#1 JATV Sub-committee report
Hedberg Public Library
Library Board/JATV Sub-Committee Meeting
th
January 26, 2012 – 4:30 p.m.
JATV Studio
Notes
Board Members present: President Chuck Goldstein, Dave Carlson, and Kathy
Boguszewski. Also present were Library Director Bryan McCormick and JATV Media
Services Director Duane Brewer.
Background of the Cable Advisory Committee
The Cable Advisory Committee was established in August 1993 and four years later was
successful in launching Janesville’s public access television station, JATV. The
Committee’s charge was to help negotiate and oversee the local franchise agreement,
review policies and procedures for the station, oversee the station budget, review
challenges to station programming, and promote the station throughout the community.
The Cable Advisory Committee began to lose importance when the Video Competition
Act (known as Act #42) took effect in 2008. This diminished the role and responsibility
of the Cable Advisory Committee as the state now negotiated franchise agreements and
disputes over programming, and PEG fees were no longer going to be collected and
disbursed to communities. In addition, since committee members were no longer
appointed by the city manager, new members to the committee were not very familiar
with JATV and therefore lacked interest. As a result very few meetings were held for lack
of a quorum.
Discussion regarding Library Board oversight of JATV
The committee discussed the possibility of JATV operating under the guidance of the
Library Board instead of the Cable Advisory Committee. Since JATV is a Division of the
library, and the Director of JATV reports to the Library Director, Bryan and Duane both
felt that there is already a relationship in place and that by starting this discussion the
feeling is that the relationship can continue to grow.
Since the state now handles franchise agreements and programming disputes, the Library
Board would not have to deal with those types of issues. However, there is still a need for
policy oversight. The committee also noted that while the station has “Rules for Use”
there are no existing by-laws by which a committee would operate. One of the first duties
of a library board committee overseeing JATV could be the creation of a set of bylaws.
Discussion followed regarding the makeup of a possible JATV sub-committee that would
report to the Library Board. A sub-committee could consist of one appointed Library
Board member and possibly 2-4 appointed members from the community. Kathy
Boguszewski was interested in representing the Library Board on this committee should
the Board formally adopt oversight of JATV. This committee, as well as JATV staff,
would provide regular updates to the Library Board.
While JATV would lose some of its recent autonomy, the feeling is that oversight by the
Library Board would be very helpful in working through policies and serving as an
advisory board for new ideas and suggestions. Further collaborations on projects between
the library, JATV, the school district and other parties will likely result from closer
involvement between JATV and the library.
Recommendation
The committee felt that there was a natural fit between JATV and the library and that the
Library Board should strongly consider taking on the role of oversight of JATV, filling
many of the duties of the former Cable Advisory Committee.