LAKES REGION PUBLIC ACCESS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meeting Minutes for October 29, 2013
The meeting was called to order at 6:05 p.m. Voting directors in attendance
were Ken Curley, Chairman; Bob Longabaugh, Secretary; and members
Chan Eddy, Nancy LeRoy, and Phil Warren. Additionally in attendance was
ex-officio director and Station Manager Denise Beauchaine. Absent were
members Jeanne Beaudin and Bob Hamel while Treasurer Joe Jesseman had
phoned in that he was too ill to attend. Also present were LRPA technical
consultant Shane Selling and Kim Perkins of Green Apple Resources, the
firm which does LRPA's financial reporting.
Approval of Minutes: Chairman Ken invited attention to the minutes of the
October 4 work session meeting submitted by Secretary Bob. Nancy moved,
seconded by Chan, to approve the minutes of the October 4 meeting. The
vote was 4-0 in favor with Phil abstaining.
Public Comment: There were no members of the public present.
Station Manager's Report: Denise reported that the one-page flyer
illustrating how a sponsor's credit would appear on screen during the
Children's Auction had been delivered to Northway and she would be
following-up. Nancy reported a similar action with the Bank of New
Hampshire and Chad described his interactions with AFL management,
which offer some promise. Phil inquired whether LRPA had received any
reimbursement in the past for telecasting the auction, to which the answer
was "no." He then asked about the cost to LRPA for performing the service
and Shane replied that the equipment cost ran about a thousand dollars a
day. Denise added that the outlay for labor was also on the order of $1,000
per day. It is because of these costs that we are so active in pursuing
sponsorships.
Bob inquired whether it was really necessary to suspend government
programming on Channel 26 while the auction was running on Channel 25?
Shane said that, technically, it was easy to continue Channel 26 but Denise
interjected that it was at the request of the auction principals not to have 26
competing for viewers. Bob came back that with the channel alignments
slated to be completely different in 2014, at this time there was insufficient
reason to differ from the past practice.
Denise described the new switcher, which has arrived after the Board
authorized $18,000 for its purchase at the October 4 meeting. Shane
updated the Board that the final cost was more on the order of $16,000.
Denise invited the Board to inspect the hardware after the meeting and she
extolled the efficiency that is going to be gained in remote shoots (with the
Children's Auction being the first, and principal, beneficiary) where the
switcher box can be rolled in and everything plugged in and ready to go
"live" within 15 minutes. Although deserved, the Board did not jump to its
feet with a standing ovation.
Denise next explained the need to acquire four wireless Lavalier
microphones for location shoots, starting with the Children's Auction. Phil
pointed out that the Lavaliers they had acquired for use in the Meredith
Community Center were not performing as advertised. It was the consensus
that before LRPA purchase any Lavaliers, Shane should trouble-shoot the
Meredith set-up for any lessons that might be learned. Accordingly, Bob
moved, with Ken seconding, that up to $1,000 be authorized for the
purchase of four Lavalier microphones, contingent on need. The vote was
5-0 in favor.
Denise next turned to the schedule of upcoming shoots. The final Laconia
football game of the season will be done this weekend and the upcoming
Laconia Christmas Parade will be a three-camera shoot with the use of
Shane's aerial camera being considered. Paramount though is the training of
Laconia Huot's multi-media students to do what is needed at the Children's
Auction. There will be five "solid" days of training, according to Denise.
Under the category of "gift-horses," Denise reported that the "Binne people"
had called with the offer of turning over to LRPA several "re-conditioned
studio-sized cameras." It was an offer she could not refuse.
At least ten minutes was devoted to the proposition of streaming Channel 25
on the internet for the Children's Auction, and maybe beyond. Shane said
that it costs him $300 a month to stream (and less per month if signed-up for
a full year). He said that past streaming has shown one-to-three thousand
"hits" a day. There was no dissension in the board on the value of streaming
Channel 25 for the month of December. The discussion centered about how
much longer? What was decided at this time was Phil moved, seconded by
Nancy, that Channel 25 be streamed for the entire month of December and
then, based on the experience of December, a decision will be made by
polling the Board on whether to continue streaming. The vote was 5-0 in
favor. Before closing the subject Chan emphasized that LRPA should get
the word out with press releases as to this new option for the viewing public.
At 6:37 p.m. Chan moved, seconded by Nancy, that the Station Manager's
report be accepted. The vote was 5-0 in favor.
Financial Report: In the absence of the Treasurer, Kim Perkins went over
the relevant numbers in the 2013-2014 Budget update. Primarily, she noted,
the insurance numbers did not reflect current reality. The numbers were
originally "flat-funded," have been flat-funded for the last three years and
that is far from what is currently going on with all the numbers significantly
increased. The budget should reflect the recent decision of the Board to shift
the Station Manager's health insurance to that provided by the Affordable
Health Care law.
Kim also noted with the pending current change in the Business Model that
the major income of LRPA, the PEG fees and grants, has already been
received this fiscal year. There is no known further income for LRPA until
July 1, 2014.
The discussion then shifted to what the future might bring and the likely
outcomes of the new business model. It boils down to a gamble, and a "leap
of faith," reminiscent of 1999 when LRPA first leaped. All that was
determined was that those municipalities who do not pay the basic "receive
fee" in 2014 will go dark on Channel 25.
After considerable delving into the details of the budget and the deviations
there from (e.g., there is a $8,700 deficit at this time), Kim urged an
updating of the numbers to better reflect what we now know of the trends
(upward!). That declared at 7:07 p.m., Chan moved, with Phil seconding,
that the Treasurer's report be accepted. Once again the vote was 5-0.
Election of Officers. This being the Annual Meeting the calendar called for
the election of officers to serve in 2014. Bob moved, with Ken seconding,
that Chan become LRPA's President. There were no other nominations.
Appropriately, the vote was 4-0 with Chan abstaining. Nancy noted, and all
agreed, that Ken be commended for the superb job he did as president.
Nancy next moved, with Chan seconding, that Ken serve as Vice-president in
2014. Again the vote was 4-0 with Ken abstaining this time.
Chan then moved that Joe serve another term as Treasurer. Ken seconded.
The vote was 5-0 in favor.
The election of a Secretary became much more involved inasmuch as the
current Secretary leaves the board as Alton's representative on October 31.
[For the record, he requested the Alton Selectmen to "retire" him and the
Alton representative will become the Town Administrator Russ Bailey,
backed up by Selectman Marc DeCroff.] Inasmuch as the resistance to
serving as Secretary is the onerous job of taking minutes, Bob suggested that
one of the LRPA staff be appointed as "recorder." Phil pointed out that the
minutes need not be so onerous since Bob was so prone to spell-out details
when an "after lengthy discussion ..." would be sufficient. That having been
said, the Board invited LRPA Production Manager Patrick Sweeney to enter
into the deliberations. Patrick said that he would be willing to serve as
recorder. With that solved it was noted that when the 2014 paperwork is
filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State a LRPA Secretary will
have to be listed with the other elected officers.
With the official business concluded, Chan moved, and Nancy seconded,
that the meeting be adjourned. At 7:25 p.m. the vote was 5-0 in favor.
Respectfully submitted,
Corporate Secretary