 Hello everyone, welcome to our annual meeting 2020. Like all things in 2020, this does not look like it usually would. We usually have it in May and we invite the public into our space. But we kept kicking it down the road a month after a month, hoping that we would have the spigot turned up enough to. Allow for perhaps an open house on the green and rolling out our lovely new quarters. But at this point, given that there are not many pages left in the calendar, we determined we best better just have a remote annual meeting 2020. Welcome all, I'm going to mute my mic and hand it over to our esteemed executive director. Rob Chapman. Yeah, I do believe he will be presenting staff and Orca's past, present and future. Enjoy all. All right. Thanks Mike. So, before I go to my presentation and switch over to sharing my screen. Why don't we do the staff introductions first? So, we have at here at Orca three full time staff at the moment of which I am one. And for those of you who don't know, I have been working as of November 1st for nine years for Orca media. Wow. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. I have a long history and background in community media. I think I started in 1992 as a production technician at the public access station in Burlington. I was called channel 15 at the time. And then for a number of years, I was running my first job as a director was an access center in Monrovia, California. So, in 97, I moved out there and got my first taste of being the executive director. And then in 2000, I was offered a job to come back to Burlington and take channel 15 and set up a nonprofit. Which we turned into Vermont community access media, which I ran for 10 years. And then in 2011, you guys were so kind as to hire me to come the executive director of Orca media. And I've been doing it every since it's been wonderful. It's great community. I enjoy being here and having my family be raised. My daughters are now almost out of school. Well, one of them is out of school and colleges. And the other one is now a junior MHS. And it's been a wonderful experience getting to know more pillar and central Vermont. And again, I was born and raised. Well, I wasn't born, but I was raised in stow. So coming back to the mountains after having so many years in the valley has been wonderful. So that's my background. We also have with us our production manager, Zach Zorn. Zach, you want to say a few things about your background? And I think we had a question. Yeah, the lovely cinder block wall you have back there. Well, I grew up in Montpelier. I did internships in video production. I went to London State College and got my degree in television production. Then I worked in a bay area at the cable access station there for about five years before starting here at Orca. I think it's been five years. Yeah, it's been five years. Is it? Yeah. And I'm wearing my mask because I'm in the office still. So we wear our masks and we've been cleaning a lot. And so a little bit about my job. Is anything that's related to equipment or the software, basically, is what I'm in charge of. So a lot of what I do is work with the access producer, the people off the street that come in. I just help them with the technical side of delivering their message they want to do. And different people have different things that they feel is important to them. So I don't say my opinion or anything, but just focus on the technical side. The other thing is or a lot of what we do is the municipal meetings and school boards and state house coverage. So for that, I have assistant editors. So I sort of damage them and delegate out which people work on which projects and then go over to make sure that's all working good and getting through. So there's a lot of media management. And then the studio shoots usually schedule people for the studio. And most of those I'll do and it's a lot of communication with the access users. So a lot of emailing back and forth and being on the phone and and helping them. I think that's it. That's enough that you do. I guess we've been doing with covid stuff is because all of these meetings are on on the wall. So instead of sending a camera operator capture them, we just capture them do a screen recording. So most of the meetings are a screen recording and so I'll stay and get those started and then we edit those almost like a meeting was in person. What is this a screen recording? Great. Thanks, Zach. And then we have with us our content manager. Her name is Jen on. She is coming up on almost 2 years being employed at work media. So. Jen, tell us a little bit about yourself. Oh, can you hear me? OK, so I am the content manager. I was I was raised in California and did most of my time there. And I come from a non-profit background doing data and information systems for a special ed group in California. So I am happy with data and the content management manager job fits in well with that. So what I do here is I manage the content. I make sure it's up on YouTube, that it's up on our website and it gets scheduled on our channels and make sure that the meta is formatted so that we can look at the data and see, you know, what trends we might be doing in terms of meetings or how much content we might. So I guess that's about it and I do whatever techniques might need to be done. So if there's network issues, I can take a look at that. If there's computer issues, I can take a look at that. And it's been primarily serving as backup for some of the technical stuff that Zach might need or Rob might need. And I guess that's it. So, thank you, Jen. So now I've got a PowerPoint presentation. I'm going to try to share my screen. So let's see if this works. We can get the tech working. Let's try that again. Okay, how's that look? Are you seeing my screen guys? It's astounding. Looks good. So this is the annual meeting from October 27 staff and board. We've just gone through my staff. So here again is Rob Chapman is executive director. Zach Zorn is the production manager and Jen on as our content manager. And then as the board members, we have Mike, a body as the chair. And Carlos Diaz is our secretary Michael Doyle who's not with us tonight is our treasurer. And we have also Susan Betman, David Connor, Rachel Feldman and CJ Stump. And we'll get a chance at the end of this annual meeting for them to talk and tell us a little bit about themselves and how much they love Oracle. We'll go through this PowerPoint presentation. So as Michael talked about what we working on is sort of like going through the past. So this is the actual annual meeting for the 2019. So the finances are looking at the 29 financials. So just quickly go over some of the revenue. Just over $350,000 we get from Comcast from cable operating. That's 5% of their gross receipts on cable services. Some of you may not know this, but we do not get any income from their cable cable motive service from their motor or internet services. It's strictly their cable services. And then the capital is a money that also comes. We get 0.9% of their gross revenue for equipment and other capital expenditures. We brought in 2019 36, $3,680 in production and duplication revenue. Most of that is production from municipal towns who are actually paying for additional meetings beyond their select board or their school board. So if they have planning commissions or designer view or any other meeting that they might want covered, we charge for that. We also charge for streaming services. So if an event is being streamed by somebody, somebody might ask us to cover an event. We've done like the co-op annual meeting. They pay for the streaming services that we are included with that. We also got $550 in donations. We made about just over $5500 in interest. And then last year we also got a one-time sum from a Comcast settlement, which I'll talk a little bit later in this presentation for a total of almost $450,000 as our animal budget. And then on the expensive side, we get almost $270,000 goes into covering staff and compensation that includes the salaries that includes workers' compensation, health insurance and everything that's associated with having people man the facilities. We do have almost $7000 in consultants and services. This is basically lawyers fees, accountants and anything like that. Office expenses and insurance have lumped into one thing, which is almost $15,000. That's business insurance. If we need any copy office supplies or anything, you know, some of that actually, you know, well, that's not 2019, but in 2020, things that are helping with COVID protocols are also included in that. And then our utilities from 2019 are just over $11,000. A lot of that was electricity. And then telephone and internet are probably the two things that are included in that. In 2019, we spent a little over $8,000 in travel and mileage. This pays for, if any of my staff goes to a conference that's included in that as well as if any camera operator is using their vehicle to get to a meeting or to something they have to take. Ms. Elenia's expenditures are just over $7000. And then the equipment in capital is $70,000. That does include our rent. So we do capitalize our rent as well as cameras, any tech supplies we might need for just over just about just over $387 in expenses. So we were really conscious of keeping our budget low. It looks like a big difference, but if you take out that Comcast settlement of $23,000, then you'll see there's probably about half of a, you know, about that same amount that we saved in keeping our eye on the budget and trying to save some costs. So that's the finances for 2019. And then we have some data on our programming and equipment usage. So programming numbers. In 2019, we had 1253 different pieces of content that were created for Oregon media by local producers and buyers ourselves, as well as 19 PSAs and bumper short form stuff. And then we also, if you were watching the channel, you saw 933 pieces of content that were imported from other Vermont sources. This is basically through the Vermont media exchange. Other access centers across the state will put content or videos that they feel people might be interested in and we download them and play them on the channel. And then about 161 pieces of content from outside of Vermont. And then equipment usage. In 2019, we had 139 checkouts of equipment. This does not include staff. This is just access users who are grabbing our equipment and taking it out for their own productions. And then we also had a number for studio usage of 262 people times that producers use our studio to produce stuff. There are a number of different shows that use the studio vote for Vermont. All things LGBTQ are some of our regular shows that come in regularly produce a half an hour. And of course, that's all for 2019 so that doesn't reflect any downtime from 2020 COVID response. In 2019, there was also the Comcast settlement and this was the state of Vermont issued Comcast certificate of public good. Some of the terms they did not like and so they decided to bring to sue the state of Vermont and federal court. And the Vermont access network was able to join in that suit to defend a lot of the stuff in the certificate of public good or CPG had to do with access funding and access use of capacity. So we decided to join in that. And then as the suit proceeded, we got to a point where the judge says that you need to go into settlement talks. So last summer, committee of van that was working on the on the on the CPG got into a room with Comcast and the state of Vermont and banged out a settlement and we were actually able to get to a settlement agreement. And some of the things that we were came out of that settlement agreement included. Finally, we got access to the interactive program guide, which is something that they've run access network has been fighting for many years to get access to this is if you have cable. This is the program guide you look and it before none of our shows were in that program guide it would just lists or Comedia public access or something like that. And we felt it was necessary in order to be at a level of the other content providers to have our content listed on that. We do have to pay for that it's $100 a month for each channel so we are absorbing that cost. But we were able to get to a point where we have access to that. The way we got to that was we had to all take new channel numbers. And so at the beginning of this year, our channel numbers moved from 1516 and 17 to 1075, 1085 and 1095 so been working to try to get people to recognize that we are now in a different place on their channel lineup. And the help that the settlement also included money for rebranding, as well as to offset some of the costs for remote origination which is basically the ability to go live from places in the community. This is something that the state of Vermont has always included in their CPG and how to facilitate that had become very cost prohibitive in Comcast eyes using fiber. So many access centers have been switching to IP based delivery for remote origination and we still wanted Comcast to support that so we got to a number that they would agree to pay in support of that. And that's what the number you saw earlier in the financials. And then we also got the activation of a statewide high definition channel that is to be shared by the Vermont access network across the state and access centers and I'll get to that a little bit later in the presentation. And then one of some of the big things we happened is we got to talking about how to save money and one of the things we came up with was in a move so we started exploring the possibility of a move to Vermont College of Fine Arts campus. And we found them to be enthusiastic and we're looking forward to being a great partner. So we were able to negotiate a lease and in the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic hit, we were able to move our facilities up here to 62 Ridge Street at the college campus. And so just to show you a little bit of what it looks like I know that some of you haven't actually been able to come here. So we've got some pictures showing so this of course is the chapel and administration building at the college. And we have a lovely shot of the green, which is enjoyable to be able to go and we have plenty of parking out now up there. We used to have to park on the city streets, meter streets, but now we have plenty of parking. This is the actual building that we are in the Stone Science Hall. This is some of the office space. This is my staff's office and they are busy to work. There's a nice product placement in this picture where you can see the Clorax wipes in the foreground, knowing that we are COVID savvy here at Orca Media. Here's our nice sofa and lounge area with the Orca stuffed whale and some Halloween candy in the shot. Our equipment room. We're trying to organize the opportunity to move. I gave us the opportunity to sort of go through some of our equipment, inventory it and improve it and get rid of the things that we don't use. So I have made a number of trips to the electronics depot and very and getting rid of some things that are 15, 20 years old. So we're trying to keep it neat and clean and utilize our edit suites. This is Jerome at one of our edit suites. We now have four edit suites. We just recently purchased a computer for the fourth edit suites and we are now fully operational with full for edit suites for anybody who wants to come in and use them. And we have our nice studio across the hall. This is what it looks like when it's decked out with cameras and the desk. It's a little bit more space than our studio down at 89 Main Street. So that's a plus to have a little bit more elbow room storage for set pieces and stuff like that. As we said, we were here for about two weeks before we all went home on remote. So we've been hearing up this summer with some shoots and we're getting back into utilizing the studio. We also have some hope in doing some new sets. We've been working on some designs to create some standard sets for it. So we hope to be able to have that for you soon. We won't say more than that. We just want to take it a little very nice. And we hope that you will enjoy it when you do get to see it on your screen. And then this is just a shot looking into the edit. Now it's the play out thing. I had a nice reflection in the window of the college. So that was my last shot that I thought just to tie the both in together and one thing. Now we get into the COVID response. You know, in 2020, we are the world has been dealing with the media as well as the rest of the world was met with a challenging challenging situation. In I think the middle of March when the governor said shelter at home, we all worked diligently to come up with a plan for working remotely. We were able to keep the full time staff on. So Zach was working editing from home. Jin set up the remote ability to run the computers here. And then after I went through a quarantine section, I actually was up here working in my office by myself for most of April and May. And then in June, the end of June, I think Zach started coming back and we started trying to open up the studio again. So we've been doing working on our COVID protocols, keeping it safe and keeping it responsible. We also had to adapt to the virtual meetings as we taught is Zach talked about. We don't send camera many camera operators out into the field anymore. Most of it is just working at a computer capturing a meeting, a zoom meeting or whatever platform they're using and getting that turned around and on the channel. One of the big things that work has been able to help is the governor's press conference, which began at COVID. So we've been able to stream those basically from I think we were in the into April when we started that. It's been really popular. It's raised the exposure of organ media mainstream media is now using our feed feed. We get a shout out from Vermont Public Radio when we do the stream. It came about because part of the problems with the mainstream media is that they would cut after a certain time or it doesn't do that. We're there for the whole time. The governor's been very of the governor's office and administration has been very appreciative and there are very many of our monitor appreciative and tune in. And we've seen our YouTube numbers go up drastically. Because of it. So we're benefiting from people's exposure and knowing that we're providing an important service to Vermonters in this COVID time. So that's been something that we've done. And then we get into the new statewide community media channel. So as I said from the settlement, Comcast agreed to give us a statewide channel. So it's been newly dubbed the Vermont Community Television. It's envisioned as a showcase for the best content from access centers across the state. And it'll be managed by the Vermont Access Network. And Orca media media is uniquely positioned as an important content provider because of the fact that the state house is in our footprint. Obviously it's a statewide channel. So we're developing programming guidelines for what that means. And one of the prevailing ideas is that obviously the content has has to be a statewide interest. And many things coming out of Montpelier are statewide interest. So I chair the committee for that statewide channel. And we're shepherding it forward. It's due to come right up on December 8th on channel 1070 on your channel lineup. So keep an eye out for it. It should be coming very soon. And we're working, as I said, on branding elements. We finally came up with a name. It was not an easy process to come up with a name, but we finally settled on Vermont Community Television. So as I said, look forward on channel 1070. Some other things that we've been trying to do is to expand our footprint. We are have begun working as the board has always said, you know, how do we better serve the communities that are not in Montpelier or comedies based in Montpelier. We also serve 14 other towns, including some larger population centers, which include Randolph and Waterbury. So we've identified those two communities as places that we'd like to get a better footprint in. And part of the way we're doing that is to work with the libraries. So we have been talking with the Kimball library and Randolph, as well as the Waterbury library and staff about such things as producing their own content. And developing protocols to be able to put equipment there for the members of the public to be able to take out and produce their content. There's some logistics that still need to be worked out. And this was something that we were working on before the pandemic hit. So we put, you know, we obviously had to put a hold on it while we dealt with the pandemic. Starting up again, we recently delivered some equipment to the Kimball library and the staff there and are trying to help them produce their own content. And then after we get that settled up in there, familiar with it, then they'll have the ability to train and answer questions technically for citizens who may come into their libraries and take out the equipment. We still have some logistics. We have a memorandum of understanding we're trying to work out. We're working out how do we move the content from the places using the internet. But those are all things that are assumed to be minor obstacles that we're trying to work with. And the staff at the library has just been great. They're very enthusiastic and it'll be a great partnership. We're literally looking forward to it. Then I have just an important quote that I wanted to say. This is from Lauren Glen Davidian, which says the pie chart is going to look different than it does today. This is in reference to funding the public access and community media centers throughout the state. Van, the Vermont access network, which is the coalition of access centers across the state has been working with action circles, which is a lobbyist firm here in Montpelier and trying to work with the legislature to find other funding sources. As you can see from the financials, we get most of our money from cable revenue, which is that a certain percentage of your cable bill comes to Orca media. But cable is revenues reducing as more people will get their video content from streaming services. We don't get a piece of Netflix or Hulu or any of those streaming services. Could we? So one of the major pushes has been to hire a consultant to look at what within the regulatory structure are possible revenue sources to sustain community media into the future. And as Lauren Glenn says, that that high revenue, which is so weighted to cable revenue is going to have to change. And so that's what Van has been working on. And it's been well received in the legislature and they did approve $100,000 from the study. It's now out for RFP. And they're looking at trying to get somebody in to work on that study, which should go through or should be delivered to think the legislature. So just lastly, I wanted everybody to remember that community media plays an important role in our democracy. And we must work to sustain as telecommunication industry evolves. So that's sort of what we're working on in the future is just how do we sustain? How do we make it to continue into the future with a revenue stream that's changing or dwindling? So that's that's my presentation. That's my thanks. Here's a nice picture of the mountains to help get through the rest of this meeting. And here's our contact information. So thank you. That's my presentation. I will stop sharing my screen now. All right. Are we back screens gone? Yes. So it's the last thing we wanted to do is just to sort of introduce the board members who are here. Mike, a body as our chair, Mike, do you want to say a few things? Sure. And maybe I'll just do a handoff and each board member can do a handoff. Yeah. Hi, I'm like a body. I grew up in St. Johnsbury and left Vermont for well, I went to Rhode Island for a bunch of years. And then the East Bay in California, Oakland area and returned to Vermont in 2005 and got involved with Orca. I've been a board member since I think oh eight and I've had a couple of shows that have been a real blast to produce. They are time intensive and I just want to tip my hat to producers who are dedicated and do weekly and monthly shows because I experienced how much time it takes. And it's much appreciated that people are dedicated to getting their voices out. So I'm most looking forward to actually really being able to showcase our new space and strengthen the relationship with Vermont College of Fine Arts. I mean, I really envision using that green for maybe concerts, talks. It's just such a wonderful space. And yeah, we are doing a very slow roll out of our new space thanks to COVID, but it's allowing us to be thoughtful. So that's always good. Actually, I think I will. So at our last board meeting, we dubbed John Block a board member emeritus and he is really the heart, soul memory, institutional memory of Orca media. So, John, I'm going to turn it over to you and then you can decide who you're going to turn it over to. Okay, I'm using my mic. Okay. Well, it's great to meet even if it's virtual. I've been involved with Orca for a number of years, more than I can count anymore. But I see the one of the areas that that I want to investigate how we can link up with the fiber districts. There are three in the area that we serve. Taking it off. Okay. So those fiber districts are just emerging and if the. Both federal elections and state. Go in the right direction, they'll be putting money into that because in their go to card for the virtual schools have forced to be run because of COVID. But it has much more of relevance to us because. Question becomes, how do we get our content over there? And all of the content that's so interesting that we're generating with our local producers. So that's what I want to focus on as well as ensuring that Orca continues and thrives in all of the districts. And I particularly want to also work on the Waterbury representative issue. But that's another topic for another day. So with this, I'll turn the mic over. Who's left in that the lineup there. Dave. Sure. I'm a flat lander that came here on sabbatical with my wife in 1989 and fell in love with the area. And then came back. She got a job at Vermont college and had her office right up there where you guys have your offices now. I'm a long time. I was a Catholic chaplain at Cornell and I'm a sort of defrocked priest who became involved in the Memorial Family Center and then became director. And I'm always out in front of the post office every Friday with peace signs still advocating for peace in the world. I have a great love of all media. I won a couple of times was trying to save GDR from going under it. Moments of crisis with that and John block turned me on to the importance of Orca. And so I've always had a fondness for that. And I'm on the board because I think there are that's one of the ways that right now we're realizing how important the community being able to build with a combination of public access television social media and ways for people to meet and discuss all the issues of the day. I'm a great believer that this is really the place where communities get built. I don't need to say any more than that except that I'm a little bit weird. But they seem to make room for me on this board and don't object to my sometimes getting up in a soapbox and preaching some kind of rant about everything from government to Trump to other issues of human and immigrant rights. You'll once in a while see me marching. Great to pass it on. Why don't I give it to CJ. Thank you. I'm CJ Stumpf. I have on Orcas board because I think its mission is vital. The ability of a community to have access to. A channel medium. That's both cable and online. Is I think critical to our ability to speak on issues of importance and. When things are peaceful and good then that may not be as much critical as a privilege. But when things are maybe. Starting to get. More critical and maybe speeches a little less easy to come by. A channel like orca I think is essential to our democracy. So I'm here because I believe in the mission John Block and I were serving on the East C fiber board together and he recruited me in. My background. Is. Pretty heavy duty business I did software development I became. Both the chief information officer and the chief technology officer and. The VP of business operations and business process and business development. For Fortune 50 and Fortune. And global 500 companies building fiber networks and. As well as startups little startups backed by. You know. BC companies in the West Coast that got bought by bigger companies. So my other passion and I'm looking forward to working with John some more. Is. Responsible cost effective development of fiber networks that actually stay. On schedule and on budget and I did that for big companies and startups and. So I think what John is going to be doing as our emeritus. Board member is also just critical to our communities our economy and sort of our mental health and our ability to. Connect with each other especially right now. Great thank you CJ. So you want to go next. No I think you've been so good about staying muted but you're up yeah she's on. She may. Even muted. Somebody. Yeah. Go ahead and try talking to him. Okay I was. Born in in New York. And. After college I joined the bread and puppet theater in New York and. Moved with them to Vermont. I worked with them full time for a few years and then. Started my own company dragon dance. And. Helped run that for 25 years and so. Mostly did a lot of. Counterculture and alternative culture. Occupations. I started doing video because. It was hard to. Keep any record of live performance. And. I started training with with orca. Back when it was. Adelphia up on the hill where blue cross blue shield is now. And. Had done. Produced a bunch of different videos and a couple of films. With the help of orca. Became a member. To two or three years ago. Invited by Rob. I've been a camera operator for a few years. And I like that a lot and. I've just produced another short film. About. Middlesex. Woodcutter. And his work on the land. In various seasons. So I think. That's it. And. Handed over to Carlos. Carlos says his mic isn't working. Do you want to just try it? Carlos and see. I'm turning you on. You're on mute. Do you want to just try. Hello. Hello. Yeah, we can hear you. Not bad. Not bad. Coming in. We can hear you. Hello. If it's Mike's not working with his headphones. Carlos, we can hear you if you want to, if you want to talk. We can hear you. Carlos, we can hear you if you want to, if you want to talk. Rob, try typing into the chat window. He'll be able to read it there that we can hear him even if he can't read it. Can't hear us. I'll read Carlos did put in the chat. I teach filmmaking and have been involved with Orca in one form or another for about seven years. I love our mission. What we do and what we stand for. Hmm. Well said. I guess that comes to the end of all our board members that are on the call. I think we come to the end of the agenda for the annual meeting. I don't know, Mike, if you have any final words or thoughts, you want to. Oh, well, well, just shout out to Mike Doyle, our treasure and Rachel Feldman. Also a board member who couldn't be with us tonight, but Rob, that was really comprehensive. It was nice. I sort of knew all the pieces there, but it's really nice to get all that information about Orca's recent past trials and tribulations through COVID and what we're planning for our future. So that was just really nice to have in a comprehensive format. And I thank you for that. Mike, did you already address our other emeritus board member? Because he served so long, both in the Senate and here. You know, when I introduced Mr. Block as our freshly minted board member emeritus. Thank you so much, CJ. I neglected to mention Bill Doyle, who's who's decades of service in the in the state house, as well as being an advocate for democracy and media democracy through Orca media is, you know, the stuff of legend. And he accepted our board member emeritus position, I believe, a couple of years ago. And Bill, if you're watching, thank you for all your service. You're irreplaceable. And we're just we're just thrilled that you gave us those years of service to strengthen Orca's mission. And I do believe you will hold the, if it's not the Vermont, it could in fact be an international record for continuous episodes of a show. I don't know, Rob, if we have a count on. I know it's north of a thousand episodes. Wow. Yeah. So he's got a little bit of a roll of decks and he can he could call people to interview and he actually interviewed me and he is just he's a master. He really was able to make it comfortable and conversational. So thank you, CJ, for reminding me. I do a great job. Our board plus two emeritus, we're very we're very lucky to have the institutional memory we have here. Great. I would just add if anybody who sees this is interested in getting involved with Orca media in any capacity. We're here. We're now up at Vermont College of Fine Arts to list a call, shoot us an email, look for us on the web. We'd be happy to talk to you about how we can help your organization help you with your messaging, anything that we can do and anything you can do to support the mission. We're appreciative. Yes. And just coincidentally with our physical move, it was almost concurrent that our move from channels 15, 16 and 17. Now you will find us at 1075, 1085 and 1095. That should probably wrap up our proceedings tonight.