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COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING RULES AND
REGULATIONS
INTRODUCTION
The following guidelines
apply to all people using the
North Metro Media Center (NMMC)
facilities and equipment in the North
Metro Telecommunications Commission (NMTC)
franchise area. All NMMC
members are expected to be familiar with these guidelines.
MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS
In
order to utilize
NMMC equipment and facilities you
must become a member of the organization. (Membership is not required
for staff supervised volunteer work on van shoots.) You are
automatically a member if the following applies.
PEG fee, as a cable subscriber, to the
NMTC
You are
representing an educational or government access entity in the
NMTC
franchise area
If you are none of the above,
you can become a member in the following manner:
Pay an annual membership fee
Resident
Individual: Equal to amount of annual PEG fee
Resident
Organization: Equal to twice the amount of the PEG fee
Non-Resident
Individual: $50.00
Non-Resident
Organization: $100.00
Perform
volunteer work to be arranged by staff
Membership fees and volunteer work must be
paid or completed before membership privileges are granted.
Membership benefits include use of the
facility and EFP equipment (within guideline restrictions), and video
production classes.
Due to the limited amount of
equipment and staff time available to
NMMC
members, the following priorities have been set:
1.
All equipment is scheduled on a first-come, first-served
non-discriminatory basis. Certified individuals may
make reservations up to one (1) month in advance.
2.
Maximum amount of time for which equipment may be reserved by an
individual or group:
Studio: 4
hours per week
Editing: 3
hours per week
Portable
Equipment: 24 hours per week
3.
No individual or group may reserve the same hourly block on the same day
for consecutive weeks.
4.
NMMC
members may use equipment beyond their reserved time if no one else has
time reserved in the following time block, upon staff approval.
5.
NMMC
members may get time in addition to their weekly allowance if they call
no more than a day in advance.
CERTIFICATION
1.
An NMMC
member must be certified as proficient with
NMMC
production equipment before being allowed to check out portable
equipment or schedule studio or editing time.
There are two ways to become certified:
Take one of
NMMC
regularly scheduled classes, or
Make an
appointment with a NMMC
staff member and demonstrate proficiency
A member will then be issued a
certification card which will note what type of equipment a person is
certified to use. When using
NMMC’s
equipment, this card must be shown to a staff member upon request.
2.
If and individual has not used the equipment within a year, they must be
re-certified.
3.
The
NMMC member
checking out equipment will be responsible for all equipment.
RESERVING EQUIPMENT
1.
All equipment must be
reserved at least 24 hours (but not longer than one month) prior to its
intended use. Exceptions to reservation deadlines
will require approval of the Facility Coordinator or his/her designee.
2.
Members must adhere to all scheduled reservation time limits and must
call if they will be more than 15 minutes late. Failure to adhere to
reservation time limits may without prior notification result in the
following disciplinary action being taken:
First Offense
- A written warning signed by a member of the
access staff and the member
Second Offense
- A 30-day suspension if the offense is within 90
days of a written warning
Third Offense
- A 90-day suspension if the offense is within 90
days of the last day of a 30-day suspension
3.
Members should call if they will be more than 15 minutes earlier than
their scheduled time since the equipment may not be available to them if
already scheduled to another member for that period.
USE OF EQUIPMENT
1.
Members are expected to use all NMMC
equipment with care and are responsible for all lost equipment and
damage to the equipment except for normal wear and tear.
2. The equipment is to be used only
to produce non-commercial programming for cablecasting on the access
channels. Commercial rental rates will be charged if
it is found that the equipment has been used for profit-making or non
community programming purposes.
3.
NMMC
equipment is not to be interfaced with any other equipment without prior
approval of the NMMC
staff.
4.
NMMC
equipment is to be operated only by certified members.
Persons not certified are prohibited from using the equipment.
5.
There is to be no unauthorized repair of equipment by an member.
Any damage to NMMC
equipment or facilities must be promptly reported to the Facility
Coordinator.
6.
The charge to the member for any lost or damaged equipment will be
determined on a parts and labor basis.
7.
When at
NMMC on
community television business, members will confine themselves to
designated programming areas. Members will use the
master control room in the company of a
NMMC
employee only. Phones are to be used only with
permission.
8.
Members under the age of 18 must have a Parental Responsibility Form
signed by an adult prior to their attendance at certification classes
who agrees to assume responsibility for the minor’s use before they will
be allowed to use any equipment.
Anyone under the age of 16 must have a
parent accompany them to the introductory class.
9.
An adult must be present and sign an Equipment Responsibility Form when
anyone under the age of 16 is using the studio or checking out portable
equipment.
10.
It is expected that use of NMMC
equipment or facilities will result in programming for the access
channel and it is required that any programs completed be submitted for
cablecasting.
PORTABLE EQUIPMENT
1.
When checking out and checking in, equipment must be set up and a test
recording made.
2.
Members should keep and refer to the equipment checklist received when
checking equipment out. The member will be held
responsible for all the equipment on this list.
3.
Members should never identify themselves as a
NMMC
employee when using equipment.
4.
All checked out equipment is the sole responsibility of the signed
member. The individual checking out the equipment
must also be the individual returning the equipment, unless alternate
arrangements are made at the time of checkout. Only certified members
can check out or return equipment.
STUDIO & EDITING
1.
Members are required to check in and check out with staff and must sign
a Responsibility Form before using the studio or editing equipment.
2.
The studio and editing suites must be put in order before check out
time.
3.
Props, sets, costumes, etc. may be stored at
NMMC with
approval of staff, but they may be made available to other members.
4.
The NMMC
assumes no responsibility for any props stored at their facilities.
5.
Copyrighted items, logos and organizational symbols or emblems may not
be used without permission of the owners.
TAPES
1.
Tapes provided
by NMMC
must stay in the building except when checked out with the portable
equipment.
2.
Tapes are assigned an open date (approximately 30 days after being
recorded) after which time they may be erased. It is
the member’s responsibility to know this date and to contact a staff
member if they feel an extension is needed.
3.
If the NMMC
has supplied the tape for the master of a member's program, the
NMMC
retains ownership of the master tape. The
NMMC can,
at its discretion, erase a program on its videotape in order to recycle
the videotape.
COMPLETED PROGRAMS
1.
All content is the responsibility of the producer.
However, NMMC
reserves the right to view any program to determine whether the theme
and content of the program are consistent with the description of the
program provided by the producer member and to determine whether the
program violates any NMMC
rules. If it is determined that any of the rules are
violated, the member will be requested to remove the portion(s) of the
program which would constitute the violation. If the
member refuses to remove the material which constitutes the violation,
the member’s program will not be cablecast.
The member may request a review of
NMMC’s
decision by the NMTC.
Upon approval of the NMTC,
the member’s program will be cablecast. The viewing
of a program by NMMC
or the
2.
The program must be technically suitable for cablecasting and the member
must fill out a compliance form before a program can be cablecast.
3.
All programs must be accurately timed and have color bars, slate and
countdown at the beginning and at least a minute of black at the end.
Programs may be pulled from playback if inaccurate times are given,
resulting in "dead" air.
4.
Videotape delivery and return is the responsibility of the
NMMC
member.
5.
Upon determination by the NMMC
Executive Director that the program subject material offered by a member
may offend some views and may not be appropriate for young viewers due
to mature content, the following announcement may precede and/or appear
during breaks in cablecast of that program:
“The following program is considered to be of
mature theme and therefore may be considered to be offensive to some
viewers. Viewer/parental discretion is recommended.”
The NMTC
reserves the right to schedule programs at the discretion of the staff.
6.
In the event of poor technical quality that is not severe enough to
result in the prevention of cablecast but may cause viewer concern, the
following announcement might be shown prior to the program with
additional information as to the specific problem during breaks in the
program:
“The viewer may find the technical quality of
some portions of the following program unsatisfactory.”
7.
All members are required to make all necessary arrangements with
NMMC and
obtain required clearances from broadcast stations, networks, sponsors,
music and licensing organizations, performers’ representatives, authors,
composers, and any and all other persons or entities as may be necessary
to transmit the member’s program material over the community channels.
Program producer(s) shall be fully
responsible for any disputes arising out of the program contents to be
produced, including infringements of copyrighted materials.
Although very rare, it is possible that in the production of
program(s) laws may be violated or injury may be caused.
Since the producer(s) will be in control of the production, and
the NMTC
and its Member Cities
will not assume any control of the production, it is necessary that
producer(s) take full responsibility for the production of program(s).
Producer(s) shall agree to indemnify and hold harmless the
NMTC and its Member Cities
(including their employees, agents, directors or officers) from any
liability or other injury (including cost of defense) which may result
from any production.
8.
The NMMC
shall prohibit the presentation of programming involving the following:
Any unlawful
lottery or gift enterprise material—
Any promotion, contest, or other program
that involves the elements of prize, chance, and consideration or any
program declared an unlawful lottery under local, state or federal law.
Obscene
material—
Any material which the average person,
applying contemporary community standards finds the dominant theme of
the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interests or any
material defined as obscene under applicable local, state, or federal
laws.
Advertising
material—
Any material designed to promote the sale of
commercial products or services (including advertising by or on behalf
of candidates for public office) or the solicitation of donations,
remuneration, or barter.
9.
Sponsorships – will be defined as
money, goods or services provided to a program producer by a third party
for which acknowledgment is made during the program.
Such sponsorship is not to be a direct payment to the producer for
his/her time. Any acknowledgment of sponsorships
shall include only the name and/or logo of the sponsor, telephone
number, picture of the business and its location as it may appear, (bur
no address may be used) with a statement such as:
“This program was made possible (in part) by (3M of Minnesota.)”
Each acknowledgment shall last no more than ten (10) seconds.
The credit may not contain comparative or
qualitative language about the underwriter or its product or services;
may not mention price; and may not include any content the purpose of
which is to motivate a viewer to purchase a service or product.
10.
The NMMC
will not edit, or alter in any way, the content of any program submitted
for cablecast. Any editing that is required in order to comply with
these rules must be done by the community producer.
11.
Every effort will be made to play back a program at a requested time but
the time cannot be guaranteed.
12.
Series programming may be scheduled in the following manner:
Members must
sign a series contract, if the program is to play at the same time, on
the same day, each week.
The series
contract may allow the member's program to play once a week in the same
time slot, for a period of six months.
Providing
compliance with the Series Contract, and dependent on space
availability, one weekly playback spot per program can be guaranteed.
The contract
will require a certain number of programs be submitted each month.
If a member
violates the contract, their time-slot becomes available to other
members.
When a
contract is up for renewal the time-slot become available to other
members.
If no other
member requests the time-slot, the previous member can renew their
series contact for another six months.
No single
member or member organization can contract for more than three series
spots at any one time.
Programs must
be in the possession of the programming staff at least 24 hours before
they can be scheduled for playback.
13.
Programs meeting all guideline criteria will be played on the community
channel at least once.
14.
Staff may play any program submitted for playback any number of times at
their discretion.
15.
If a finished program meets all playback guidelines, members can make
one copy of their finished program (on their own tape) free.
There is a $20 charge for each additional copy.
The member must also supply a tape for additional copies.
16.
Programs that have not been produced with
NMMC
equipment must be submitted for playback by a system resident.
SUSPENSION OF NMMC PRIVILEGES
Unless otherwise stipulated in these guidelines, three (3) violations of
the above guidelines will result in a loss of all access privileges for
up to one (1) year. A single violation of the more
serious guidelines per the Executive Director's discretion may result in
immediate suspension of all privileges for up to six (6) months.
Failure to deal with the staff in a straight-forward, truthful
and courteous manner will also be considered a violation of the above
guidelines. Suspension of privileges may be appealed
through the
NMTC
office at 763-780-8241. The decision of the
NMTC
shall be final.
Amended 05/16/01
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