Web users are being deluged with video segments but a third of the audience bolts after 30 seconds unless hooked, says Mary Pedersen of JPL, Harrisburg, Pa., writing in Advertising Age.

Attention spans are getting shorter and expectations of viewers “becoming greater,” she wrote in the July 14 AdAge. After one minute, 45% of viewers have departed.

Mary PedersenPedersen

She has a point. But viewers do not have to stay for an entire video to get the “message” or “story.”

There is a profusion of “stories” being told today in “branded” content. New technology such as video and internet links should be combined with old technology such as transcripts to provide a powerful communications package.

Video, internet links and transcripts are a “triple play,” a marketing phrase of companies offering telephone, internet and TV services. A willing audience is also required.

Transcripts are inexpensive compared to the cost of producing a videotape or hosting a website. Viewers whose attention is caught by a video but who don’t want to spend the next five, ten or more minutes looking at it should be able to download a transcript of the video and quickly peruse its contents. Careful study is possible later on.

A transcript eliminates the need to recall what may or may not have been in the video. Exact quotes can be taken from the transcript in case that is needed. A printed record can be filed away for future study without doing a web search.

Westhampton Transcript Obtained

A transcript was obtained by this website of the 37-minute July 6 inaugural meeting of the Westhampton Beach board of trustees. It was provided for $100 after the videotape of the meeting was emailed to a New York transcription service. WHB has yet to post the minutes of the meeting.

Readers who click the link to the videotape on the WHB website will find that the January 2015 meeting comes up first. Some viewers give up at this point. But six clicks on the right hand side of the screen will bring up the July meeting. WHB officials have ignored our suggestion to put the video of the latest board meeting first.

Residents who don’t want to sit through the 36 procedural matters lasting about 25 minutes that are on the July 6 videotape such as “appoint marriage officer,” can use the transcript to jump right to No. 37, which was ditching medical/dental benefits for current and future trustees, a major bylaws change that will save WHB hundreds of thousands of dollars in future years.

New trustees Ron Rubio and Brian Tymann ran on a platform of halting such benefits even though they would have been among the recipients of that generous package.

Local blogger Dean Speir, speaking in the “Public Comment” part of the meeting, the last item on the agenda, asked why trustees and ex-mayors continue to get medical/dental insurance. They were identified as Robert Strebel, Arma Andon and Stuart Tobin. Also getting benefits are two former trustees, Ora Belle Barnett and Harold Williams.

Speir also noted there is now only one “official newspaper” for WHB when there used to be two. That was confirmed by the trustees who offered no further information on this.

Adam McDaid, 15 Beach Rd., who lives just behind Sydney’s Taylor Made Cuisine, 32 Mill rd., asked whether the business had a permit for an “outdoor party” conducted the previous Friday which involved “outdoor seating.” He was told it did not have such a permit and that the code enforcement officer has “taken action, in accordance with our code.” McDaid was told to inquire at the Building Dept. when he asked what the action was.

“It’s just terrible she does what ever she pleases,” McDaid said of owner Erin Finley. Kyle Campbell, 27east.com reporter who covered the incident July 8 after it was brought up by McDaid, quoted Finley as saying the party was to celebrate the graduation of one of her daughters and was not connected in any way to the restaurant. She told Campbell she has the right to hold a private event on her property. “I have no intention of putting out tables to serve the public on the lawn,” she said.

Technology, Old and New, Ignored

This reporter, also speaking in the “Public Comment” section, gave a ten-minute statement describing the financial threat to WHB, Southampton and Quogue by the East End Eruv Assn.

We decried the fact that the last entry on the dispute on the WHB website is dated Dec. 24, 2014 when there have been numerous other more recent developments and documents related to the battle including a publicly available, 6,000-word discussion of the issues involved before Judge Kathleen Tomlinson Feb. 26, 2015. Eighteen of the first 23 items under "Eruv Litigation" are from 2011.

We urged the trustees to post this and other documents on the WHB website. Failure of WHB to keep its “Eruv Litigation” section up to date is beyond mere stonewalling and into the area of censorship—the withholding of information deemed “objectionable” by governments and others. The Wikipedia definition of censorship is as follows:

“Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.‪ Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship.”

The WHB administration headed by Mayor Marie Moore has said it is dedicated to “transparency” but we don’t find that is happening. New and old communications technology tools are being ignored.

What would a resident say if he or she called the police and found that they arrived rather tardily using a horse and buggy rather than a police car?

What if someone from WHB’s outside accountants showed up with pencil and paper and proceeded to add and subtract columns of numbers using those tools?

Suppose a caterer at a WHB function showed up with wood and said, “We have to light a fire so we can prepare the meal?”

Citizens would be up in arms. They actually were almost up in arms earlier this year when a record 60+ showed up at a WHB meeting to shoot down proposals for WHB to have, in effect, two police chiefs at a cost of about $350,000.

The WHB board is ignoring technology that would allow its meetings to be webcast live with questions posted during the meeting by citizens. A videotape, accompanied by a transcript, could then be provided. That would be the administration living up to its promise to be “transparent.” The same promise has been made by new trustees Rob Rubio and Brian Tymann.