Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Metro Cable awards new grants and scholarships, receives report-backs from prior grantees
Summary
The commission received updates from student and community media grantees, then voted to award a new round of grants and one scholarship, including two $50,000 awards and a $25,000 project. The resolution passed with one abstention.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission on June 13 received program updates from four prior grant and scholarship recipients and then adopted a resolution awarding new Community Grant Program funding for fiscal year 2024'15.
During the meeting the commission heard short presentations and examples of produced work from grantees and scholarship recipients. Presenters included Kier Stosa of Sacktown Movie Buffs, Rebecca Batsianas (a journalism and English teacher in San Juan Unified School District), student Elliot Rogan (Vista Del Lago High School), and Maxwell Rice (Folsom Cordova Unified School District). Each described how prior grants or scholarships funded training, equipment, festival entries, studio time and staff support; Elliott and Maxwell showed student work produced with grant-funded equipment and software.
After receiving those updates, staff asked the commission to adopt a resolution approving the next set of recipients. The commission approved the following awards:
- American River Parkway Foundation: $50,000 to produce four 30-minute episodes of "Parkway Discovery" focused on natural resources, multicultural use and educational initiatives along the American River Parkway. - SAC Geeks: $50,000 to produce five documentary-style episodes on local "geek" culture, cosplay and related creative-economy topics. - Mutual Housing: $25,000 for a 27-minute documentary microfilm about the railyards and the Wong Center, with historians assisting development. - Scholarship to Cooper Quincy: $980 for coursework in radio, television and film at Cosumnes River College.
Sean (executive director) and staff presented the recommended awards, noting an ad hoc subcommittee had vetted the proposals. After a voice vote, the resolution passed with a single abstention; the transcript does not identify the abstaining commissioner.
Why it matters: the grants and scholarship program subsidizes local production, student training and community-produced programming that feeds Metro 14 and other local channels. Grantees and scholarship recipients described how the funding enabled equipment purchases, paid training for volunteer crews, festival submissions and capacity to cover local events.
Quotes from grantees
- Kier Stosa, Sacktown Movie Buffs: "The grant program has been just instrumental for us as growing a local community television show because it's very difficult, on a volunteer basis to get people to actually show up to help with the actual production." - Rebecca Batsianas, San Juan Unified School District teacher: "For the first time, since I've taken over the program, we were able to go to this national convention... It was a three day convention with literally thousands of other high school students."
Procedure and follow-up
The commission adopted the resolution by voice vote; staff will execute grant agreements and schedule reporting back to the commission as projects progress. Earlier in the meeting the commission also approved a consent calendar item adopting the fifteenth amendment to certain license and operations agreements pertaining to community programming channels; that item was approved by voice vote on the consent calendar.
