 Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening for our annual meeting here at Amherst media. Tonight, we have several things going on at our annual meeting because it is remote. For those of you who are members, things have changed just a bit, so it will be partly live and partly recorded. Again, we're so glad that you are here supporting Amherst media. I am Demetria Shabazz and I am the outgoing president for this fine organization that I have had the honor of serving for several years. I will remain on the board, but after tomorrow we'll have a new president. So thank you again for members and community joining us as well as board members tonight. First, we will have my address to you all as members of the board and as members of Amherst media producers as well. Basically, it will be an address about what has occurred over this year which has been very eventful and a lot we have to celebrate. Then we will have our treasurer Ed Severance and he will give a report on our status for our organization. And then we will have a year in review video that I hope you will enjoy. And then we'll have Jim Leskalt, our executive director, he will give his report for the year as well. Then I will have the honor of introducing our Gene Hagerty Award mentor, Gene Hagerty Award honor read Elsie Thetterman, who is a wonderful supporter to this organization and just it's an honor to have her be a part of our group. Then Elsie will share her remarks, and then you'll come back to me and we'll close out this wonderful evening. We can't be in person right now, but I'm just so glad and honored that you're here live with us tonight. Thank you. Welcome to Amherst Media's annual meeting for 2020. What can you say about a year like 2020 that challenged us all every step of the way? We are still here, however, as individuals, as a community, and as a media education center. Although much of our in studio work was cut short due to the pandemic, 2020 proved to be eventful and has laid the groundwork for a process that began over seven years ago now. The construction of our new building at Gray and Main Streets. Beginning in January, after seven meetings and 14 conditions put forth by the Historic District Commission, our design spearheaded by Gillan Collaborative Architects was approved with a certificate of appropriateness. This long fought for design proved in the end to be thoughtful and respectful of the historic nature of the area, and we were able to move forward to the planning board for review. With the help of the Historic Commission and Gillan Architects, in the end, we were able to bring what Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Taub said really blends in very well with the residences on Gray Street. In March, safety concerns around the coronavirus began to cause shutdowns, but we were determined to figure out a way to continue covering government meetings and offering local news and information related to the pandemic. Under the leadership of Jim Lesko, our Executive Director, our dedicated staff quickly modified their protocols and continued to serve the community. As they've done for 45 years broadcasting public meetings and keeping Amherst informed, we have managed to stay open bringing you the stories that are important to you and the means to build bridges in a time where our understanding of one another will come as we recognize that black lives matter in this community and around the world. Amherst Media, despite the lockdown, managed to bring you shows of confronted ideas around reparations, racism, religion, and government. Our public meetings have kept you informed about the town's election process, reopening of our schools, colleges, and universities, and what is going on in terms of COVID rates and testing. When many non-profits such as ours choose to shutter their doors, we figured out a way to remain open because we knew that our role as a means of local communication would be important in the coming days. By August, our permit and review passed through the planning board with a 6-0 vote in favor of both the site plans and a special permit for our Greek Revival Design Building. As the planning board chair Christine Gray-Mullen remarked, the vote reflects support for Amherst Media's role in the community and the town will benefit as a whole. Since then, and despite the pandemic, our little station, like the children's story of the small but determined engine, has continued to do what it does best. Provide transparency in government, community engagement, and partnering with local producers like Dorothy Cresswell, Curious Giraffe, Malaka Samdhani of Critical Conversations, George Norton, and the Historical Society for History Bites, and folks like me and my husband Dr. Milcar Shabazz for difficult dialogues to bring you community programming. Across the nation, public access stations are some of the only places whereby town, council meetings, public hearings, youth sports, local events, and other programming produced in thousands of local stations are broadcast. We are lucky in this community, we have you, our loyal members, supporting what we do. Like many public access stations, we are looking toward the future and our new technology and education building will assure that we have a permanent home for the next 45 years in Amherst. Looking back over this year, it's clear that we are surviving because of the dedicated staff, Faith Gregory, director of programming, Jeff Mastriani, director of media technologies, and our executive director James Lesko. It is their commitment to keeping this station going that when I look back at the challenges and obstacles blocking our way in 2020, I am grateful to know that they were guiding the ship. Their ability to be flexible and creative, open to new ideas, and determined to make things work help to keep things functioning at 246 College Street. Our new home at the edge of downtown and the cultural district will house a large studio as well as a small one for podcasting, a computing center, a conference room, and a break room, and will include an energy saving HVAC system. We hope that you will join us by contributing generously and donate by helping to build a place that will serve as a long term home for community gatherings, a hub for information and technology, education and outreach and civic engagement. So, as we celebrate another year, let us look to the future together at Gray and Main Streets as a new beginning built on the hard work and sacrifice to the past. Many of you have been here since the beginning and you know that our story at Amherst Media is one of service and social change. So thank you for being here tonight. Hi, my name is Ed Severance, Treasurer at Amherst Media. I would like to begin by thanking the longstanding bookkeeper here at Amherst Media, Julie Shively, who gives us monthly updates on revenue and expenses and how it affects our annual budget. Her long time employment here at Amherst Media allows her to give us historical insight on areas of the budget. She is an invaluable member of our financial team and we would like to thank her for all her work. Although there were some unique challenges in our previous fiscal year, among them being the extra work and delivering services during the pandemic and some unexpected expenses incurred while moving forward with the design and permitting of our building, I'm happy to say the financial stability of Amherst Media remains strong and stable. At the end of the past fiscal year, which ended on June 30th of this year, we had a total of $96,557 in our checking and savings accounts with a total current assets of $558,816 and total liabilities of $171,614 for a total net equity of $387,202. We also currently have a balance in our capital account of $245,069. In fiscal year 2020, despite our new expenses due to the pandemic and new building costs and lower Comcast revenues, we had a surplus of $25,347. This was remarkable considering that Comcast payments went down during the last fiscal year by 6.3% or $15,763. However, by tightening our PELP and additional production revenue, we're able to still end the year in the black. I'm also happy to say we nearly met our membership revenue income projection by meeting 97.8% of our annual membership dues goals. I will not be able to serve you next year as treasurer due to the limits of the bylaws. I just wanted to say it's been an honor to be a part of this board and an officer for the 12 of the last 13 years. I wish to thank everyone who have helped me over that time to meet my obligations and duties and hope I'll get the opportunity to serve as an officer again for Amherst Media sometime in the near future. Thank you very much. Can a short video do justice to the full spectrum of action for change by the people? No, it cannot. What we can do is show some of the diverse, creative and inclusive ways our extensive community is utilizing Amherst Media's technologies, platforms and venues to invite critical dialogues by and for communities of color and other marginalized and oppressed peoples on their self-identified issues of national as well as local importance. This isn't a new role for Amherst Media. We have been producing and distributing issue-driven content for the past 45 years. Our local producers and show hosts continued from 2019 into spring of this year to address timely issues such as critical connections executive director Mellika Samdani who interviewed professor Muhammad Junaid cultural anthropologist and assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts about the current situation in Kashmir as well as the history of Kashmir. Samdani also took on the escalating presence of white supremacy on social media with her guest Dr. Whitney Phillips of Syracuse University followed by her introducing Embrace Race co-founders Melissa Giraud and Andrew Grant Thomas who had produced On the Flip, I See Color at the Eric Carl Museum. The event captured by Amherst Media featured eight storytellers in a non-competitive community building environment. The Amherst Historic Society show History Bites is a weekly lunchtime lecture series and it continued to explore dramatic issues with Michael Hoberman speaking about Jews and Puritans in colonial New England and scars of slavery presented by Bruce Laurie. Dr. Joseph Wonka's program Creating a Human Rights Future explored the issue of healthy masculinity with Dr. Anthony Hill. Our glass producer Tulip Choudhury in her segment Darkness of Narcotics explored the damages incurred by individuals through drug dependency. Holistic Happenings, a show hosted by Denise Denine focuses on different modalities of holistic health care. In one segment, Denine interviewed Caitlin Laban about Facia Stretch Therapy. Eric Brody of Pictures at an Exhibition continued his outreach to area artists by interviewing Laura Radwell and Avital in another segment discussed with Proschetta Mujerji Olsen on her painting allegories of post-colonial history through its political, visual and material culture of India in today's global age. For an edgier experience, viewers were able to hear from a member of UMass alumni secret society tales of yesteryear from 1965 to 1973 and opinions about smartphones and the future such as cyber warfare. In our commitment as a venue to a diversity of arts disciplines, the long-running legendary jazz series Magic Triangle was hosted by series producer Glenn Siegel. Siegel brought vocalist, musician, composer and dancer, Jen Xu, into our studio for an informative conversation with this accomplished artist. Every year, one of our most gratifying events, which takes place at our annual meeting, is the selection of the Gene Haggerty Award recipient, honored for their commitment to community engagement. Last year's event was filled with love and admiration for Pat Ononibaku, who is an inspiration for all in the community. Local issues continue to be on display, whether with the introduction of the newly formed group Amherst Neighbors, or coverage of the Fair Housing Forum, or highlighting our public schools with the Superintendent's Program window into Amherst Regional Public Schools. The Amherst Winterfest on the town commons displayed lit lanterns and provided music of celebration. Amherst High School's hockey games were videotaped so the community could follow their successful season. Senior Moment Host David Rebson spoke with longtime politician Stan Rosenberg. Rosenberg's own program, Byline, continued to bring local politics to the forefront, like helping to explain the upcoming referendum on ranked choice voting. With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amherst media was faced like so many other businesses, with the hard decision of whether to close our facility or remain open. The dedicated staff decided their role of providing critical hyper-local communication regarding town closings, including schools, and where to find health information is, was and will be essential work. The Amherst government meetings were recorded and made available online and on cable channels. Our producers continued to find virtual ways to reach their audiences, bringing their knowledge, concerns, information and joy, especially with and through the arts. Amherst media staff provided the production expertise and venue for Memorial Day observation, as well as high school graduation and the Juneteenth celebration. The events that have transpired since the killing of George Floyd, the latest in a long list, as well as the pandemic death toll which unevenly ravages communities of color, coupled with 40 million unemployed workers, leads us all to ask, when will we start building the new and fully inclusive institutions and systems that truly respect and serve all of the residents of this country equally? When? Our mission remains consistent, to provide a venue for the voices of those with limited or no access to media, and to provide an opportunity to have their voices heard and amplified. We are here to provide opportunities for civic engagement through the open and free expression of opinions, perspectives and creativity for all people. We will remain a venue that exemplifies the values and meanings of the First Amendment for all. Good evening. I'm Jim Lesko, the Executive Director of Amherst Media, and I want to thank you for joining us tonight. We find ourselves in an altered universe, one that each day requires us to adjust our daily habits and social lives. It has been and continues to be a challenge for us all. What comes of this is whether we become better people, ones willing to hear each other and assist each other when it is obvious, and even more so when it is not so obvious. What do we really need as individuals to create an equal and just society? Amherst Media is in that same boat, adapting, reconfiguring and striving to make this a better society, a better town in which to work and live. We do not rest upon our laurels after 45 years of providing the opportunities for anyone to be trained in the latest technologies and broadcasting, providing venue for people to speak their minds and voice their opinions, documenting the people and events that make up your local history. With Governor Baker's shutdown of the state in March, the staff of Amherst Media stepped up and saw their role as providers of critical, essential services, providing the community hyper-local public health communication during a pandemic. We immediately closed our facility to our members in the community at large, incorporating CDC-recommended COVID-19 protocols for the staff. Jeff Mastriani, Director of Media and Technology, reconfigured our studio control room so as to be able to convert the town's streamed meetings and get them up as live cable meetings. By our quick actions we were able to provide coverage for all the government meetings and announcements, not missing a single meeting. As or even more importantly, we provided residents without broadband the opportunity to receive the critical and time-sensitive information coming from the local town officials regarding school and town hall closings, as well as critical health information from the town's health department via our cable channels. Our producers of studio shows adapted to hosting their shows via Zoom from their front yards to their living rooms, continuing to reach their respective audiences. It was during this disruptive summer that we decided to produce a new initiative, a news program. Monumental efforts were undertaken by our few but dedicated interns in conjunction with staff launching the Amherst Weekly Report, AWR, on July 24th, airing new segments each Friday since at 6pm. The show hopes to recap important local news as well as pursue deeper dialogues with those making the news and are responding to it. AWR will be seeking viewpoints and reactions to what is happening locally. We see this news program as one that fits very well into our overall mission of helping to engage the Amherst community in civic dialogue, interaction and transparency. This year's Gene Haggerty Award winner, Dr. Elsie Fetterman, exudes the very meaning of community engagement and interaction. Elsie showed up at local historic district meetings, along with many others, to speak on our behalf and champion our right to build a new facility on Main and Gray Streets, when letter writing didn't get a response, she showed up at the officials offices for face-to-face meetings, ones not in their appointment books. It was an honor to have obtained Elsie's trust and finally allowing Amherst media to produce the documentary for the Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society. It was also personally gratifying to interview the children of Holocaust survivors and help to create a video that tells their families amazing stories. We will host an event in the very near future that will give you the opportunity to see this very inspiring story and hear from experts on the Holocaust as well as some of the video participants. I hope you will join us in viewing the video that speaks to the now through the historical lens of the past. While we are all concerned about the immediate future and whether we will experience a second wave here in the valley, we cannot say. But we will predict this. Amherst media with your help and financial support will build a new facility in the year 2021. It will be built upon the legacy of many for the next rising generation of community activists, leaders, and media makers. The ideals embraced by the originators of community acts of television and Amherst mass still hold true today. Blu Karekker, coordinator at the CCATV, our original name, had this to say in 1976, quote, Our main purpose was to reach individuals and organizations how to use video to communicate with. It was a means for those denied control in the social system, such as third world people, young and old, women and the poor to change those images that corporate broadcast TV creates. Extensive coverage and discussion by anyone concerning local issues and events was a step towards a more democratic decision-making process, end of quote. It was a strong public conviction in 1976 and it continues to be of utmost importance today in 2020. As stated by renowned journalist Gwynn Eiffel, quote, We can't expect the world to get better by itself. We have to create something we can leave the next generation, end of quote. Please join Amherst Media in building the Future Community Center for Civic Training and Dialogue, a center for the next generation of activists, leaders, and media makers. They deserve it and we need them. Thank you and please remain safe. We are honored to have you here to celebrate the work that we do, but we also celebrate those in the community that are as dedicated to education and the welfare of others as we are. Tonight, we honor Dr. Elsie Fetterman by presenting her with the Gene Haggerty Award for Community Service. Created in 2009 and tribute to the late Gene Haggerty, who was a beloved producer and board member, who had dedicated her life to community betterment and advocacy for those without a voice. Each year, the board of directors recognizes an individual or organization that believes in and demonstrates the importance of community engagement to obtain social change. As a founding board member of Temple Beth Israel Preservation Society of Danielson, Connecticut, and a former administrator with the Cooperative Extension Program at UMass, Elsie Fetterman has worked tirelessly to uplift and educate others. At 93 years of age, her service demonstrates that no matter how young or old, that we must all do our part to make the world a better place. Through her work with the Preservation Society, Fetterman wrote two grants to the daughters of the American Revolution, one to help restore the temple in Danielson and the other to fund a documentary. The second grant provided seed money for a video project produced by Emerson Media documenting the surviving members of the Danielson Temple, a house built by hope, a story of compassion, resilience, and religious freedom. Tells a story of Jewish, Christian solidarity in post World War II. The story of the temple is a message of hope and resilience during one of the world's darkest moments, says her son and co-author of the DAR grant, Dr. David Fetterman. Since 2014, when the first grant was written jump-starting the project, Fetterman's momentum and her vision has grown. This year, the Mass Humanities awarded Emerson Media and Elsie $11,250 grant to continue building a curriculum guide developed by Simon Lutz, who heads the Social Studies Department at Amherst Pellum Regional High School and teaches a special Holocaust elective unit for seniors. We at Amherst Media are grateful to Elsie's commitment to work worth doing. We welcome you all to celebrate and honor Elsie's decades-long service to our community through the presentation of the 45th Gene Haggerty Award. Thank you, Dee. First of all, I want to express my thanks and appreciation to Amherst Media Board of Directors for selecting me as this year's Haggerty Award. I would like to repeat my son David's comment about the documentary. It is a message of hope and resilience during one of the world's darkest moments. That was in 1950. I am personally feeling that right now in 2020 that it's also one of the world's darkest moments for me. Just a couple of examples from the documentary, which gives a message of hope and resilience. A member of the Baptist Church in Danielson, Connecticut loaned a Holocaust survivor $500 to complete the purchase of a dairy farm. $500 was a lot of money in 1950. It's a lot now too, but it was a lot more then. A Christian dairy farmer wanted to make a donation to build a synagogue in Danielson, Connecticut, now that we had Holocaust survivors enough to do it. However, he didn't have any cash, so he auctioned off one of his calves so that he could make a donation. Thanks to the Mass Humanities Council, we are now developing a curriculum guide to accompany the documentary to be shown to schools in Massachusetts. We will also have two humanities scholars to interact with the students after they have seen the documentary. Amherst Media has a capability of distributing this documentary to 2200 sister brother cable stations in the United States. I did not think I deserved an award for this work. When I was with the University of Massachusetts Cooper extension, we worked with the Mass Transitional Office and we were successful in providing education to welfare mothers so they could be licensed family day care providers. Besides income, they gave them competency and self-confidence. We were able to receive donations from the insurance company for smoke detectors and the alarm systems. We had received authorization from the state office of children and youth to use the local parks since they didn't have space. I always felt that if I saw a job that needed to be done, I would just try to tackle that job. How can you not be moved by Elsie's words and just really enthused by her energy? So glad and so honored that Elsie is our Gene Haggerty Award winner for this year. It is so well deserved. Thank you for joining us tonight. I wish to thank our board members. Our board members are a dedicated group of folks who were very committed and devoted to this organization. I want to thank my executive committee, Vera DeWonamy Cage, who's our vice president, Ed Severance, who is our treasurer, Patrice Wilson, who is our secretary, our board members, Jacqueline Faizon, Anika Lopes, Artie McCullum, Dan Torres, Pat DeAngelis, and Ben Harrington. Thank you for all of the work you do and continue to do on behalf of this organization and the town. Thank you to our members who have supported us throughout the years. I just want to close out tonight by wishing you all a better 2021, but thank you for helping us get through 2020. And this night, consider becoming a member to Amherst Media and consider donating to keep us running for another 45 years. I wish you all a good evening and a great year and thank you again for your support of this organization. Good night.