Letter: Amherst Media Can Pick Up The Slack In Posting Recordings Of Town Committee and Board Meetings

I am responding to a recent MassLive Jan 20, 2021, article “Town of Amherst You Tube Channel explodes in popularity during COVID-19 Pandemic.”

I want to start by congratulating the Town of Amherst’s IT staff and Brianna Sunryd in particular for their diligence and responsiveness in providing the community with updated information pertinent to the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout these past eleven months, and moving further into the virtual world of governance, via their web page.

The presentation that informed the article emphasized the Town’s need to improve their communication and outreach efforts to engage residents, regarding Town activities.

It appears that this effort reflects the fifth goal of the Town Manager’s FY ’20 performance review completed on August 17, 2020. It is also directly correlated to the Town’s Charter, which called for focus on increased community participation. The report looked at the challenges and opportunities for increasing the Town’s capacity for community outreach. One opportunity the report missed was to include the vibrant, and expansive viewership currently existing on cable and on-line at Amherst Media. The Town of Amherst is under contract with Amherst Media to ensure “live” cable coverage of certain government meetings. We also stream those meetings “live”.

Amherst Media has been providing video on demand viewing since October 2009, resulting in 340,810 views. Our relevant numbers for government meetings since March, 2020, from our YouTube account, combined with those of the Town’s, would have given a more accurate picture of our joint outreach to town residents.

Many residents who cannot view the “live” meetings, covered by Amherst Media, have the opportunity to view these meetings at their convenience on-line, usually in less than 24 hours after the meeting ends.

While the Town’s report stressed that all government meetings were going to be recorded and posted to the Town’s YouTube account, the Town has realized that posting the meetings takes time and person power. Many postings have been delayed at times for weeks before their on-line viewing is possible.

For the record, Amherst Media does not receive the town recorded meetings to post. We do however receive the Community Chats, held by the Town Manager.

The Town report posed the question: How could the IT Department sustain the current level of growth with existing staffing? One option I would like to propose is for the work of packaging the multiple Board meetings to be subcontracted to Amherst Media. We are equipped for the challenge, have a proven track record and would be a more cost-effective way of addressing the issue of timeliness and transparency.

I would also stress the importance of finding all of the boards and committees meetings in one place, well organized and easily accessible for the community, on our YouTube channel.

The report additionally raises the issue of how does the Town address the digital divide when pushing for digital first services and engagement. To answer that question I refer the Council back to a communique from me dated July 28, 2020, titled “Municipal Broadband Feasibility.” In that letter I stressed the issue of affordable, community controlled, high-speed internet as both a social justice and economic development issue. I still advocate for a feasibility study to be conducted as to the viability of an Amherst municipal broadband.

As then, I once again offer Amherst Media’s expertise and services to the Council and the Town in assessing this possibility.

Jim Lescault

Jim Lescault is Executive Director of Amherst Media,  a local independent media center for the past 45 years.