CABLE ADVISORY COUNCIL

P. O. Box 87

Newtown, Connecticut

~ Minutes ~

Minutes of Public Regular Meeting –

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Newtown, CT

There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order at 7:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Chair Carmella Amodeo at the Charter Communications facility, Newtown, Connecticut.

ATTENDEES: Bob Bell (New Fairfield), Joe Hurley (New Milford), George Fletcher (New Milford), Carmella Amodeo (Newtown), George Linkletter (Sherman), Stephanie O’Rourke (Kent), Jim Lang (Trumbull), Carl Braun (Woodbury).

From Charter: Steve Drescher (Technical Operations Manager).

PUBLIC INPUT: None

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Bob Bell moved to approve the minutes of the Charter Advisory Council meeting on May 11, 2010 as presented. Jim Lang seconded.  All in favor.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Carl Braun gave his report: Total of $21,917.57 between checking, money market, and CD. Motion to accept Lang, second Bob Bell, unanimous.

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS REPORT.

Steve Drescher:

· CTV-21 staff are being honored with two trophies at the NECTA Public Service Awards this week.

· Charter is looking in to create a booth at the Ives Concert Park in Danbury to raise awareness for CTV-21.

· New cameras and tripods have been purchased to upgrade current equipment available for loans to community members.

· New carpeting is being installed in the control room and edit suite.

· There were 62 edit sessions, the studio was signed out 12 times, there were 18 field equipment loans, and a total number of 43 new shows were produced.

· Three community members recently visited the studio for a personal tour.

· The summer internship began June 3, and 10 members of the community are participating.

· The application and course schedule are available in office as well as the website for the Fall internship.

· Two truck shoots occurred during the last two months, but advisory council will ask Greg Van Antwerp about increasing this number at the September meeting.

CORRESPONDENCE:

· A Woodbury resident asked about adding more HD channels soon. Steve commented that they will not add any more this year.

· George Linkletter commented that the eastern part of Connecticut don’t like the green lights on the equipment poles, which tells the status of the cable. Steve understands that the light is bright, and is working on coming out with a dimmer light.

· Stephanie O’Rourke commented that since the last meeting, she decided she didn’t want the sports channels. She contacted Charter, and minutes later, her tv, internet and phone was cut off. She called back on a cell phone, and soon everything was back on. She also said that she has AT&T for her phone, so she didn’t understand why it went out. The council asked Steve how this is possible, and he didn’t know.

· Carmella Amodeo said her son was recently connected to Triwire. It took 4 hours to hook up cable, including mounting the box on the side of the house. The technician was the only person hooking up the cable, and had to call for help. Steve said that this person might have been a new employee, and Charter does train their employees, as well as train the trainers.

· George Fletcher mentioned that when he had outages on his tv, he called Charter to ask to come out to help, and George suggested it was the box. The technician changed the couplings, and after an hour, agreed it might be the box. The box was changed out, and now the cable works fine. George said there was time and money lost on this simple fix.

· The council asked Steve if there was a sign on the customer room that says “if we could not solve your problem, please call ____”. Steve wasn’t aware, and he would look in to it.

OLD BUSINESS:

• Joe Hurley asked at the last meeting if they thought that this council should exist. (See attachment A and B included by Hurley).
• The council addressed the question of “who we are” by saying they are a council formed to represent each towns concerns regarding basic cable. The council is not customer service, but represents a conduit for Charter and their consumer’s issues.
• The other question the council addressed was “what we want to be.” It is the council’s opportunity to serve each town they represent, and bring concerns to Charter employees. They would like to be a valuable resource to Charter, but sometimes only receive generic answers to their questions.
• Each town has different mandates for each appointee, and only some report to their appointing body.
• Linkletter said it is valuable to know Charter employees, and to help bring problems to their attention.
• O’Rourke said Charter should be appreciative of having a council to represent them.
• Bob Bell made a motion, and Hurley 2^nd it to discuss if the council should change the number of meeting they have. Currently they meet 6 times, and Bell suggests 4, with the option for special meetings the second Tuesday of each month. The council opposed, and the motion was rejected.
• Bell motioned, and Hurley seconded for the recording secretary to cast a vote for officers as nominated.
• New officers are: Chairman, Jim Lang; Vice Chairman, Carmella Amodeo; Treasurer, Carl Braun; and Corresponding Secretary, Stephanie O’Rourke.

NEW BUSINESS:

• Jim Lang will contact Tom Cohan from Charter about how the council can better serve Charter.
• Bob Bell will draft a newspaper article make residents aware that this council does exist, and they can come to the meetings. Bell will contact Charter to see if there are phone numbers to put in the article that would be helpful.

ADJOURNMENT:

The meeting was unanimously adjourned at: 8:55 PM. Respectfully submitted by: Tiffany
Wolfe, Recording Secretary