Get Involved

Donations help SAPA TV continue to provide community television to the towns of Springfield, Chester and Weathersfield, Vermont. With our donation form below, you can even choose where to direct your support!

Membership

  • Membership is open to all year-round residents of Springfield, Chester and Weathersfield, Vermont. This area will be considered the SAPA TV corporate boundaries. Residents of these three communities will be offered membership at no cost.
  • Membership is open to any non-profit organization located within the SAPA TV corporate boundaries. Membership is also open to any employees of the non-profit organization operating within these boundaries.
  • Membership is open to residents of certain communities outside of SAPA TV corporate boundaries, not served by another PEG Access station, under special circumstances. Due to the fact that SAPA TV receives no funding from these communities, users will be required to pay a twenty-five dollar yearly membership fee or maintain a monthly average of two hours of volunteer time. There is no fee required to place public service announcements on the community bulletin board.
  • If you are interested in becoming a member of SAPA TV, please get a hold of us!

Video & Audio Production

SAPA TV wants to help amplify the voice of the people, and as such we offer a variety of video & audio production services. Equipment rentals and trainings for our cameras, microphones and other equipment is free and available to our members. All we ask is that SAPA can air the videos you make! Please note that commercial and advertising content is prohibited on our channels.

Once you’ve recorded your content, SAPA TV can assist on the post-production side of things by offering editing services/training on most non-linear editing programs, such as Adobe Premiere, Audition, Final Cut, Logic Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and others. We have four iMacs set up for your editing needs!

If you’d like to inquire about making programming with us or to learn the ropes, contact us. We can be flexible to your own needs and abilities.


Underwriting

Becoming a SAPA TV underwriter is a great way for you to support and connect with your community. Your contributions will help SAPA TV continue to provide its services and reach viewers through cable television, internet and other viewing options! Please read on to consider our underwriting policies.

Underwriting credits acknowledge organizations that help fund public access programming. Programs appearing on SAPA TV are permitted to garner underwriting support to assist the production of their program, so long as they adhere to the criteria in this policy to ensure the non­commercial format of this support.  An independent producer is defined as an individual who provides his/her production equipment and does not use SAPA TV’s equipment. In cases where SAPA TV equipment is used for production, the producer cannot solicit underwriting support.  SAPA TV reserves the right to underwrite programming produced with SAPA TV equipment and any revenue will be paid directly to SAPA TV.

No individual, business or organization providing underwriting support shall exercise any editorial control over the program in question.

  1. SAPA TV Staff may impose other restrictions not specifically annunciated in this policy to ensure compliance with applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations, and for any other purpose deemed necessary.
  2. Independent Producers are specifically reminded that any cash, goods and/or services received may need to be reported as income, as producers are acting independently within the confines of this policy. No relationship of employer, ­employee or principal ­agent exists between Producers and SAPA TV. Independent Producers are considered independent contractors in terms of their relationships with underwriting entities and should report any income under this designation.

Underwriting credits must contain:

  1. The individual, business or organizational underwriter’s name

Underwriting credits are permitted to contain:

  1. Organization mission language or slogan that identifies and does not promote or state an opinion.
  2. The underwriter’s logo
  3. Non-promotional location information (e.g., phone number, address, website)
  4. A photograph or video of a place of business or underwriter, so long as this is presented in a value-­neutral manner without a depiction of satisfaction by the customer or consumer
  5. Non-promotional, value-neutral, descriptions of organizations, products and/or services
  6. An expression of support for public access television as part of the acknowledgment

Underwriting credits may not contain the following promotional language, but not limited to:

  1. Qualitative language (favorable qualities, benefits and claims) 
  2. Calls to action 
  3. Comparative language (e.g., “leader,” “largest,” “the only,” “exclusively,” “ranked number one”) 
  4. Price and value information 
  5. Inducement language (e.g., rewards programs, warranties, portions of purchase donated to charity, vehicle donation programs, holiday mentions related to sales of products) 
  6. A language that expresses a view about a matter of public importance or interest 
  7. Awards, favorable reviews, endorsements, testimonials
  8. Health claims

The following shall be prohibited from providing any underwriting support or appearing in any underwriting credits:

Tobacco of any kind, weapons of any kind, Illicit drugs, products made from the fur or hide of animals included on endangered species lists, radar detectors or other devices designed to enable motorists to evade traffic safety or anti­speed laws, pornography, human body parts for transplant purposes, “adult content” and “adult themes,” except for programs that are specifically labeled as containing mature content and presented during Safe Harbor hours, gambling of any kind, political parties, political candidates, PACs and other political committees advocating for the support/defeat of any candidate for public office or the support/defeat for any initiative, referendum or recall measure on any ballot, material promoting religious conversion or religious participation/non­participation, material that violates laws, rules or regulations (slander, libel, etc.), material that is disguised as editorial content, material promoting violence or advocating against any organization, person or animal (public, private or protected), material promoting pyramid or multi­level marketing schemes, material that directly advertises products to children.

The following exceptions may be applicable:

  1. Serious literary, scientific or political discussion of a book, painting or other work of art where a direct correlation between the discussion and the sale of the product does not exist.
  2. Programming produced by a school or other institute of higher learning for the express purpose of teaching video production or theory in which it can be shown that the questionable content is purely incidental.

If you are interested, please get in touch!