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Amherst Media Annual Meeting

Last night, I opened the Amherst Media annual meeting.

Here are my remarks:

Thank you all for attending the Amherst Media Annual meeting. It's wonderful to see both new and familiar faces.

As you probably know, it's been my first year as president and a tough year for Amherst Media with challenges on every front.

Tonight, however, I want to focus on the positives: With the help of Diana Stiles we launched our first annual fundraising campaign.

At the recent Cable Ascertainment hearings, it was wonderful to hear person after person come forward to testify about the key role that Amherst Media plays in our town by providing access to Public, Educational, and Government news and information.

People depend on Amherst Media to help them understand what's happening in town: with our schools, with town meeting, with many of the important boards and commities. Whether live, on rebroadcast, or streaming, many people stay connected through Amherst Media.

Our members also create an incredible amount of great video content about our community. Going Deeper, Neighbor-to-Neighbor, the Bruce Show, and on and on.

We also help capture interesting events happening in town: Ron Story's talk at the Amherst Historical Society, many talks at NERDSummit, Ron Fortunato's talk to Makers at Amherst Media.

But we're more than our content: we're also a community of people. We have outstanding staff Ari, Kayla, and Nick who work with an army of interns and the public to produce, direct, and film our shows. Our Board of Directors: Josh, Ed, Matt, Mat, Rick, Leo, Lynn, Demetria, Irv, Joe, and Adrienne. Our many members whether producing and creating videos or working in our various youth projects. And finally, our director Jim, who somehow keeps us all working together.

We have a packed agenda for the evening with several questions to bring to the membership and many opportunities for member to get more involved with our organization. But before we move on, I wanted to thank you -- all of you -- for your trust and support in allowing me to serve as president this year.

After my opening remarks, Jim introduce a reel of highlights showing some of this year's productions and introduced Judy Brooks to speak about the Jean Haggerty and Matt Heron Duranti to introduce this year's honoree, Jerry Gates.

Jerry spoke movingly about his experience working to organize a shelter for the homeless in Amherst, his community of helpers, and plans for the future.

Subsequently, we conducted the business of Amherst Media. We adopted some revisions to the bylaws, provided a moment for each of our standing committees to report on their activities, and reviewed the Treasurer's report.

After we adjourned the membership meeting, we conducted a board meeting to select officers for the coming year. There was consensus on the board about all of the officer positions: a single nomination was put forward for each & was seconded, the candidate accepted, nominations closed, and, without objection, declared elected by acclimation. I will serve again as President. Demetria Shabazz will be vice-president. And Ed Severance and Matt Heron-Duranti will reprise their roles as Treasurer and (with the revision of the bylaws) Secretary.

It's been a tough and complicated year for Amherst Media, but I feel like the board is really coming together and I have high hopes that next year will see the organization really move forward.