Since 2006, Robert Chiarito has been a familiar face at Old Rochester Community Television. He started as an assistant videographer, and this September was hired as the station’s executive director.

Now he’s preparing for the station’s annual membership meeting. Current members will elect a board of directors, but anyone interested in becoming a member is welcome to attend. The meeting is March 22 at 1 p.m. in the station, located at 345 Front St. Marion.

Sippican Week spoke with Chiarito about ORCTV, the ease of appearing on the small screen and how watching a Selectmen’s meeting is just a click away, even if you’re on vacation in Europe.

What’s something people might not know about ORCTV?

Anybody who lives or works in the tri-town can join and become a member. We train you how to use the camera, the editing equipment and the studio. It’s for anyone who has an idea for a program and wants to see it on the air.

People might get the misconception that we’re a news channel. We’re not. I like to call us an “electronic soapbox.” Anybody who has an idea can step up and shout it out. Whether that is coming in and doing one single program or filming something every month. There’s somebody that came in last week who had an idea for a gardening show. We’re not just here to film government meetings. Our goal is that if somebody comes in here with an idea, we’re going to help them see it through to completion.

It seems like the station is airing a lot of local content considering the tri-town’s population.

I got a call from someone at New Bedford cable access last Friday. They asked if we had anything they could use because they hadn’t aired anything new recently. They said we seemed to be the only people around that are actually making programs.

Has a program or show stood out to you over the years? Do you have a favorite?

I don’t mean to sound like I’m pandering, but every time somebody does something you’re seeing something from somebody else’s perspective, which is nice. Every time Tabitha Tripp [owner of Tender Hearts Inc., a home health care agency in Marion – ed.] has a program I really pay attention to, whether they are talking about reverse mortgages or safety devices for seniors. I’m pushing 50 now, so those are things I have to start thinking about.

It’s always interesting to see what people come up with. You get a good idea of who is in your community. It’s one of the nice things about local cable access.

Aside from catching these shows on cable is there a way for someone to watch what ORCTV has to offer?

A lot of our videos are available on Vimeo.com. If you have relatives that live in Washington state or Wareham, they can watch. Or, people who just moved away and are still interested in what’s going on here can watch.

I’ve had people tell me they’ve been on vacation in Europe and watched our Vimeo channel to keep up with selectmen’s meetings. I thought, ‘You’re on vacation! Enjoy yourself. Don’t watch the selectmen’s meetings!’

What’s new at ORCTV the past few months?

We’re trying to get out into the public more and just be at various events in town. Instead of just going to the Marion village stroll at Christmas time we also filmed a stroll held at the businesses across the street from the station. Also, we’ve been trying to do more pieces about the community like a cranberry harvesting documentary we filmed.

Have you done anything else along those lines?

We did something for Halloween that was sort of out of the norm. Instead of just covering the Halloween parade like we normally do Gary did a nice piece on the corn maze at Cervelli’s [farm in Rochester –ed.]. That was great because his family owns a plane so he got some fly over footage.

All Hands, which is a nonprofit over in Mattapoisett – they’re a great group  - they were doing a benefit for the Philippines in conjunction with Kick Fit and we did a piece about that.

How much help is available for people wanting to film programs?

We train people and are always open to having people film things. Someone just picked up a camera 10 minutes ago to shoot an event at the library tonight. But for people who have an idea for a show, but don’t necessarily know someone who is interested in doing the technical end, we’ve been volunteering to do that.

I think a big misconception is that you have to have a lot of technical experience to do this. You really don’t. For film editing, you can be a complete novice and come in and take a class and an hour later have produced something that looks really good. You don’t have to be computer savvy. You don’t have to be camera savvy. You really just have to have an idea. We can help you realize it.