Audio recordings of the board of trustees meetings are just a few mouse clicks away on the college website, allowing anyone who missed a meeting to play back the audio just like a tape recording.
Because of a vote in November, Internet video will soon be available for public viewing. During their meeting on April 2, the board of trustees reviewed five options as to how their meetings would be recorded, presented by school superintendent Audre Levy and theater arts instructor Guido Girardi.
Girardi talked about startup costs as he showed the prepared footage, including what kind of equipment is necessary, what it would take to operate it, and if any operator would be required with that particular method. The samples were shown in order of cost from lowest to highest.
Disks were given to all members of the board so they might have a chance to view them at home.
“We will pick one of these at a future meeting,” said Victor King, who was elected board president at Monday’s meeting.
The first method was a basic audio/photo presentation. Girardi said there would be some start-up cost for the camera, the wiring and the set up, but that would be it. No one would operate the camera; it would be set up to record at the beginning of the meeting.
Option number two would have to be a highlights show with music and graphics with board members reporting the highlights. Girardi said to the board that the highlights show would cover events that could be important to the community. The sample was taped using the campus studio.
The third option would be more of a highlights show, featuring a board member read key points from past meetings. The cost of this option would be about $7,200 for the first year.
Also in this price range, about $7,300 for the first year is the fourth option of having a camera that records the whole meeting and zooms in on each of the trustees who are speaking.
The fifth option, at a cost of about $14,700, uses three cameras focused on a podium. Each, member would speak at the podium as his or her turn came.
The board will vote on the options during their May 19 meeting.
