LINCOLN, Maine — Town and school leaders don’t have their meetings broadcast over local community access television, but they do have Samuel Clay, and that is proving to be just about as good.
A three-term Town Council member who ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate for the RSU 67 Board of Directors last November, the 28-year-old Clay has been taping council and school board meetings and posting them on YouTube.com for about a month. Given that the effort has been advertised only by Facebook.com postings and word of mouth, it has drawn a pretty good audience, Clay said.
“A little over 1,200 people have looked at my videos so far,” Clay said Sunday. “I have had a lot of people thank me and have heard a lot of good reviews so far.”
The closest local-access coverage is provided in the Katahdin region, where volunteers record governmental meetings regularly.
The five school board and two Town Council regular and committee meetings have been posted raw, with no editing, right from Clay’s small Sony Handycam camcorder. The sound quality is merely adequate and the picture, thanks to his tripod, is steady, he said.
“I don’t want people to think I am trying to manipulate anything,” Clay said of the lack of editing.
Clay’s brother, council Chairman Steve Clay, said that Samuel Clay’s efforts mark the first time council meetings have been televised fully. Northern Penobscot Tech maintains a local-access channel, but Clay said he believes that it has never broadcast government meetings.
“They haven’t had an impact on council meetings,” Steve Clay said of the broadcasts. “Just the day after there is a meeting, people will ask when the meeting will be up” on YouTube.
“It is great for people who can’t make it and want to catch the meetings,” he added. “It is good enough so you can hear. It isn’t high-definition broadcast quality, but it is good.”
Samuel Clay doesn’t get paid for his efforts, but they don’t cost him much, he said — just time. Still, they can be a grind. The video uploads have taken as much as 19 hours for one recent four-hour school board meeting, he said.
Establishing local-access television coverage of government meetings in the Lincoln Lakes region is a good idea, but nothing Clay plans on advocating just yet. As a former councilor, the taping is just his way of staying involved and drawing more people into the world of local government, he said.
“Some people just have to work. Sometimes you can hear two different stories about what happened at a meeting. Now, hopefully people will say it is right on YouTube,” Clay said. “It gives people chance to reflect on what happens and look. It makes the process a little more transparent.”
The videos are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/lincolnmainemeetings.
I admire that he doesn’t edit anything. I hope peace comes to Lincoln soon- this is not how I want my town to be.
Well said.
Could be Lincolns new most viewed web site.
Could it be Lincolns new most viewed web site ?time will tell
I hope a lot of people view the last school board meeting before they go vote on Tuesday. It’s very telling…mostly teachers voting in their own pay raises. Only teachers get to do that sort of thing, especially when most of the registered voters in town don’t bother to go. You don’t see that in regular businesses, that’s for sure. Thank you for taping this for all to see.
Another relative of a school board member giving inaccurate information. Even if you didn’t count any of the votes from teachers that were there, it still would have passed. The numbers don’t lie. 168-82. And the board brought plenty of extra voters. The board member that’s related to you was texting facebook during the meeting. Maybe she should have paid closer attention instead of degrading the voters on her facebook status.
I have no idea how many teachers were there. You may be right. I don’t know. I just don’t think that teachers should be adding to the budget for their own raises. I am not related to any board members, by the way, nor do I have family employed by the district. In fact, I don’t know any board members, personally. Just an interested member of the public who is tired of unions getting their way all the time.
I don’t see this as enough of a union issue, actually.
I think the teachers should be advocating for themselves through their union and not on comments through the BDN or Facebook. I thought that was what a union was for.
I see flaws from both sides of this argument and think compromise would be good right about now.
You also don’t see bosses putting down their employees in front of them either.
I recently watched all of the RSU 67 budget meetings and was shocked at how things are going in that town. The school board members do not seem to support their teaching staff at all. I heard the school board chair say several times that the school board supports the superintendent, but not once did any of them say they support their teachers.
I heard one board member say (in a very disgusted tone) that teachers are “using” the district to get their education. He was way out of line in the way he spoke at the meeting.
I also heard board members and the superintendent speaking very rudely to the audience. They were extremely snippy and not professional at all.
You can also see a board member texting the entire meeting. Also not professional.
The tape doesn’t lie.
Thank you for taping this for all to see!!
The board has been the recipient of many, many rude comments over the last few months. I thought the board actually held it in pretty well, all things considered. I’ve never been so shocked at what I’ve heard and seen from the staff and a few townspeople in all my life. I suspect, also, that many townspeople would be up in arms if they knew how many staff members got another degree and then left. The taxpayer paid for that. It’s great that they are furthering their education, but I think they should have to agree to stay at least 2 years after receiving another degree so that the district that paid for that degree also reaps the benefits from it. If they don’t want to do that, then they can pay for their own education.
The teachers are using the taxpayers is more like it. They seem to think that the taxpayers are nothing more than a walking checkbook. They need to look beyond there greed and look at the big picture. The area has more than its share of unemployed,underemployed and retirees. Are they to shoulder the raises wanted by the teachers? I think not. The other option if the budget passes is lay offs instead of abusing the taxpayers, That works for me. I am glad that someone is watching out for the taxpayers and that would be the board.
It’s nice to have the meetings taped and available to the public. I go to quite a few meetings, but have not been able to make them all, so I appreciate being able to watch them. I have noticed that the chairwoman is not nearly as rude to the voters now that she is being taped. The sherriff and the preacher that are on the board are just as rude to the people as they always have been. That’s disturbing, especially given their professions. And most of the other members still just sit in silence. It’s good for the voters to see how their representatives are representing them, or not, whichever the case may be. Thanks for the time it takes to bring the videos to the public. No more he said/she said.
It’s good that it shows just how rude the staff is. Nice to see they have little regard for the taxpayers. All about gimme, gimme, gimme. Just wait until next year’s budget when the mil rate for each town skyrockets because of what happened last week. Or, in order to not have that happen, major cuts in programs are made because there isn’t enough money to support them, and that will result in, oh yeah, layoffs! They just shot themselves in the foot either way. Oh, and the $300,000 they added to the budget for teacher raises….I wonder what the rest of the staff thinks about just teachers getting more of a raise than they already were. I thought the teachers were all about the students. Sure doesn’t seem like it to me. The board said there was a 5 year plan for raises for the teachers. That’s reasonable. Not good enough? Too bad.
Another article about Lincoln Politics?? WHAT is going on in that town?>???!!! amazing….
I also enjoyed watching the video, I see a school
board doing its job and a lot of teachers whining. Give John a pat on the back
for saying the truth…I love the audience reaction, truth hurts huh? I am so
tired of listening to the wining and the tears…Oh, it’s all about the kids…No
it’s about a certain group of teachers that believe their rock stars. I do not
call them high quality teachers when my child comes home from school and tells
all about the how mean the superintendent is and how teachers are being forced
to quit or move away…oh yeah, lots of quality education happening there. Let’s
call it what it is, we have a superintendent and school board doing their jobs
and the people leaving, well they are just running scared.
I also have a facebook Fan page if anyone would like to come “like” it. i have tonight’s town council meeting agenda and last week’s weekly news as well as all my videos posted. Thanks for the support!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/LincolnMaineMeetings