 Way in so Are there any additions or changes to the agenda I know there were two There were two additions that Jeremy had emailed us about so we'll We just presume that those are on the agenda and he can take them up Wherever he feels that that's appropriate and was there another I'm one of those ads. Oh, that's right. Yes, okay Any other changes additions hearing done Public comment There any public first What we're moving right now we may get done before Jeremy get to Treasures Nathan's not here. Wow, so it's all the way up to you Susan Clark. Okay. I give just me a minute get up today here Before Somebody you'll be happy to know this that I am working on your October Minutes I Did this the first meeting? Yeah, the first meeting first and it was five pages long I think I probably detailed too much of what Carol was talking about so I'm gonna have to trim that down a little bit Before I presented to you so it's a work in progress Also, the second meeting you had in October have outside of the meetings minutes, but I will complete those minutes and I think work up for being here and allowing me to look at their Their film online Get minutes So if anybody's really interested in what really happened and they want to rewind that go on the orca Websites and it's there you can find it. It's five pages is way too much Right our child clerk would refer to that as meeting hours I refer to it as my excessive minutes Did you get extra copies? Oh, thank you. Anybody else in a copy of the agenda. Oh, come on Thank you Okay, I Have not completed the registration, but it's a little it's a little worse I I have chosen a peel box of ace callas and numerically at CV which is And there is 28, so these you box 28, but so if you forget the field box over just remember They they And I have not decided papers for them yet Although it's ready to file because I had a budget of 75 dollars and they want ninety six dollars No, ninety two dollars plus six dollars for the two keys so I'm coming to you To press a motion that you approve Up to a hundred dollars and it will be ninety dollars up to a hundred dollars For the box and I've got to get that right away because the the peel boxes are going to be in increasing very soon So I will be doing that in the next 24 hours if I get approval For an increase up to seventy five dollars up to a hundred dollars some moves second I Oh bring up the end voices and everything like that the SOS registration should have point of order. There was a motion in a second So if there's any if there's any further discussion about authorizing up to a hundred dollars, I Think it was made by John seconded by Siobhan Okay, anything else on that all in favor Opposed abstentions motion passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much You have rules for the December minutes down here. I have nothing else to say under the court support This is question We skipped over treasure. It's just over treasure. Okay. He shouldn't be here. That's what I've been I can also get the treasurer's report To a certain extent. Did we do additions or changes to the agenda only to add the ones That you had mentioned. Yeah, great. And we said you put them wherever you Go works So let's let's do the quick discussion about Vista AmeriCorps Vista volunteer Possibility let me go to this I learned today Of course, I'm not connected. Let's try this again. No internet lovely so I got an email from Person at the state whose name eludes me Who organizes runs the the Vista program and they said that it would require a staff person to do oversight it would also cost Three or four thousand dollars plus mileage So my my instinct is that we don't have one person that's going to be responsible for doing that and we also Don't have the four thousand dollars to pay this person to do whatever it is that we want them to do interesting idea Next year next year or if there's something that you know Valley Net or someone Maybe at the state wants to do to help us Yeah, I just don't see a poll inventory would be would be an amazing opportunity So maybe Washington Electric can look at doing that and that could be something Any other thoughts about about that or am I off base schedule Application deadlines March 3rd And I have the I have the packet here, and I think I forwarded the I think I forwarded the email around to so We can still come back to it letter of intent deadline is February 7th. So we did Think that we wanted to do this. We would have to declare that intent So shall we move on from that or somebody gets a brilliant idea of How we might use this person why it might be valuable let's Let's visit that I have a dim idea Public service department community guy To see if I think that poll inventory is the interesting maybe Work among several of the communities Just to give people a sense of what that anyway, I'll just talk to them. Yeah, they are interested, but they'll do it I think yeah, I mean I think if somebody is doing the poll inventory I think that makes sense for us to chip in to do that. Yeah, and if weq wants to chip in to do that Right and that would be good So I'm having a meeting with Robin up as well one of the rules is that Vista volunteer cannot supplant somebody Who would otherwise be hired to do whatever the task is? So we have to be careful if we do it that we proposed a project If they can't be construed as something that we would have hired someone for Okay, I suppose it is going to happen eventually that full inventory Has to happen. That's what we can rationalize it with volunteers That's true. We would not like they have paid someone someone or maybe we would If you want to follow up with them If that makes sense, and I think that's that's something that I could certainly get behind Okay All right, I will take over Charger's report for Nathan We went to VCCU and Added so we removed Becca added Nathan and me as signatories at the same time We also removed Rama in order to add him. He would have had to physically be present. We can add him later It is possible to do that, but given that he's busy with his own stuff down in Williams town I'm going to bet that he's probably probably okay with this The online donation site As I recall Nathan was given access by Elliot Elliot that had the ultimate credentials for the I don't know what the heck is the name of this site. We used Snowflake Handed those credentials over to Nathan. I believe Nathan is also depositing some checks that we have So I don't have balances Because he hasn't he hasn't made me an authorized user on the VCCU Any other questions treasurer related I Don't have I mean it hasn't it hasn't really changed much aside from a couple donations Less than $200 and then the 12,500 Vermont innovation grant When how do we get paid from USDA? We have to file a reimbursement claim and we do that can't do that We can't do that until we've spent money beyond what we said our matching part is going to be So with the report that I'm submitting Tonight or tomorrow with your in kind report David and I don't know that there's much else that we can claim at this point when we get to the Consultant status, which is Momentarily, we'll talk about that schedule how we're going to pay for that and the USDA is certainly going to come into Going to come in as part of that Okay Anything else about the treasurer's report? I have a kind Okay, but that was and that was something that we had a Inventoryed as part of the part of the USDA grant so that we can sort of fill in as survey hours Yeah, I was me doing survey hours is exactly what it was perfect Would you would you forward her your template and if you can just fill out like what he has and then I will put both of those together Okay, the Tomorrow because they're the report I have to submit is due tomorrow That's a good it's the quarterly report from the fourth quarter in 2019. So if you've done stuff in This calendar year that will be included in the next report ending March 31st Okay, so so we can we can include those hours They're just not going to show up in the in the report that I'm putting there I'll just mention that we didn't have we didn't have the receipts It makes it makes sense Well, but just date it for whatever whatever the date is the date is also in little green light Access Okay, but I need a letter from you Oh, okay. I need a letter from you. Okay. You send me the template. I'll get it out. You'll have it tomorrow Yes, because it has to look like you're a contractor and you said I did this work this number of hours Okay, your hourly rate is this and so we're charging that to our in-kind Expectation If you like, okay anything else treasures reportedly Okay, let's move along consultant status contract sign. It's right There it is It's signed There's a bit of a bit of back and forth and thank you to everybody for the feedback that you gave I think it made it it made it better than it was and I'm hoping that everybody's more comfortable with What our results are going to look like Then you were feeling maybe at the beginning of the process maybe Maybe not but if we get we got closer anyways, maybe that's that's best One of the one of the things that we changed was we we asked the payment schedule to be done by milestones Rather than blocks of hours. They were not willing to They were not willing to Only take thirty thousand dollars from the DPS grant at the end of three months of work They said that was too long to go without being paid and that made sense. We have the cash flow. We can pay for it We can get the reimbursement through USDA It's not gonna be a problem. I'm gonna have to sit down with Nathan and figure out how we're going to do the accounting But I'll just read off the the payment schedule. So we have all the weeks estimated hours, whatever The first milestone invoice of 14,000 will be payable upon presentation of a preliminary route analysis and fiber map Roughly upon completion of week six of the work schedule So when we tell them to go, which I'm guessing will be end of this week beginning of next week So six weeks from that we will have something in our hands And then they will bill us and we'll have a month to write them a check The second milestone invoice of 21,000 will be payable upon completion of the feasibility study So this the actual no-joke feasibility study that we then hand off to Vermont DPS and they then tell us Is this good? Is that is this something that's going to show us that you should proceed to a business plan? If they say yes, then next stage happens the third milestone payment of ten thousand dollars will be in In voiced upon completion of the business plan high-level engineering and cost estimation task and the market analysis task roughly week 18 Of the work schedule So we're gonna have some concrete things in our hands that we will be able to see that we will be able to write them checks for And then the remainder will be invoiced upon completion of the final deliverable. That's a not to exceed 58,000 Then we stop Well, then we stop with then we stop getting money from DPS and we will have to look at how we're gonna fund the rest We probably have the funding to finish and do the business the business plan I'm thinking that would be a pretty bad scenario given that Vita is going to be looking to DPS for Guidance on whether or not to accept our application for the loan but might they say might they say no because On the evidence there, they haven't think they ought to get this this and this and that will consider it again So if they do that What Can we say go do this? I'll be saying that we're not accepting that work product Such that you have to go you haven't complied yet go out and finish it and we're not gonna pay you anymore Oh, oh, oh, if if inter al doesn't get it done, you mean yeah, that's that's that language is in there I mean so so the and even the most read even the first copy of the contract that you have are the first edits I think I sent actually had that as an expectation that And the language that you suggested though the warranty. Yeah, and that we're not yeah We're not going to pay unless it satisfies The requirements this is this is the agreement that I've not yet signed with DPS Nearly the liberal isn't doesn't trigger the payment. It's the acceptance correct Okay, so if it's not accepted and they say we A B and C Additional data or something to do this they will fix it Any other questions about this I'm happy to happy to hand this out. This is my this is my original that I scanned Sure, I have a I have a scan version I can send along to This should I just send it to everybody? Okay That's that proprietary to the board or is it a public document? That's a good question. I have to imagine that it would be public. Yeah What do you think yeah, I mean about this up, so Who's doing a review of the contract? There was nothing on there that strikes me as confidential in our part I mean and we we as a municipality must err on the side of open this The question that I always put to the contract is what what do you propose to be confidential? And then there's a discussion about Whether there's agreement on that and it could be as a municipality We obviously are hard over with regard to certain things, but there might be other things that We can and so that's the approach that so so let me let me flip that back you What do you think should be confidential? The answer What I would say to you is I would I would ask them do you believe there's anything here that's confidential You know, they said explicitly that there was nothing in there that they thought was They start providing specific rooting and Comcast and consolidated get that We're just about just the contracts. No, I know the deliverables though Do we are we clear now as we start thinking about getting deliverables? I Think I always are I think we will have to designate those as proprietary trade secrets And with hold those from from public records requests should should someone come and ask for that You know, we don't have the documents in question. I'm not I'm not really sure I'm not really sure that that makes sense at this point or Alan I see you went when seeing back Okay, but in terms of like open Meetings public records requirements, but what do you think about declaring something like that? That's clearly proprietary Yeah, I mean there are all sorts of exemptions that exist already. They're over there over 240 I think it's a last count and the ones around proprietary information as you can probably guess from the fact the utilities in the state or Guard their secrets very closely. They're pretty robust and it'd be hard not to find something that you can Just have as justification for withholding information. It seems it would be proprietary and to our disadvantage if it were disclosed And we can see we wait until we until we got a request before we would have to we would have to say no This is this is that I Was just agreeing that we need to consider all of this proprietary. We've got Comcast coming into each no pill your promising Oh, cool. My coworker has it Yeah, it's good. They've replaced the wiring in this house, and they say they're replacing the wiring on these lines Very interesting. So yeah, it's proprietary So the comment you just made with regard to We can just withhold it in the end till we get a request the default is transparency And the fault is publishing it on the website. That's not true Municipalities don't publish all of their public records on the website They publish things like minutes agendas and those are things that we should do but for examples Emails between select board members and town managers town administrators. Those are public records They don't make it a habit though of publishing those to the website. That's just not something I mean so we're gonna get service territories to find prioritized We want to sell this service to customers around those first slides. How do you Let somebody on that route. No. Hey, we're gonna come in the next year if it's proprietary Well, but The whole package is proprietary, but it's how we deliver So I would just say Once we get the documents, we should look them over if we think there's anything proprietary We should declare them proprietary before there's any We wait until a request that looks like you're doing cover-up stuff But it doesn't smack good You can't declare an entire document off limits Yeah, the default the default is you have to you have to treat as an open record All the information that's in there except what you think is exempt because of a specific exemption in the public Records law so you can't just say you can't have the document. You can say you can have the document read your parts of a redacted So we should study that 270 Yes, probably so the the the car about that we have to use a question I did go and review those a year and a half ago for For reasons related to someone who was making such requests And it was really trade secrets That was the one that these sorts of proprietary information what they fell under and so there are a lot But they're really specific car car boats for certain kinds of data many of which don't really don't really apply to us The other questions about the the contract or the trial moving forward Okay Let's go to a survey results update My hand that out the latest greatest I thought Ray you probably didn't see what Ray sent out But it worked Forget you've got a double it doubled it it was a great one great captioned Because they were so low I put it out the Calis have put out I prefaced the subject with urgent CV fiber update And I ended up with another 40 so It does work, so now call us a number two middle sex is still eating But I'm gonna send it out And the we're really ending I think January 26th, so probably the last time I am ever going to go into this database 24th or 26th, I don't have Oh, yeah, one was a Friday one was a Sunday, that's why So related to this I dropped off physical copies up in Elmore and then I forgot Which other towns had asked me to do this, but I know I had I was gonna drop some of an orange So I dropped off over there and those had your name on it and then it wasn't until I got back And I read my I read my notes that I realized it was I was supposed to be dropping stuff off in Marshfield I was like, I know it was somewhere up in the Northeast. I drop them off in Cabot So I'm happy I can send you the PDF Jonathan if you want to print them out and drop them off over there I mean the big news that's the uptick in some of these towns There's just the definitely would 50% that's gone up and then the problem with 39 So that's 89% and I don't know someplace I've heard Through the middle of a room is that Based on what people said they're gonna do you probably get half of that, right? So we're 45 something in that neighborhood not just for our feasibility study for the business plan. I think it's Looking pretty good. So anyway, that's my I take on that I did send out everybody their own data from through to January 8th When we finish I'll send out everybody's own town's records and she gone You're gonna deal with the fundraising part of it Because the batch upload is going to be smelly What will we like be able to Feed back like when we close it, I would like to be able to follow up and say Are we gonna like have a generic size? Friendly not too detailed. Yes You put it on a website. Yeah. Yeah, okay That's yeah, and I don't have people done a lot of work to build this and we also we also have budget at least in the USDA Projects we have budget to actually do outreach and so if we wanted to send a mailer To people we could do that. We will likely still have money in the budget to do that So the only community that I never really got much traction on was the business And then last week I was able to Download from a database the business addresses for the 18 communities, which is probably like 75% of the businesses 800 of them. So I have all the business addresses. I have the number of employees and how much revenue they take But you can tell that it's missing quite a few but it's still pretty pretty decent the numbers that I put in here The date I'm prepared. I basically this was preparing for the consultant The number of businesses listed in the second page by town I think how we pretty accurate it's coming from the different data source Anyway, I have a question about that Jeremy. I understand Through communications with Joel Schwartz of very area development You had spoken with him and I wonder if this is a good intersection with his group because I know he reached out to me at the food bank because he was surveying the Wilson industrial park businesses and Some of those businesses Issues with internet speed and I just wonder if we could make that connection somehow then Working with this distributing this survey to businesses at least I mean those are some pretty significant businesses in that area I Feel alive did put it out one of the views that is so if I send you if I send you the paper copies of the survey Can you follow up with with Joel and see if he can get that out to his members sure? And if we find that there is a kind of a hot bed of interest He suggested that there was a hot bed of interest there is there and then they That they were likely to be a nice easy to serve cluster right there Yeah, that's also something that we have that data that I can hand that to Trial that can be part of the package of the Visibility study only a few miles from my house Okay page three on the thing is actually what you need to know the number of hours trying to sort out By town number of types of premises each time So the number you see on the front page the total premises are only for those First for Cali good Yeah, the first are there any extras of this Which would you head it to the union right there And so the numbers of premises for household surveys I adjusted downward the non-business fence because we didn't survey them and So anyway, I may have made up Anyway, I'll fix that later So yeah, that was a bit of work using the 9-1-1 data space by structure type, which is an accurate You'll see sometimes don't have time offices I also just wanted to mention that every time I send this out on prep report for him I get a contact from Washington and it's usually a different person And I got another contact from Washington and I explained what it was and I offered to go to the select board with the person And said that they were welcome to come to our meetings as well So I just want to let you know that Washington there's people in Washington, but the select board still hasn't Done anything as far as I know And so they're kind of they can I need and so to pivot a little bit. Did you talk to Groton? Oh Yes, that was it. That was another thing. I was gonna ask Michael if you can only go to the select board meeting on Thursday Because they're they're likely to be part of that same CUD This craft spurt yeah They're only concerned the guy that I keep talking to his concern is just how far south they are from every ball the other Communities and they feel very isolated and they're very concerned that that means they're not going to get served in anything like Yes, see that's why I wanted you to go because I don't know the area And I don't know what's going on doing one too. Yeah, but they will join I should I think Heaven Carlson is probably the one approach so so so they I mean they have it on their town meeting Warning already to join the other to join the Northeast Kingdom CUD It's art It's art They already have that but I think what Shaban saying is that they're feeling like they're gonna be in they're gonna be an outlier But that's right and they're gonna be an outlier with our group or just farther along So so it's it's continuous, but but they're contiguous with each of them to No, yeah, I mean they would be better off with peach Barnett Whole wise because I think there's only one road There's not even a full on the whole way So I will talk to the town planners the one who's been contacting because we work in the same building So I will talk to him again, and I will say that he needs to talk to What's his name? Send me a message Do it So there was a there was a map I think it was put together by digger That was any cake collaborative sent stuff to digger so it's it's Catherine Sims that has all that stuff But but somebody had created like a Google map overlay that had flags on each town Yeah, I had flags in each town that had it on their town meeting That's Somebody sent that to me Anything else about the survey David Any questions about this I Said I put it on Sunday, so it showed up on Monday today's Tuesday And prior to this I had something like 85 responses. I now have 170 responses for that one That one for four This the subject the subject line the subject line was only five percent in Northfield won high-speed Internet Now it's 9.8, but it was 4.8 or 4.9 Basically double And I explained that we're hiring a consultant and they'll be they'll be prioritizing areas for development And one major factor is a level of interest in high-speed broadband And it's like oh really, you know and boom So I'll probably do this one more time, but I'll see it 10% I also said there were there were communities that were approaching 20% and over And so you're only at five So I'd be happy to share the email Okay, any other anything else on the survey? Okay Let's go on to a business development committee update. This is David's you again Um, we had a meeting scheduled for last Thursday night in which we did not have a forum So I'm nothing to record Okay That's a great job, so it was a very productive he was very productive Did you guys warn it? I didn't see you warning. Yes Oh, it went out. Yeah I So this is a logical place to segue I think into talk about a communications committee Chuck do you want to take that sound good? One of the discussion that we had the other night was about people's thoughts on a communications committee and Whether this might be the right opportunity It seemed like other members of the business development committee felt that that was A smart thing to do at this point in time And so We'd like to propose going ahead and establish a miscommittee I have drafted some language as to an actual motion of how to proceed on this But before I do that, I just wanted to See how people felt about it and gather feedback Strongly in favor We have to give to Establish messages We need to do it kind of uniformly what we're sending out And at some point in time, we're actually going to be doing campaigns And that requires a steady stream of messaging with a proper theme and So I think that we really need to have a committee that's going to work on it Should it be a committee or should we just get how A meeting only You know marketing because that there is a There's a skill set there to it, you know, so agreed and my thought process on that is Even if there were a determination that it's worth going out and getting outside help particularly on day-to-day performance marketing and stuff like that Which I do know a bit about by the way So I can hack it but an agency probably makes sense at some point in time Managing the relationship of that kind of agency is still a fair amount of work And so a committee probably still makes sense even in that respect So ideally we'd have at least five people To be part of that who's who's going to serve on that One two three four five. Okay. We got five. Good enough Susan do you have those steps? Yeah, I'd like that. Okay, sure Well, I mean, did you catch the needs or you wanted me to write them down? Oh, would you please? We could make it part of the motion if you want. So why don't you keep your keep your hands up and so I see Just reading them off to me Andy Gilbert, Jeremy Matt Hi Matt, Andy, Jeremy Ray Pelletier David you had your hand up, right? Yeah, David Healy Chuck Burt, who did I miss? Okay So we have six which makes it a quorum three reason we wouldn't want to have less than five is then a quorum of two You don't want to send emails to each other Yeah, makes sense Makes sense Just a couple other points I want to bring up I was not going to make these part of the official motion the official motion is going to have Some of the immediate activities that I envisioned that we would tackle But some other future endeavors we may tackle as deemed appropriate by the board Seeking community testimonials and quotes about cv fiber to be used in grant applications Pitching and pit actually seeking to pitch press interviews rather than just being reactive toward press inquiries And so forth And one other important element here for those who are raising their hands I am envisioning that members of this board would have a responsibility to attend This committee would have a responsibility to send a representative to other committees In order to help them bridge communication challenges so it May involve some meetings for those I didn't hear you mentioned but I think we want to consider it also for the social media Yep, that's in the official motion. Oh, should I go ahead and read the official motion at this point? Which has like the the the charge for the committee and such absolutely Okay, I move to establish a communications committee The charge of the communications committee is to aid cv fiber as an entity the governance board And other subcommittees in ensuring cv fiber maintains uniform accurate and timely messaging with the general public Media activities would consist of helping draft and distribute press releases Responding to press inquiries Owning website maintenance and content updates Owning social media updates Creating vetted listed of claims to be used across all communications Establishing contact with and open information sharing with other emerging CUDs and establishing regular communication with DPS on general CUD related business And any other related future business for which the governing board wishes to delegate I'll second that I will send you the text The question I had had to do with I'm not quite sure I understood the relationship. I think I would just say DPS. Yes, and that that sounds to me like an executive committee kind of relationship and I'm not quite sure how it is the communication committee would Sure interrelated. Yeah, so we talked about this a little bit at the business development committee and it's largely around ensuring that There is a constant flow of information between the two. I don't think it would necessarily fall under the executive business that needs to be attended to But I'm certainly open to modifying this language. David, I think you were the one who proposed this. Did you have more thoughts on that? It was the conduit of information between C between us and that's what I was thinking So I think if it's, you know, gathering Information press releases or or changes in their programs or whatever like that that we might want to publicize Put on the website and all that kind of stuff That's good as far as the communication between reaching out and and actually initiating something or something I think that's executive committee. That's fair We're the board The other board. I mean, however, that's that's done. Yeah, I think that's I think that's fair and Actually the context of this conversation or this point was Given the out-town meeting the number of CUDs is likely to expand we're thinking that there might end up being regular You know forums for CUDs that interact with the state and of course, you know executive committee Could take that on but we were thinking that might be a the right opportunity so the one idea that we meant discussed was actually if the consolidated number of CUDs had a A website template that was similar for everybody and made our life simple and it would be useful And some of the problems should probably Hope coordinate. So that was And that's something you could hand to DPS and they could then say here everybody Should we amend this particular point? The language was establish regular communication with DPS on general CUD related business and the general they're meaning not Very specific business So I was just going to say the other thing that I remember being mentioned was having Consistent descriptions between CUDs like what is a CUD for example, you know, most people don't know what that is You know, but some way, you know, someone asks you what's this look? You know, what's a five word blurb? You can say a CUD is this Right and that was the intent behind establishing contact with and open information sharing with other emerging CUDs Actually, this is going to result in there being a league of CUDs in Vermont. That will be a non-profit But you file the paperwork tomorrow first executive director I mean personally, I think leaving the communication with DPS I feel like leaving it in there Gives them the flexibility so that when those things come up They have the ability to do that. I mean anything where, you know, the whole district is going to take a position on something I think that's got to come from the whole board And maybe and be communicated from, you know, one of the delegates or from the executive committee I think empowering them to go and reach out to Clay and his folks over there and have that Have those conversations as things start rolling. I think that I think it'll make things a lot easier personally It seems to me that there's a big overlap actually between business development and And communication and so I'm just wondering why you want There to be a separate Or Or not have some formal communication between the two of them because In business communication is really about developing business. It's not about Getting information out. It's about developing business. So I can see where it developed where the conversation started in the business development committee, but I would be concerned if there's not Not concerns or onward, but I would be Feeling better if there were some formal Relationship between develop the business development and the communication committee Is it really doing the same thing? Only one is more specialized in getting information out and the other one is saying well, what do people want? And we discussed that and that's where the idea of This committee would send representatives to other committee meetings all the time came from because there has to be that open dialogue between the committees I would personally favor the idea of the communicate Individual committees establishing what the needs are between them and establishing what that that process looks like But if you have a proposal for how to codify that in a little more structured way, I'm certainly open to it So you recall about two or three word meetings ago I presented a proposal that that we divide business development committee Entities or to or make subcommittee. We weren't sure how to structure it. We were thinking maybe subcommittee. So this sort of The reason we did that was we felt like yeah, it's intrinsic to what we do But we're getting spread to thin this we have too much on our plate And and yes, the communications is really important. And yes, writing grants and going after projects is really important And and we weren't sure we could handle all of it together So having a dedicated You know, I think probably the only committee you really need to set an emissary to for now Is the business development committee, you know, you don't need to send one to the finance committee or the policy committee right now, but Um I think we need I I agree that they're in terms they're intertwined But we couldn't handle all of it by ourselves. And so it was good to have some people dedicated to the communications or outreach or whatever we called it before marketing Fundraising as a member of the business development committee I know the the skills necessary for the communications such as Managing facebook and twitter and that is something I have no interest in and no capacity to do and no aptitude Developing the content, which is the message that communications is I think what we wrestle with and that's fine But then taking it out and developing all of those connections Which the communications group I've looked at them to do is I think distinct Well, what might says is Intertwining and and I think if there were two people from the business development committee that were specifically on communications and vice versa, so That there was we have that No, but I mean, I don't mean Unofficially, I mean that that's the way it was that there was always to there were always two people from business on communication because I think there's going to be a lot more activity As time goes on in business development And and you and so I would like to have a channel that was always there Would you like to move to amend the motion? I guess somebody wouldn't put it in the language, but yeah that that there be Amended so that there are always Two people on the committee, although there's two people don't always have to be at the communication, but that there There are always two, you know, it looks like you have a big overlap anyway, but I think it should be formalized That's my question. Is this something that we need to formalize or are we small and agile enough that we're going to be able to Also talk to each other. Jerry. Yeah, I agree formalizing it Is a good idea. I think it's Happenstance this time that David would be on both committees, but I think a minimum of one person being on both committees Is probably a good idea. The you know, the other thing though that That's really important that we do have to be careful of is burnout because you can only attend so many meetings So many times and there's a lot of work to be done by volunteers So, you know, two people might be a good idea. Maybe one person is sufficient But I think that you know mendating that overlap is a part of the Both committees is is a good idea I think too is better and that like you said burnout You've got some person has to go to two committee meetings every day. I mean every week I think that should this group ever see fit to Higher staff. I think having a communication staffer Makes a lot of sense a lot of nonprofits are structured in such a way that communication staff report Or or our members of the development team and so here it would make sense if That the communication staffer will work to report or associate with the business development group And that were the case there would be no need necessarily for agencies communications That also said, you know, I've never seen a municipality create A committee and then that committee then subsequently And efficiently disbanded after a period of time once you create a community exists forever More or less So, I mean, that's not always true, but but in general, um, so I think more applied to pay People as opposed to volunteer I don't know but so, you know, I but it's something to consider if we If we ever do end up hiring a communications director or whatever we want to call them That might warrant there no longer being need for a distinct communications committee, but I think that's a great point long-term planning that I don't know if we're prepared to handle right now I think the seat out there So do we have an amendment on the floor with regards to adding if there's a requirement to have two members of the business committee on Communications committee. I'll second that. Thank you Thanks Okay, so we'll we'll withdraw that motion and chuck you on The amended language would come after and any other future Any other related future business for which the governing board wishes to delegate period business development committee must include a minimum of two people serving on both committees And members to include Andy Gilbert, Jeremy Matt Ray Pelletier David Healy Susan work fortune martin martin. Okay, and chuck burton Okay, I will second that amendment. So we're just voting on voting on and discussing just the amendment right now Just about the amendment sure um Greg and I are on the liaison committee with Weck. That's a form of communications as well May relate to this function as well It gets a little more complicated, but I don't know whether you want to include that that because the idea of meeting with or contacting department of public service Is kind of a liaison Thing and that's the same thing we're doing with Weck and we might do with ac fiber. We have different liaison liaison functions So so if we have You know you too as the dedicated Weck liaisons and we have the the more general Communications committee that's going to be liaisons to everybody else And we could easily, you know pull something out of their Responsibility and you know hand that to a different group of people for you guys get tired And we can take that responsibility And put it on the committee or you join the committee and that's your that's your You know level of responsibility So you're suggesting that we don't need to expand the language for a bit I don't I don't think so. I I don't know that the juice is worth the squeeze All right Anything else on the on the amendment I think it was a little bit confusing The language that I thought I heard was that in the business development committee will have two members Business development committee must include a minimum of two people serving on both committees So you're putting the onus as as opposed to saying the communication committee will have two members from the business development committee You're putting the onus on the business development committee to provide two members to the communication committee I'm not going to get too worried about who has who has onus and who doesn't I think Yeah I think it was Okay, so so the the amendment was moved by chuck and seconded will say by by David and I thought I seconded And then we were having we were having discussion on the amendment. So any further discussion on the amendment All those in favor of amending chuck's original motion signify by saying I opposed Abstentions motion to amend passes unanimously now. We're back on the original motion anybody want to talk about the patients committee Yes as amended Wonderful all those in favor of the motion on the floor as amended. Please signify by saying I Opposed Abstentions motion passes unanimously again. Thank you. Thanks to everyone Any fields on this on communications committee? Just one point of business which is I will coordinate a first meeting and get all that rolling But at that first meeting one of the agenda items will be to establish a structure and all that sort of fun stuff So Oh That's let's move on. Um, there was a request to talk about website content and management Which I imagine some of which will come from the communications committee. I have an update there So Jared and I met um a few weeks ago He gave me an overview into the current hosting setup of the website And I've hosted websites for years so I can help assist him without that and we also Established a little bit of a division of labor on populating content to the website So in particular agendas and minutes, but now with the communications committee being established We're probably looking to populate a bit more as we Establish vetted claims and fact sheets and things of that nature that might come out of it. So That's as much of an update as I have at this point I probably can't feel too many questions without Jared I have a I have a request from the assistant town clerk of berlin if we could post when our regular meetings are held and where they're held generally She was going to put that in there from the newsletter because it's held in berlin She was not able to find that schedule. I mean I sent the email in response But it would be good to have that listening. Yeah And actually nathan and I are working with that He was going to create the calendar and then But if we can just have just some language somewhere on the website that says regular meetings are whatever Yeah, we have our grants posted up there We certainly can do that we should probably suggest that strongly to our website folks So we we don't technically have that broadband innovation grant just yet We were approved it'll be signed in the next day or two that grant did I not uh I did not put a grant report back. Okay, so while we're sort of randomly talking about this You remember back when we had to wait and wait and wait about getting insurance coverage For the think Vermont innovation grant from the state and then eventually they said, oh, you can request a waiver Well, we did and that was fine and that worked It turns out that the dps grant the the bg also requires that same sort of insurance So I said, hey, can we just waive this and I didn't hear anything and David said, well, wait a minute. Didn't we get an insurance document from interisle as they're going and doing this work? I said, you know what we did Now So so the and so I I sent that to the state I sent that to dps and I said Are we good with this? And I'm waiting to hear it. So hopefully do that Sign it and we'll Get on their life. Well, let me know if anything comes to that Dive in deeper. I need to cool. Yeah, hopefully we don't need to do that because uh Fred and company are waiting for us to pull the trigger on that grant so that they can All right, uh, wek reports back You picked the wrong time to lean over Michael. This is your agenda item wek. I'm sorry updates on wek update on wek We just haven't made it You didn't okay, any any new I put it on here because this is something that we Came up in round table last time. I thought you might have had if there's any sort of other updates Fred had a question about wek that maybe you can answer He was just on google street view kind of poking around the territory looking at looking at poles Does washington electric co-op use narrower poles Then or thinner poles then Green Mountain power for example No, okay, so he must have just randomly chosen the place where he was looking the With their diameters. It's also related to the height. So if they're shorter and they tend to be Okay, quick. So a lot of short poles. Okay, so so that's that's like 40 poles or 35 Okay, so he was just trying to get a sense of what the terrain looked like here and you noticed that He mentioned to me that green mountain power had an enormous number of poles that were put in 1947 Okay, and he said they were real skinning. So Okay, this skinning falls all over the I'm sure they're on a replacement Program Well, I was the department public service for 30 years and I know all about their plants So this is an interesting aside This was a conversation I had with Fred and He was I told him that when you do a ride out with the utilities or make ready That if the pole is on its last gasps That you can put the onus on the utility to replace the pole And he was shocked because he said that's not true in massachusetts In massachusetts if the pole was about to fall over, but you're about to add to it You have to pay for the replacement and he thought that was the case in vermont. Well, good. I'm glad you correct That was a really useful piece of information. I would say so Okay, anything else on wek questions our liaisons Okay, uh, mansfield fiber report back. So, um, I reached out And uh, I got a sort of Nice pat on the head saying have a nice day. Go talk to valley net However, um that the outreach that I made to vita We have a representative from vita here right now Yoon young denny who is who lives in our district. It turns out wanted to see kind of what we were all about what we're doing here And we talked a little bit about expectations for applying for the Up to four million dollar vita loan sort of informally and She offered to come and visit the meeting not to have any specific agenda item But I figured while we have you here if anybody has any questions or thoughts or So I have a question did you fill out the survey? Oh You're in a really good place to get improved service too or you can task your husband to do that Yes, I'll fill out the survey So, um, what would the interest be on a loan if we had one in the process right now? um so Typically our Interest rates are based on the cost of funding plus the risk-based Bases For certain programs we have a set rate, but this broadband expansion loan program as you all know it's new to For us. So this Act was legislation passed this act last year. We quickly put together our management put together program So, um, this is brand new program for us And as Jeremy mentioned, um, men's field apply their existing You know company and they apply for the first broadband expansion loan program Through vita got approved last year in november And that time The interest rate again, this is a risk basis for violin then their interest rate was our cost of funding We call it beta base, which was at that time 5.75 plus 0.5 percent. So starting rate was 6.25 So that's the kind of a ballpark and it's uh, it's a variable There is no fixed rate funding program and typically for the broadband program There is really um, you know the interest only payment for our first two years is deferred because it takes so long to build out the system So that's how the uh, the loan program is designed at this point So how is the uh, I think it was $550,000 in Act 79 to uh, ameliorate the risk for vita, how is that applied to that establishment of interest or Right, um, or is it just a way to feel more comfortable giving a moment period That's basically the latter. So, um What the legislation The the bill did was basically they created a They're going to set aside some money for possible loss because we think that this is a brand new program It's typically is a to the community district union communication union district So it's a nonprofit. There is no really typically a personal guarantee because it's a nonprofit entity. So it's a high risk Um Rated loans. So they what they did was they just going to the vermont legislator is going to give us Money pull of money to put aside for the loan loss program. So that's how We are able to kind of mitigate that high risk loan. So it doesn't affect the interest rate. It does not So my assumption on the on the loan is that let's say we were lucky enough to get the four million dollars We're not going to draw down four million dollars to start spending it right away That it's kind of like a line of credit through which we can draw It's going to be a little bit of a time and we always start paying interest on the part that we've drawn down Over time. Okay. So interest rate will be only accrued based on the outstanding investments I am a little shocked at the 5.75 percent your cost since municipal loans are what 2 3 percent Um, if somebody went to the bond market now because interest is so low, right? Why is it five points? And that includes our operating cost too Yes, we do. Yeah, we are getting money and backed by the moral obligations from state treasury So what one of the things that we have in the uh, feasibility study business plan expectations for interisl is to explore different funding sources So beta is one option and if you find that there's a bank or an investor or Someone that's willing to take Our district which doesn't have a financial background to stand by doesn't have a personal guarantee If we can find someone else that's going to loan us cheaper money Then I expect we'll probably consider that but the legislature knowing that there are going to be these new entities like us that need to get to the point where we can Start building something and eventually roll roll this Loan over into municipal bonds. We will only be paying that higher interest rate For hopefully for a couple of years Until we then establish financials and establish revenues That we can reasonably You know cover the cost of revenue bonds, which will be Hopefully crossing fingers, you know, two three percent It's also similar to how easy fiber got started that was about the rates that they started Yeah, they were they were doing they were able to tell I'm sorry notes of seven You said something about a moral obligation is the state providing moral obligation for the bond for our Yeah for our but yeah, you should basically guarantee something you shouldn't collapse And I've used that in a 350 million dollar project where you have moral obligations from A couple of counties in virginia and it really impacted the interest rate And i'm surprised that even with that The application process takes how long Application process Meaning my so there are two two steps for you guys Put together all the information that that I would need or we would need for underwriting So once I have a complete package Probably because this is going to be I'm assuming a large loan and also it's a new entity a lot of information to To underwrite so probably it's going to take probably Up to three weeks So are we So a company like mansfield fiber Because you may not be able to speak to that particular loan but a company like that, which is not a cud Right Do they provide a personal guarantee because they're not i'm not a municipality right so I can't speak For specifically for that project, but typically if it's not non-profit it's a for-profit and there are You know any owners owning more than 20 percent really we get the personal guarantee from that person And Once in a grail, you know for sometimes we do make an exception for a good reason, but 99 percent we require personal guarantee from the owners owning more than 20 percent of the entity Okay anything else My Just looking at the survey results there are 150 people said they willing to make us alone So so maybe we can start with them and then We have to have the match anyways, so And the at the match record was five percent What was that the match record was five percent of the overall loan 10 percent? Oh, based on the program we can find us up to 90 percent of the costs. So it's a 10. Okay Okay, very good, so let's move on to cb fiber 2020 timeline and this is um kind of our opportunity I think To spend a bit of time and think about what does this next year look like make sure that we're all on the same page So I don't know if anybody has any specific feedback about this or if I can just kind of go off the top of my head for how I'm imagining Well, you have a contract timeline. It's a good start. Well, that's that's that's part of it But that but now that we know like there's a three-week turnaround with vita once we get the materials together and so on Yeah, so the contract with inner isle should be we should have something At the end of may right We should be ready to go and have hopefully have a you know, shovel ready business plan end of may And assuming that we move quickly, maybe spend a week We don't already have that the application in hand. I'd say maybe a week assembling that And then we're looking at end of june beginning of july optimistically Yeah, can I Because one of the steps that's going to be necessary we can talk about here is the identification of specific projects In other words, I don't think interisle is going to decide the specific part of the region It's it's in the contract. They're gonna work. Yeah. Yeah, they're gonna make a list of recommendations It's on it's on a decision, but I have right it is our decision. I have It's very challenging for me to believe That in a series of let's say four months february march april and may we will have agreed That there is a specific location CV fibers is going to be building Because we don't And we've only talked very generally about And I know they'll be providing some of the technical information, but we've talked about the possibility of generating revenues from locations that is going to Beyond beyond the work that interisle does The and establishing what if we talk about personal loans Okay, establishing what that mechanism is in terms I have I think that's our I think that's what you said So how can we how can we have those conversations earlier on then so that we can be We can be ready and have a better idea of where to go from there So we're gonna get interim reports from intera And one of the earliest one is going to be talking about some of these ideas and that's so while they're doing their report We are doing our own deliberations and feeding back to them and saying this is what we're leaning towards or not Hopefully we will I think that's how I imagine the process, but For that reason and others I would say that no matter what the schedule is in the Contract We should probably add two or three months because there are going to be unforeseen obstacles where they're going to have to Just stop because they don't have the right data Or there's some obstacles that are unforeseen, but I predict will have them So I think it might take longer than the roadmap might stretch out a bit I think it's realistic to let's hope we don't have any of those obstacles, but I think it's realistic to plan for some and Going back to ken's issue. I think It's going to be the board's decision I and but we've charged Interiled to make strong recommendations And give us reasons for those recommendations data and explanations of how that works And then we will look at those and and either validate or disagree with their recommendations. What about the status? what Very important. Yeah, right and they're if they're Pursue a grant from the state. They won't be awarded that grant until march Late march probably their process will also take Three months five months even longer. Yeah, so next month. So but theirs might be influenced by our decisions too So if we're if we're cognizant of what their requirements are And interiles cognizant of those requirements that can all be kind of That together and if they if they choose interile as a consultant All the better if they choose another consultant if we ask bread and that other consultant to liaise to use the word again That can that can help that process Periods. Yeah, this is an excellent conversation and and and a critical conversation and David and I started a little bit of this conversation just this afternoon uh, I think that Not that we ever have been but we certainly can't be now We can't be passive while inter aisle is doing their work So we're having regular feedback with inter aisle on a bi-weekly basis if our got this correctly apart from presentations they make to the board apart from deliverables We we have bi-weekly communications with them and I believe we need to develop And just as you're doing now with let's talk about the schedule for 2020 There are interim steps that we're going to have to figure out What we need to know in order to make decisions because inter aisle isn't going to have all of the information Even though we've we've we've put together this scope of work It's it's not going to ask every question that needs to be asked Especially questions among ourselves How comfortable are we with moving forward with personal loans? How comfortable are we moving forward going through Vita? You know we we're we're going to have to weigh that out and we should be weighing some of that out in advance And not waiting for the results from from inter aisle. So I I think though your your point is really well taken We have a lot of work to do And in uh It's possible the inter aisle will Say here are two or three possible Project areas for us to do and that's an opportunity for us to then go to those areas to say all right Who's actually signing up? Because we need commitments to be able to get any funding from any source And to be able to point to we've that's got a base amount of revenue that will come in So that just that's part of the timeline that we have to and to do I can do that as early as possible As soon as we sort of decide they're comfortable with an area Going and doing that like work. I think is going to make the project better And do we know from ec fiverr's experience when do we need the sort of legal support? to begin to make Of agreements to do agreements to to get customers to say they'll sign on I'm imagining we're going to need legal support When and I don't know how they if we've learned from them as to when they've developed some of those early agreements And how those were Somebody you want to reach out to value? And ask that question I mean I I don't I guess I I don't know how I would frame that question Because I think there's a lot of moving parts. I mean we we did engage an attorney for the drafting of the the contract um I was uh, it wasn't paul juliani, but it was simply at his firm And I expect that we will probably work with him when it comes to drafting the municipal bonds down the road A promissory note promissory notes. Yeah, right. Yeah, and so he could draft promissory notes too But I mean if it's promissory notes that that we're looking at then yeah, they're I mean we already have already kind of know who's I kind of think that we know who's going to do that What else would we need to what other sort of process do you think we would need to engage Something about when we begin to talk to potential customers and ask them to commit What that document looks like that they assigns our responsibility specifically and their responsibility So legal document for prescriptions, right? Yeah But you don't need to there also need to be contracts with Michael do you sign up folks do you pre-subscribe folks? We don't So as are you we we may but we're not doing that Uh, we've cut lines that I probably could find those notes. They're 15 years old But I'll look but I'm what's what's going to is it something going to change over 15 years you're providing I mean, it's a different suddenly different service. I'll look that would be that'd be great I I imagine the valley that would be happy to share ec5 would be happy to share Um, what they used back when they were presubscribing global I think juliani was on their board, but I may have charged them for those I'm sure you did for that legal work. And so I don't know if he's comfortable with them sharing those documents, we'd have to Well, I mean I I got all the promissory notes. I got those those are they made those public. That's true I know exactly where they're filed at the department and the board. I can easily go in there Reference that if it's okay for us to do that then yeah, and what you could collect those and share them I would yeah, I'd like to see them too It's also possible to take a service agreement from Comcast and you just amended saying this is I can set a preliminary conditional upon being funded and being billed I mean, you know, there's a lot of there's lots of service contracts out there in the public domain Yeah, I don't know they'll only use Comcast So just another thing to point out I actually think the legal will be less work than this which is If we are going to start going to get presubscriptions, we have to put some thought into some of the pricing model and Different packages or whatever that we would actually sell as a presubscription Is there a business tier versus a consumer tier and what advocate? Because I can tell you right off the bat I'd probably be willing to buy a higher presubscription package than my next door neighbors Because it is my business so I can I can write off some of that as a business Eventually and there's a lot of there's a lot of variables in there about you know Who do we choose as an operator? That's going to dictate part of this I mean, absolutely You know if we were to go with valley net I mean they tend to want to stick with the prices that they have that works Um, but maybe in a while comes back and says, you know, here's this here's this alternative But we're going to do this instead Yeah, it's hard to say there's a lot of there's a lot of horses and carts I'm doing them arranged in the proper direction is and another one on that if interisle comes back And it's proposing 25 3 with a white with wireless for some people versus, you know 100 parity on fiber That might even speak to a different price of that That's true. This is just this is a very broad reaching and extensive conversation But I think it's important to draw back to the actual timeline Itself and I'm I'm curious as to what our next steps are in terms in terms of actually defining and outlining an actual timeline for this organization So, yes, I think it's it's taking some of these questions and I mean so questions like like treks most recent question I don't think we can answer that there's a there's a kind of a gantt chart involved There's other, you know critical paths that you know answer questions that we need to have answered first And in some cases questions that we don't quite know when they're going to be answered or how they're going to be answered So, but I think that's a That's a good question. I think a lot of this responsibility is as we hand off You know the signing of the contract the interiles we hand off Sort of the care and heating of interisle to the business development committee I'm hoping that you know as you're as you're talking, you know, Jerry and david as you guys are are talking and Leasing with them They're going to be bringing those questions to us I don't know that we can write this second say here's here is the entire timeline, but There probably are some higher level things that we can put In in the timeline. I just I don't know what they are right now. I mean do you have I wonder if this is something that we could put to the various committees and ask them to Sort of aggregate what they think are the next what the next 12 months 24 months looks like and then they bring those recommendations or or those Visages, whatever you want to call them Back to this our next meeting or two meetings from now And then we sort of aggregate all the different timelines and we we should also consider I'm just going to throw this out there adding like A grants timeline in terms of an application renewals or or You know major like for example the world business development grant that we're reporting out on This month the next li is to use this right. So if we wanted to apply for this again at fly 21 it's good to include that sort of information on the timeline to arguably or I don't know if you can make it a digital timeline. You can click on it and then it would just you know All kinds of things you can do and and I think it was about a year ago So alan you would put together a statutory timeline of all the obligations that we have as a district or what we're expected to do in terms of Like delivering the budget and the feedback from the from the select boards and city councils or whatever. So I think That grant timeline. I think that I think that makes a lot of sense. And I think if we can just maybe sort of It toss this over the over the fence a little bit over to business development and comes and ask You folks if you want to come back to the next meeting with how you envision You know The next year and then if anybody else has anything that they think Is burning that we need to make sure that gets on that list and we can add it at this level too the The work product at the end of this grant process for venture Is a business is an actionable business Correct. And it's not not that kind of business plan. It's a bunch of words It's a business plan with a bunch of tables and excel interactive excel sheets that that have you know CapEx and OpEx assumptions and all that that's where you start throwing in The expected revenue from different rate plans So I think the committees can talk about what we want to see in those and and And throw those to fred and team and say we're looking to see these kinds of results We're thinking maybe Of this sort of rate structure. Maybe I don't know if we'll decide that or not or whether to board with So I think we're gonna I think we we shouldn't sit back and wait for this Gift to come five months from now at all. We have to we have to tell them what we're looking for constantly as we're going along And that's what we're I think that's what we're relying on the business development committee to do is they shepherd Into that process, but but going back to my first point Until we have that model Not the business plan the business model the the excel model It's going to be hard to do a bunch of this We can use some existing models from others to play with I'm willing to share and And There's a starting point and then see what kind of ones they have to modify I really feel that we should be limiting ourselves to a small Question rather than this the the giant question and I think you know, you're you're sort of stating what I'm thinking that We we need to figure out Early on How much money we're basically going to need in your 24 months? You know Because we've been saying right along that we have to get up and going we can't sort of start off with two people And four people we want to start off with a hundred people As a number I mean Whatever the number is and And so we need to use communications and business development and all the other committees as to Well, where is this money going to come from and how much are we going to get? What's a reasonable amount of money? So is is cb fiber not cb fiber is easy fiber? Are they sort of maxed out with their pricing? Is that Ideal sort of medium price that that people can accept is that with Easy fiber decided, you know that they said, yeah, that's We tried this number it didn't work. We tried this number. We didn't make any money. So this this one worked out I mean we there are lots of other people that can help us with that information and The survey tells us how much people currently paying so we have a good range on that kind of number But they're paying for 15 meg or 30 meg or I don't even know what's your neighbor paying for So but the survey says whether they have consolidated or outcast or somebody's doing pivot tables And so let me tell you Right, but what other I mean So bon said at the beginning that you know her neighbor now has a gig Which means on the neighbor Okay, so you've been promised again. I don't know if you're getting right, but I know one person on Front porch barn was bragging that they got a gig now. So that's it's happening. It's out there um How much competition Is there and and so How much what's our pricing that convinces somebody to not go with this This company and go with us instead and and so I think that's really is the money It's it's always the money, but it's really the money and So I think what you're saying is that we we need to concentrate on Even if it's just brainstorming what what of these towns Make the most sense to this group of people That we would start and sort of sort of has it as a as an idea even before interisle comes back to us and says Yeah, you should start off with So, I mean and we we have done that I'm not sure that that's a valuable conversation for the entire governing board to have the business development committee On to be having those but I think I mean ultimately we're paying interisle to do those sort of exploratory Analysis for us in conjunction with with business development and Greg, you had your hand up. Did you have something else? Well, yes, I was agreeing that and then that's something that we can do is sample What are the rates of various providers mostly in state because that's what people are going to care about And then we can also look at some I would say but who really cares what the rate is in Colorado, you know, so You know, we can collate that before we have our results from getting our study from interisle and Be feeling because in order for us to go out and begin even higher Interests from people and then as we go into presubscription we have to be quoting some pricing Let's do a Jeremy Chuck Thomas I'm sure What people who pay depends on what level of service they have now I would be willing to pay a lot more probably than someone who's in berry city because berry city has Good internet already and I have not good internet. So just throwing that out there Um to react specifically to your comment around us potentially developing a plan of where we think we might roll out Ahead of receiving in trials results. I actually disagree with that I think we are all fairly heavily biased in terms of where we think things should start and I think it would be a good exercise to specifically hold off on that and see what in trial comes back with and You know, we may disagree with it when it comes back But at least there it's an objective outsider who is making that proposal. That's just my two cents I wasn't suggesting that we decide I was suggesting that we that we have ideas about What it is so that when somebody comes back and says well, it's marshfield Well, we've already said. Oh, yeah, marshfield's great It's one of the five or whatever But if it's one of the 17 that we've already said nothing then they're going to need to be pretty persuasive But I don't think we should decide that's We can't do that. I wasn't implying that you said that I was I was saying I actually think it would be better to table that thinking even until we receive the results again Yeah, my opinion Tom Just wanted to There's sort of business committee or threats to the board in general Just kind of keeping the back of our mind that we're going to compare ourselves against other services and what their You know prices are that we are not the same as them We are a different entity. We have different scopes and timelines And we don't have to think about how is this going to last 20 years from now But rather we can be a little bit more thoughtful about what works for our local community And how can we arrange pricing whether it's options for them or whatever in order to make this work For us rather than as a business that competes against Comcast I would what he said One thing I was going to say but I also wanted to mention that we have to keep in mind that right now my co-worker Got offered he got a mailing that said they're offering one gig in your area for 40 dollars a month So he's paying 40 dollars a month for a gig and they're doing the work on the lines outside his house But he also knows in two years that price is going to sky so So what they're paying right now isn't necessarily What it's going to be he's the one person who's going to get it at that rate, right? Yeah, can I make a comment about a gig so there's the technical gig and there's the marketing He knows he's also not getting a hold of him right now As you can imagine I've done a lot of thinking about pricing So I developed matrix matrices of All the providers in the state and all their different plans and I compared them whether they were fiber or coax or dsl or wireless and In particular, I looked at Burlington telecom and and ec fiber and and similar organizations when thinking about what my pricing is going to be and So I sell My model said I should charge this because this is what it costs me and this is the margin of profit I need But the prevailing prices were lower than that And I knew that if I priced where I need to be I just have a hard time getting a take rate And so I had to figure out well, okay How do I cut some fat out of this so I can get my cost down So I could get into the same range as those other companies And some of them have you know enormous buying power or they're subsidizing the internet to keep the phone lines up So you're playing against that as well um anyhow That experience I will bring to the committee and I'll share my matrix The latest one We'll use that but You don't have to have the cheapest price. You just have to have a fair price in that range People pay a little extra maybe if you're giving them Local quick service that's decent on the phone and all that So there's all those factors to consider We're a little bit in the weeds now talking about pricing But it's it's an example of the kind of topic that we're going to have to pursue Independence in derile and then working with them Johnson, uh, I respect everyone's desire to talk about pricing, but the warrant agenda item is about For focusing on a 2020 timeline. Thank you. So I'm wondering what our next actionable steps are in In developing a timeline So I I still think that we need to Pitch this off as a request to the individual committees and have them come back with something That they can hope we can cover in the next meeting Yeah, and then we can then all agree that this is the thing we need to do Going forward. We need a motion for that or we just need to proceed And I I think we can I think you can just take the prevailing wind here and sale of the Idea how periodically we just have these meetings Are we continuing to go to two week grade or two and a half week grade or a week? That's a that's a good question Do we want to have another meeting this month? No Well, because the committee's already have meetings Do you know what I'm just going to be providing reports out to business developments? It is in the contract for them to work with the business development committee Um, then the business development committee will be shepherding them through Milestones and the expectations Um, if the business development committee finds that there's a larger decision that needs to be made I expect we'll all hear about it and they will win I'm sure If we need to schedule a supplementary meeting because there's a decision that needs to be made then we'll do that I think we're going to get through everything on our agenda tonight Maybe not as far through the 2020 timeline as there'll be some in hope, but We'll put that back in the agenda next time round two And expect that the business development and the communications committee folks will have some Some feedback for us I'm sure we're covering our bases and think about the reverse way Are four more meetings between now and may enough for us to get done what we need to get done? Probably not. I mean honestly, but I think for this month because this is right at the beginning of the process I think we may need to reevaluate In february and then in february we might say wow there's we just got a deliverable or we're about to get a deliverable We probably need to have a meeting You know the day after or the week after so that we can go and have a chance to chew on it so Anything else that folks think needs to be added to the timeline. That's not terribly weedy Microsoft Word has some great free templates for developing timelines that are strongly recommended Really sweet. It was very professional And maybe send send send the url to that on the to us from the microsoft site that would be wonderful Thank you That russian Oh the templates Yeah, there was a This is the answer We know he's a you know russian operative Corey Chase isn't a russian operative though. Is he? Yeah, he's got businesses in Siberia. Oh really? Well, this guy actually speaks russian and spent time in the soviet union, so You All right, yeah, we're gonna let's go we're gonna kill that right there Thank you. Uh, december meeting minutes. We're looking to approve those Thanks, susan for sending those along one One thing that I noticed in this is that it just had the wrong date and I already sent that Sent that to susan so our lat that meeting was held on December 10th and the governing board meeting minutes show December 11th. So I suggest that we make that change Is there anything else that needs to be? adjusted In those two pages that she sent for the December 10th meeting So i'm gonna make a motion that we approve those meeting minutes with the one noted change Sorry, so it's moved and seconded any further discussion Hearing none all in favor Opposed Okay, it's abstention because you were not there So a motion passes unanimously All right And we'll do a round table bill um I just wanted I wanted to look up something as we were talking about cost for bandwidth I Do a fair amount of work with schools around e-rape discounting and the last time I went out to to bid for Circuits was for a school that was looking for 200 megs delivered over ethernet and Comcast wanted 819 a month on a 36 month contract Just to give you a rough idea. Solidator was a little bit less. I think we can beat them Yes Were those dedicated or Dedicated Yeah, that's what the market is No, it's called price leadership Yes Good solidator was the price leader. Yes, I know So just a small update on possible, you know new competitors To us and everybody else that's uh starling now is 182 satellites up in space and they're Projected to me at about 12,000 satellites by mid-2020s. Are they geos or leos? Actually The he says Five more launches he'll start supplying service to northern u.s. And southern canada So that's only you know four times. That's only You know 300 more satellites Is that what to keep our Just darling keep our eye on that David I haven't announced the price I've been meeting with the central month public safety authority There's an overlap they they have dispatch. They have land-based mobile radio Towers that are fiber-fed They have horrible coverage. And so they are also pursuing maybe Um a feasibility study to determine how to expand their service So I just wanted them to be aware and hopefully they'll continue well They will work with us so that if they have some ideas about new towers Um and connecting dispatch centers in different ways that the understanding of the fiber role in that Will be clear Maybe we'll find some So uh last year sometime I applied for a grant from Founders fund that be I see Which we did not win I had somebody from the committee on that stopped by today and said hey We're going to be putting out a new fire on that and you guys should really apply And they just That was about it. They can tell me but uh, they're gonna post that I think next Wednesday from tomorrow So I'll follow up, please. Yeah, if you can stay on top of that Hopefully So this is really exciting that we're Moving forward the business plan and all the rest and just wanted to say thanks to everyone for All the work that we all do But thank you all For the business development grants and communications committees I just To my mind in our discussing reaching out to Bear area development I know the Vermont food bank has generated the letter of support for a previous Previously submitted grant application. It would be cool of us to Gather any and all letters of support that are drafted because Subsequent grant and or loan applications. We can just submit Other letters of support. So I think we should just collect those We don't have to put them on the website or anything But it would make sense to make sure we keep tabs on all them just to show that there is support from the business and not profit Communities in central Vermont It's a great idea. We'll run with that Whatever happened to didn't when they passed all those legislation last year with the v program missing that they hired a dude, right? You ever had that guy? What's he doing? He just started Last Okay, yeah, do you do you have me to invite him to the next meeting? We'll work with him through the communication. I guess Oh, oh, yeah, he should come with yeah, why not? Yeah, he should Yeah, if you know if you know, I'm inviting Okay, yeah, if you want to invite him we'll add him to the next I do very well in this previous try It's good that was just Nothing I'll just take the opportunity to ask a question. When is our next business development committee meeting? But it's not change it's not changing due to anything that that has just occurred Roughly Yeah, I think it's if you could send that out to me this second week. No, you know you did I just You said that you've been boring under you There's a copy paste of a spreadsheet you could you could send a yearly once a month. I could Okay Yeah, I've been following the satellite stuff too and one of the things that I'm realizing is I think at times we think we're operating in a static world where we have a question Most of us I think automatically think well, we can ask ec fiber what they did And I think everything is about to change in ways that Might make wires an old model It's going to make us look like a dinosaur and a lot of other people One of the things that I realized about the satellite system is if I understand it correctly I would essentially be able to take my To take my connectivity with me If I'm driving across the country on a camping trip and you only sit down in a van I I'd have high speed internet. It's it's it's going to be like serious xm of the internet You know, it's going to be everywhere and you're going to have any more profitable more profitable Um, he did say that you could mount it on the top of your car. This is a movable antenna Would be able to be um mounted on a Top of your car The other thing that I found really interesting is the good news about this system is it's supposed to work better in rural areas than urban areas It's sort of the flip of what we had normally have gotten used to And in the build out of high speed internet and that's because apparently in urban areas as you can guess There are many more blockages tall buildings or whatever. And so it's actually places That are more urbanized and bigger cities that they're worried about coverage Not so much because of the number of people but because of the actual physical architecture that's there Whereas in rural areas the only thing you have to worry about is having some sort of open space to the sky You wish it would be our operator Well, just get a sunlight for us and put it right over Vermont, right? I know they're uh, they're in orbit Yeah, this is going to be very interesting. I think in the next year or two and it's it's going to make um I think it's going to mix things up. But that's that's all By local I I'm not going to buy I'm not giving Elon Musk my money You're not junky When are you buying your bus stemming Something like this I don't know the technology more than if I don't know how fast they can actually go I know that I had satellite internet at my house and I don't have it anymore. It's not the same. It's completely different It's going to be fast. You promise me it's going to be I'm not gonna have See like it's not going to go out when the weather's bad I am unconvinced I want to wire to my house. Okay And that's not like back this didn't you just sound like a gasoline driver I already jumped in on it on it, but I think that it's a very valid point that what else Does and what you say that it's going to be a huge Change it's going to be Wires do go away, you know, I mean The phone companies are going to find themselves out of business anyway And uh, if you want to I suppose it would start with 47 42,000 satellites You will have satellite service in a tunnel. So You know, it's not What we're talking about is internal And I think that A satellite won't work, but Interesting something that we need to keep our eye on Right Fiber to the cow, thank you Fiber to the cyber truck