Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Board Members Present: Kevin Jenkins, Floyd Child, Barb Nei, Tamir Nolley, Marido Huber, Tom Cassidy, Joel Rainville
Board Members Absent: Robert Vose, Andrew Hedden
Ex-Officio Present: Delpha Harris, Edie French
Others Present: Pam Colby, John Akre, Jim Derks

Huber called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.

I. Opening Business

A. Comments from public, staff and board – Akre won a Hometown Award for station ID's, Voices documentaries are on-line and on the channel.

B. Approval of the agenda. MSP Child, Nolley.

C. Approval of Minutes from the May board meeting. MSP Nolley, Jenkins.



II. Reports

A. City of Minneapolis – Harrison was not present
No report

B. Minneapolis Public Schools –Edie French presented
High school graduations have been taped and will be shown this summer. They also recorded graduation of parents in the CPEO program, Connecting Parents with Education Opportunities. It was a six week class to empower parents.

C. Comcast – Delpha Harris presented
Leupold is playing in a community band tonight. Also, tonight, Comcast is having its Leaders and Achievers Award program. Winners include students from Southwest and North High schools in Minneapolis. Comcast also had a TV One scholarship essay contest, and local teen Robert Powell was the winner.

D. Executive Director's Report - Pam Colby presented
MTN received a check the from Democracy Now fundraiser.
MTN staff attended the National Conference for Media Reform over the weekend. Colby assisted in setting up a meeting with 2 FCC Commissioners there to talk about how access will be harmed by rules changes and legislation.
Channel problems – a week ago the FX channel was showing up on our channel during repair work at 801 Plymouth. Such problems would not happen if we had fiber to this building, and MTN could move out of 801 Plymouth. That fiber connection to here is so desperately needed. Huber sent an e-mail to Tony Williams at Comcast National Office asking for a grant for the fiber connection.
25th Anniversary Party will most likely happen at Intermedia Arts. This will not be confirmed until next month.
E-mail to Council Members on Community Events was attached to the report.
Colby announced that MTN has a youth training grant for a program with Pillsbury United Neighborhood Services.
July 22 is the Member?s Meeting with City Council. Colby recommended that the board have a plan to phase-in the MTN Commission?s recommended changes to its Board of Directors structure to present to the City Council then. There followed some discussion on who would do this work and how long the phase-in would take. Motion: that the Executive Committee meet and prepare a plan for the Members Meeting to move from the board structure today to the structure in the Commission report. MSP Child, Jenkins. Passed with one abstention. Discussion: French spoke about point 5 on the recommendation and said that the non-voting members are significant partners, and she wondered at the possible exclusion of them. Nolley suggested that a separate committee be set up to develop this plan. Huber invited other interested board members to join the discussion. There followed discussion on what this step means when the board has received the report, but has not officially adopted the full set of commission recommendations.
Huber suggested that board members end the cable assistance payments (stipend) that they receive. Motion: to investigate and make a recommendation in reference to cable reimbursement sent to board members for meeting attendance. MSP Rainville, Nolley.

E. Treasurer's Report. Huber presented.
Organization is on track with income so far this year. Motion: Accept Treasurer's Report. MSP Child, Nolley.


III. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 6:26 pm. MSP Jenkins, Child