001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign such a lovely evening although it was forecasted to be worse just just like Saturday was I guess the non-hurricane Lee so um you know it's all good this is the annual meeting of uh membership meeting for webcam um we typically have them in mid-september uh I'm skipping the slides this year we're going a little more informal no jacket for me tonight and uh you know we're just going to kind of wing it uh the agenda you should have a copy of there's plenty of room for any of you to say what you want to say which we'd appreciate it good or bad and uh time for the board members to introduce themselves as well as uh Rob I'm sure we'll have the staff and they're going
002to make free presentations so it'll be more of a just a get to know one another kind of Gathering uh you should pick a title for everything so I've called it bevcam in 2023 reset for an exciting future because there's been a ton of changes in 2023 especially in staff uh there's been coming out of covet I think we we learned stuff that's now beginning to make the organization even stronger especially in the programming area of being able to Pivot quickly and not have to do everything in the studio and a lot of you for some of you here who are producers who are actually able to to do that some others not quite but it's still it worked a lot and it kept a good continuity and content in key areas that is important
003and uh as you know from last year we renegotiated a new contract 10-year contract with Comcast which is now and amazingly well not really because they're a monopoly so if the viewership goes down they raise their prices right but the total take that we're getting every quarter has actually been up the last three quarters and it was around 100 roughly 190 thousand dollars this past quarter for uh and that compares to I don't know 100 on a good day in the old days 120. so uh we're in much better shape and we can be much more flexible and try to reset and look to the Future do new things experiment if everything doesn't work it's okay okay uh where'd you hear that Bob Rob told you oh okay we're gonna have another board meeting after
004this meeting and uh so anyway just briefly then new staff Rob just finished his first full year mid-may I believe and I started it was a later it started in April I think May 9th was the first day and then full-time two weeks later okay right okay yeah and uh and uh you know he's brought on um you know he's been very busy in a lot of aspects I hired some very good people who he'll talk more to later and you'll meet them and uh you know I think the we're getting bigger we're getting back to a staff that that is needed we have the money to support that which is we're fortunate um programming uh in addition to continued educational government programming which is has always been our strength uh and uh we've had
005a lot of turnover in those areas and we'll have a little bit more at the end of the month but um we the way the staff is trained now which is really good everybody can do everything pretty much it might not do it as well as everybody else but if something happens and you need backup you got it and I think that's something that Rob's done a really good job allowing everybody the time to learn everything okay when there's more down times and that's been a huge help and I'm sure there'll be times when you'll say four are we glad we did that because we we thought only XYZ knew how to do that but from a programming point of view on the other side um shows that continue which are really good is George
006bins with the bins report Gail and Elliott with the conservative corner Leslie and John keep it local from the greater Beverly chamber around town with a rotary North short journal with Walt and several more which aren't mentioned I think when you just look at the titles and if you know the people you look at the people I think we're continuing to support A diversity of views which is important for a media platform like bevcamp and um uh and I I trust and hope that will continue going forward community outreach um let's suffice it to say we're doing a lot of it now we've probably done more when did you join Liz okay we've probably done more between April and now than than we had done I won't say ever but but if you add it
007all up in the last three or four years it's it's or more it's like night and day and it's it takes a while but from a public point of view and a community point of view you got to do that to establish the brand and you know from a government in sports reporting and all that that's a little different and people don't even really half the time know it that's Beth cam either they're just go out they can look at it but uh this and you can't do brand you can't build a brand by just sitting inside I mean you got to get out and about and all that kind of business go to events uh you know we're considering some things like pop-up places uh of Beverly branded vehicle uh we continue to look
008for space downtown which if the right thing comes along uh we we probably will uh have a second location and keep the major production here but have a second location for this purpose so it's all that kind of stuff is good and it's critical to keep the get the organization vibrant and uh moving forward and the financials are kind of why we can do all this in a way I've been here 20 years now 21 years and um they're amazing uh we now have about almost eight hundred thousand dollars in the bank or receivables uh they're that are they're good it's just uh they're accrued and I already mentioned the Comcast payments so you know we'll continue to maintain a healthy Reserve but we'll also continue to not be hesitant to spend money in areas
009that we think could be promising and have a good payoff uh for for producers for members and for the bepcam organization in general I'd like to recognize a few people Rob of course I've already mentioned many of you if not all of you I think know him now and he's done a a really good job in his first 15 16 months grabbing a hold of something that was in good shape but not isn't as good a shape as maybe some of us thought and has really uh you know really gotten all that out of the way and now he's just going forward with everything else Kim uh who had to go off as he mentioned to me going out he says I'm the only guy getting paid tonight but he had to go out and
010uh to the city council meets tonight so he's in City Hall doing the meeting uh I want to recognize Robert Matt and Zach they've all departed over the last few months they're really good guys I think they all got they didn't leave because they didn't like bevcam it wasn't that at all they got really good opportunities and uh you know Rob's down and New York now at Fordham University and uh Zach is I think working out of his he lives right across the library his car is always there so I think he's working out of there but he's a regional manager for something and uh and then uh Matt's working for Cable cable uh Cable cable cast yeah so uh that's come that's cool and he's staying but he's doing another dimension of the industry
011so that's working out well and at the same time I want to welcome Chris back he's been here before uh Liz and Michelle I'm sure they'll talk a little bit about what they do so I'm not gonna say anything other than the places organized now I think efficiently where everybody does know how to do everything but everybody has defined accountability in specific areas be it content or or Business Development or you know whatever producer operations which is Kim still uh Kim will be leaving uh full-time uh I guess towards the end of the month end of October yeah and he's given Beth cam 14 to 15 really good solid years and uh but he's not getting any younger just like some of the rest of us and uh yeah he's going to kind of as
012he told me he still wants to do work he's going to continue a lot of the uh the city uh meetings and uh he just doesn't want to have to be somewhere at nine o'clock every day and go home and XYZ who can blame him uh so uh yeah but we'll miss him his uh quirky sense of humor [Applause] the board uh I think we're having a lot of turnover in the board right now uh just like there's a lot of turnover in the staff turnover is a helping thing if managed well and I think we're all managing it well in terms of bringing on new people I do want to thank uh Brian Thompson who was here okay he had to leave who's also a uh he's around webcam a lot and I think
013he is or was or still is a producer um I want to thank Luke uh who now lives in Reno Nevada and troubles travels internationally extensively for the company he works for where he's in business development and Derek who is local but he now has two jobs he still has one his personal training business and he also works for it's a good job I forget the name of the company they're based they're based in Nevada too I think uh and he's traveling a lot but I met with him a couple weeks ago and we had a nice talk and he's still around we can pick his brain he's a smart guy he does have a lot of good ideas so hopefully uh we'll keep in touch with excuse me with him and again welcome to
014um uh two two people uh well one person for sure no two people I'm sorry to the board uh that are already on there Keith and Alex uh who who can say something about themselves in a few minutes and also uh uh John tamilio who's going to who is uh if you vote him in was uh is going to be uh recommended by the board for one of the uh member elected board seats which we'll do in a few minutes okay um producers real active ones include the Beverly chamber rotary Gail and Elliott Paul Norman Andy Freeman George pins Bob Butterworth Walt cosmowski mayor Cahill and the folks at the second Congregational Church where my wife happens to be in charge she's not a minister but I'm charges figuring out what to do with the
015second Congregational Church so it's been an interesting challenge but they're doing fine and they'll do fine and in the community we just want to give a shout out to the mayor's office they are very supportive of bethcam um main streets Boosters club the students and athletes of Beverly schools and a special shout out to the bevcam sports crew and announcers they do a tremendous job I really like it now that they're branching out into the girls volleyball and field hockey I think and all sorts of different kinds of sports did sailing and uh and not just the traditional uh sports that we all know what they are so with that I'll turn it over to Rob to say a few words and then uh and then we'll move on to I move my remarks up
016we'll move on to John to take care of the elections and stuff okay drop okay um it is absolutely amazing to me that it's now uh been 15 months here in Beverly it is flown by I have just been absolutely uh enamored with the community the North Shore the whole part as many of you probably know I'm a transplant from Northern New England up in Vermont but I've just always been really sort of uh eyeing the ocean and seeing and it was just a great opportunity that I'm so appreciative of the board of directors to trust me in taking on the helmet of Beth Camp so it's just been really a wonderful time I say that it's been incredible to me that it's been more than a year because of the staff turnover and so
017I do want to recognize uh um you know last year Zach had already left but you know in January or towards the end of the last year when Robert gave his notice and said that he would take in this opportunity to move to New Jersey to take over the sports broadcasting system at Fordham University um it was uh a little scary because Robert was an integral part it's the word integral or integral or whatever you want anyway Robert had uh really sort of built up a lot of the work on the sports production and the technology here and it was super impressive to get here and find out that the things that they were doing with fiber transport and all the technology that kind of has to do with Community media and we wondered what
018we would do without we it was hard to imagine a Beth came without Robert but we were so glad that he was moving back to Jersey he's from Jersey himself he was going to be close to his mom and he was taking on something that he really enjoyed which is sports coverage so uh you know whenever somebody my staff comes and says you know I have to give notice and I'm like I always say I feel wonderful for you but as the executive director I'm a little scared now so uh and then Matt a couple weeks later gave his notice because he had been offered the position at cable cast and I was like uh I think when we first came in that Kim came in the next morning and he looked at me and
019he says just I'm not happy and I said what can I do to make you happy Kim and we actually got to spend Kim and I uh the month of April pretty much running the shop I mean Liz was here but she was doing community engagement so I I was kidding Kim about the two old guys learning how to do things that Robert and Matt have been doing the whole time so um it was uh quite a month and I really appreciated that Kim was there for that trip with me to be able to do that month and I'm very proud of us to be able to do that but we are very much appreciative when Michelle and Chris did arrive and be able to take on May 1st of this year and we finally
020could take a breath and say okay I can get back to doing executive director thing that says try to figure out how to get the camera signal from the field out here on the channel not that I'm I'm very appreciative of the fact that I know how to do that because then I know that if we need to be I can I can step in and do that but so uh it's just been uh it was great to get to know Robert and Matt and I really do uh consider them friends and I hope that they will and I know that they will be always in time in touch with bethcam and then we have to get to Kevin who I knew and he had been talking about retiring from the beginning and I said
021I understand you you know and I think it's great for you it's on a personal level but uh Kim has been a partner in in so many ways in in taking care and and taking the leadership role at bevcam I um every morning now I get here at 8 30 and Kim and I get to sit and talk for a half an hour and it's just been it may be about work it may not have been maybe about life but I know that this man has a heart of gold and he has poured a lot of it into bethcam and we'll continue to do it we know we know that he will be around but um he has uh a really uh a special place in my heart that I you know that I think
022that many of you who do work with him know he puts on that curmudgeon sort of front but there's there's a heart in there that is just so so strong and he takes care of things that he cares about in Beth Kansas so uh and we would have thrown a big party for Kim but he does not want that he doesn't want no we yeah it is too bad because I know that the people I know that people will come out Judy and I are really good at throw in retirement parties aren't we cutie he he will not appreciate it he wants to kind of just step out the door quietly and I know that it's not about him it's about you know that's the one thing about Kim is it's not really about him
023it's about everybody you know it's about taking care of everybody and making sure that they're all on doing things that are wonderful and on a path that's good for them and that's really kind of the kind of man he is and it has been so wonderful as I said uh to get to spend every morning with my cup of tea and his cup of coffee and we just sit there and talk about anything that we might do so it will be uh it will be Miss uh part of my morning to to be able to not be able to sit there with it but I understand why he's doing it and I and I know that it's a good thing for him and for him and for Dee to be able to go and travel
024and spend some of his time in retirement he's he's well well earned and well deserved so the other thing I'd like to say is to recognize Paul as a partner it's been wonderful Paul as the chair of the board to be able to get to him and just kind of take his wisdom and knowledge and what he's done in the years that he's been together it's so much nice to be able to sit and we meet down at the anchor and he'll we'll have a drink or something like that thank God and I'll just tell him this is what's going on and he'll give me that Sage advice and say this is what you're doing but he he trusts me and I appreciate that level of trust and and that we have that that ability
025to sort of just talk about things that are really you know where are we going how do we get there and why do we want to get there so though um All Aboard us as well you know from Andy to uh the new ones Keith and Alex and the people that have been on the board it has been uh and Judy uh it has just been I sometimes I lose words here just because it's so it's so nice to be with a group of people who get it who want to do it and are working work together to do it so I'd much very much appreciate the board and what they bring to it and lastly the community I've just been so impressed with the community of Beverly it's just such a wonderful opportunity to
026come and I always say it's very lucky of me to be able to get into the jobs that I do because I'm already in the community before I even get at day one you know it's part of my job is to go out and know the mayor to know the people who run this town and people who are activists in this town who are passionate about this town and they all come to my office and they just talk and it's very easy for me just kind of get to know them and learn it and I do know how very special Beverly is uh and I you know that being said um and so finally we get to the the new staff who have just been uh absolutely amazing and wonderful to get to know and
027I know that you guys will get to know them and they're going to introduce themselves in a little bit so uh um I think that you know one of the one of the qualities of being a leader is recognizing people and finding people how to do the jobs for you and do it well and and challenge you and that's one of the things that keep um Kim always did was he would challenge me so if I said something he would really run me through the ringer that I had to justify it and these guys that are coming with us now I think do the same thing you know they all kind of look at me and say well why are we doing that is there some better way to do that so that is really
028just a part of a very effective leader and I'd like to think that I have that capacity that skill so um I think you know I I had a couple things on my list but I think I'll leave it from you're going to talk about like the HD channel my energy and stuff like that yeah okay so I don't want to take away from their Thunder but thank you for everything it's been a wonderful year at bevcam as uh it was very odd that the annual report that we put together that's on your seats has a lot of data in it um it's uh interesting that we come to September and we're talking about 2022. by this time in September we're really already thinking about the things that we're doing in 2023 so that's I
029I couldn't even in the report I couldn't even talk about the new staff because they haven't really been hired yet so that'll be for 20 well the 2023 annual report that will take place next September in 2024 but Paul mentioned some of the things that we've been thinking about doing that we're talking about doing is about how do we get more people involved how we get people's voices involved how do we get diverse voice voices and opinions involved and the staff is well prepared to kind of take that on and take that challenge and really to go to run with it so I'm looking forward to the time with that we have with them and I think you guys are going to really enjoy them so I would that I'll I will finish my comments
030and say thank you very much again [Applause] the flow is still good uh I'm John algeri I'm uh member of the board of directors I've been on the board for about 10 years now I think uh was introduced to Bev cam a couple years before that as a volunteer after um being in a career in state government for like 42 years um what my role is tonight is to a couple of things first we do we are recommending a couple of new members to the board of directors but before I get to that I would like to and I'm going to put you on the spot we do have two members who have of the board who have joined us since the spring and I would like to introduce them to you at the meeting
031first Alex saluko Alex ethical just stand foreign over the years he was one of the Mainstays of sports production and color commentary play-by-play color by play Etc very professional if any of you have watched the uh the uh this voice programming here it's been uh really like the excellent award-winning which is student volunteer in 2011. yeah wow I remember wow so all the way through college and I got a degree in it and now I don't use that good job I'm not entrepreneurial [Laughter] so thank you Alex thank you very much and Keith Sonia who joined us around the same time yeah yeah uh yeah it's been a privilege to be on the board I uh my background is mostly in politics public Outreach public affairs I'm a senior leader at a public affairs consulting
032firm now cleanser State agencies universities Etc and so Paul and John I met initially and they let me know that one of Rob's uh you know sort of big initiatives coming in uh to the executive director role was to think about how Beth cam reached the community and then Liz has uh since joined and it's been great kind of picking her brain and uh lending my time when when available and I look forward to sort of a continued partnership to make sure that we continue to grow the membership and to the point where we're maybe in the hallway or something at the next one overflow room um but a privilege to get to know all of you uh in the coming years and and look forward to working with you thank you I wanted to
033introduce and welcome welcome both uh Alex and Keith to you at this meeting then the next order of business is really to vote on um two new members well one is not a new member the first the first is to uh to that the the board has uh has two uh candidates for membership to the board of directors one is a gentleman who's been on the board for uh several years now and it's Mark Jameson so this would be renewing marks uh tenure as a member of the board of directors Mark has a background in special education he's a special education educator professional and has held a myriad of positions in that particular field and has also produced programming here at bevcam and is passionate about having bringing about Community awareness for people who have
034disabilities developmental disabilities Etc so um Mark if you want to stand just say a few words about you thanks John that can sums it up so I became a member of this organization maybe seven years ago when I created a show called amazingly autistic I was a career specialist with a non-profit organization called bridgewell and I realized the abilities that my my clients with autism had in the employment Workforce Now I'm currently a media production teacher at North Shore Academy which is a mile up the road and okay yeah um and so now I'm an instructor I'm a media production teacher at North Shore Academy uh which is a mile up the road and with my partnership with bevcam um they've they've given us some equipment that used to be uh used in the old
035in town hall when they revamped it we got their equipment we use it now in our classroom which is very helpful with a low budget and with school politics we don't really have much of a budget so with their support we've been able to grow our program and now we give our students the ability to express their selves freely and just with this organizations it's been a great honor and I look forward to connecting with more people in the community I just want to put this out there one of my students has an incredible ability for audio engineering and designing and so if any of you producers that are here need support with um adding audio to your um to your program um I'm just I'm sure that we could collaborate if you don't have
036the obviously bevcam has the resources as well um with the staff but if you want to get students involved as well I'd be happy for them to give you my information again my name is Mark Jameson and we could work together to help some of my students with disabilities get real life experience so that's what I want to bring to this table thank you [Applause] uh the other candidates that board is is recommending who would be new to the board uh is uh John tamilio who is John is a the senior pastor of the Camden Canton Congregational Church he is also a Adjunct professor at Salem State Endicott College and uh Gordon College as well and John also has experience with bethcam as pre-pandemic probably 2019 and earlier uh had a show called a frame
037frame of reference and they may have that title there may be frames of reference but any event we're recommending John he has a um uh his background again is is different than men than those of us who are are on the board and I think we think would bring a diversity of opinion and experience to the board that would be helpful as um you know Rob and his staff continue to develop the uh the the mission of bevcam going forward into the future so we're recommending for uh a vote this evening uh adding both um Mark Jameson and uh Dr John tamilio to the board of directors and we can do that with a show of hands right Paul so can we do that now if ever I'd like to put them both on the
038the Slate of candidates if you will do I can remove myself we woke up for yourself all right um so if we can just have a show of hands for adding Mark Jameson and Dr John tamilio to the board do we have any nice any discussion all right thank you very much thank you thanks John very nice job okay um next up uh the current board members who haven't uh said anything yet there's a few of you here if you if you could uh stand up and reintroduce yourself and maybe say a few comments or not I'll start with uh Judy Miller on the spot yeah you're a veteran thank you Judy Miller I've been on the board as long as Paul that long okay I am the clerk not by much um yeah I
039go way back and I am um I work for the schools I've been the director of technology for 23 years it's technology digital learning and have been liaison between school and bevcam which Sean Fitzpatrick has taken over that spot so I'm I think I'm just the clerk now I don't know no um very important part very important it's great to be on the board it's always we've had some especially the last couple years yeah it was done a lot of work so um thanks great to be here [Applause] hi everyone I'm Andy Friedman I think I've been on the board eight years seven or eight years I'm a producer as well I have one of the unmentioned shows called local music now really awesome check it out punk rock show um well it's not unmentionable
040no no um I I love being on the board um it's just really interesting job we have had some uh very interesting couple of years and um I think that it's really good that we have I'm a producer and also on the board and we have some also people who've been producers and people who want to be producers it's kind of good to be in here doing it seeing how everything goes and then also being on the board and I'm so happy to have Rob here too so thank you I don't see anybody else Tony Sean yeah I'm sorry yeah yeah hey there I'm Sean Fitzpatrick I teach media here at the high school uh it's pleasure to be here this is my second year on the board and I would just like to Echo
041some of the comments that we heard before about what an exciting year this has been with all the changes and it's been a great honor to be part of the uh the process of developing the future of of bevcam I've heard so many great ideas this year it's really exceeded my expectations so I'm just happy to have been here and uh thanks so much for allowing me to to be part of it [Applause] Tony uh Tony's been on the board I think a month more or less than I am he's another veteran fan okay so uh anyway she's seen a lot just like we all have yeah the other thing I forgot to mention well I mentioned it I guess last year but the um we work subgroups more now and the the search committee
042was really a lot of fun because it was a lot of work but it was Judy and Andy and John and myself and uh you know it was 21 candidates and it got down to one and uh it all worked out really well so and I think we we instituted a thing that they're going to use now in there we those little video oh yeah yeah we did some stuff yeah they said huh and they were media professionals but they were like you can't do that we're like well we're gonna do it and then they're like that was great and then Rob's video was oh the bad Rose video that was a fun time was it the ice cream no no I think now we move on to um I'll let I'll let Rob take
043over again as far as short presentations here key staff members um so yeah um um I already kind of said my teeth so I just want to have an opportunity to sort of introduce you to the staff uh we'll start with uh Liz who was hired uh beginning of April to be a new physician which we call in community engagement manager and I think Liz's joke was that you know uh she I hired her to become everybody in Beverly's friend and so she's working hard at doing that Liz she's very friendly Chris it's Gonna Get Loud hello hello and tell I'm an extrovert and he's he's not lying even a little bit I literally sent him a DM on LinkedIn that said I'm gonna be friends with everyone in Beverly I could do it for
044you um and that's pretty much what my job has been not only am I in charge of our social media so if you've seen us on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube that's me thanks um and but I've also been uh getting involved with a lot of really incredible groups that are local uh such as uh women on a mission to earn commission that's one of our Women Business groups and the Beverly Chamber of Commerce and the North Shore Chamber of Commerce and Beverly main streets and um as well as a whole bunch of other not-for-profits around the town and other businesses we will continue to cultivate those relationships and just be able to make sure that when somebody says oh yeah I do stuff down at Bev Camp nobody says who's Bev cam and yeah
045so if I don't know you already please introduce yourself to me I want to be your friend if I do know you nice again thank you very much [Applause] we have Michelle is going to explain what a content manager does manages content of course hello my name is Michelle Lopez um I just joined bevcam in May so I've been here just a couple months um just a little background it came from Winthrop Community Access television I was there for five years so that was really my introduction to Community Access I learned a lot from very happy to be here with Bev cam I'm learning a ton just in these few months um so I'm content manager so I like to schedule all the shows um I like to get shows from local of course and
046anything that's imported so if anything seems interesting I will just download that and put it on the station so people can see it um Rob and I have been working and trying to clear out our server room so a lot of people don't get to see the back end of our studio so the server room is where the brain lives of the station um so we've been cleaning that out I'm trying to get it more functional I guess more tidied up but the main thing that we're really excited about is bevcam is getting an HD channel finally after all of these years yes I'm good um so that's going to be happening within the next month hopefully um so we could be playing shows in HD whether that be government meetings school meetings um shows
047or just anything we want to play it's going to be a just a Melting Pot of different things for HD so yeah that's one of the newest things that will be happening so I'm very excited and uh thank you for having me [Applause] it has been fun we're teaching Michelle the back of the server and just kind of pulling things so what does this thing do and what did it figure it out I don't know what do you think it does I don't know let's pull let's unplug it and see if anything goes wrong what's that one time where we couldn't figure out why I was going there and yeah we were looking at the wrong monitor yeah uh and last but not least if the man who comes from the booth uh our production
048manager uh who uh has uh Bennett bevkin before and we've got him back from Endicott so Chris [Music] [Applause] hello hello uh I'm back because I think Kim always says when people see me again um I'm Chris Harvey I'm the production manager I returned to Bev Kim in May I initially worked at bevcam from 2015 to 18 I believe it was and then I departed went over to Endicott College uh right down the road and worked in audio visual services so not that much of a departure from what I did here previously and what I do now but it was a lot more of uh just managing upkeep of spaces and functionality for classes and events and everything media uh AV related all over campus and after five years of doing that and just uh
049taking kind of a firestorm as a three-person team and I was kind of like you know I miss being creative and and uh I miss local access and the opportunity opened up here and I was more than happy to come back um what I do here is uh what I've been doing in there pretty much um I manage production so anything that comes into the studio anything that's outside the studio sports related um um meetings right now is more of Kim's kind of bailiwick as well right uh and uh so but it's a lot of scheduling and um just meeting with people that want to do shows uh new producers we have coming in people that are returning that have a new idea um so it's kind of a mishmash of all that so somewhere
050between just managing day-to-day production planning for future production doing in studio post field anything that has the word production or similar to that I'm involved in and have been very excited to work with a lot of new people and a lot of people I've seen before um and just very looking much looking forward to where this is all going with our new direction and you know the new possibilities we've talked about with maybe some pop-ups and and things outside of our nice space here um and just kind of continue to grow the organization and see where we can where we can go what we can do go back oh right there's one more thing it's a thing yeah so I need to invite them back up and Rob you need to stand right there we
051had a presentation turns out thank you for my goodness you didn't think we did did you no no of course not how would you know it was a secret the whole time with the whispering get up here I don't know my partner okay stand here [Laughter] as you've been with Beth camp for just over a year now yes all of us here are new we would like to say welcome to Bev Camp from us the staff Kim Chu he's here in spirit it's a newspaper yeah I don't mind we got you the Salem News I'm gonna open this yeah look there's coupons for liquor you know like you know make sure you get everything so there you go let's see all right well thank you guys thank you very nice Where the Heart Is Right
052absolutely okay so members who would like to say something going back to your earlier comments about finances there was some talk over the years that the industry Comcast Cable in general is making concerted efforts to disassociate themselves from funding Community Access where does that discussion lie these days are they eventually getting to a point where well there's a percentage of their income is not being directed to befcam and other similar them and other Comcast and the big cable groups like that they're they definitely don't want things like bevcam around uh it's legislated so we have to be around they have much more lobbying power than we do so they they fight it every day uh but we got a Max contract out of them and that's five percent plus uh you know we only get
053five percent of TB revenues based on the subscribers in Beverly and what they pay um there's a move afoot now which Liz you might want to say a word or two about the that media you went to and the five the trying to get a share of um uh streaming also from the mass access advocacy either one of you you mentioned the board meeting that's what I figured yeah yeah so um we don't have a ton of details to share because it's all still kind of happening but there is a bill within the State House a State House and Senate of Massachusetts that is looking at um charging the same sort of franchise fee on streaming services uh so that would help modernize the law there's also a national push uh going in a completely
054different direction um and I don't remember the language on that one uh but it's not going uh oh it's not going towards streaming services it's going towards internet providers and a franchise fee on internet providers so there are a couple of different branches that are trying to modernize these laws and they've been active the push towards these directions have been active for quite a long time legislation on a state or a federal level is really hard to get through we've got an expert on that um on our board as well um so bethcam has definitely been you know supporting other Community Access centers in you know finding out what the best uh direction to go in and we'll keep you guys updated as we get information good excellent when there's something really important that comes
055along Liz can put it in the little newsletter which I assume you guys are getting and keep you informed that way too um back to your point though Alex I think the Comcast agreement we have now has eight years left it's been a fast almost two years now and uh the um well it took a long time to get it signed but it was backdated that's true that's what happens um because they didn't want to give us everything we got but we prevailed um and um but that's why it's really nice to have some funds to create product and programming and New Media type initiatives that don't depend that that can be monetized themselves after a while and don't depend on Comcast being they're basically a bank okay and they're a bank that doesn't like
056its customers so they just you know they have to accept us um so um on the other hand their revenues to us have been holding up a lot better than and certainly I thought five years ago when we started talking about these things but we were so tight on the budget anyway that until we negotiated a new contract there wasn't much we could do about it so we just kept talking about plans and new things we could do and all that but there was nothing to implement no no resources available to implement and so now we have that and we have a lot of good ideas and as you can see clearly Rob has a very creative staff and hard working and you know I think uh even if we have bumps from Comcast and
057stuff I think if we continue going with this kind of energy and enthusiasm and might make 80 percent of our decisions correct as far as new new initiatives uh we'll do just fine so uh that's where we're at other questions or comments from any members another one from you okay you win you mentioned the HD channel I'm guessing that over the past five years the equipment has all been you know becoming HD capable so that's all in place now in bevcam's building yeah there's going to be an HD channel will it share the pem programming will some programs well all of the programs whether they're sports or educational or I think it's public that that's um so the HD channel um actually this coming week this Thursday Comcast is coming in to upgrade our encoder
058which will play the HD channel I don't know when we're gonna be announcing the HD channel when it's ready to go but we're getting the back end ready and yes the HD channel will be sharing um all of like it will be an all-around channel so we really want to prioritize the sports and give something up to get the HD this is in addition we hope not yeah enjoy it um yeah so um yeah we're gonna be playing so if we have a government meeting on that night we want to prioritize that and put that on HD um same thing with sports um if there's a big game on we'll play that one in HD right so anything like that so it will kind of be shared a shared programming maybe I'm the only one
059that doesn't know the significance of HD but we do elaborate on that a little yeah sure so right now we have three standard channels um that's what you're normally watching um with HD it will be in better terms it'll just be more crisp looking so you'll be able to see more details of the the programming um if there's lettering on the screen you'll be able to see that more clear so it'll just be way more clear on your TV all around compared to our standard definition which we're playing right now it might be a little fuzzy to you right now if you're seeing that with HD it'll be a lot more clear and just so you know I don't know if people know what HP does stand for high definition high definition right there's more
060information in the screen and most of the programming you get from the standard media is already in high definition so they're kind of finally getting it right yep and I don't know if you watch any of the government meetings or school committee meetings but oftentimes people have slides yes you can hear them fine and you can see the slide you just can't read it right so this one this will be a big difference yeah yeah exactly yeah anything else I have a question sir yes we're building on the gentleman's been saying back there's so we all know about the term you know wire cutters or basically people that are not basically subscribing to cable anymore and going with internet um so I wondered how the staff is thinking about the YouTube channels which are already
061cable free I guess and how that proliferation of internet and social media and the use of those kinds of tools are going to be part of the vision As you move forward because I think it is inevitable that as the cable companies and what you're describing are are basically trying to figure out a way to stay alive and get a piece of that Revenue that the YouTube channels and that kind of streaming services are going to become much more important and more important to devcam as a source of just I have a couple comments then I'll certainly entertaining your comments one is that uh when I said monetize that's kind of what we're thinking if we can develop more of Our Own content we do plenty of it now but if we can develop more
062content that is only streamed it's not on the TV for example and that bevcam owns or has a relationship with producers where the producers get a cut okay a traditional model then uh I think that's something that could prove to be very uh very good for everybody um and right now I think the only thing we stream is stuff we also put on the TV you could correct me if I'm wrong um for you to streaming yeah so we um stream any of the games that are on we will broadcast that to the channel but they're on up there on the channel also yeah as well as YouTube yeah as well as the government meetings I don't think there's any content that we put on YouTube it doesn't go on the channels maybe that's what
063I'm trying to say no okay because yeah I think if you look at the contract with Comcast there could be some gray areas there that we'd have to manage in order to be able to legally do that okay whereas we can do anything we want if it's not stuff we're already putting up on the channel also so that's when you're in your content hunting and all that kind of stuff and looking for producers to do good stuff um Liz does all sorts of Statistics which we don't have time to go through tonight but we can share some of this with you and maybe one of the newsletters on um because we can gather data on the streaming stuff and on YouTube and all that we can on the TV we're Flying Blind there so uh
064that tells us through surveys and stuff uh some of it's anecdotal but what what people like and if we could develop something like that and maybe just put it out streaming for a particular demographic group that we're trying to attract anyway like younger people and all that compared to our demographic profile now which looks like a lot of us uh then uh you know it could be an interesting thing to experiment with and see what happens yeah one another way to think about it would be the possibility I don't know whether you have it already to have a bevcam app that literally is the connection to streaming because I think well you have these cutting you know while you basically have uh TV and YouTube it's still a problem with trying to actually connect to
065either one of them and if you don't have the cable at all then you can't connect it but you still have internet and everybody does so wherever you go these days everybody's got an app if there's a bevcam app I know that and if I had the four buttons that I like on your your presentation you're already starting to sort of show the categories of government the things you do yeah and I want to hear Sports Bing does come up and now I'm tied into YouTube and I'm watching sports so I'm sitting riding my lawnmower and you know because I don't have cable anymore no that's that's a really interesting idea uh an apps are not that difficult to build these days I remember when they were first coming out they were crazy expensive and
066took forever and now now there's platforms out there that they can turn around and happen today yeah yeah some new stuff yeah you guys should think about that that's interesting yeah thanks um anything else well if there's any food left it hasn't been sitting that long so help yourself and uh thank you all for coming uh talk up bevcam you know tell them to be a friend of Liz's and um and uh be safe driving home tonight in the rain okay take care thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]