Blog · Page 9 of 16

I choose daily

He is 22. His prospects for employment elsewhere are diminished by his capacity to focus. He tells me “I choose to work here in User Support because it makes-a-difference.” He will gladly chatter about how the shows he schedules to play as TV are important to watch until he is reminded: Yes, it is time to schedule those shows.

AARP Purpose Prize Stories tell of thousands being served through organizations seeded and nurtured by individuals 50-plus. My cost-benefit mind does somersaults at the idea of serving thousands in meaningful life-changing ways. I am curious about the connections, teams, dollars and obstacles that are dynamics within each of these stories. I also wonder how many 50-plus individuals facing a down-turned economy created themselves paying jobs. In my heart I applaud those who turned a personal loss or wound into something worthy. The stories are inspiring and I look forward to reading about more each year. And yes, I do wonder what would I do with a “purpose prize” that is different than what I choose to do daily?

Similarly, I am curious about the stories unknown to me about what I voluntarily commit to everyday in a narrow one-engagement-at-a-time, sort-of-way. Who may be learning English or Spanish? Who may be inspired by a science video, or a story of a woman at mid-life, or helped by community minded therapists? Who feels more connected by stories of our the community? Who will get a home repaired, better access to health care, help with taxes, domestic abuse or discover a local nonprofit committed to a better community for all. Some may even make a life changing connection because of something they have seen on citizen-made community-oriented television? I know I have.

who else will Choose to join?

To keep this hyper-local experiment in democracy, Community TV , going it takes a few others to be committed along with me to this idea of exploring, creating and informing in the public interest. However, I am keenly aware that if I did not show up each day this experiment would not be all it can be and that choosing each day to ‘be present’ is good; but still not enough.

Fifty Thousand Dollars

When I made this post I was feeling with intensity that we may have lost 365 days of closeness to the goal to be mortgage-free because of unexpected ghost-like equipment breakdowns. I mused that if I could win a purpose-prize or find some other means to raise $50,000 I would encourage the governance team to check off one strategic goal related to sustainability: To finalize ownership of the property at 28 So Orchard St. Wallingford CT.

Being debt-free would enable a strategic plan now targeted to start in 2022 to support more programs with modest increases in staff. The hours for that 22 year old could be more than 10 per week and others who may still not have discovered us could become part of a team making informing connection to each other and their community with televised stories. In reality it may not be a whole lot different — except for one thing keeping the doors open would no longer be depending on me.

I choose daily to serve my community keenly aware that it matters more that community voices are heard and make-a-difference one connection at a time after I am gone.

Susan Adele Huizenga (Volunteer) Executive Director

Scoring low on Diversity bothers me …

As I reflect on my year with WPAA-TV, I open a large manila envelope that contains review comments about the 2016 Video Festival Reel which was edited to represent what made 2016 different during our year together.

The reel was submitted with this description of 2016.

We hope you enjoy your video visit to wpaa.tv viewing our compilation reel: More.Than.TV

About our year 2016:
More.Than.TV was adopted in a strategic planning session. In an Aha moment our board realized the new logo [a ‘play-button’ between our organization abbreviation WPAA (Wallingford Public Access Association) and TV] essentially said what we want to be, when typed: WPAA > TV. Yes, we are ‘greater than’ TV.

What constitutes More.Than.TV
In January, we launched Destination Station to attract performance artists and filmmakers. By April, a local producer started a bi-monthly/audience welcome show, Music with Purpose. Both attracted dozens of new visitors per show in addition to versatile talent, Be The Music, our hyper-local loop of music by local musicians, concurrently got a boost when we added musicians performing at WPAA-TV to those eligible to be our alternative to a radio station backdrop to local messages.

Word did get out. Filmmakers began to understand that our equipment was available at no charge, and we distributed content with a duration other than 30, 60 or 120 minutes. Some used our studio, others borrowed remote equipment or editing tools to make short films. By Christmas, a newly forming ensemble of actors joined a local producer on a 10-episode film for 2017 release, The Sparrow Falling. The initial 20 seconds show tease “the orb” was re-purposed art from our #PowerfulWildFree4Arts sculpture exhibit.

Supporting nonprofits and finding more ways to engage local business was our counterpoint to the arts. Some businesses joined with producers, civic groups and citizens to make a Holiday Greeting, a decade-old WPAA tradition. Others participated in a new show CommUnity Conversations. Some did event Public Service Announcements. (PSA) In August, #In2Languages, a four-way community-outreach and business collaboration, was successfully launched. #In2Languages uses free Global News content in English from German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, available to all Access Stations, with locally donor-funded versions of the same content in Spanish.

In 2016, WPAA-TV was sought out as a host training location for differently-abled individuals. Our graphics and audio capabilities were enhanced with these affiliations. We included some new promotional graphics at the end of our submission for overall excellence with samples of announcements including our own programs such as #GoodEnough2Share.

About the video festival
As a judging location, we take this festival and the commitment to judging very seriously.

Our score was two out of five in the criteria about representing different segments of our community. Two comments in support of this low score merely said, “needs more diversity.” Nothing explained what was perceived as missing. This was perplexing. In addition to having content in two languages, we considered that being inclusive was our strength.

A 20-minute reel represents about 3,000 plus hours of content. Our reel had the following:
Types of programs Performance, Talk Shows, PSAs, Four different styles of film, Animation, LIVE, Remote, and Community Message Graphics;
Ages Kids, Youth, Seniors and everything in between;
Religion Christian, Jewish, Muslim;
Issues Fitness, Mental Health, Business-Local, Manufacturing and Nonprofit, At-Risk Children, Veterans, African Dream; and
Race More representative than our community.
Topics ranged from Medieval History to event promotion to role of nonprofits in the community to celebrating community.

I agree that our producers did not take great care about ‘audio cable visibility…’ but to identify WPAA-TV as lacking diversity… Makes me wonder if I need to represent the people on the margins rather than what walks in the door to be considered achieving our mission with excellence.

We Adapt to be Relevant, But …

WPAA Corporate Statement of Purpose
To provide all manner of support for the creation and distribution of non-commercial community media

What are our communities of interest? Actually, there are a few: the people engaging with what is happening locally, the people developing their media skills, and our peers supporting the creation and distribution of content.

Four decades of technology and communications transformation means there is no status quo regarding outside forces that impact the creation and distribution of community media. This means relevancy needs to connect to an assessment of the original vision, the make-up of communities, and the cultural influences on communications. What this means on the ground at WPAA-TV is that policy is subject to change, that decisions and regulations of the past are subject to reassessment, and that we cannot assume we will remain funded or that our communities of concerns, skills, and interest will consider us relevant.

Seizing Opportunities

It has been said that we are flexible for whatever or whoever walks in the door. In so many ways this is true and vital to our ability to serve. Essential to the success of our adaptive process is curiosity, impulse control, the ability to create space between thinking and re(action) and the checking of egos at the door. We adapt to be relevant. However, there are policies and responsibilities that we adhere to for fairness, good stewardship of the tools & stage, and to ensure organizational viability.

Can agility beGET Failure?

An agile organization plans and adapts. An agile senior is one with keen mental acuity. Agile is a Project Management Methodology marked by short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans intended to support quick and nimble forward movement. Effective outcomes in agile change processes paradoxically rely on a firmly established vision, goals and norms as well as adaptive leadership by both the administrator and governance team. To move quickly and easily has great value when a toddler is learning to walk, but once you are able to walk you need to know where you want to go to turn walking into success.

Community TV attracts egos like bears to honey so being prepared for their impact, good or bad, is critical to a station’s successful outcomes. Community TV, by design, helps people discover and use their voices, collectively. Egotistical people can disrupt the discovery process intended to be available to everyone. There is real potential for one emphatic person who lacks skills or experience or framework for communication, or buy-in to a shared vision, or openness to alternatives, to implode a team experience.

Guidelines and documented processes, often considered oppressive by the egoistic, are essential for transformative uncharted discovery. Every encounter can be a learning opportunity that feeds the institutional knowledge of the organization. Agile sans vision, or openness to learning by all, can be the reason that efforts to thrive can sometimes fail to survive. Process matters; improved process matters more. Equitable beneficial engagement is the vision agility must support.

Can ‘Status Quo’ be Disruptive FOR THE GOOD?

Community TV is compelled to move forward on two different footings: one geared toward efficiency and stability and the other innovation and change. Is there some aspect of doing the same things, maintaining the status quo that disrupts progress toward these ends? Is there intrinsic value in some status quo behavior? Societal transformation will happen due to the sheer ability to carry a computer in one’s pocket. Can clinging to the status quo, in an environment where the pace of change and the expectations of a population are enabled, be disruptive or retarded? It is widely assumed that status quo behavior is a barrier to change, that change is not readily adopted, and change can lead to either failure or success. Inertia can lead to opportunity costs losses, because in reality, outside forces are moving.

As survival and strategic direction is assessed it is the status quo values of democracy and equity and service that still frame any discussion of relevancy.

Crowd sourcing of ideas AND RESOURCES

Collaborative engagement has appeal in a world of diminished resources. It also appeals to funders. But it is not without its pitfalls. Small organizations, almost by definition, have limited resources. In a more connected world, engagement and collaboration are potential tools to overcome resource limits. However, it is essential to identify shared visions early in the collaboration process as these opportunities are also resource consumers and being on the giving without the receiving end of a collaboration not only feels bad it can create more imbalance. Alliances need to include an assessment of mission similarities, conflicts and opportunities. It is not as simple as a chat and a handshake to keep forward momentum and achieve outcomes across multiple domains of interest. As rules and/or policies help manage within the limits so do memoranda of understanding.

Having individuals and organization partners hypothetically infers the plausibility of relevancy. But if the only commitment of the partnering is promotion of the service you are providing is not happening, then you are merely a service provider not a partner or collaborator. Actions ultimately determine relevancy.

Successful Filmmaker Initiative Launched

https://wpaa.tv/mediacenter/studiowfilmprogram_filmmakersupport/

The largest 2017 film project The Sparrow Falling involved over 80 talented community volunteers including writers, actors, stage crew and video production and effects. The bulk of the filming was done over an eight month period with dates or consecutive days reserved for shoots ranging from 2 to 18 hours long. In addition to providing studioW as tools and stage inclusive of a 4-K camera the producer had one wpaa-tv volunteer for audio/visual tech support throughout. Through a Partnership Agreement with the writer/producer supplemental support inclusive of craft services, props, set items, college intern supervision, shout-outs for crew and background actors, and more helped keep this artist collective of sparrows moving forward.

Here is episode one of ten from this film project..

Two other short films are currently in production. These projects have used tools like the green screen, teleprompter, lights and have had scenes staged on location.

What Board Members had to say about this initiative.

I am comfortable with the guidelines developed from this 1st years experience. They should help ensure the overall success of additional film venture as well as safeguard the space for the primary users local citizens that make TV. C. Huizenga

Building Muscles with Story Circles (or, overcoming lazy brain bias)

Collaboration – getting people to share information and co-create solutions is critical to a healthy community’s success. However, it is not always easy to achieve. Our biases impact how we form first impressions, decide with whom to work, whose ideas we listen to, determine to whom we provide opportunities, and more. Bias can cause us to make an unfair value judgment about people who differ from us. Most people like to think of themselves as ‘good citizens’ who rationally evaluate all the information. Actually, our good-citizen intentions are often tethered to our normally helpful, lazy, hard-wired brains. #InformationLiteracy

The lazy brain naturally creates shortcuts that favor bias. To have a positive impact, how do you inform your judgments and decisions and foster inclusion and collaboration? Sharing stories, active listening and deepening questions are tools for community engagement that can lessen the laziness of our brains. All these tools, or muscles, can be built up by participating in Story Circles with strangers. Story Circles are community events that create safe and facilitated opportunities for self and community discovery most often related to a large project or community theme.

It is more common than not that people, maybe even yourself, feel like you’re the only sane one in a world gone crazy. People resist challenging information, often without realizing it, by applying confirmation bias, accepting information that confirms what is already believed and ignoring everything else. This is easy to do if those interacting agree among themselves. Any kind of basic reasoning can be biased. Information from another perspective is often classified as wrong. There is an inherent fear that a better understanding might change your beliefs. This can be so, but understanding does not necessarily equate to agreeing.

Heuristics, the tools of the lazy brain, are cognitive rules of thumb, hard-wired mental shortcuts that everyone uses every day in routine decision making and judgment. Heuristics are normally helpful – indeed, they are crucial to getting through the myriad of decisions we face every day without overthinking every choice. But they’re imperfect and often irrational. They can be traps, even perilous. The shortcuts that allow us to navigate each day with ease are the same ones that can potentially trip us up in our ordinary judgments and choices, in everything from health, to finance, to romance, to behaving with an awareness of others.

Some believe that Story Circles are an enjoyable way to give your lazy brain a vacation from bias and help you realize the humanness that we all share.

Resources:
Article: Uncovering implicit bias
Self-assessment Harvard Project Implicit

2017 Local Election Holds Potential

Post election update: The Mayor Wallingford had in 1993 is still Mayor for 2018-19. Mr. Sullivan no longer has the privilege to serve on the Town Council. New members of the Board of Education may be open to reviewing how to deploy the Ed Channel for the greater good.
Community TV (P.E.G.) in Wallingford is unlike any other town in CT: Administered in silos, financed inequitably, staffed with decades of expertise. The local 2017 election had the potential of making P.E.G. more relevant, cost-effective and a sustainable resource for non-profits, government and residents.

Candidate Sullivan — Mr. Sullivan was not reelected in 2017

Since elected to Town Council Mr. Sullivan had the lowest engagement with WPAA -TV of the council members serving at the onset of the election. Ironic since Mr. Sullivan was a formerly a WPAA-TV Board member. He served for several years prior to the implementation of ATT Uverse (now Frontier). While on the Board he used the resources of WPAA to host several variations of John Sullivan shows. He bashed WPAA’s potential to acquire and renovate downtown space (2008). He actively blocked opportunities to discuss regional funding sunset provisions (2012) that continues to send $20,000 annually of cable fees (WPAA-TV funding source) to other towns. He has engaged in other unsavory things like publicly stating current volunteers are “profiting” off the enterprise. This candidate has the most knowledge about the challenges and potential of the resource, yet he chooses to go beyond remaining neutral to being an obstacle for WPAA’s growth & sustainability. As a WPAA Board member was it his duty to make WPAA resources available to the community? Conflict of Interest Policies are now in place for producers servicing as Board Members.

Mayor Support — The Mayor was reelected in 2017.

Local leadership has the leverage to do harm or improve community resources. In 1993 when the current Mayor took action to split P.E.G; subsequently the Mayor has taken regulatory or legal action against WPAA-TV on several occasions.

In 2015, outraged over our public art program because it had graffiti elements he disabled the use of a mural in the Wallingford Health Initiative Program. In 2016 he ranted against WPAA in a discussion of government TV being on YouTube for transparency. Old but challenging stories continue to impede cost-effective collaborative of P.E.G. services. A deeper look at “G” the town’s government TV operation can be revealing. The WGTV location is coveted space that might have better community use than being a studio 5 times a month. WGTV is taxpayer-funded at a rate higher than any other CT town except GrotonTV while providing significantly less services. Ironically, Groton is a library-based Municipal Channel similar to what Wallingford was before 1993.

Party control changes hands: New to BOE is Erin Corso, Ray Ross, Tammy Raccio and Patty Pursell.

The Education Channel is described as “ostensibly not functioning” by school staff in the know. Should the Education Channel be the life-long learning resource intended; or can we engage in regulatory conversations to have the cable company buy the channel back and reinvest revenues in local services?

WPAA-TV has moderate support across party lines, however, active promotion and use this election season was only by new candidates for office. We are certain that new leadership at the top will remove the stigma of working with us by members of both parties.

These incumbents were returned to office.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

I want to introduce myself because I have been anonymous as a public person for decades and most of my days are currently the embodiment of Freeman P Quinn, 1st – Free Speech Ambassador and outreach personae for WPAA-TV.

These past few days I have been pre-occupied with winning. I really hope that WPAA-TV wins the Alliance for Community Media Overall Excellence in New England as a community TV station for 2016. The winners will be announced in the next few weeks. Then today I realized in response to a Les Brown video (It is not over until you win!), that same win in 2013 and 2014 was not a win IN WALLINGFORD.

Some of you may be at the SCOW wine-tasting tonight! Thank you for supporting this rich asset in our community. But did you know since 2013 WPAA-TV has collaborated with SCOW on a literacy initiative and in 2016 produced a DACA story? If you do not know, WPAA-TV is not winning. Wallingford is not winning.

What I hear often from people who come to know of WPAA-TV by happenstance is: I wish this was here when I was growing up. It could have been. It had one of the most robust starts of any community in the nation. Then came 1993.

When I was new to Wallingford and asked to get involved (1995) there was literally “fear” of success. What would happen if the people tried to use the station? We are not equipped. Today we are more equipped than most but a long history of not fulfilling the potential in an environment still clouded by ‘Fear’ is challenging.

This summer I was gifted a healthy 2 ft tall Abe Lincoln tomato plant. It grew six feet tall. However, I did not put it in a pot big enough for the roots to reach out and sustain it. I failed to grow tomatoes. I do not intend to fail to grow a vibrant ‘all it can be’ TV station. That means I need you to get to know me (and the incarnation Freeman P Quinn).

As you sip wine tonight or wonder why you missed the invitation, consider being among the stars of Wallingford by celebrating it every day with me?

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Friend Freeman and follow WPAA-TV. More.Than.TV

Susan Adele Huizenga

Executive Director

Wallingford Public Access Association

d/b/a/ WPAA-TV and Community Media Center

More.Than.TV

2016 was More.Than.TV

We hope you enjoy a video-visit to wpaa.tv as you view our compilation reel: More.Than.TV about our 2016 year in community media.

More than a Play Button; a metaphor for citizen media

More.Than.TV emerged in an ‘ha-ha’ moment during a strategic planning session. Our Board realized “what we wanted to be” “greater than TV” was implied in the newly adopted logo. The logo is a play-button between the acronym WPAA (Wallingford Public Access Association) & TV. This reel represents how More.Than.TV or WPAA > TV was actualized.

In Q1 we added two new audience-welcome shows, Destination Station and Music with Purpose. Each attracted dozens of new visitors per show in addition to versatile performance artists. Be The Music, our hyper-local alternative to a radio station playing concurrent with community announcements also got a boost. Eligibility was expanded to include musicians performing at WPAA.

Short film content increased. Filmmakers began to understand that our equipment was available at no-charge and we distributed content with a duration other than 30, 60 or 120 minutes. Some used our studio, others just remote equipment or editing tools to make short films. By Christmas, a newly forming ensemble of actors joined a local producer on a 10-episode film for 2017 release: The Sparrow Falling. The Orb: Their initial show tease of 20 seconds features special effects and a repurposed metal sculpture from our #PowerfulWildFree4Arts 2015 initiative.

Our counterpoint to soliciting arts programs was to increase local business engagement. Some businesses joined with producers, civic groups and citizens to make Holiday Greeting; a decade old WPAA tradition. Others participated in a new show ‘CommUnity Conversations’. Others made event PSAs.

The language literacy project #in2languages #en2idiomas was successfully launched in August. This 4-way business collaboration leverages free DW Global News (English) content available to all Access Stations with local underwriting for the same content in Spanish.

In 2016 WPAA was sought out as a host training location for differently-abled individuals. Our graphics and audio capabilities were enhanced with these affiliations. We have included some new promotional graphics toward the end of this reel. We also tried to make sourced content local by connecting residents with programs produced elsewhere in rebranding sponsorship as #GoodEnough2Share.

ADDENDUM
WPAA-TV is a volunteer-run Public Access station in CT with a budget of less than $90,000 a year. We are located in a renovated 1924 cow barn. This community building was renovated in phases by our volunteers. It was most recently transformed (May 2015) with a mural to address blight. We own 18 inches of land on the mural side of the building. When we purchased the building in 2010 there was a building next door. The mural artist, ARCY, is a life-long resident. The Tiger has been named Hercules.

CommunityTV, ACM and Public Policy

Community TV is regulated via public policy yet this does not mean it is the same from community to community. Your Town, Your Station for communities the size of Wallingford can be up to a half-million dollar yearly enterprises with 4 to 9 paid staff (Massachusetts and Rhode Island); or all-volunteer efforts on a barely sustainable budget. Some local access organizations comprise all aspects of Community TV (Public, Education, Government) working together to curate, create, produce and distribute local news, stories, ideas and educational materials. Some serve many communities. Others like ours serve just one town or municipality. Each one exists based on a regulated (and sometimes direct) agreement with a Cable TV Provider.

In 1995 CT established that all communities will have Community TV in a manner considered reasonable based on community needs largely established by earlier advocacy. This law and the disruption of the cable market place by AT&T in 2007 has left CT with a hodge-podge of community media. It is so different from town to town it is hard to describe what it is or how to use it. More importantly, advocates fear to advocate for modernization of the landscape; thereby, being captive to decades old regulations that no longer represent the intent or potential of this ‘could-be’ vital local resource.

Community TV stations committed to the potential of citizen media are active members of the Alliance For Community Media(ACM).

Community TV and Public Policy — Policy wins for Community TV

ACM is an organization dedicated to helping each Community TV be its best self: Sharing best practices, holding conferences to train staff or volunteers and recognizing local efforts with video festivals and leadership awards.

Another very critical role ACM provides is the monitoring and safeguarding of Public Policy on behalf of all of us. This means there are pro bono lawyers working on behalf of democracy and your right to have your voice heard on cable TV (a.k.a.Free Speech).

In 2005 Members of the Cable Advisory Council recognized the value of public policy advocacy and networking among stations and approved ACM membership through the council as a shared service. The provision for CACSCC was established by statute to address cable customer and Community TV (PEG) matters. Appointments are made by local communities. Wallingford has not been fully represented since 1995. Wallingford was an ACM member under this arrangement.

An umbrella Membership through CACSCC was negotiated on behalf our franchise area which has seven town specific PEG organizations. This enabled each town to have full benefits under an umbrella payment equal to an access organization with our combined budgets. At this time that amount of ACM payment would be $875 for an organization with a budget of $350,000 to $549,000 rate rather than the minimum of $250 x 7 ($1750). Per public records, CAC paid only $575 in 2014 and then reduced the payment to $250 in 2015 and in subsequent years. This action was taken without notice to the seven access organizations. When this action was discovered by Wallingford advocates in 2016 several efforts were made to have 7-town membership reinstated. In 2016, the Board of WPAA-TV decided to register with ACM independently and committed to doing so regardless of any action taken to fulfill the membership of all seven towns since public policy support is vital to our existence on behalf of the community.

And we enjoy participating in festivals which have recognized our efforts to serve you.

Gratitude Moments – #theGreatGive Thanks

WPAA-TV will not be participating in the #theGreatGive in 2018.
We encourage you to support other local organizations this May.

Thank you to all who participated in #TheGreatGive2017 on behalf of Wallingford Public Access Association (WPAA). We count your contributions as a vote of confidence about the work that we do. For this we are grateful.

Wallingford Public Access Association, better known as WPAA-TV, is primarily funded by cable subscriber fees. These fees are used to help citizens make TV. All other services provided at WPAA need funds from other sources. Our video on demand, community collaborations, arts programs youth, internships and other-abilities training programs need funding from alternative sources. Performance and film initiatives do as well.

Fundraising is competitive

Funding nonprofits, especially second tier support organizations like ours is always challenging. We are not feeding, clothing, housing, counseling or helping as a provider of direct service. Our job is to help those front-line organizations tell you their story. Did you know that during this campaign WPAA promoted other Wallingford nonprofits in social media posts. Support of what they do is what we do.

During #TheGreatGive2017 nearly 500 organizations, all doing wonderful things, are concurrently asking for donations. It is a direct competition for limited funds from community donors. There are incentives and random prizes. These tools help mobilize donors. Many people make multiple contributions. There are many needs and much competition for your generosity.

Your contributions help us feel counted among the many.

On behalf of the community that we serve, thank-you.Your support makes our newest initiative, supporting local filmmakers, more viable.

Why a film-making initiative?

How do we help make citizen-media content more meaningful? Film just might be where we can bring building-community and free speech advocacy together. Documentaries and nonprofit appeals in member, donor and advocacy story may be the future of Community TV.

When anyone can upload to the internet what is the value of one-to-many scheduled distribution of content as TV? The leadership of WPAA-TV believe the ability to tell video stories is the skill-set we need to cultivate to remain relevant. With digital devices, including smart phones, are ubiquitous we must find a service niche and that includes support of filmmakers.