[Ww-snww-regional-list] Unoffical notes from Exec. Comm. meeting on Friday
Tom Wyatt
tom at tomwyattphoto.com
Sun Mar 15 19:59:33 EDT 2015
Below are notes from the 3/13/15 Exec Committee meeting from David
Greenberg, the delegate from Colrain. David says: "These are unofficial
notes put together by me, and looked at and edited by David K. and Tom W.
Since it takes a while for the official version to be posted, I thought I
would share these notes now. I have tried to be as accurate as possible, but
there is always room for misinterpretation."
We have no agreement with MBI now for the oversight of the money which had
been agreed to previously by both parties. Becky thinks we must have some
sort of MoU in place to make it through ATM (Annual Town Meeting). Steve
thinks that the MBI is making a power play and does not want to relinquish
ownership of the network to WW. He thinks it is time to meet with our
legislators to update them, and ask them to pressure MBI to honor the MoU,
or at least the parts of it to which both parties have agreed.
Jim thinks the MBI position, to ask all 45 towns to submit a grant
application, has some merit because the MBI has to make the same offer to
all 45 towns that qualify for money, whether they are part of WW or not. He
thinks he can get things back on track within the next few weeks.
EC members agreed that the resolution that delegates signed at the last BoD
meeting (citing WW as the entity which towns will work through and other
agreed upon language from the MoU) should be given to Selectboards for
endorsement. Jean will send the corrected version out with the delegates
names who signed it.
The language of the warrant article that was sent out to all the SBs was
designed for a single town; there is no mention of MLP involvement or that
the network has to be FTTH. There was another version written for WW towns
but MBI scrapped it because they thought it might confuse people (or so they
say). Steve will call the bond adviser to see if this is really the case.
The MBI has admitted that it was a mistake to send out the warrant articles
to the SBs without notifying WW. Additional language will be drafted,
mentioning WW.
Jim talked to David Charbonneau (MBI), about the driveway issue and he is
not convinced that the number from the consultants is accurate either. Jim
said he doesn't have time to get the committee going who volunteered at the
last BoD meeting to start using maps to measure driveways. David G. agreed
take over from Jim. If anyone wants to help, let him know.
Jim and Jean described the process of getting a business plan written
(following up from the last EC meeting - input from a SCORE member).
Hilltown CDC has staffing to work on this (Seth). The plan will cover things
such as the financial schedule, operations plan, rollout schedule). It was
agreed that what was really needed as we move forward was a 2-3 page summary
that can be shared with SBs.
David K. has offered to fix the navigation issues on the web site to
everyone's relief, as there are numerous issues that make it hard to
navigate.
It was agreed that the EC would invite Eric Nakajima, the MBI Director, to
our next BoD meeting so that he could get a sense of who we are and what our
concerns are.
Tom W. (Warwick) suggested that an item be put on the next BoD agenda to
discuss adding a few people to the EC to lessen the workload on current
members. There was a brief discussion of announcements for EC meetings. Tom
asked if emails could be sent to the delegates once a meeting had been
posted on the website. EC members felt that the website announcement was
enough and there wasn't time for sending these emails. Steve suggested a
compromise - a prominent "meetings" button/link be placed on the website
home page, so it was easy for delegates to find out
Several of us were also recruited to help answer questions from prospective
subscribers via email. If anyone else is interested in taking a support
shift, please write to Becky.
1023 backers have signed up already as of this writing. Jim had expected
more. Lawn signs are in process, waiting for approval which will happen by
3/16/15. WW Logos & graphics will be posted on the website (press section)
so that towns can make their own flyers, posters etc.
There were five Directors (David Kulp, David Greenberg, MaryEllen Kennedy,
Robert Heller, Tom Wyatt) at the meeting in addition to the five EC members
(Steve Nelson, Becky Torres, Jim Drawe, Jean Atwater-Williams, Glenn
Cardinal) who were present. I definitely think it was a good thing that we
were there and I think on the whole our presence was appreciated. I think
it's a good thing for Directors to play a more active role, especially now
when so much is at stake.
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