HCMI Board Meeting November 20, 2019
Meeting minutes of Holyoke Media – November 20, 2019
Present:
- Scott MacPherson, ED
- Denis Luzuriaga
- Jennifer Myszkowski
- Mike Hines
- Carey Baker
- Al Williams
Not present:
None
Call to order: 6:44 p.m.
Minutes:
- Motion to accept minutes from 10/16:
- Motion: Carey
- 2nd: Denis
- Vote: Unanimous
New members:
- Motion to accept the board membership of Patty Norris Lubold:
- Motion: Jennifer
- 2nd: Carey
- Discussion:
- It’s critical that we engage some Puerto Rican board members
- Jennifer talked to Patty and Patty has some contacts that she’d be happy to approach when the time is right.
- Rumor that there has been an appointment from City Council. No update from City Council.
- Scott to reach back out to the City Council with a suggestion for a person.
- Al suggests reaching out to other organizations who can help us with representation of the community.
- Vote: Unanimous
Director’s report:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KmNc8LPZ-pnFvDFUuyZSD_jOZtXodhjO/view?usp=sharing
- Space (the final frontier)
- With the building project completion date far off, it’s important to have a place to meet with people and get work done — for recording purposes.
- Iohann raised the question of meeting at the Cubit CoWork space.
- Jennifer is concerned about perceived or real conflict of interest.
- Denis said he and his brother would offer space free of charge.
- They already share some of their space with nonprofits for free.
- Al raised the fact that our bylaws contain rules about how to make determinations around conflict of interest.
- We may need to do a little bit of an auditing process to discover if there are other spaces we may be able to use for free.
- Al suggests that the staff do some discovery to see what space is available — maybe cycling through other cowork spaces or talking to the Chamber, etc.
- Jennifer suggested maybe renting a storefront on High Street.
- Scott will look into possibilities, check leases, etc. Will come back with more next month.
- Jennifer: We need to be members of the Chamber.
- Grants
- $40K in capital funding from Beveridge Foundation.
- Other grants submitted in October/November: Valley Creates, Our Grandmothers, Voices of Education, etc.
- Arts Hub: Community Foundation wants us to spend more time on planning, governance, etc.
- Equipment
- City Hall and Holyoke High switchers malfunctioned and required repairs. High School switcher is not yet fixed, but will be soon.
- Robotic cameras at City Hall required repairs — now fixed.
- Annual meeting
- Was supposed to happen today, but was cancelled without notice.
- Will be rescheduled. May be Dec. 11. Scott will confirm and let us know.
- Building
- Demolition is underway. Will continue for about another month.
- Joists are exposed.
- Structural engineer will come in to review the project and ensure that things are on the up and up.
- Only issue to come up thus far: Roof drains are tied into the sewer and must be rerouted to the storm sewer. This caused some flooding in the basement, which is now resolved.
- Updated estimate for the entire project will come back in January, will reflect changes in building design, etc.
- Foundation brick work will need to be done — Scott will bring that to the Board in December.
- PEG Access funding issue
- Attorney will draft a memo outlining what “for cable purposes” means.
- Estimate will take 2 hours at $200 per hour.
- Board doesn’t feel the need to vote on this.
- Q3 Reconciliation
- Motion to accept the Q3 Reconciliation
- Motion: Jennifer
- 2nd: Denis
- Vote: Unanimous
- Motion to accept the Q3 Reconciliation
- Equipment purchases
- Proposal #1: Phase 2 of Holyoke High School studio buildout and other projects: $24,762.95
- Motion to accept proposal
- Motion: Jennifer
- 2nd: Denis
- Vote: Unanimous
- Motion to accept proposal
- Proposal #2: Field Production Switcher for portable multi-cam shoots: $15,945.00
- Motion to accept proposal
- Motion: Carey
- 2nd: Denis
- Vote: Unanimous
- Motion to accept proposal
- Proposal #1: Phase 2 of Holyoke High School studio buildout and other projects: $24,762.95
- Strategic planning
- Staff and Board will work with grant writer on strategic planning.
- Scott will email us and grant writer with a survey.
- We will fill out survey and return it to the grant writer.
- Will revisit mission, upcoming hires, etc.
- Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)
Other Business:
- Website
- Still in progress — figuring out how video and audio files will be embedded.
- Follow-up on See-Click-Fix
- Tabled until meeting with the Mayor
- Truck
- Getting key card access so we can access at any time.
- MassPFML
- Scott will follow up with an employment lawyer on our questions regarding who is considered an employee for MassPFML purposes.
Next meeting:
- Thurs., Dec. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at The Cubit CoWork space – 164 Race Street
- Agenda:
- See-Click-Fix
- MassPFML
- Website
- SWOT – Strategic planning
- Executive Session item: Employee review
- Building update
- Space update
- Agenda:
Motion to adjourn, p.m.:
- Motion: Jennifer
- 2nd: Carey
- Vote: Unanimous