Springfield Area Public Access Television

Annual Report to Members

Fiscal Year 2017 July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017

SAPA TV Board of DirectorsMarita Johnson, President At Large - 2017John Arrison, Vice President At Large - 2019Mark Blanchard, Treasurer At Large - 2019Mike Dion, Secretary At Large - 2018Becky Tucker At Large - 2018Bryce Honeywell At Large - 2017Steve Sysko At Large - 2018Betsy Levine (Resigned May 1, 2017)Mark Richardson At Large - 2019

SAPA TV Staff

Springfield Area Public Access Television303 South Street

Springfield, VT 05156802-885-6248

sapatv.org

Field Producers:

Stephen SeitzWeston MarshallKyle Monier

Mission:Springfield Area Public Access Television (SAPA-TV) is a volunteer-based, not-for-profit Vermont corporation formed to facilitate, encourage, and promote community involvement in the produc-tion of locally originated television, and to oversee and ensure the contractual and regulatory commitments to public, educational and governmental access of the cable communication system provider for the Springfield Area including the towns of Springfield, Weathersfield, and Chester.

Jared GunnellExecutive Director

Asah CramerProduction Coordinator

Attendees enjoy the 2nd Annual SAPA TV People’s Choice Awards Kevin Paquet explains Lunavision awards at the 2nd Annual People’s Choice Awards

Weston Marshall accepts the award for Producer of the year SAPA TV People’s Choice award winners and attendees pose for a picture.

Kevin PaquetProgramming Coordinator

SAPA TV – Springfield Area Public Access Television – provides local programming for the towns of Chester, Springfield and Weathersfield, Vermont. We continue to serve our communities by covering the select board, school board, and planning committee meetings in the towns. Most of these meetings are covered by paid employees, but we are fortunate that volunteers have stepped forward to cover other events and programs throughout our communities to provide content programs for our PEG channels… which stands for Public, Education and Government.

We are grateful for the studio shows that are produced, informing the communities of local issues. Also there are many cultural and educational programs out in the communities that are covered. The communities especially enjoy the coverage of the Apple Blossom Cotillion and the High School graduations.

The PSA – Public Service Bulletin Board – is also widely used and appreciated to get out local information.

The communities have taken advantage of

using the excellent studio for promoting their organization’s events. Also the SAPA staff has instituted a new studio show “On Topic” on current ideas. Lighting in the studio was upgraded this past year. The Springfield High School journalism class continues to utilize the studio for broadcasting their weekly school news show.

Once again SAPA participated in the River Valley Tech Center’s Tech Camp in June which provided introductory video production to many students. Our Director, Jared Gunnell, continues to upgrade equipment as needed, in a planned rotating schedule, such as new cameras, computers, and in particular this year, upgraded microphones for the public meeting spaces. Also four monitors were installed in the office to be able to view the four channel signals being broadcast – two on Comcast and two on VTel cable TV. Also a new server has been installed providing more efficient program storage and scheduling.

This past year marks the first full year that SAPA was broadcast on VTel cable TV. The broadcasts went well and the viewers were pleased with the service.

Comcast has been in the process of renewing their CPG – Certificate of Public Good – in Vermont. Issues are still being resolved. Comcast appealed the recommendations to the Service Board. On SAPA’s website there is a letter available for the public to use to register their views of the issues.

Also this past year our website has been a great resource to the community with the ‘Video on Demand’ section. Upgrades have made it more

user-friendly and people continue to utilize it to watch local meetings and events and educational programming at their convenience.

SAPA does have a presence on social media with information being posted on Facebook. More needs to be explored as how to reach out to the younger audience to make SAPA relevant in their life.

The Board of Directors continues to monitor the budget and SAPA TV functions in a fiscally responsible way within its budget. The Board looked carefully at SAPA’s financial resources and researched various strategies. To get a better rate of return on our reserve fund for future possible building or other project needs, we reinvested a major amount in the Gerstein Fund, managed by People’s Securities.

I want to thank our SAPA TV Staff who have worked diligently this past year to keep our station running efficiently. Jared Gunnell, Executive Director, Kevin Paquet, Programming Coordinator and Asah Crammer work tirelessly to keep our equipment running well, promoting the goals of the station and working with the many organizations throughout our three member communities. Asah joined the staff this year as Production Coordinator. She has held several training classes in both camera usage and editing.

I would like to thank all the volunteers who step forward to film, edit and produce the content programs. This is what Public Access in all about – and we wouldn’t exist without the wonderful efforts of our volunteers covering local events and programs and doing studio shows.

Message From Board PresidentMarita Johnson

Board President, Marita Johnson

In the 2016/2017 fiscal year, SAPA TV purchased a new video playout server. This purchase was made one year earlier than planned rotation. Due to new revenue from VTel, SAPA TV had a surplus of funds and the SAPA TV Board recommended and approved the purchase of the playout server in the 2016/2017 fiscal year. SAPA TV also purchased one iMac computer and one Canon field camera. Both purchases were part of the regular equipment rotation as part of the SAPA TV long-term capital plan.

SAPA TV had the opportunity to work with the RVTC Tech camp at the end of the 2016/2017 fiscal year. This is the fourth year that SAPA TV has participated in the Summer Tech Camp. The kids did an amazing job as they learned camera techniques and created their own film noir videos. We look forward to participating in the summer tech camp again this year as well as other opportunities to educate young people about the field of video production.

I would like to thank the SAPA TV Board and staff for all that they do. With their help and guidance, I feel that decisions are made that truly benefit the SAPA TV viewing communities. I do not even know how to put it into words how grateful I am for their support and hard work.

SAPA TV looks forward to working with local communities, volunteers and organizations through this year as we strive to provide an outlet to keep community members informed and educated through local access television.

The 2016/2017 production and fiscal year has been a busy one for SAPA TV. From amazing volunteers to new staff members we have seen some great things this year.

SAPA TV volunteers and producers created 391 shows that provided over 480 hours of locally produced content for community members to view during the 2016/2017 fiscal year. We truly appreciate the time and energy that these volunteers give to the community and SAPA TV. SAPA TV would not exist if we did not have dedicated volunteers like those who produced shows this year.

In December Asah Cramer joined the SAPA TV team as the new Production Coordinator. Asah jumped right into the role and started working with local libraries and other community organizations in trying to provide opportunities for media production training. We truly are grateful to have her as part of the SAPA TV staff.

Message from the Executive DirectorJared Gunnell

SAPA TV Executive Director, Jared Gunnell

I’d like to thank the SAPA Board of Directors who volunteer their time to oversee the operations.

We had two board members who stepped down this past year because of changes in their personal situations. We thank both Betsy Levine and Rachel Epler, who was our treasurer, for their service. Mark Blanchard has stepped up to serve as our treasurer.

Thanks to our other board members – John Arrison, Vice President, Mike Dion, Secretary, Steve Sysko, Becky Tucker, Bryce Honeywell and Mark Richardson.

This past year we have spent time discussing our Mission Statement and updating our 5 year plan and assessing our goals. Our Director sent our surveys gaining information as to where the communities thought we should be headed in the future.

SAPA TV 2016/2017 Fiscal Year OverviewCapitalComcast Capital funds received - $15,224.71Capital Expenses - $44,015.10

Income• Franchising Fees Comcast - $163,365.29• Franchising Fees VTel - $27,669.83• Outside Support - $600.00• Duplication Fees - $952.00• Interest - $237.71• Other Income - $986.19Total Income - $193,811.02Expenses• Total Payroll - $137,281.28• Operating - $15,251.33Total Operating Expenses - $152,532.61(Detailed expense report available upon request)

Weston Marshall (50)Stephen Seitz (40)Becky Tucker (11)Marita Johnson (17)Bruce Johnson (27)Betsy Levine (7)Bryce Honeywell (23)Steve Sysko (3)Kevin Paquet* (16)Asah Cramer*(5)Jared Gunnell* (5)Puggy Lamphere (31)Brenda & Matt Farkas (17)Green Horn Live Students (24)Cris Ericson (1)Chuck Gregory (1)Larry Sherk (12)Tom Hildreth (12) - Outside ProducedBruce Sipe (1)Ron Patch (6)Mitch Rudman (2) - Outside ProducedAmy Howlett (6) Terry Carter (2) - Outside ProducedJohn DeBenedetti (1)Tod Pronto - (1) Bob Topolski (2)Seth Lauritsen (2)Mark Richardson (2)Dr. Edwin Pell (10)

SAPA TV Producers

Betsy Levine speaks with guest Becky Tucker on an episode of Focus on the Arts.

Puggy Lamphere gives a video a tour of the River Valley Technical Center on an episode of Puggy’s Corner.

Marita Johnson introduces the speaker of one of the many OLLI presentations produced for SAPA TV.

Kyle Rogstad and Jared Gunnell laugh as they host the final episode of the in-studio show Lego Chat.

SAPA TV had 28 active volunteer producers who submitted local programming in 2016/2017. Producers are listed below, followed by the number of programs they worked on or submitted.(*SAPA TV staff – number listed for volunteer productions only)

Summer Tech Camp &

Youth TrainingSAPA TV took part in the 2017 RVTC Summer Tech Camp at the end of June. Over fifty campers learned basic filming and lighting techniques as part of the week long summer program. SAPA TV is truly grateful to be part of this great program to get youth excited about technology and thank the coordinators of this the RVTC Tech Camp for inviting SAPA TV to particpate in the summer tech camp.

As well as working with the summer tech camp SAPA TV worked with local libraries in the last year offering youth video workshops. Participants created there own game shows, timelapse video and other productions.

Equipment Checkouts Total Notes

Camera Kit 1Canon XA 20-1

60 Field Camera for staff and volunteers

Camera Kit 2Canon XA 20-2

46 Field Camera for staff and volunteers

Camera Kit 3Canon XA 30

19 Field Cameras for Staff and vol-unteers

Camera Kit 4Canon HFS20

14 Field Camera for staff and volunteers

Other EquipmentCanon G20,G10’s, T4i adn GoPro

44 Older cameras that are used when all camera kits are checked out.

Total 183

Facilities Use - Hours 2016/2017 Fiscal Year

Editing Stations 90

SAPA TV Studio 105

PSA-Bulletin Board 2016/2017 Fiscal Year

Total PSA Submitted 630

SAPA TV Equipment Use 2016/2017

SAPA TV Community Calendar

Kevin Paquet talks about equipment as SAPA TV captures images of the solar eclipse.

SAPA TV Facilities

Final Cut X software used and available to volunteers at SAPA TV.

SAPA TV Programming - 2016/2017

• FocusontheArts,BetsyLevine• Puggy’sCorner,PuggyLamphere• BookTalk,StephenSeitz• TuesdayTalkoftheTown,SAPATV• DoingLife,MatthewandBrendaFarkas• OnTopic,KevinPaquet,AsahCramer&

JaredGunnell• GreenHornLive-MikeJaniszyn&Bruce

Johnson• BoundforthePromisedLand,LarrySherk• AskNymartheUncharitable,KevinPaquet• OLLI,MaritaJohnson• LegoChat,KyleRogstad&JaredGunnell• SpringfieldSelectBoard,WestonMarshall• SpringfieldSchoolBoard,KyleMonier,

WestonMarshall• SpringfieldPlanningCommission,Bill

Kearns• SpringfieldDevelopmentReviewBoard,

BillKearns• RVTCBoard,SAPATV• WeathersfieldSelectBoard,StephenSeitz• WeathersfieldSchoolBoard,SAPATV• ChesterSelectBoard,StephenSeitz• CAESBoard,StephenSeitz• GMUHSBoard,StephenSeitz

Local Produced Series: Series programs created and submitted regularly during the year.

Vermont Imported Series: Outside produced shows created in Vermont

• BenningtonMade,ORCA• BillDoyleonVermontIssues,ORCA• CommonGoodVermont,CCTV• CalvaryBaptistChurch• CalvaryLifeChurch• CommonGoodVT,CCTV• CubanBridge:MusicShowcase,MMCTV• DukeofSports,?• EnergyWeek,BCTV• EverydayPeople,FACT• FaithChristianChurch• FirstCongregationalChurch• ForTheAnimals,CATV• VTGov.PressConferences,ORCA• GreenMountainVeteransforPeace,VCAM• GreenMountainCareBoard,• GreenMountainMorningsTonight,BCTV• LegendoftheNerds,NWATV• LifeFellowshipChurch• LudlowBaptistChurch

• NorthSpringfieldBaptistChurch• NuclearFreeFuture,CCTV• TheRhemaWord,FACTV• TheRoadtoRecovery,• SeniorMoments,ORCA• SongwritersNotebook,• SpotlightonVermontIssues,ORCA• TrueNorthReports,CCTV• UndertheDome,CCTV• UndertheGoldenDome,RSMDistribution• VoteforVermont,ORCA• VTStateBoardofEducation• VTStateHouseCoverage,ORCA• WoodchuckReport,CCTV

VT AMO’s OtherImported 1,698 Imported 1,508Total Hours 1,565 Total Hours 1,300

Outside Shows 2016/2017

TotalShowsProduced 391

TotalHoursProduced 481

Local Produced Shows 2016/2017