes in vacation and sick leave accrual. A motion was made by A. Sheaffer, seconded by R. Bradley, to accept the recommendation of the commitee for the second tier of employee benefits, in which each full-time employee will select a benefit from the choice of six.On a motion by V. Souve, seconded by M. Madry, the board approved the vacation and sick leave changes with the addition of "in good standing" to the description of the employee. J. Rocco will fine tune the policy and return it to the board in June.
M. Madry reported that the executive director's six-month evaluation is still in progress because information still is being collected.
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE: The committee had met to discuss possible fund-raisers. Two are viable, the Fox Rox affair on the square and some kind of gospel concert to capitalize on the success of the Channel 72 spiritual television endeavor.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT: J. Rocco added two verbal items to the written report: In follow-up to a newspaper article, he had sent a letter to a representative at the University of Dayton suggesting collaboration between DATV and a planned campus cable production, and he had met with volunteers at a meeting on April 8 when the subject of volunteer representation on the board resurfaced. Members proposed a number of solutions to the issue of volunteer representation on the board, and will think about possible solutions before the next meeting.
At the request of Mr. Rocco, the board agreed to reschedule the next meetings for June 7 and August 2.
CABLE ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: T. Strach reported that nobody showed up to speak at the April 7 public hearing on the latest cable transfer from TCI to Time-Warner, which will be considered by City Commission on April 28.
TCI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT: D. Van Zandbergen said it is his hope to have all access channels together. Currently, Channel 20 is offered on TCI's basic package while Channel 72 (DATV Spiritual Television) is received by Expanded Basic customers.
OLD BUSINESS: J. Rocco alerted the board that Independent Producer William Pace has called the office to express disagreement with the DATV board's decision to revoke his privileges. Mr. Rocco suggested that Mr. Pace forward written notice.
NEW BUSINESS: None.
ADJOURNMENT: M. Barlow adjourned the meeting at 1:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
___________________________ ________________________
Beverly Jones, Secretary John Rocco, Executive Director