Frank Facchini, executive director of Southeastern Connecticut Television, Inc., was awarded the ACM-NE scholarship to attend the national conference in Pasadena this past summer. After a process nearly a decade long, Southeastern (SEC-TV) finally achieved the formal status of Community Access Provider in April 2014. SEC-TV has only one other employee and serves five towns in its area with two television channels, Public and Educational/Governmental.
Frank saw the ACM national conference as an opportunity to find better ways to manage PEG access with limited resources. Several weeks after this binge of information, Frank was still sorting through his many notes. His favorite memory was Suzanne St. John-Crane’s energetic presentation for “Post-Apocalypse PEG,” a workshop about different ways media centers find the revenue to stay open when traditional franchise fees and other support mechanisms fail. This list of possibilities induces vertigo: Membership dues, investments for a capital fund, friendly governmental relations, soliciting corporate sponsorships, media camps for kids, DVD sales…. Can SEC-TV offer the same services-for-hire as the relatively gigantic CreaTV San Jose? Replacing the 25-year-old cameras that SEC-TV inherited from the Comcast-run access studio is probably a better first step.
What ideas are most useful to SEC-TV? The suggestions on how to improve board structure and relations are the most immediately relevant—how to bring in new blood, how to get current board members to think about why they are there. Can he sell the point that board members in the wider world of nonprofits are expected to be the reliable financial donors to the cause, not just directors? This doesn’t restrict board membership to the wealthy. No one should ever be expected to give beyond their economic level of comfort, but board members need to show material support. Frank described one of the SEC-TV producers who makes a generous monthly donation without being asked and apologizes if a month is missed. Can board members match that spirit of support?
Major take-away? Access centers need to diversify their services now to survive the ongoing regulatory changes for funding. If they can offer professional services now to add to their revenue, there’s nothing wrong with that. And they should save what they can for the future.
Beyond the problems of funding: Frank heard tips on navigating difficult relations with producers (does anyone have a show featuring the KKK?), on how better equipment can save staff time, on positive spins for fundraising projects, on getting out to all possible community events, on making the access center indispensable to the community. Franks repeated what other ACM-NE scholarship winners before him observed: “It was a wonderful networking opportunity!” How else can we learn to do what we do, if not from each other?