The BAVC Board of Directors holds periodic and scheduled meetings in connection with its responsibility to oversee all BAVC operations. The BAVC Board conducts meetings in person, over the telephone and online. Twice a year, the BAVC Board invites the public to attend and participate in meetings related to SF Commons. These BAVC Board meetings are designated as "Public Meetings." For Public Meetings held in person, members of the public are invited to attend in person at the announced meeting location. For Public Meetings held via telephone or online, members of the public may access the meeting in real time by dialing into the designated conference call service or accessing the online meeting service provider.
Sonny Francis is a new Public Access producer and currently produces “SF Domino Club” which airs on c=Channel 29 every first and third Tuesday. Sonny is a Vietnam veteran and a longtime resident of San Francisco’s Fillmore District. He was born in New Orleans and moved to The City in 1957. Sonny’s love and commitment to his community has led him to his current project - The SF Domino club.
“The SF Domino Club was started the later part of last year by a group of Veterans and seniors who were looking for a place to socialize and come together as a community", Sonny says. "It’s a clean and sober environment and dominos is a big part of our activities.
SF Commons Community Mixer July 26 | 6:00PM - 8:00PM
Producers, members, and community welcome! Join us for an SF Commons
mixer, July's special community event, and part of our monthly "Last
Mondays" event series at SF Commons, the public access TV station
operated by BAVC. Feel free to bring friends and family, folks you'd
like to join BAVC to conspire and collaborate with, and staff and
volunteers from nonprofits you love. If you're not a member yet, you
can meet existing producers, learn about how to produce for SF Commons,
give feedback on topics of interest for future special seminar events
and discussions, and find out the myriad ways you can participate in
public access TV, realize your creative visions, and get your work seen
by larger audiences. Please bring a potluck
snack item to share, and mingle and meet fellow media makers.
* video displays | * gallery show | * potluck & networking | * studio demos
"Open Mic Live" is a live television production and learning experience that will take place on June 28, from 6:00pm - 8:00pm, at BAVC's main San Francisco location: 2727 Mariposa Street in San Francisco, on the 2nd Floor.
This will be the first-ever live television studio production at BAVC for SF Commons. We hope to provide a participatory experience like this at least once per quarter, rotating through a monthly "last Monday" line-up of skill-shares, open mic nights, seminars, and networking opportunities. Participation in the event is a great way to get involved, meet fellow producers, showcase your talents, and learn new skills.
How it works
You must arrive by 6:00pm to sign up for a 5-minute performance slot (musical performance, reading, etc.) and/or a production role shift.
We'll go "live" from 6:30 - 7:30pm. This is a great opportunity to learn live television production, broadcast studio operations, control room operations, and broadcast camera on the fly in a live studio environment. Come and see what public access is all about!
Any BAVC Member is welcome to sign up and participate.
Also, please note that the SF Commons and BAVC office will be closed for Memorial Day, May 31.
Please remember that membership fees were waived from September 1, 2009 - February 28, 2010, but were required of all producers beginning March 1, 2010. Any producer who has an existing program must obtain and pay for this membership by March 31 to retain any existing time slots or equipment reservations. http://bavc.org/membership
IMPORTANT: New systems launch event and producer training - Monday, April 26
Join us on Monday, April 26, 6:00 - 8:00pm for a launch event for our new web site and program submission systems, developed in collaboration with our partners at the Open Media Foundation in Denver. They run public access in Denver, and will be out for a visit to train BAVC staff and you. What's new? Here are some highlights:
1. User empowerment -- The systems will put more controls in the hands of producers, who will be able to ingest, schedule, and categorize their own programs, as well as add descriptions to their shows, an icon or logo, and other information to help potential viewers find your content online. There are also tools that allow you to make your own equipment and facilities reservations, so you can plug in what you want to reserve and make reservations yourself rather than calling or waiting for a call-back from staff.
2. "File ingest" instead of "DVD drop-off and Playback Applications" -- Producers must stop by at BAVC and log into the system to submit and schedule their programs. In addition to burned DVDs, the new system will accept many other types of files to make this process easier to output from different editing systems, and authoring a DVD will no longer be required if a producer chooses to submit a file. In addition to the April 26th event, we'll hold additional training and orientation sessions monthly to show everyone how to use this and the other features. Eventually, we hope to expand our front lobby "ingest stations" to include other access points and kiosks at community sites so producers can ingest programs from multiple locations. For folks who have small files to submit or a fast internet connection, there will also be a way to submit content from home or another location.
3. Show pages and archive -- Each program gets a "show page" with all of their past programs archived for search and future discovery, a more user-friendly broadcast schedule, and an archive of all programs that anyone can search for, browse through, and watch, making the content accessible online to a much wider audience for years to come.
4. Community tools -- The systems have tools to help producers find crew, post requests for volunteers, view past shows, promote their programs, subscribe to shows you want to see, interact with your viewers, and more. For example, a producer could create a "project" on a topic of interest, and invite others to join the project. The project could eventually become a series, but in the meantime, it gives everyone working on a project a way to get involved. The tools are very cool, to say the least.
5. Theme blocks -- Don't worry, you're not "losing your timeslot!" However, the new system will allow us to generate "theme blocks" with broad categories, such as community, politics, religion, music, health, youth, environment, etc. Producers can choose to schedule their series or special within those theme blocks, where they're more likely to be surrounded by like content, and where viewers interested in that content may be more likely to discover it. The theme blocks will also allow us to promote the content actively, including running short PSAs encouraging viewers to watch upcoming programs in a given theme. For example, we could create a 30-second interstitial encouraging viewers to watch all of the "talk" programming from 3:00pm to 7:00pm on Thursday evenings. Luckily, the theme blocks are flexible -- meaning if more content is submitted in one theme, it can "stretch" to accommodate the content, or "shrink" to make way for other theme blocks to expand. Again, no one will be forced to move their program into a relevant theme block, but everyone will be encouraged to do so. The entire system is truly revolutionary, community-based scheduling.
What does this mean for me? Do I have to use this?
The only new thing you have to do in order to have your programs broadcast on SF Commons is to ingest and schedule your programs yourself. We'll show you how to do this and will walk you through it the first couple of times. All of the other features are optional, but we encourage all producers to jump on this new media bandwagon, set up your own beautiful show page, interact with your audience, and see how it all works. Please join us for the first sneak peek on April 26!
Interested in learning more? Watch "Opening Access," a video created by
our partners from Denver Open Media. The video presents a brief history of public access, and how the
emerging model for public access television and alternative media will
address financial challenges while engaging new communities and voices.
BAVC waived membership fees for six months to cover the transition, but BAVC membership will be required of all producers starting March 1. To keep your time slot, to ensure that your programs will air, and to access any services or equipment, join or renew your BAVC membership here by March 1.
SF Live is "a-Live" again
The Flash Studio re-opened for live shows this month. The room is about 25% larger than it was at Market Street, enabling us to add a much-desired wide shot. We also added three HVX200 cameras for a slightly better widescreen image and a removable black velvet drape. Future planned upgrades to the Flash Studio include some very cool software from Boinx TV and other interface enhancements for those who choose to use them. If you haven't yet tuned in to see the live shows, check them out (generally between 5:00 and 7:00pm Tuesday through Friday).
Public Access TV 
