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We tagged along with the Mount Holly School during one of their outings for the winter sports program on Okemo Mountain. We made this little video to showcase the program and the collaboration between the school & the resort:
We just wrapped up our fiscal year on June 30th. As is the tradition, we have provided a summary of this past year's news & activities in our "State of the Station" report, which can be viewed here. Highlights from the past year include:
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At our annual meeting on June 27th, we recognized volunteer community producers for their works over the past year, through our 4 annual awards: Producer of the Year , Youth Producer of the Year, Community Service Award, & the Outstanding Achievement Award. These folks don't just watch TV...they make it. Around these parts, they are...."the media".
Producer of the Year: Zachary McNaughton
Zachary is a Proctorsville resident and an instructor of Audio / Video Production at River Valley Technical Center (RVTC). This past year, he began production on his own new regular fishing series, "Master Anglers" (showing each & every week on our community access channel). In addition, he oversaw the production of an original weekly series created, prodcuced, & hosted by students in his RVTC class ("Trailer Trash Talk") throughout the past school year. It's been a prolific year for Mr. McNaughton, and we salute him.
Youth Producer of the Year: Natasha Fortin
Natasha has been the A#1 student volunteer this past year, covering over 50 games for Black River High School sports. This includes both boys & girls teams for soccer, basketball, baseball, & softball. She did a lot of the post-production work as well. Thanks for all of the sports programming, Natasha!
Community Impact / Service Award: Kelly Stettner
Kelly foudned & runs the Black River Action Team (BRAT), an volunteer organization dedicated to river clean-up, education, & watershed quality stewardship. As part of this effort, in her very limited spare time, she produces a TV series, "Black River Connections", using Okemo Valley TV, which is well-produced and informative. We are prepared to support more episodes, so keep up the great work, Kelly!
Outstanding Achievement Award: Ludlow Fire Department
Volunteer firefighters Fran & Angela Kissell led a team effort to produce a great 10-minute promotional video for the Ludlow Fire Department...and they put in A LOT of work. The video has been well-circulated and is in regular rotation on our channels. There will be more to come through our collaborative work with the Fire Department. This first effort exceeded all expectations. Job well done!
At last night's annual meeting (June 27th), the election was held for the Board of Directors for the coming fiscal year. Noah Schmidt was re-elected. Don Richardson & Wendy Regier were both elected. The new year starts on July 1. The new Board will be meeting sometime in mid-July, at which time officers will be elected (the date of the 1st meeting is still to be determined, but an agenda will be posted here soon).
We would like to thank both Julie Bowyer and Lou Krefski, who terms ended, for serving on the Board of Directors for the past three years!
Voting is now open for the Board of Directors election. The ballot, with instructions, is available for download here. Anyone age 14 + up residing within our service area (Towns of Ludlow, Mount Holly, Plymouth, Reading, Cavendish, & Andover) may vote. Instructions must be followed in order for a ballot to be counted.
Join us for the 2019 Annual Meeting & Awards night, Thursday, June 27th, starting at 6PM. All are welcome, but please RSVP by sending an email to Patrick. The agenda is posted here.
The Board of Directors election will be held during the annual meeting. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to cast a ballot. Those who are unable to attend the meeting can still vote - the ballot (with instructions) is available for download here.
We had a great time working with the Mt. Holly After School program on the production of its own short film: "A Girl, 3 Pigs, 3 Bears, & a Wolf". We have been working regularly throughout the school year with the after school program for the past few years, each session taking up its own video project (see some past projects here). This session started back in January. The students conceptualized, scripted, directed, & starred an original "mash-up" of traditional fairytales. Our Production Coordinator Eric Chatterjee worked with them each week to help get their project onto the screen. Kudos to Mt. Holly School's Ms. Goraj for her dedication & support! This week they had their own premiere, complete with cookies...
The annual Board of Directors elections are coming up in June. Would you or someone you know be a good candidate to help local profit, independent, & local public media grow and thrive? If so, pcody
okemovalley.tv (subject: Nomination) (we want to hear from you)! Any resident of Andover, Ludlow, Mount Holly, Plymouth, Reading, or Cavendish who is at least 18 years of age is eligible to serve on the Board. Anyone interested in becoming a candidate or nominating someone they know should contact Executive Director Patrick Cody, by email at pcodyokemovalley.tv or calling 228-8808. Nominations must be received by Thursday, June 11th.
Interested candidates should send a short 1-2 paragaraph statement about their interest & background pcodyokemovalley.tv (subject: Candidate%20Info.) ( via email). This short statement will be added to the ballot.
Candidates are also encouraged to record a short video (up to 5 minutes), to provide more information about themselves, and which can shared prior to the election.
The election will be held during the Annual Meeting & Awards Night, on Thursday, June 25th at 6:30pm. The Annual Meeting & Awards Night is open to all community members. It will be to be held via teconference -pcodyokemovalley.tv (subject: Annual%20Meeting%20RSVP) ( email Patrick to RSVP). Voting will be available electronically for a period prior to the annual meeting. More information will be posted about that very soon. Due to the cirumstances surrounding the pandemic this year, electronic voting will only be available.
Last year, we teamed up with Weston Playhouse Theater Company to produce a short video tour of the brand new Walker Farm facility. The video featured an interview with Steve Stettler, the longtime Artistic Producing Director, who retired at the end of the Playhouse's last season. The video received recognition from the Northeastern region of the Alliance for Community Media, the trade association for community TV stations & media organizations, at its annual “Nor’easter Awards” in November. It earned 2nd place in the “PSA / Short Program” category. Shown here with the award are our Board President & Treasurer, Fra DeVine (who is also on the Board at Weston) and Susanna Gellert, the new Executive Artistic Director at Weston Playhouse Theater Company. Last week, we went back to Walker Farm to record a follow-up to that earlier video. Fra interviewed Susanna, covering a variety of topics: how the Walker Farm facility is being used, Susanna’s background and vision, and a preview of the plays she is bringing to the Playhouse during the upcoming season. The new video is also featured on our website here and will be running over the coming weeks on our community access channel. We are grateful for the community partnerships we have with organizations such as Weston Playhouse!
We have begun construction on Phase 3 renovations in our facility. While this is going on, we have limited operating hours. Starting March 25th, & until approximately April 22, our facility will not be open during our normal business hours (as posted here. Instead, we will be opening during the evenings & some Saturdays.
During this time, our studio will be inoperable. Instead of recording in the studio, our staff is available to help record programming on location, upon request. Please let us know if you have a production you would like to do, by calling the main office phone & leaving a message (228-8808), or send us an email.
Our new temporary hours, effective immediately, and running until further notice are: Mondays - Thursdays, from 4-9PM and Fridays 4-8PM
We will also be open from Saturday, March 30th & Saturday, April 6th from 10AM - 4PM.
If you have any questions or want more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We look forward to resuming our normal operating hours later in April and showing off all of the new spaces & improvements in the facility. The new spaces will include a classroom / conference room, a studio control room, master control room, and equipment training room.
