Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Members Present: Andrew Hedden, Kevin Jenkins, Marido Huber, Barb Nei, Rashad Hasan, Patrick Scully, Ben Weeks
Board Members Absent: Peter Larsen, Joel Rainville
Ex-Officio Present: Lance Leupold, Edie French
Others Present: Pam Colby, John Akre

Hedden called the Meeting to order at 5:33 p.m.

I.Opening Business

A.Comments from public, staff and board – Director of Programming Vera Allen presented new MTN brochures. She encouraged members to pass them out.

B.Approval of April meeting agenda. Add item IIIC. "Political Programming Policies." MSP Huber, Weeks.

C.Minutes from February board meeting. MSP Huber, Jenkins.

II. Reports

A.City of Minneapolis – Harrison not present
Colby presented report from Harrison. MTN was awarded the contract to tape the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission meetings. Harrison would like the MTN Performance Agreement after the meeting, and Colby will present him with that. February Comcast report: 75,714 subscribers.

B.Minneapolis Public Schools – French not present
No report.

C.Comcast – Leupold reported
April 25th is Comcast Cares Day. Comcast staff will be volunteering at sites around the Twin Cities. Colby asked about Kim Roden leaving Comcast. Leupold didn?t have any information about this.

D.Executive Director's Report – Colby reported.
Long range planning process – Colby is working with a facilitator to develop an implementation plan with staff.
Americorps Member awarded MTN for next year. Akre will be managing that person.
Step Up Interns awarded – two high school students will be working 20 hours per week. MTN was granted a waiver from the sponsorship fee.
MTN is experimenting with live web streaming. Last night the Parks and Trails annual dinner was streamed live. Somali Show and interactive shows have also been streamed.
MTN News, hosted by intern Kibret Rezene, is running on MTN and on mtn.org. It is a weekly 4 to 5 minute headline news show.
MTN will discontinue the Access to Art magazine show and develop a show on Minneapolis sustainability and environmental issues. Colby hopes to raise sponsorship partners with the program. Colby thanked Tom Cassidy and Beth Peloff for their work on Access to Art.
Huber asked about Annual Meeting date. Colby will be scheduling that soon.


E.Treasurer's Report – Rainville not present
February report was not available.

III. New Business

A.Approval of Revised 2009 Budget
Colby handed out the revised budget for 2009 that reflects the funding cut from the city. This budget was fine-tuned based on year-end 2008 numbers. Depreciation is now included in the general budget because of the loss of separate equipment funding from the city. Other budget items were adjusted to create a $25,000 equipment fund in the operating budget. Motion to approve the revised 2009 budget. MSP Huber, Nei

B.May Board Meeting
Colby asked the board to consider meeting as the Public Relations Committee in May, and invited all board members to attend. The next full board meeting would be in June.

C.Political Candidate Policies
Colby presented a draft of Political Candidate Policies, which would be added to the MTN Policy handbook. She also handed out language from a letter sent to candidates to offer them production services. This offer included a free program in Studio C or a crew production for a fee. Huber suggested that the free service be limited to a one-time opportunity per candidate. Huber suggested that candidates who used MTN Production Services submit programs with a signed program release form. Leupold also suggested letting the candidate know up front that they are responsible for the content of the program. There followed a discussion about the policy language in point 4 that stated that MTN ?may? offer candidates production services. Weeks suggested that the word "candidate" be defined in the policy as it is in the offer for production services. Leupold recommended removing the word ?community? from the first policy point. He also recommended the following language: "Although MTN is not bound by any equal time requirements, MTN provides equal opportunity..." There followed a discussion about the issue of candidates who are producers and how this may offend some people in power but that it is also at the core of MTN?s mission to provide that platform. There was additional discussion about the language limiting the production services program, and that restrictions on content (music and dance in particular) be removed. Huber suggested adding the language "basic" studio talk show. Motion to approve the Political Programming Policies by April 15 via e-mail. MSP Scully, Huber.

IV. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 6:43 pm. MSP Huber, Hasan.