2007 Annual Report

In FY’07/’08, the Town of Plymouth raised and appropriated $48,000.00 from a combination of franchise fees collected from Plymouth cable subscribers, duplication fees, non-resident membership fees and an additional $3,000.00 to fund a stipend line for live meeting production assistance. This increased operating budget allowed for a full-time Executive Director that could focus on more outreach efforts and public education on video production.

The appropriation of more than triple funds than the previous fiscal year was due to an increase of the franchise fee from 2% to 5%. The increased appropriation was approved by Plymouth voters on March 14, 2007, at Town Meeting. The franchise fee increase was approved by the Selectboard later in the same month.

Bulletin Board
An increase in submitted complete slides has reduced the need to rely on volunteers and the Executive Director to create slides for public announcements. The bulletin board has been lowered in priority in order to focus on encouraging the local community to pursue video production. See below how the 2007 total of notices run compares to five previous years.
 

Year	2001	2002	2004	2005	2006	2007
Notices Run	205	325	700	1772	(pbACT) 1516	(pbACT) 1505
					(pbGOV)  893	(pbGOV)  1958
					Total:    2409	Total:    3463

Video Programming

Many of the usual productions have continued on pbGOV-3 and pbACT-20. The Chamber of Commerce is no longer cablecasting their annual auction, but more churches and local producers are submitting programs. November 5, 2007, marked the first live cablecast of the Plymouth School Board meetings, now a regular feature of pbGOV-3. See below how the 2007 total compares to three previous years.

Year	2004		2005		2006		2007
	Unique	Total	Unique	Total	Unique	Total	Unique	Total
Public	204	363	215	1266	161	586	371	1553
Edu.	118	361	118	364	113	345	133	405
Gov’t.	8	37	57	530	86	985	144	1479
Totals	330	761	390	2160	360	1916	648	3437

Programming on pbACT amounted to over 380 hours of unique programming, and a total programming cablecast time of over 1,300 hours. Programming on pbGOV amounted to over 170 hours of unique programming and a total programming cablecast time of over 1,300 hours.

New Services and Equipment
As a direct result of transforming the Executive Director into a full-time position effective July 1, 2007, an immediate effort was made to increase awareness of and participation in video production among the community. Weekly Producers’ Meetings and Production Nights began to promote more local programming of greater variety. So far these new services have been a tremendous success. We now have three new active local producers, none of whom had ever previously produced video.

As part of a project to facilitate the cablecast of their Annual Meetings, the New Hampshire Electric Coop has donated a TriCaster Pro portable studio to pbCAM. This portable studio is available for public use and has been instrumental in providing a successful Production Night. It has also dramatically improved the quality of live parade cablecasts.

Future Development
The Executive Director and pbCAM Advisory Board have just completed a major revision to the pbCAM Manual of Policies and Procedures that will soon be submitted to the Selectboard for approval. These policies will clear up inconsistencies, accommodate the new services and set up inclusion for towns that opt to contribute financially to and participate in pbCAM services.

Efforts are ongoing to convert pbCAM to a digital facility. VHS and SVHS are being phased out as a recording medium and two of our regular vendors have warned that next year there may not be enough or any SVHS tape available for recording our meeting cablecasts. Within the next year, pbCAM must convert to a digital recorder, likely a combination of recording direct to hard drive and playback from DVD. This immediate conversion, if done properly, will set us up to transition to digital server playback and allow us to avoid playback decks by working directly with digital files. Server playback will reduce costs and open up more scheduling and emergency messaging options.

Thanks
Volunteers who deserve many thanks include Jim Bleyle, Gusti Buhrman, Katherine Capach, Andy Kniskern, Joanne Koermer, Donna Plante, Wallace Stuart, PSU meteorology students and members of the pbCAM Advisory Board. The trustees, staff and volunteers of Pease Public Library deserve special praise for all time and resources they contributed to pbCAM. The Selectboard and office staff were extraordinarily supportive.

pbCAM FY ‘07/’08 Operating Budget

Operating Income
Support & Operations
Appropriation (offset by 5% franchise fee and various usage fees)	$45,000.00
Production Assistance Stipend Appropriation	$3,000.00
Total Operating Income	$48,000.00
Operating Expenses
Compensation & Benefits
Executive Director Wages	- $27,040.00
Executive Director Benefits	- $10,231.00
Production Assistance Stipend	- $3,000.00
Management & Administration
ACM & NHCCM Memberships	- $300.00
Training & Conferences	- $400.00
Travel	- $450.00
Technical Supplies & Maintenance	- $700.00
Copying Costs	- $20.00
Paper & Office Supplies	- $200.00
Postage	- $10.00
Cable Internet	- $600.00
Equipment	- $5,000.00
Miscellaneous	- $49.00
Total Operating Expenses	- $48,000.00

Submitted by,
Jamie Cadorette
Executive Director
Pemi-Baker Community Access Media