Unions are not always the most media-savvy organizations, but the Minnesota State Retirees Council is working to change that.

Starting from scratch, retirees have created their own community access cable show ? and are building the ranks of union volunteers who can handle themselves in front of and behind a camera.

"Minnesota Voices of Experience" is the legacy of Mike Kodluboy, a retiree activist who also was a member of the Ramsey/Washington Counties Suburban Cable Communications Commission. Kodluboy died last year.

"It was so frustrating at the beginning," said Russ Thornell, who is helping carry on what Kodluboy started. "Mike is the one who convinced us we could do it."

Taking advantage of community access
The show is taped regularly at the Suburban Community Channels studio here. Though produced by retirees, it goes beyond topics such as privatizing Social Security or the Medicare prescription drug benefit. It features prominent union leaders, current and retired elected officials, and issues ranging from education funding to trade policies.

"We?re still expanding," Thornell said. "There are a lot of areas we need to get to."

The first show went on the air in May 2003. To date, retirees have taped 24 shows, including 10 in 2005. The goal is to do one hourlong show a month, Thornell said.

Bernard Brommer, a president emeritus of the state AFL-CIO, or Dan Mikel, current president of the Retirees Council, typically moderate the studio interviews. Regular volunteers behind the scenes include Dick Bennett, Roger Carlson, Larry Chadwick, Erv Neff, Dick Nielsen and Ed Rapp.

The December taping featured Minnesota AFL-CIO president Ray Waldron and Minnesota Chamber of Commerce president David Olson, whom Brommer walked through a grocery list of issues. Some of the times, the guests actually agreed with each other.

In the production booth, Thornell and Carlson monitored sound, selected camera angles, punched up captions ? and kept a steady eye on the clock. As director, Thornell occasionally fired off one-way messages into Brommer's earpiece ? the only way to communicate with the studio.

Learning the hard way
The volunteers all take classes on how to run the cameras and equipment, "but it's pretty much hands-on learning," Thornell said. "Little by little, you learn everything you need to do."

Because so many groups use the cable studio, every button and switch has to be checked before taping begins. "There's so many little things that can go wrong," Thornell said. "If there's one piece of equipment in the wrong mode?"

But compared with the early shows, he said, "there's quite an improvement."

Right now, the show is taped using three fixed cameras, though Thornell expects that to change as more volunteers get more accomplished operating cameras. "Once we start rolling, it's pretty much what you see is what you get."

The entire process takes 3 to 4 hours, he said, which includes setting up and tearing down the set; testing cameras, lighting and sound before taping; then finishing up editing and production work afterward.

The tape is copied and shown not only in the metro area ? on Twin Cities Metro Cable Channel 6, Suburban Community Channel 15 and Valley Access Channel 16 ? but also distributed to cable channels in Brainerd, Duluth, Mankato and the Iron Range.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org