LTC invites eligible individuals and organizations to join us in the development and growth of our community-based media and technology center.
Find out more about becoming a member of LTC!
LTC invites eligible individuals and organizations to join us in the development and growth of our community-based media and technology center. In order to become a member of LTC, a person or organization must:
Membership at LTC is open to all citizens of Lowell, Massachusetts, and provides a wide range of free access to communications technologies, including:
Annual membership fees are $30/cable subscribers, $45/nonsubscribers, $20/over 65 or under 18.
Family Membership is available for up to four persons living in the same household who apply for membership together. Family members enjoy all the privileges of Individual Membership except that only one vote can be exercised for each family membership.
Annual membership fees are $60/cable subscribers, $90/nonsubscribers.
Nonprofit Organization Membership is open to any organizations, institutions, City Departments, public schools, or other entities recognized as nonprofit, tax-exempt by the IRS. Groups joining LTC under NPO Membership have all the privileges of Individual Membership, and have one vote per non-profit organization. NPO Membership entitles the organization to up to six people per membership year (additional members can be added at $20 per person).
Annual NPO membership fees are $125/per organization.
Business Membership is open to any Lowell-based, for-profit firms, corporations, organizations, institutions, or other entities. Businesses joining LTC under Business Membership have all the priviledges of Individual Membership and have one vote per Business Membership. Business membership entitles the company to up to six people per membership year (additional members can be added at $20 per person).
Annual Business Membership fees are $250/per business.
"Give a man fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."
At LTC, we firmly believe that it is simply not enough to give people access to a video camera or computer. Without training in the formal, aesthetic, and critical uses of media technologies, communities will be ill-equipped to produce meaningful content that communicate their points of view.
We also believe that showing someone how a technology works is only one part of a much larger context of understanding media technologies. With this in mind, the LTC educational program is comprehensive and covers all aspects of media and technology literacy from how technologies are developed to the money behind them to how our uses of them get shaped by commercial interests to how certain messages get heard over others and why. Our aim is to create a community of informed, technology literate, and critically-thinking media producers.
Finally, from our very inception we have seen that the convergence of traditional video / television technologies with newer computer-based ones, will have a profound impact on the ways in which our citizens send and receive information of all kinds. Therefore, our curriculum covers a breadth of telecommunications technologies from video cameras to computers to radio and seeks to explore the ways in which these technologies merge and overlap.
LTC's current facility resides on two floors in an historic textile mill complex. Packed into 6,000 square feet is a television studio, cable radio station, two computer labs, five post-production areas (for video editing, sound recording and editing, graphic creation, 3D animation, digital conversion), member meeting areas, equipment and technical banks, our cable distribution and programming systems, and administrative space for 8 full-time, 2 part-time, and 15-20 active volunteers and interns. Our members have access to 10 digital video cameras (Canon XL-1, Canon GL-1, and Panasonic EZ-30), 3 digital still cameras (Sony Mavica's & Sure Shots), field equipment (i.e., microphones, light kits) and 20 digital workstations (both PC and Mac platforms).
All of our workstations are part of our facility's local area network (LAN), have access to the Internet and can run a variety of software packages (basic office applications, web publishing, imaging, desktop publishing, and multimedia presentation). Almost 2/3 of our workstations have access to higher end applications such as video and audio editing, 3D animation, special effects, and complex graphic creation.
Our facility and equipment bank are available free of charge to our members on a first-come, first-served basis. We also have affordable rates for most of our resources if you are not a member or are looking to rent for personal or professional projects. If you would like further information regarding equipment and software availability, contact our Digital Media Technician at tech@ltc.org or call (978)458-5400.
In order to equitably serve the members of our community, LTC abides by a set of operational policies and guidelines. These are a working blueprint for day-to-day use of our valuable and limited resources.
To find out more about LTC policies or to express your concerns, please contact the LTC Executive Director at 978.458.5400 or email exec@ltc.org.