 We're live. We're live in Little Park. Tell us when we're ready to go, Hayden. We ready? Oh my gosh, so we're live in Little Park. Here we are at CCTV's 37th anniversary. Rain Kramer, you were there at the very first one. Do you remember? Vaguely, in the garage. Try not to miss a party. Exactly. So, and also we're just reminiscing about how you were an intern with us many years ago, although we can't remember that quite either. And you had some very special assignments. Tell us about those. I had to cover a ribbon cutting in the Old North End. And it was just, you know, you would call and say be there at this time. There'll be some people there. Make sure you get everyone. And then the new intersection in Essex Junction. That was a big one. Very little detail. Just go there and get something. And then I don't remember if I had a camera person or not. You must have. Yes. I don't know how great I was at the interviewing. Mostly I was just covering what was happening. But every once in a while I had to do an interview. Well, that's what we do at CCTV. We cover what's happening. That's exactly. And that's why we love CCTV. Exactly. Now tell us a little bit about what you're doing now. You're in Costa Rica, right? You've come to visit from that beautiful country. I have. I wonder if there's a public access there because it would be amazing if there was. I'm going to look into it, though. Well, they say it's the happiest country in the world. Is that true? Do you think? People are really happy. It's really nice. It's much slower. There's still a lot going on. But, you know, everyone has to remind themselves about the pure life, Puttavita. So you just, if you feel yourself getting tensed, you relax because that's what's going on down there. And what about your impressions of coming back to Burlington? Well, coming home to Burlington because you grew up here. And walking around, especially now post-pandemic, what are your observations? I always love coming back to Burlington. Obviously, the demographic, the diversity is so much different than when I was growing up here. So that's always great to see. Yeah, I feel like Vermont is the best place on earth. So I feel lucky that it's my home to come back to. I know. I'm so glad. So, can I give you an assignment? Sure. Could you find me another person to interview? Yes, I would love that. I would love that. Alright, bring them over. Thanks. Alright, thanks, Raincramer. Bye. So we're here celebrating, as I said, CCTV's 37th anniversary. I'm Lauren Glendavidian. And we're at Little Park, which is a beautiful park in Burlington's Old North End at the intersection of Archibald Street and North Winiskey Avenue, right across the street from our town meeting TV studios. And thanks to Wi-Fi that VTEL provided to us for the neighborhood to use if they needed it. Oh, my goodness. We are going live. Hello, my friends. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. So I'm going to let you hold the microphones. You got it. I got you. How's it going? It's good. So tell us a little bit about all of the microphones so you can just be on the other side. Because normally when you do your shows, the My Brother's Keeper shows, you're running the interviews. Yes, indeed. We are running the shows. So tell us about who are the most interesting people you've talked to this year. Even though it's been remote, you've had some, I think, really good and meaningful interviews. Tell us a little bit about those. Yeah, we have a couple of people. I think one of the most memorable ones for me personally was, I think it was a commissioner that came on to speak to us. And yeah, it was just nice to get his perspective of things that were going on at the time. Was that the Secretary of State, Jim Condos, or someone, a commissioner, a city councilor? Yeah, I think a city councilor. Something that had to do with the police department. Oh, I think the police commissioned. Exactly. That's right. And can you tell me what was interesting for you about that? It was interesting. He was explaining more about the police work. I mean, we didn't know that much stuff about the police in the community. Yeah. So it sounds like you've learned some things that you didn't know. Yeah, a lot actually. A lot. Yeah, and also you lived in other countries, right? So you have some experiences and you have some perspectives that are new and different in terms of what's happening here. So you want to talk a little bit about what you're learning and finding out by your experience here? I mean, sure, we're from a different place and we haven't been here for very long. So I guess the people that also haven't been here for very long that are like me, I guess, in a way, doing these shows, we get a perspective of the people that have been here for quite a while or born here and whatever. So I think, yeah, it's nice to get that perspective and kind of try to understand. Yeah, like trying to understand more about here. Yeah, because there are things that when you live in a place a long time, you think everybody knows, right? And then when you come, when I moved here from New York City, I found there was this whole kind of Vermont way of thinking that was not like I thought in New York City, but I didn't know what it was until I ran into it, right? Right, and then I was like, oh, that's what you think? Okay, you know, it was kind of a surprise. Yeah, sure. Exactly. So you've been going to BHS this year? Yeah, Macy's now. In Macy's? Yeah. And we were just saying that that's kind of a strange school experience, right? Yeah, you know, it's better than nothing. Better than online, that's for sure. Yeah. Better than online, yeah. So you've all been able to be in person together? For two days, yeah. Two days a week. Just two days a week? Yeah, really strange too. That seems like barely enough. It seems like a big tease to just go for two days. Yeah, but we are done now. School's over, yeah. What are you doing this summer? I'm trying to do a summer program in school and work too, but I'm not sure yet. Yeah, well, you just got out of school, right? So you're just figuring out what are you going to do this summer? Got a trip going down to New York for like a month, and then I'll be back and continue working. Do you have family down there? My mom's friend, actually. My family's just friends. Yeah, good. Oh, that'll be fun. Get out of town. Well, thanks so much for your work. Thanks for the My Brother's Keeper series. Thank you too. It's a big, well, we really appreciate it. And it's just fun to have you involved. Yeah. So thanks a million. Yeah, thank you so much. I hope to do more. All right, good. Awesome. Outside, the real, yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. It's so awesome. Ben Joseph. Oh, look it. Come on over here before you go. Ben Joseph, what are the long running folks here that have been producing shows since we're up in that studio that we consider? Oh, I remember that. Remember your first show? I remember. Not, well, I can't say I remember the first show, but I remember a lot of them. I remember your questions were very long. Because you had a lot. You knew a lot, and you put them all in your questions. And I remember I said, shorten those up then. I'm doing better now. Yes, you are. I'm doing better now. I do the question. I make outlines. And I show them to the guest. And I say, these are the questions I'm thinking of asking. Tell me if something you don't want to hear or something, would you want to change, make additions, corrections? And I found that the shows go much better now. Yeah. Yeah. Because they've had a chance to think about what I'm going to ask. And so no one's surprised or embarrassed. And it makes for a better show. And what have you been focusing on with your programs? Just let folks know. Well, well, I've been in a lot of it. There's been a lot of talk about legalization of marijuana and the consequences of marijuana consumption. I'm about to do another interview with a doctor who's been very familiar with this stuff. And I think it's something the public should have a better awareness of. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm working on right now. And you're also on the North Hero Select Board. Is that right? I'm on the Select Board and the Planning Commission. Oh, wow. Yeah. Are you allowed to be on both, apparently? Yes. Yes, you're allowed to be on both. In fact, yes, I'm allowed to be on both. It's been interesting. I bet it has. How do you think the North Hero Select Board might be different than the Burlington City Council, for example? Oh, yeah. You didn't tell me you were going to ask that question. I mean, I'm not going there. No, I... Well, I think it's, you know, it's a three-person Select Board. It's a small town, not a big city. It's a five-person. Oh, it's five. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Let's see a little civics lesson. Yes, indeed. Yeah. It's interesting. It's very interesting. And now we've got all this stuff going on about what's going to happen with all this federal money that's going to be available to the municipalities. Yeah. And so we have to decide, you know, how we're going to do that. That's going to be hard. So, do people in North Hero Treat you like you're from away? Oh, yeah. Sure. I, you know, I, yeah. I mean, I've only been here 30 years. So now, you know, they actually say that, you know, oh, yeah, he's from away. You know, that's okay. That's all right. It doesn't hurt my feelings. No, I'm sure it doesn't. But it is kind of a fascinating phenomenon that we have, even if we've been here a short time or a long time. Yeah. It's kind of defined by whether we're in or out. Yeah. Well, it's just something that's, yeah, that's the way it is. I mean, it doesn't always mean it's hard to get things done, but sometimes it does. Sometimes you wonder. Yeah. Sometimes you wonder, although, you know, Howard Dean appointed me to the, to the bench. Bless his heart. I've only been here five and a half years. And it's been okay. It was really a great job. I loved it. Well, and also you got to make TV channel 17. Time meeting TV. You didn't even live here like a year. That was the best part. Exactly. Because we're about access. So thank you so much. Thank you. It's good to see you. Really appreciate your support. See you all. Yeah. Thanks so much, Ben. So yeah, it's been 37 years since our first show, since we persuaded the Vermont Public Service Board that the cable company should set aside these community channels, the public and the educational and government access channels for public purposes. And 37 years ago, tonight, give or take a couple days, we were watching some hapless cable company person try to put our tapes in the playback machines so that they would air. And we were sitting around at the video cafe watching that happen. And finally, the images flickered on and public access TV was born in this part of Vermont. And now there are 25 centers all over the state who are considered essential services funded by cable subscribers and community supporters. And it's just a very exciting time for us. I think, you know, there are a lot of threats, but here we are. There's a lot of community supporters. And, you know, Rain Kramer obviously didn't do her job to find me another person to interview. So I'm going to go off and let Aiden do a little panning while I find another guest. Hold on one second. Hello. It's like Ben, too. And then I've got Erin, her mom. Erin Malone, which you might come over here. So we can have a quick little interview. Hi, Angie. Chair of the CCTV board, thank you so much. Of course. Good to see you. Great to be out. Love the Old North End. What a spot. Well, I never realized that this tree actually had grown up as much as it had since they built this park. Wow. Did you know this park was named after George Little and Elaine? And they were big supporters of the Community Land Trust, which owns this park or gave it to the city. And this was a building. This spot that we're sitting on was a building. Oh, interesting. And there was a man here who, when we were moving big, heavy furniture up into the first studio we had, we wrangled him to help us put that heavy plywood up those stairs. Always helping neighbors in the Old North End. I know. Yeah. Now, Erin, you are too. Your mom's market is your baby. That's my baby working to help neighbors. Yeah. Connecting people. Connecting people in the corner of North and North Willard. How's it been going during and post-pandemic? Well, it's not exactly post-pandemic, but how's it been? It's been a long year with a lot of wildcards. And I guess we just kind of focus on what we always do, which is just connecting with people, being safe, and getting them the things they need. So it's been good. It's been all right. It's been all right. Yeah. And then tell us, just tell everybody a little bit why CCTV is important to you. CCTV is important to me because it's a place for community members to learn about. Access local government through meetings and voting, and also to find a place to share their stores, whatever they are. It's also one of the few, like this park, non-commercial public spaces in the city of Burlington and in our community. So we love CCTV and we're here to support. Well, we really appreciate all your support. Thank you so much. G-Happy 37th year. Wow. And thank you, Josie Marie, for helping. Hello. Hello. There you go. Oh my gosh. That's so great. All right. We'll see you. Yeah. Have some more chips. That's great. Oh, there's some bird food. Hey, hold on a second. I'm going to talk to Barb. Barb, come on over. I'm so glad you did. I wanted to come and say hi. Oh, I'm so come on over because one of the things I love about you is that you go to California in the winter, but you're still watching the South Burlington City Council. I was just talking to Charlie about that and how grateful I am that you all have figured out a way because I was there live the other night for a few minutes, but then I had to go somewhere else and then I could go home and watch the rest from home and whenever I can't get there, you make it happen. So thank you. You're welcome. Town Meeting TV. That's what I came to say. Thank you, Town Meeting TV, and we're grateful. So what's happening in South Burlington? You're getting a news manager. We're very excited. Jesse Baker starts on July 1st. Yeah. And I've met her just in passing, but she seems wonderful and she comes with, you know, great background in government across the state of Vermont, and I think she'll bring a, you know, it's always good to have a new energy. So it'll be, I think it'll be a good thing and we've got lots of things happening in the city and we'll just keep moving in a positive direction. Well, South Burlington actually is a relatively young city, isn't it? And it's only had maybe three or four city managers, if I'm not correct. 15 years. So Kevin was the second. Jesse will be the third, but I wasn't really involved until the last few years. So Kevin's the only one I've really known and Tom Hubbard is a great deputy city manager and we're losing them both. Yeah. So. Well, Chuck Hafter was before him and Mike Flaherty, who is one of the sort of, one of the first councils was a, helped us found town meeting TV. Wow. And in fact, I'll never forget and he's pretty, you know, I don't know if there's a street named after him, but he's like that kind of guy, right? But I'll never forget, I was having a hard time negotiating with the cable company for some things and Mike went in and I sat there and he and the cable guy, they settled it in a few minutes. Great. Yeah. I know what we need. I know. And I just watched that. It's like, okay, good. Sometimes you got, those two guys just sitting there getting it done. Gotta have your friends help you out. Gotta have your friends help you out. Absolutely. Absolutely. So South Burlington was a big player in starting town meeting TV. Well, may it ever be so. Yeah. And may town meeting TV ever be so. Well, thank you for your support. We are glad you are here. Thank you. So I talk about you in California. People say, what are you doing? It's 3.30 on Monday afternoon. I'm going to town meeting TV. What do you mean? Yeah. I've got to go to town. You know, I've got to go to city council tonight. Exactly. So and it's all because you make that happen. Thank you. So thank you. And thanks for stopping by. You bet you. Happy anniversary. Thanks. Okay. Okay. See ya. All right. So there's one of our big fans from South Burlington. And you know, you're panning around. You're seeing some of the great people that are here. Look at those beautiful people. Kathleen Swanson. I need. Yeah. We can get Margaret. I just want to show. Show. It's been a show. Kathleen Swanson. Kathleen. How are you? I'm good. So we have a challenge grant, right? We're in the middle of our anniversary campaign. And we have a $10,000 challenge grant. And I would encourage everybody to go online. If you support free speech, local media and the work we do at town meeting television, please go to cctv.org and make a donation. It's look at all these beautiful people here. And we're making it happen. Getting the information to the people because information is power. Well, and now more than ever. Now more than ever. Exactly. The local getting the, uh, the municipal meetings, the neighborhood planning assemblies, all of these things are so important to the health of Burlington and the other communities that we also serve. And, uh, during the pandemic, we brought those public hearings to the people. I know and archived them, recorded them live and archived them and as did community media centers all over the state. That's right. So it's been a great, it's been a great year actually for community media, I have to say. Yes. I mean, it's been a tough year for everybody, but we've been able to keep democracy, the wheels of democracy grace. Exactly. Exactly. And in the meantime, we're archiving our 37 years of material and we need money to help support that too because that's history. We want to archive the history of the greater Burlington area. 41,000 programs. 41,000 programs. There's some gems. Yeah. People here when they were much younger. Yeah. Exactly. All right. Yeah. Find me another guest. Yeah. That would be really good. So Aiden's behind the camera. Aiden White. And you can't see him, but I just want to say Aiden that having this year, especially to work with you, has been fantastic. And, you know, he's making this live thing happen out here right now, just making it happen. And all the meetings that we cover and all the productions that we do, you're just so creative and it's just a pleasure. And I think you started as an intern, didn't you? Or a volunteer, or you started as a volunteer and worked your way up. And now you were a fill producer and now you're running CCTV productions. And that's the way we do it here. We just try and build these pathways of success for people to be successful and speak their mind, including our beautiful Margaret Harrington. Margaret, hello. How are you? Six feet apart, better than six feet under, right? There's a motto. Oh my gosh, it's great to see you. Well, as you know, hello Aiden out there. It's been 14 years since I've been doing shows here at Community Television and Town Meeting TV. And most important of all, the Center for Media and Democracy, which I appreciate so much. And so I'm continuing my nuclear free future shows, doing one on Monday. I've continued my focus shows and I'm hanging out living here in Burlington and getting by. It's a sad time and yet it's a triumphal time now that people are getting together here in the little park, right? Opposite where the studio is, the closed studio is, and of course we have a heart broken about the closing of North End Studios, which was so much a part of the building and had so many wonderful programs for everybody in the community. So, well... Tell me what this year of some of the interesting programs that you've done that really stand out in your mind the interviews that you've done? Well, at the moment I prefer to talk about the, not the estrangement, but the fact that my grandchildren and my second daughter and her husband are so far away in another state I have not been able to see them yet and my granddaughter graduated from high school and she, you know there was no ceremony for that and we couldn't go to that. So it's been a difficult year as far as being separated from friends and family and so it's also given me a different perspective on how things are done. In fact Center for Media and Democracy what I used to call Channel 17 has changed so much and we're adapting to the changes in the programs you know, for instance you had a WCAX article about vaccines being given at the Riverside Health Center which I have attended well, I've attended the health centers in Vermont for over 15 years and the people who were treated there were not given the vaccine at all but suddenly four millionaires millionaire politicians show up at the community health center and they have a poster on the wall about giving vaccines out but that's the whole point for me, for the Center for Media and Democracy is to get the truth out and the full story out about what's really going on because politics in fact formal politics where unfortunately all the millionaires are now is only a very small part of our lives our living and breathing lives here on this earth is very different it's the communication between our loved ones and our community and that is still going on even through this terrible coronavirus which has hit other places much worse it's horrible here in Vermont with the senior centers and the nursing homes the nursing home story will be told in the future by young journalists who will come forward and say what really has been going on in the nursing homes in Vermont and all over the country and how the aged population is such a so far down in the priorities of our nation even though we have politicians who are in their 80s and are still carrying on with careers of politics and one of my shows coming up will be the return of the term limits people who are advocating for term limits in elected offices there is some reason why offices are people are elected to offices for two years or six years enormous six years so I'm looking forward to programs that I'm going to be doing in the future and I appreciate very much being able to do my programs on channel 17 Center for Media and Democracy for the past 14 years for my program Nuclear Free Future for the past six years for my program Focus and to have you working with us it's just been a joy we're really really grateful thank you Lauren and I appreciate your presence very much and I appreciate the staff's presence I miss seeing you all in person and doing the shows and the studio it's been an enlarging time I realize for you guys and also and many of my friends there so a mixed feeling I have today you know seeing some familiar faces here but so best of great to see you Lauren and looking well and best of luck in the it's going into the 38th year right? it's hard to believe it's hard to believe I was ever that young yeah but thank you what is a major for you what is a major personal thing about this this year? well I think that just the tremendous loss has been quite overwhelming you know just a sense of loss of the whole period I will say I've kind of liked not I've liked the retraction I've liked sort of having no fear of missing out you know everybody's been home so we're all home and I think that it's very exciting actually because I'm an extrovert to come back out into the world you know I think there's some of us who are just happy to stay in this you know the small universe but I like being out in the world and I'm so energized to see everybody and I just am incredibly proud of the work that folks at CCTV have done you know my co-workers keeping democracy going during a very difficult time they've been they've figured it out really quickly how to get those meetings online within like three days by March 15th we figured it out and people have been in their bedrooms running meetings you know I mean a lot of these people are young and they live at home or they live with roommates and they're running a TV channel virtually from their bedrooms and that I think amazing and Megan O'Rourke who runs Town Meeting TV has done I think an incredible job holding everybody together you know I mean I get some of the credit but really she and the team have done all that work and I've done a lot of policy work and we've had some good success in the legislature and I think you know in the next couple years we can restructure telecommunications taxes so that we have other funding sources besides cable for this work so that's the part so we actually I think have made some real progress in the past 15 months so I'm very proud of that how do you look forward into the future what changes are you going to drag into the not drag but bring in well I think we'll see you know we'll be going back into the office after Labor Day so in the meantime we have this little outdoor studio because of this great wireless connection that VTEL has given us, donated us so I think that doing more outdoor TV is going to be great because I think the studio is really a dead zone personally so I just like the idea of us being outside yeah okay yeah I'll look forward to that thank you Margaret thanks for asking thank you give my best to Lenny yeah thanks alright Margaret Harrington that's fantastic so Aiden how are you holding up pretty good alright let's see is there anyone else yeah let's interview Miles Miles wants to do an ethnography of CCTV we're going to ask him about that how are you nice to see you likewise thanks for having us we're so glad you're here so I was just thrilled that you're thinking of doing an ethnography of CCTV so tell us a little bit about that project yeah so the idea is because I got to know Dan Higgins through Luis Vivonco and then your name comes up a lot and the trajectory of number one this being a local institution number two I think with my own interest of wanting to become more active in the community and looking at places where community gathers where media is gathered and then teaching a class called community media and wanting to do a case study about CCTV it seemed like a natural progression to say okay what's the deep dive what are the everyday workings of a local institution like this and what can we learn about community development or community building through a place like this and then so the idea of ethnography is as we know it's making sure the perspective is told from whose perspective it belongs to so making sure putting yourself in somebody else's shoes for lay person's terms and really just like a deep history of how this came to be and it's just like it's a local treasure that's nice of you to say thank you so much because it really is I mean you think about the archives that we have and really the community weaving I mean sometimes we were talking about the other day that you know community media is you know media is what we do but it's really just the tool for community building you know and I've heard Megan say this too which is the idea of you know you maybe don't need to watch the full meeting and maybe Dan said this too you don't need to always be fully engaged but it's nice to know that it's there and if it can prompt somebody to go out and join like you watch it and you think oh that meeting is happening maybe I should just go to it and obviously the pandemic has put a little bit of a hold on things like that but I think that the philosophy of the process and not the product is really something that we've lost sight of in media so I think it's quite relevant to maybe revisit that which is really important and then the archive itself is the one thing that is like if we're gonna talk about the everyday there's no I don't think you can turn to any other place other than that archive to get a good glimpse at what the everyday has been like in Burlington for the last 30 years and it's not sound bites it is gavel the gavel it's just the meetings I mean it's the community events and the interviews yeah people like this showing up providing a space and you know and now I know that this is probably gonna live and who knows however long from now maybe somebody needs a sound bite and you know it's like you just don't know I mean look at what happened with the burning footage that was awesome well and that happened also with the Howard Dean when Howard Dean ran for president um the Howard the opposition about all the tapes it was tapes then and then the Dean campaign and then the times came and watched it and it was just it gave a profile of Howard that was very different than what the prevailing idea was at the time well and get this I'm working on a project about the Our Family Boat House yeah and it's like type in Our Family Boat House and in the archive and what shows up interview from 1994 of Ida Hour the grandmother of Charlie and Christine and it's like the mother sorry and it's like my god like imagine if that footage wasn't out there I mean that's gonna bring so much texture and allow the story to be told in a way that just wouldn't be able to be told in 2021 you know Rob Ryber did that I remember and Rob worked with us was so good just sitting on the porch and talking to people that's it it's important and again provide the space you know this place has provided a lot of space for people to talk you know and I think um you know talking to Megan a lot too about you know the idea of free speech you know and allowing people to be able to express their points of view and then allowing people to have different points of view you know it's like we're facing a really interesting time right now with how divisive things have gotten and how it's become sound bite culture and that's quite uh it's hard it's hard to dissect any information on a sound bite well I think it's also become very we've become very narrow in the information we consume and so we're not I think culturally we're less tolerant of views that we don't subscribe to echo chamber echo chamber is very easy right you know your bottomless feed on Instagram is going to express all the same values and viewpoints and it's very rare to get out of that you'd have to very intentionally follow people that have very different viewpoints to be able to get a broad swath cast a wide net so to speak so and I think that is really the challenge for community media in this period is to keep those conversations put them make them very central to the work invite people with different points of view to the work and host those conversations and so it's interesting and I've had uh Megan did this in my class when she comes and speaks to the class but she is has a really good knack of asking other people questions when they're supposed to be asking them questions so I'm going to ask you a question okay so talk about having an event like this in this space and coming out of the pandemic how's it feel it's great well it's great to be outside in this little park you know I was just saying to someone when we started the TV in 1990 this was a building and it's been this park and it's sort of a you know not the most I mean people hang out of this park but this tree is so big I mean I didn't even think it's shady and beautiful so I'm really happy to have everyone out and it's really great it's a kind of real snapshot of all the different people that are involved in what we do we've got like a long standing volunteer here yeah oh my gosh there he is alright no she's going to freeze up alright alright I don't know if I don't see I'm not good with an interview with a mic in my hand I'm normally behind the camera alright Jordan give us some context where are we what brings you here today yeah we're at the little park across from the studio they're hosting their 37th annual you know or anniversary rather just gathering with people and having a good time keeping safe staying outside but enjoying you know everything they were able to accomplish this year okay and quickly moving along if we're going to talk about your role and what you've done with CCTV what brought you to CCTV you should rephrase center for media and democracy or television TV talk about your history here yeah you've already talked about why you're here today about your history yeah two years ago now I started interning with them for the live at 525 shows on Friday evenings at uber over here from my dorm it was great really loved that and I did that for about a year and a half also helping with so just the live shows doing that over the summer and then pandemic hit that kind of stopped so just kind of stuck around and then in my spring semester at UVM worked on a project somewhat through UVM but also with CCTV with Winooski students just making community media between Burlington and Winooski and so there's Dan I think you should meet Jordan because have you met Jordan in person yes Dan come talk to us please let's get you not on a zoom yeah how's your project going it's good we kind of wrapped up the interviews at the end of the semester and then now we're just kind of editing the footage and seeing what happens as we head into the summer this morning I had a two hour long coffee with Luis very nice and he was very impressed with all of you yeah we sent him our like progress report on how the project was going last week so he recently heard about how things were going but yeah it's been great well I'm looking forward to seeing your final you're doing making videos right yeah we're taking those interviews and putting them into some sort of video kind of over the summer myself and the two other UVM students we were all at this point split up since we've all graduated but we're still working on something with the two Winooski high school students and we hope to do something at some point this summer some sort of public screening and how's it getting back into the community and Winooski where people that aren't part of it can see it yeah that's our plan we did about eight interviews with people and so we want to invite them back to whatever public screening and then we also just want to invite community members whether they're related to the school district or not just you know community members outside the district it'd be great to have everyone see what's going on yeah I think this year is really good too because it's the legacy they're working toward the 100th anniversary of Winooski and their theme is empowerment and opportunity so your project fits right nicely into what the legacy group is trying to pull off I don't think they know what you're doing so Joanne what is a lesson that you've learned from Dan's work yeah I think a lesson from your work is just you know making sure not to take from the community but actually working with the community you talk about photographs you know you don't just take photographs of people you actually work with them to make photographs and that's something we tried to incorporate in our project and also Myles has brought into our class I've taken a class at Myles at UVM a couple times I know it's very incestuous this whole CCTV it all comes full circle my friend we didn't want to just go into the community with a camera and knowing how intimidating that could also be we wanted to actually like collaborate with the people which is great you're going to take this mic away from me I think you're doing great but I didn't want to leave you hanging thank you Myles no thank you I'm hopefully here to stay so thanks for calling me over providing the space well anthropologists unite sort of my feeling it's great to see you yeah you too it's great to see you yeah I'm glad I could be here all that in a bag of chips yeah absolutely okay that's fine no I majored in film with a minor in applied design and music so just interested in anthropology but stayed with studied film yeah one of our success stories yeah exactly thanks it's great to see you yeah yeah have some chips I mean we have chips we don't have regular food Shay come on over Dan one of our founders oh during your interview I didn't throw much weight around I was waiting for Kathleen to come out with a little shot of whiskey or something it always used to make the interviews go easier I guess you're not doing it out here in public yeah I don't know where the secret one of the secrets of channel 17 in town meeting TV that you just don't know yeah we greased the wheels that's what that is oh boy I guess this is the new tequila the new tequila it'll rot your brain just like alcohol believe me so Shay Todd and I think you know Shay welcome thank you it's great to be here happy birthday everybody thank you very much yeah Dan was there we had at the video cafe the first one 1980 what I know that was a great night I'll never forget that night and you know one of the things that Shay has been doing is working with local media and journalists all around the country and I think you have something to say about the timeliness of community media today what comes around goes around what once was old is new again I mean it's what's fascinating is that what you're seeing and what's sort of the collapse of sort of local journalism in many cases and this idea of news deserts is that what's happening is actually community journalism and helping sort of put the power of storytelling into the hands of the community itself is actually now becoming really the thing within local journalism and is actually seeing as the model by which you can create sustainable local models for journalism sort of not just public access but like general sort of digital hyper hyper local digital news sites so it's fascinating and this is where like philanthropic money is going at the local level the national level people are awake and realizing that this kind of both just local storytelling but also visual and sort of storytelling is crucial and critical and it's not just who is in the story but who tells the story and I think that's also part of you know community media and sort of the tenets of it was really sort of putting the power of this media and the sort of civic engagement into the hands of those folks who are often most impacted by the stories that are so you're not just reporting on something but it's actually working with the community that they're telling their stories and that's kind of what public access has been about but yeah increasingly it's becoming important that they're marginalized people that don't have to have their story told for them they have a chance to yeah I mean and that's you know that's it's long overdue and what's amazing is to sort of see it's like you know that there's so many lessons and sort of you know this what I sort of bring to these conversations at the national level but they're happening in local places whether it's Colorado or Ohio or Detroit or wherever is that this kind of model like you know they'll say well how do we do this like well do you have a public access station like in your name you should maybe collaborate with them they have training and tools available they could be training your reporters they could be training some of your community members in fact they might already be people have shows based on the topic you want to cover and so they're like oh you know hadn't thought about that because it seems to be this sort of it sort of fell to the background it was sort of became part of civic infrastructure that was sort of not really didn't get its due and now it's sort of coming back again that this is sort of you know what we were you know what was being envisioned here in the 80s was you know not just so forward thinking that it was for next time but like it's come back again after we've tried all these other models that collapsed you know because everyone kept trying to get bigger and bigger and bigger thinking that was the way to make things sustainable long-term but that was a house of cards and so now you know a lot of communities are paying the price for it but you know hopefully there's this way to kind of fill that gap it's a long way to go still but in a place like Vermont and especially in Burlington we have a we have a strong access network that can kind of help buttress against some of that those news deserts and that news information sort of vacuum so you're keeping track on the national level of these projects and what capacity you just go into towns and try to see what they're doing or no so for up until February I was working for a national working for a national project called the Compass Experiment which is a partnership between McClatchy News and Google on doing digital startups in communities that in underserved communities where there had been a loss of information a loss of news and then since then I also do I do consulting work with other organizations that support news sites like that in other parts of the country and a lot of it's on basically trying to help them think through like how do they do outreach how do they do community engagement and both as a sustainable revenue model but also as a way to do better journalism I know it's very exciting work and it's good to know that it's come around again it's been it's hard to sort of say oh what we're doing is new and shiny because we've been doing it for four decades but you know it is the function of building community using media is now more than ever more important where the whole culture has become very different than it was 40 years ago I mean the young generation is so connected with Black Lives Matter and the whole like the whole school system is all the kids are it's an anti-racism focus and it's coming up against the school boards and it's really interesting what's happening with that next generation they're very conscious of the opportunities we have to have a better kind of life than we do now I mean I think that that's I mean I'm not putting it in the most accurate way but it makes me hopeful when I see my daughter and your kids the work that they're doing to build community in a meaningful way and to sort of see this they're seeing this as a vehicle and they can see themselves reflected in this kind of work but it's funny because it's hard to say gosh so what we've been doing all this time is now new again it's kind of wait a minute how does that happen but at the same time there's still ways to improve and making sure that you're actually reaching all the people who really should have a voice and should be reflected and telling important stories because I think part of what we also forget is not just about the stories but what we also know from the archives is that this is also part of what we're doing on an ongoing basis the ongoing story and the ever-revolving story of a community and especially here where there is so much dynamic change just because there's so many colleges because of New Americans and being a refugee resettlement area there's this constant dynamic where new businesses and new families are coming in all the time and so the story almost has to be retold consistently to new people in a stale way and this helps to kind of provide that and often sometimes be a way to tell stories back home wherever home might be from whence they came it's a way to share this now because of the internet you can share this information more rapidly and almost instantaneously they can almost watch live depending on the time of day it's a powerful medium there's still a lot of issues in terms of ensuring its long-term success and support and that sort of awareness that it is part of that civic infrastructure and I think that's our next challenge is part of that so it's not taken for granted in that way but actually seen as this sort of new fabric of how we actually don't just tell stories but actually engage, make decisions come together and try to plan it forward well thank you that's beautifully said thank you Shay and thank you Dan and thank you for watching thank you for making this thing continue for 40 years well it's really not because just of me it's all the people that have ever worked here and that so many of them are here so it's been our pleasure yeah it's great yeah thank you this is Aiden White man wonder right there fantastic thanks for watching happy anniversary happy free speech media for the people and by the people town meeting tv and cctv center for media and democracy thanks for watching I love this outdoor studio