001Okay. All right, so it's 8:02. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. Is there anybody from the public out there, Bill? >> There are no members of the public. >> Okay. All right, then first up is approval of the April meeting minutes. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Thank you, Vince. >> I will second it. >> Thank you. Any discussion or corrections? No. All those in favor, say I. >> I. >> Okay. Super. Okay, so commission status. Yens, you just said you're going to be with us a little bit longer, so we'll just leave that open until we get something official from you. And just remember you have to Jeff. Sounds like it's a little kooky up there. How are you? >> Not too bad. Just in my data
002closet. >> [laughter] >> So Yens, just remember you have to send something official to the first selectmen's office. >> Yep. Yep. >> Okay, super. >> I hear she's really nice. So >> Rumor [clears throat] has it. >> [laughter] >> Okay, station policies. Um Just so you guys know, I'm in California in LA right now. Um so it's super early. My son-in-law's mom had a dramatic uh health issue and she passed away yesterday, so >> Oh, no. >> Sorry to hear >> I'm very sorry to hear. >> Really sorry to hear that. >> Oh my god, just the healthiest woman I ever met and uh so Laura and Amanda and I had planned to go over um some additional changes to the station policies. Laura, am I right? And that went out the window since I've
003been gone. >> It It just Yeah, it's just one of those things where it's just been crazy. Like I feel like this spring has been complete non-stop chaos on both personal, academic, and governmental fronts. So, um it's it's going to happen, just not yet. We're going to use that growth mindset and we're going to say we haven't gotten there yet. >> Yet. All right. So, we'll take plan to take a look at them at the next meeting. Okay, cool. All right. Um current fiscal year budget, which just as a reminder ends June 30th, we are on track for spending, um in good shape. Had to move a little bit of money around, but we're um we're all good. And then for the fiscal year 2027 budget, um that has been approved by the town, yay,
004without any changes, so that's good. Um So, we can take that off the agenda for next time. Okay, so up to the important stuff, Laura. On programming. Programming. Um yeah, general programming. It's again, it's just it's been crazy. Um the sports Trumbull High sports spring sports have gone into their tournament season, and at this point everything is all on neutral ground, nothing is at Trumbull High. Um I think maybe softball, but we haven't, you know, again, we're done with sports. We are now knee-deep in concert season, um and end of year activities. Last night I ended up covering um scholarship night, just because again, everybody is busy, you know, we've got a lot of videographers, but a lot of them are parents, and they're doing parent things, and a lot of them are seniors, and
005they're doing senior things. So, it's just complete mayhem, and again, it's like everything is being crammed into between now and graduation, and then in June and and July and August we'll just kind of be looking around scraping for things to do, which is [clears throat] okay. Because then we'll need to regroup and get ready. So, that's where we're at for general programming. We're still covering things at the library and um you know, there haven't been as much at um the senior center that's appropriate to cover. They do a lot of workshop type things where the members will come in and you know, um learning about Medicaid and like driving as you age and things like that where it's just not, you know, personal things are getting shared, not appropriate to be recorded and aired. Um
006so, that's where the general programming is. The original programming um Jeff Cochran helped me out big time because again, in the mayhem of this time of year, um I had to go pick up my son from a summer course the same day as about 17 other things. So, he helped me out and got some footage from the food truck wars, which for those who don't know, it's the final exam for culinary culinary and bake shop two students as well as um one of the marketing classes and they pair up. The marketing team designs a food truck, designs the menu and the pricing and bake shop and culinary actually create the food. They get together in the commons and they sell the food that the kids make. So, which is a really cool event. Um we've
007been covering it for about four or five years. So, Jeff got some footage, I put it together and created an interstitial. I shared that with Christina Rosati, so she can share it among the high school um and then I run it as an interstitial between programming. So, we did that. Um we have a bunch of original programming that's kind of not on hold, but it's just, you know, again, life has been crazy. Um I'll probably be working with Mari Jackson who is our sustainability coordinator for the town. We're going to put something We're going to try to put something together that's a little more evergreen as far as like how to recycle, what things can be recycled, um what the town offers. And then um I've been talking It's been a while again. We're waiting
008on Sam Cousins um life. Uh she wants to put together a piece called um I think it's immunization stories because a lot of senior citizen um not senior citizen, senior center members. Um Basically, we're here prior to, you know, they they knew kids who were in iron lungs and just wanted to talk about the importance of immunizations and how that affected their lives. Um so those are the two things that are kind of in the air. Um and then we've got graduation coming up 2 weeks from tomorrow, which is insane. So um Matt and Jens are two of my videographers and Matt Nelson is another one. Drew actually asked um if he could help out if it was still possible. Um Kate, if that works with the budget, I'd kind of like to pull Matt
009Schlenk into the the field you know, into the press box with me again this year because next year will be my final graduation as a mom. So I just kind of want um I'd like Matt to be up there because he's always um you know, been the producer in my stead. And then I asked Jeff Cochran if he were able to come because I'd like him to see A how everything gets set up and B how it's run because I think moving forward this cuz he and I were talking about ways that um you know, kids could possibly get service hours. And like an end or I don't know if we could pay them and they can get service hours, but you know, we're getting all this new equipment. Um we're setting up you know,
010we have in the budget um a replacement mobile studio. It's going to be similar to what we're putting into the studio as far as, you know, control room equipment. It'll be the same It'll be similar to what's in Chambers and what's in the Board of Ed um production uh facilities. So, I really think it would be good for him to see how this happens and possibly evolve this into a TCTV/THS. I don't know how it would work. I don't know >> I love it. >> You know, but at least put it out there and get [clears throat] that you know, get that rolling and get cuz, you know, he's Jeff is great. He's all for ideas of how to do different things. And I said, you know, maybe this becomes the final exam. I don't
011know. But um and he was on board with that. So, hopefully he'll be able to do that. Uh he'll be able to come and see how this gets put together and what we do on graduation night. Um so, that was That was my thoughts on that. So, that is where we >> that idea. That is That's so cool. >> I I did again >> We still need, you know, we still need the Yens and the Matt Nelsons and and Matt as to you know, maybe executive producer or whatever, but >> Again, yeah. I I think it would be nice to be able to if there's a way we can kind of pull in the students and, you know, even if they're pulling together equipment, setting things up, you know, helping break down, even if they're
012PAs, like And again, they get service hours for it because they are providing a service to the school. Um we will, you know, I want to kind of get that ball rolling. >> Love that. >> So, that is that for programming. The other thing I wanted to bring up is I have never had so many people I said to Kate yesterday, I've never had so many kids approach me about vi- you know, just doing camera work. Some of it is, you know, kids just wanted a couple extra bucks, but um and again a lot of it is unfortunately kind of a testament to where we're at in the economy. Um You know, I've had Kathy Hillser, who was the former counseling uh the head of counseling at THS, had um emailed me cuz her son
013is studying broadcast uh communications and wanted to know if we had, you know, any internship opportunities. And we really we really don't just because of the nature of what we do, plus the summer, as I said, is our slow season. So, everybody who's reached out, I mean, I've been very upfront like, "Look, summer is slow." You know, you're welcome to fill out the paperwork. I'm happy to have them on board, but I just want to manage expectations. I don't want kids expecting to make, you know, have it I don't I don't want anybody coming in expecting this to be their summer job. Because unfortunately, that's not what this is. It's just, you know, a little extra money here and there. Um So, that's where that is. And And again, you know, I want to make
014sure that the videographers who've been here and been loyal are taken care of, too. So, um that's kind of >> maybe you can encourage them to come up with some ideas of their own. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a good idea. Cuz some of them >> that we haven't done covered before, where we're not cutting into what the regular team does, but adding to the programming. >> Yeah. >> Or maybe some assistants with some of the interstitials that you want to do. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> I know that that's that's more about the schedule of the people >> [laughter] >> Yeah. That want it, but you know. >> And again, I yeah, and I don't know, you know, it some of these kids, you know, I don't know where their level You know what I
015mean, where their ability is at. I had a graduate approach me at a volleyball game. I mean, I know he graduated with my oldest, but you know, he's you know, oh, I've been taking a lot of video and photo, you know, video and photography, but it was all on his iPhone. So, I you know, I don't know. Again, there's there's people who are in programs. If you're in a production like a video film production program, you're going to come with a different skill set than somebody who's like I said, just taking videos and photos on your iPhone. I mean, maybe maybe not, but that's kind of but yeah, it was just very interesting and you know, just I know that it's tough. I mean, Jeff knows. Um you know, it's hard getting internships. >> Do
016we have um is there I'm just thinking about like the farmers market. Could we do something on that? >> That's a great idea. >> Mhm. Yeah. >> Farmers market, I mean, maybe, you know, I'll have to ask um That is a great idea. I'll ask them and I'll ask the students, you know, if they have suggestions for what they want to do, you know, what do you think we should cover in town and kind of put it on them. >> Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Come up with some ideas and >> Yeah. So, I think that's a great idea. >> Okay. All right, anything else on programming? >> Um I think I'm the only videographer here. Um I I want to really commend Lara for uh I mean, yesterday I was moving him out of her apartment
017in New York City and the text I got texts every 5 minutes from La- Lara trying to find a videographer for a certain event. And if she's in where do you go, Ohio? On your your band marching band trips and stuff like that. It It's just incredible the amount of work you put in. Um as as a videographer, I see all these messages, right? And I don't know how you do it. So >> I know. Thank you. I apologize for spamming your phones at all >> I'm I'm reluctant I'm reluctant to put it on mute because I would miss something important. For instance, about the senior center needing someone to record them. You know, that's the But seriously, I don't know how you do it. >> I just do. I just do it. Thank you.
018>> [laughter] >> It's noted in the notes in the meeting minutes. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jens. That's great. All right, on to technical. Ar, what do you got for us? >> Technical. I just again, I just need a little bit of guidance. Jens, I think I'm going to lean on you because you seem to have the most knowledge with um glacier. I just want to make sure that you know, my assumptions are correct. I'm pulling the right numbers because it seems to be I want to say I don't remember the exact amount, but you know, this glacier storage is roughly I would say it's under $500 a year. >> Uh in in our case, it probably will be. I mean, depending on whether we archive stuff or whether we need stuff available for you
019know, instant access, which I don't think we do, but >> think Well, the I think the decision was we were not going to do that just because if the need was so um infrequent, and then we would decide My my recollection is that we were more focused on the storage, and then depending on how much requ- how many requests we have and what kind of costs we incur, then we would reevaluate if we need to charge based on requests or if that's something that the station can absorb. >> I I I haven't been spending that I haven't been given that high enough priority. I would like to get Matt Nelson also >> Okay. >> involved because he he knows he knows about this stuff too and um >> Yes. >> you know, he he will
020he'll be able to help you out when you know, after I leave. >> Abandon us. We'll put that down for follow-up for next time. [laughter] >> Follow-up, yeah. >> Yes. Okay, anything else? Wait, we have any technical issues, Laura? Equipment's working, studio's good, what? The studio's been getting lots of use. Um Jeff Cochran has built uh most of the set. I sent Kate a picture of it. It looks awesome. Oh, speak of the devil, here's Matt Nelson. >> Hi, Matt. >> Um your ears must have been burning because we were just talking about um storage. So, I'll follow up with you on that when we're done. But so, Jeff Cochran built these great um panels. They're maybe I don't know, 4 ft wide by 9 or 10 ft high and they're divided into quarters, if
021you can imagine that. So, each portion of it is going to have like the top half will probably be just like a solid painted wood and then some of it will have like um like a frosted plexiglass kind of panel and then the next one below it maybe a 2-in deep shelf. So, if you wanted to put I don't know, small trinkets on it just to kind of reinforce whatever show is happening. Like if it's election night, we can put little flags in stands and put them there and then the bottom will just be painted. But behind that um opaque plexiglass, he put the the lights that I had bought that we were shining up the black curtain and it looks awesome. It looks like a professional I mean, this is this is going to
022look really awful on a Zoom call. Um I don't know if you could see this. I'm sorry. This this is really horrible, but that's >> Pull it back just a little. >> Oh, like that? >> good. Doesn't that look great? >> That looks amazing. >> It's not finished. It's not painted. It's in progress, but it's going to look And the thing is each of those panels is separate, so you can make it on an arc. You can put two of them together. You can put three of them together. And then he's got the anchor desk in progress. He's probably going to put that in the center of the studio. So, he's got all these amazing plans, and he's also a tinkerer, so he loves to like he figured out, Kate, the lights that we have
023will be fine. We probably don't need to replace those. He just needed to replace the cable because they they have up to 255 colors, but the cable wouldn't pass all those colors through. So, he upgraded the cables, and now we can get that pure composite white through those lights. Like, Scott, he's amazing. He's fantastic. So, like, you know, he took apart the soundboard when it blew and figured out what what went on, and you know, we replaced the soundboard, but he's I mean, what a great find. What a great find. He's I know I know the kids love working with him. Like, he's he's always in the studio tinkering and building and and doing stuff to make things better, and you know, the kids, like I said, the kids love being in there, so it's
024it's great. So, I'm really Yeah. >> That's what I'm really waiting for is somebody that engaged at the high school. >> Absolutely. >> And maybe [clears throat] in the fall we could do a a meeting on site, so we could see the setup. >> I think that'd be great. Yeah, and you'll have to come in before you I don't know when you're you're heading back, but you definitely need to come in and take a look. >> It sounds wonderful. I mean, Tinker is uh is just something you need to have in any organization. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. That's great. I can't I can't wait to see it. It looks It looks incredible. And we are lucky to have found Jeff. >> Absolutely, yeah. >> Pretty cool. Okay, on to marketing. Amanda, I am seeing stuff.
025>> [laughter] >> That's great. I'm glad you're seeing that. Yeah, so Drew did a wonderful job again for the month of May. He um He changed some things up a little bit and started doing carousels on um Instagram, so you had to swipe through and see different uh images. I will say that our reach was not as far this month, um and I think a lot of it has to do with because he was posting so regularly in April. Um we've kind of uh evened out a little bit, so now we need to start working on the reach again. And so, I was wondering, Lara, if any of the interstitials are something that we might be able to grab and put up um that you have that might relate to what, you know, now. So,
026>> I'll put the food truck one in that um I think what was it, social media assets folder on Dropbox. I'll put that there. >> Okay. >> Anything like if the students, you know, come in and get some footage and put stuff together, I'll, you know, once those are done, I can put those there. >> Okay. Yeah, that Would it work to put up a a daily schedule, or is that too weird? >> Um I think I think that the the static kind of things are not really getting the kind of reach that we want, just because of It might work better on Facebook, but I can tell you on Instagram that wouldn't really do anything. >> move. >> Yeah, it needs to move and so we really need to start going into video. Um
027and then and I think his informational kind of graphics that he did for this last month of, you know, learn about this uh you know, learn about the Hillcrest building and learn about that was a great way to try and grab more people. So, um I'll continue working with him and Larry, if you could get that for him. I know he had talked about doing the sports and then we're kind we kind of ran out of sports. So, um and we'll gear up for that in the fall. Um and uh yeah, and so maybe some concert highlights, too, we could start putting out, you know. >> Yeah, please tell Drew if there's anything specific he wants me to put in that folder so he can grab clips. I'm more than happy to do that and
028then that while you're editing if you if there's like um I don't know if there's like a highlight that you want to grab or a passage of from a concert that you know, you want to clip 5 minutes or whatever, then >> Yeah, absolutely. Are we talking about the uh school concerts or like the summer gazebo ones? I kind of missed that. >> Okay, yeah. Yeah, great. [laughter] Great, yeah. Yeah, cuz I have a bunch of the concerts uh in Premiere, so I can upload some stuff today, tomorrow. >> Awesome. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that would be great. >> concerts because that people can get a sense of like, oh, what kind of music is this group playing? >> Right. >> Exactly. Yeah, so that that would be great and I think that that could start
029to expand our reach, too. What was interesting was that the reach drop wasn't um wasn't from our followers. Our followers were steady. They continued to see everything and interact and engage. It was non-followers. So, that could just be how the how we were found by the algorithm or um followers shared it to someone who doesn't follow our page kind of thing. So that dropped a little bit, but our followers were steady, which was really good. So I'd say overall, you know, he's he's knocking it out of the park. >> [laughter] >> Absolutely and and the investment but on our part and Matt and Matt's time I mean and Drew's Drew's time well worth it like >> Yeah, I agree 100%. You know, it's giving him some good experience too. So Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Awesome.
030>> So now that social media is starting to level out. I think my focus is going to go back on different ways that we can also reach out to the to the town whether that's coordinating something with Vicky's office or you know, looking at different ways to to capture emails and be able to send out information to people as well. So >> Which should translate into more followers. >> Exactly. Yeah, our views really. I mean in the end it's about the views through YouTube and through our you know, and through our page. So >> And Amanda, if Drew wants to post like if there's a particular um Instagram social media post that goes up during the week, you know, he's welcome to put that on the top of the home page. >> Okay. All right.
031>> I'm not you know, I'm not like wedded to what's up there right now. I think it's totally fine and you know, I that may help. >> Yeah, definitely cuz if you have a message Yeah, if you come to it and you see something that's you know, yeah, I agree. That would be good. Okay, I'll let him know. Does he Does he have the ability to >> I think I gave you all of the credentials for that. So once you know, he has the ability >> him. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Great. >> Sounds good. >> Awesome. Awesome. This stuff looks great. >> Yeah. >> It really looks good. >> Yeah. >> Okay, last thing I have on here is the the rain jackets. >> Uh I have to make sure I have to check
032for them. They should be delivered any day. They should be They should be at THS any day if they're not there already. So um I will have those. I ordered them a little I only ordered larges and extra large just because I figure if we're going to be outside and weather is kind of funky, you're going to want to throw it over a hoodie or something. >> Nothing else. >> So we got 12 of them and logos on the front chest and on the back. So >> Cool. >> Very cool. >> Sorry, that's my [clears throat] computer. Um Okay. Uh last up, THS connection, Laura, which we've touched on a little bit, but is there more? >> Um nothing I can think of right now. I mean, I you know, I can't say enough great
033things about Jeff. Just he's great to work with. He's been doing great things in the studio. The kids are you know, the kids are great. Sadly, I shouldn't say unfortunately, but sadly the last um excuse me, episode of the announcements were recorded for the school year. So that's wrapped up. But um you know, it was it was a good the kids learned a lot. They you know, they did the usual, you know, like dipping the toe in, dipping the toe in and and I kind of feel like next year like we can kind of push them a little harder because some of the kids are graduating, but there will be some kids coming back. Um the goal right now is to get more kids. Um hopefully the club can get more kids to join and
034come after school because it was a small group. They were great. They were very involved, but it would be nice to get more kids. And, I think the goal is to at some point get it into a first period class. >> I would be happy >> Because, that would make it a little more consistent. But, uh you know, again, it just it all depen- it depends on so many things that are outside of our control. Budgets, and scheduling, and things like that. >> Well, I I really think we should try to make we do our September meeting up there. Cuz, we've I None of us have met Jeff. It would be awesome to meet him. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, video. Um and to, you know, give him our appreciation for what he's doing. >>
035Absolutely. I think you guys I mean, by September, I can't imagine, you know, how much further everything will be along. We'll have to FaceTime Jens. >> [laughter] >> I'll be um I'll be the a member of the public. >> There you go. >> For once. >> We'll have one member of the public. >> Bill will have to finally let someone in. >> [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. Do we have anything else? I don't have anything else on the agenda. And, it's a short meeting. But, um >> I just wanted to I just wanted to add to what Laura said about um the THS connection, too. I The digital media two class, um it has been like amazing um this last semester. And, I think that they may be able to recruit some kids out of that
036for the Soaring Eagle Studios. So, he's, you know, Jeff, again, has done an amazing job um kind of letting these kids really just experience all sides of broadcasting. So, it's been awesome. So, hopefully, they'll be able to, you know, add from there. >> It's, again, it's a lot of um there are a lot of kids doing a lot of activities. and you know, it's it's just hard for that to you know, to kind of carve out time in the day when they're doing so many things. >> Yeah. >> Especially if they're athletes, they're practicing after school at the same time as the club. So it's you know, >> Yep. >> Okay, awesome. Anybody have anything else we need to talk about? >> Nope. >> Okay, so our next meeting is July 2nd after graduation. Um
037I don't see anything else we need to cover. So if that's it, can I get a motion to adjourn? >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Yance. Second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Vance. All in favor. All right, guys. Have a great day. Thank you so much. It's 8:32 and good luck with graduation, Laura. >> Thank you. >> And we'll see everybody in July. >> Yep. >> Take care, everybody. >> See everyone. >> Bye. >> Thank you, Laura.