DATV BOARD OF TRUSTEES
MEETING
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT
Roberta
Taylor, Chair R.
Mullins
Aaron
Sheaffer, Vice Chair Tom
Ritchie
Robert
Bradley, Treasurer Gabrielle
Williamson
Lela
Estes Comm.
Richard Zimmer Mark Madry
ALSO PRESENT
John
Rocco, DATV Executive Director
David
Snow, City of Dayton
Kara
Andrews, Time Warner Cable
Mike
Gray, Time Warner Cable
Pat
Jessee, DATV Staff
NOT PRESENT
M.
Barlow - excused.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER
R.
Taylor called the meeting to order at 11:35 a.m.
ROLL CALL
Roll
call read by P. Jessee.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
R.
Taylor asked for a motion to approve the agenda. L. Estes made the motion and
R.
Zimmer seconded. Agenda approved as presented.
BOARD CHAIR COMMENTS - R. Taylor reported to the
Board that she and L. Estes had attended the NATOA conference and they had
learned a lot. At this time she passed out copies of her report to the
Board.
APPROVAL OF BOARD MINUTES -
AUGUST 11, 2003
Before
asking for the approval of the August 11, 2003, board minutes, R. Taylor noted
that the minutes reflected today's meeting would be held October 13, 2003 and,
therefore, should be changed to read October 6, 2003.
Board
Minutes for October 6, 2003 Page
2
R.
Taylor proceeded to say that with this change she would like to have a motion
to approve the board minutes. T. Ritchie made the motion and B. Mullins
seconded the motion. Motion passed
unanimously.
OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC
COMMENT
None
TREASURER’S REPORT
R.
Taylor asked for a motion to approve the Treasurer's report as presented. M.
Madry made the motion and T. Gardner seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A.
Executive
Committee - none
B.
Nominating
Committee - A. Sheaffer told the Board that the committee did not officially
meet but the board members whose terms will expire at the end of this year were
all contacted and all four have expressed their willingness to be re-appointed
if the nominating committee would so choose.
C.
Investment
Committee - R. Bradley told the Board the committee did meet however there was
not a quorum. But as of now DATV's
investments were either in stocks or cash. They no longer had any bonds.
D.
Personnel
Committee - none
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
J.
Rocco said that at the last meeting there had been a question about the number
of lines
in
the budget for insurance. Since then,
he had met with Baldwin and Whitney who advised him that most of the insurance
items were stand alone items and could not be combined. However, the umbrella
policy and the personnel policy are going to be incorporated into the business
liability policy. This will remove two line items from the budget. In the 2004
budget these items will be combined. At
that time, we will rename some of the line items to make them more clear as to
what they are.
J.
Rocco told the Board that the two articles handed out were about the
Firefighters Memorial Ceremonies that were aired live on Sunday, October 5 on
DATV's Ch.20.
He
continued by saying the students from Kiser were going through training again
and they would soon be producing more programs for DATV. As for the students from the Dayton Early
College Academy, they had completed their training. They had already produced
one show and a second one was in progress. Also, after meeting with the
Downtown Dayton Partnership, it looked like they might be doing a show starting
in October. Board member, Gabrielle
Williamson, will be doing a show starting in October, also.
He
reported that DATV now had 510 members and there was a two-month waiting list
for the workshops and training shows.
Board
Minutes for October 6, 2003 Page
3
J.
Rocco said the final event for the end of the 25th Anniversary year
would be the burying of a time capsule which would be opened in the year 2078.
This event will take place December 8 at 1 PM after the Board meeting.
CITY OF DAYTON
D.
Snow told the Board the franchise agreement would expire in August 2006 and the
City was now in a three-year renewal window that began August 2003. He said
that he was writing an RFP in order to get someone into the city to do a
community needs assessment. He reported
that the RFP is about 12 pages and encompasses a community needs assessment, a
technical assessment but not necessary a legal assessment because the city's
Law department would be sitting in on this committee. A financial assessment is
not necessary, he said, however he did want the financial department to look at
a portion of the franchise fees.
D.
Snow continued by saying the next step in the process would be to send the RFP
to the city's purchasing agent After that is completed DATV will have a chance
to look at the RFP and then it will be distributed to the newly form
committee. DATV will have a
representative on this committee along with D. Snow, Tom Biedenharn, Randy Bellinger,
Bill Hill, Kent Bristol, and someone from the law department. This small committee will oversee the
responses that come in and help choose a consultant. DATV will have a chance to
have input on the RFP as well. Time
Warner has not yet given the City a letter of intent to renew the
franchise. But they have indicated they
want an informal process. It is
anticipated that the RFP will be finalized and posted by November 1, 2003. J. Rocco and the DATV Board will be kept
informed.
At
this time discussion followed with the Board responding to D. Snow's remark in
regard to the community needs assessment.
J.
Rocco said he was willing to take whatever course the Board would like to
take.
A.Sheaffer
suggested that as soon as the Executive Director receives the RFP he reviews it
and calls a Special Call meeting of the Board.
TIME WARNER REPRESENTATIVE
K.
Andrews distributed the Time Warner fyi
so that the Board would know what kind of things Time Warner was
involved in. She pointed out they had
added a couple of channels to their digital sports tier and that it looked like
Time Warner would be doing the Summer Patrol again next year since this year's
Patrol was so successful.
Since
K. Andrews had already introduced M. Gray, the new director of government
affairs for the southern portion of Time Warner, R. Taylor asked if he would
like to say anything.
M.
Gray introduced himself by saying he has been with Time Warner over fifteen
years and has worked in different positions within the company. He has been working in the government
affairs area where he has been doing franchise work for the Division.
K.
Andrews will continue to represent Time Warner at DATV's board meetings.
Board
Minutes for October 6, 2003 Page
4
OLD BUSINESS - none
NEW BUSINESS - none
T.
Ritchie raised a concern about the taping for Commission candidates that had
been arranged by the League of Women Voters to be taped in the studio at DATV.
One of the candidates had informed T. Ritchie that he had not been notified as
to the taping by the League of Women Voters.
T.
Ritchie said he thought it was wrong this candidate had not been given the
opportunity to be added to the process.
J.
Rocco explained DATV provided only the facility and equipment to facilitate the
League of Women Voter's program to the community. In the future, DATV will try to work closer with the League to
see that all candidates are notified of any such tapings.
ADJOURNMENT
R.
Taylor asked for a motion to adjourn.
A. Sheaffer made the motion with T. Ritchie seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 12:40 PM.
The
next Board meeting will be December 8 at 11:30 AM in DATV's conference room.
Respectfully
submitted,
____________________________ ______________________________
Margaret
Barlow, DATV Secretary John
A. Rocco, Executive Director