Tom Pastor opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Jeff Benson provided the Invocation.
Our guests today were Tim Domke and Lori Pulkrabek from CTV North Suburbs.
Ed James thanked all those who participated in the Harvest Pack Event at Irondale last Wednesday. The response from the Irondale student body was overwhelming, with some students turned away because of inadequate space. Our club was well represented at the third and final packing session. Overall, we packed 21,670 meals to be served locally at Life Prep Academy, CPY and Irondale as well as providing much needed food for victims of the hurricanes in Texas. The Rotary contingent is shown below.
Paul Fournier announced a Choral Concert to benefit the Community Support Center on Sunday, January 28th from 2-3PM at Abiding Savior Lutheran Church, 8211 Red Oak Drive, New Brighton. Be there to show your support for the valuable work that CSC does in our community.
Margaret Johnson reported on her experience at the District Mid-Term last weekend. The focus was on membership growth and public relations and Margaret and Gerry attended from our club. Watch your email in the next few days for a summary of the Mid-Term. The next District meeting will be the Conference of Clubs at Mystic Lake Casino on April 19 &20. Click here for more information.
Cindy Carlson distributed the rules for the Gold Plate Dinner ticket sales contest. Click here for a scan of the rules. Jim O’Brien noted that we’ll be once again having a Dine Around Town auction this year so start soliciting restaurant gift certificates now!
Cor Wilson was our speaker today, offering an update on CTV North Suburbs and the North Suburban Communications Commission. CTV North Suburbs is a non-profit corporation formed by nine north suburban cities. It was established to provide community programming and services for the member communities. It administers community TV channels, providing both staff and volunteer programming. It has a mobile production truck and portable video equipment for community events and provides video education and hands-on training for community members. The North Suburban Communications Commission (NSCC) is a Joint Powers Agreement formed by nine north suburban communities to administer their cable franchises. CTV and NSCC are primarily funded by a combination of franchise fees and Public Educational and Governmental (PEG) fees, but a decline in cable subscribers and other factors has resulted in a 40% budget reduction in 2018 as compared to 2017.
Cor discussed three levels of programming provided by CTV North Suburbs: Public/Community, Educational and Government. Public/Community programming includes programs of local interest such as North Suburban Beat, Disability Viewpoints and Adventures in Public Speaking. This programming amounts to about 50% of programming. Educational programming includes High School and College sports, concerts and other events, and amounts to about 30% of programming. Government Programming includes coverage of local events, parades and festivals as well as city meetings and contractual services for cities and schools. This area of programming amounts to 20% of total programming. Your bulletin editor apologizes for failing to get a photo of Cor for this publication.