Present:

• Scott MacPherson, E.D.
• Jennifer Myszkowski, President
• Al Williams, Treasurer
• Carey Baker
• Gloria Caballero
• Daniel O’Sullivan
• Denis Luzuriaga, Clerk

Not Present:

• Mike Hines

6:30 p.m.: Call to order

Acceptance of prior meeting minutes – August 28, 2023

• Motion to accept prior meeting minutes
  • Motion: Al
  • Second: Gloria
  • Vote: Unanimous, motion carries.

Directors Report

P and L

Balance Sheet 

• E.D. Scott MacPherson said that a Comcast person mentioned that they believe this will be the “last renewal” between Holyoke Media and Comcast. The implication is that in 10 years, a new model will be in place which will not require Comcast to fund Holyoke Media (and presumably other PEG access orgs).
• Detailed questions about the marketing report were discussed. Specifically how to read the data. Scott said that one of the things he looks for are “what are people looking at”. Also, Facebook has the most interaction out of all the platforms. On the other end is our website. It is quite static and has developed several bugs, which is to some extent due to the WordPress foibles. Scott would like to eventually get a procedure in place so that all content that lives on other servers is embedded immediately into our website (auto-populating). We discussed syndicating through Spotify, etc.

Old Business

• • Cable Contract Renewal Update
    • Recap of Sept. 14 ascertainment hearing
    • Capital money is the most important part of the Cable renewal contract. It is the one thing that we will likely get push-back on. Scott will provide us with information so that as board members, we can advocate for the importance of receiving what we requested for capital improvements.
    • There was some discussion about our current legal representation via the assistant City Solicitor on the renewal negotiations.
  • Switching building insurance carriers
    • We need to make a decision on a proposal put forward for a new insurance underwriter. The savings would be approximately $1,500.00 a year, but Scott needs to review the coverage details.

Standing items:

• Membership update
  • We are at 270 members.
• Personnel check-in
  • All are good
• Marketing Report
• Organizational development plan
  • ED is working on this item
  • Diversity statement update
  • Capital planning: Cornice of building
    • Tabled
  • Latest anti-racism consultant actions

New business

• Continuous improvement meeting date set: Oct. 7
  • Jennifer, Al, and Daniel are current participants.
• Studio use policy re: nonprofit vs. community use
  • The consensus is that a discussion with our accountant and lawyer is necessary. An idea was floated that HM might request that groups add a “donate to HM” button so patrons can donate when purchasing tickets. Another idea was floated that perhaps HM should have its own ticketing system.

Task review and due dates

• Jennifer is writing an email to members.
• Al is calling Mike Bissonett (assistant City Solicitor)

Motion to adjourn:

• Motion: Al
• Second: Gloria
• Vote: Unanimous

8 pm: Adjourn