Cable
Advisory Council
P. O. Box 87
Newtown, Connecticut
MINUTES
Public
Regular Meeting - Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Newtown, Connecticut
There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order
at 7:40 p.m. September 17, 2002 by Co-Chair John Sabo at the offices of
Charter Communications in Newtown, Connecticut.
ATTENDEES:
Jeffery Jorgenson, Alex Forbes, Jill Zaloski, Paula Hopper, Eugene Rosen,
Carmella Amodeo, John Danscuk, Judith Eslami, Richard Kosier, Carl DeVoe,
and John Sabo, Co-Chair. For Charter: Dick Elwell, Greg Van Antwerp.
PUBLIC
INPUT:
No public present.
NOMINATION
OF OFFICERS/CHANGE TO BY-LAWS:
J. Sabo read the slate of officers nominated: J. Sabo, Chair; P. Hopper,
Vice Chair; F. Standt, Treasurer, and indicated there would be a new position
of Membership Chair. A quorum of members was confirmed, and J. Sabo asked
if there were any further nominations for the offices of Chair, Vice Chair
and/or Treasurer. There being no additional nominations, J. Sabo made
a motion to vote the proposed slate of officers into office, J. Danscuk
seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. C. DeVoe motioned to amend
the agenda and move on to Item 3, Change to By-Laws, before accepting
nominations for the office of Membership Chair. J. Eslami seconded the
motion and it carried unanimously. C. DeVoe moved to amend the current
language of Section 4.01, Officers, to read “The council shall annually
elect a chair, vice chair, treasurer and a membership chair whose respective
terms shall commence July 1.”
J. Jorgenson seconded the motion. There was discussion among members regarding
proposed duties of the newly created office of membership chair. Additional
discussion concerned attendance, notification to inactive members of termination
of membership, opportunity for individuals who have been inactive but
wish to continue as members to request consideration of exception to attendance
requirement, and notifying the appropriate town official when appointed
members are not attending to request a new appointment. A recommendation
was made to have members wear name tags to facilitate a way to track attendance
and make it easier for members/visitors to know “who’s who”.
A vote was taken on the motion to amend the current language of Section
4.01 of the By-Laws and it carried unanimously.
P.
Hopper nominated J. Eslami to the newly created office of Membership Chair.
C. DeVoe seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.
P.
Hopper also asked for all members to look through the By-Laws and provide
comments regarding concerns or other recommended changes. C. DeVoe motioned
that a quorum should be 3/5 of the active membership and that this should
be voted on at the next meeting. P. Hopper seconded the motion and it
carried unanimously. Discussion of what constitutes an “active member”
ensued. C. DeVoe recommended a sub-committee be set up to discuss this
item, and suggested possibly sending a letter to members after they have
missed two consecutive meetings.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
A motion to accept the Minutes of the May 23, 2002 meeting as submitted
was made by C. DeVoe, seconded by J. Jorgenson and carried unanimously.
TREASURER'S
REPORT:
F. Standt was not present at the meeting and no Treasurer's Report was
available. F. Standt subsequently provided a copy of the Treasurer’s
Report to the Recording Secretary for inclusion in the Minutes. It reads
as follows:
Opening
balance of the checking Account (7/10/02). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . $ 641.35
CHECKS WRITTEN: Newtown Secretarial Svc. (#1663 -$233.25)
Closing balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 408.10
Opening Balance on the Money Market Account (6/12/02) . . . . . . . .
. . $ 10,593.82
Transfer to checking 6/25/02 1,000.00*
Interest 6/29/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.41
Interest 7/30/02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.16
Closing Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 9,612.39
1 yr. plus CD @ $10,000 + $1,042.79 int. to date = $11,042.79
TOTAL
FUNDS = $21,063.28
*checking
deposit shown on 7/9/02 report
The
Treasurer’s report presented at the 5/23/02 meeting still needs
to be approved. It was decided to wait for next meeting, when hopefully
F. Standt will be in attendance.
D.
Elwell of Charter Communications presented a check to J. Jorgenson for
delivery to F. Standt in the amount of $2,000, representing Charter’s
annual payment.
COMMUNICATIONS
AND CORRESPONDENCE:
J. Sabo indicated there were two letters received regarding appointment/resignation
of council members: R. Levy has resigned; L. Kellerman (Roxbury) has been
re-appointed. There was no correspondence/communications for discussion.
CHARTER
COMMUNICATIONS REPORT:
D. Elwell indicated the new building is nearing completion. It was agreed
that the next meeting would be held in the new building. D. Elwell stated
Customer Service will be the first to move. Their current plan is to increase
the number of customer service representatives to 70. D. Elwell further
indicated there is no rate increase planned until February 2003. He stated
they are working on some packages that will be more attractive to a variety
of customers. R. Kosier asked about the senior discount, and D. Elwell
indicated that the current program will be eliminated, but he did not
think it had been eliminated yet. G. Van Antwerp distributed the most
recent Public Access Report, discussed the Community Access web site and
stated there would be a new internship program starting September 26.
G. Van Antwerp also reviewed the recent truck shoots as well as those
scheduled for the near future. (J. Zaloski commended Charter on their
support of the Relay for Life event. J. Sabo also commended the truck
crew on their taping of the Pomperaug High School graduation.)
OLD
BUSINESS:
Scholarship Committee Report – P. Hopper outlined the program for
the James Diaz Memorial Award and indicated it would be promoted as a
video festival. Participants will be required to submit the video in accordance
with certain rules and regulations, and they will be judged based on established
criteria. She discussed the methods of promotion and publicity of the
program and asked council members to participate by distributing flyers
to establishments local to them.
Web
Site – J. Sabo indicated he had still not received information from
T. Joyner relative to proposed structure/content of the web site. He asked
council members to submit any information/ideas in this regard to him
at Pomperaug High School or via e-mail at johnsabo1@earthlink.net. He
was hopeful that the web site would be up and running by the next scheduled
meeting in November.
NEW
BUSINESS:
C. DeVoe discussed offering of college courses by Wesconn as part of the
distance learning program. He indicated the State had cut their budgets,
and thus Wesconn would not be able to offer this unless the funds could
be obtained elsewhere to subsidize the cost for completing the links.
C. DeVoe indicated that Charter was willing to commit $2,000 to this program,
and he asked if the council would commit to contributing $2,000 to $3,000
to help subsidize the cost of the remaining hookups required to get this
program up and running. He indicated the money would be for equipment
to be used in this endeavor, i.e. monitors, cameras, microphones, etc.
and that unless they could get commitments for the total funds necessary
to complete the project, no money would be expended. His request at this
time was for a commitment to contribute if all necessary funds were pledged.
C. DeVoe made a motion that the Council invest $2,500 to link Wesconn
to the distance learning network. J. Jorgenson seconded the motion and
it carried unanimously.
ADJOURNMENT:
A motion was made by C. DeVoe to adjourn the meeting at 9:53 p.m. It was
seconded by J. Danscuk and carried unanimously.
Respectfully
submitted by: Lorna J. Szalay, Recording Secretary
NEXT
MEETING: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 at Charter Communications offices
in Newtown, 7:30 p.m.
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