 To what is it six so six Jeremy had intended to Be in the meeting remotely But so that you can't make it the same with Andy Gilbert So I guess we'll just have to go with those of us in the room Are there any additions or changes to the agenda There's going to be some changes because there's a number of things that Jeremy was supposed to report on without him here He didn't give me any information so I'm going to skip over those but is there anything else Ah right, okay, he might Under the grant's item I can describe the rfp that the state just issued. Oh, okay Okay, so I'll take that as no Changes is there any public comment? Is there any public? I see saying is we don't have the ladder and We're at the treasurer's all right So we are um We did receive a Well our regular monthly donation And we got another donation So we were up to 7192 dollars and 82 cents but We do have funds that have been Committed to us in terms of grants. So we have the 500 from um Cabot and then we have the 12 5 or whatever we can match from So think for month And then 25 or I think again, whatever we can match from usda And I did the paperwork on that. Okay, so the usda grant is Final that's been awarded. Yes No one said yes one said no We need one paperwork. Oh, okay Dude is Okay, so I got this that said we could talk about it in public So I figured that's a good sign We awarded this the grant but they're not going to finalize it till we get all the revisions and the subtractions Right, so it hasn't been obligated yet. Correct. Okay, so September 1st is their goal Okay, so um 25 000 And then another note that I had on that is that um, I Started a new job a week ago And the reason that that's relevant is that I now work for usda rural development Okay, so um, I was mildly concerned even though I don't have a voting Um Role that there was going to be a potential conflict of interest since I prepare financial reports and that kind of stuff Um, but they ran that up the chain and said that it's fine It would probably be best if somebody else signs off on the said reports But that they don't have a problem with me being treasurer or continuing to be treasurer. So but just so That's out there and I work in a different division than um This is from the business to business programs and I'm working in community programs Didn't we already have some kind of process in place to have a sign off by finance committee Yeah, well rama is um Is a the other signatory on the checking account. Okay. Um, and we did have that process for Um, I think like invoices and things like that. I don't know that we had it for like reporting and things but um We can fix that. Okay And I think so probably that's an item for the next agenda We'll put that on and then um, sure. Yeah to come up maybe come up with some sort of process for that. Okay Any other questions? Josh is not here and hasn't come in but might yet Um, well, we've heard status of grants. We've heard on the Rural development one. Did you have something? Yeah, the Rural development. I'm sorry. I'm not prepared for this one of the pieces of paper We have to submit by September 1st Is a signed sheet affirming something or other by every member of the board So I'll send that out to everybody pre-populated, but you'll have to sign it and mail it back Like actual paper. Yes. Yeah, it's a kind it's You know saying that you're you're good and holy Oh So one delegate from each town has to sign it. Uh, so I mean this thing is full of paperwork The other thing is that what's the Is about seven documents that have to be submitted to them on handicapped accessibility and posting notices in the land And uh, we're all good and faithful and all that. Um, but what we fundamentally have to do is change the $30,000 Application to a $25,000 application and redo the forms and say that Including standard form of federal grants So it's pretty close to done jerry jerry and myself have been working on that And should have it finished and I'm sorry. I didn't bring those forms to everybody here tonight, although we would have been missing some But that's the The usda grant The Department of Public Service Has issued its rfp for planning and feasibility studies. I think I sent out a link to everybody with the Timeland did everybody see that? Maybe I only sent it to the business development committee Sorry, anyway. All right, so the um, they issued it on august 6th They have you have to and we need a motion on this tonight A notice of intent to apply by September 5th So I want to make I've finished reading all this. I'll Ask for a motion on this september 19th. We have to submit all our questions And they're only going to answer Questions for those people have signed a letter of intent, which is interesting And then on october 25th Proposals are due from all applicants by 4 30 p.m. In november 8th. They're planning to award the grants What they've done is this they're going to offer three rounds of 60 000 dollars each to everything from communication union districts to nonprofits to Even co-ops and things like that Um The they're breaking the 60 000 dollars into two pots the planning Feasibility piece is the first 30 000 the second 30 000 is the Business plan What they want to do is not spend any money on something that doesn't look feasible From their first round of activity Um In the way it was portrayed to me by the guy at public service department is the The completion of the business plan portion of the grant Would entitle the entity to use that document to get the veda loan money Which I thought was pretty interesting in terms of Well, I don't know what veda's due diligence is requiring but that's what clay purpose told me It was that their intent was that the business Plan piece of the of the grant would enable the entity to then take that document To veda so that makes that pretty interesting The money It's a great thing about the grants the usda as you draw down you you submit for reimbursement as you spend The state of rematch grant is you get 50% of the money after you've done the work And when you've never proved the plan they'll give you the other half So I don't know how consultants actually they can deal with that Are we we are going to deal with consultants because it's a pretty being a consultant etch stinks I see 10% hold back typically in state of rematch projects, but not not 50% So there's some issues that we're going to ask and I'm going to Itemizing questions that I want to put forward That's actually the most liberal the department's been in a while. Is that right 100% hold back up to now Wow So So you have they they described I spoke to clay also Is it okay for you to He said that I'm trying to remember it Essentially, you're applying for the whole thing the whole 60,000 But they're not going to let you continue unless you show it's feasible And at the end of the feasibility stage They will pay for that study and then they will not give you the second half till the end of the business model as well I think you just said that way, but I'm not sure So anyway, it's sort of interesting way if that's why they've already said business It's a pretty tough way to do business that that might have cash flow implications for us then Yeah, definitely. Oh, we get a consultant who's willing to hold on, you know, right Wait till the end just one grant for 60,000 dollars of one Entity's going to get that. No, they're going to get out three So there's three $60,000 grants, okay, and I can assume, you know, it's going to be pretty competitive because I know that representative Sibelius is going to probably get one Down in southern Vermont Since she drafted the bill, huh That's okay, we'll send her a link So that's sort of the status and grants for me Somebody else's Oh, I'm sorry. I just had a real quick question that $25,000 USDA grant Are we able to use that as part of our matching funds for the state grant? Correct The matching for the USDA grant is the 12-5 from The state of Vermont the think of Vermont innovation grant, right? And then the remaining match Is that we said we'd do in this grant is the 12-5 that cv-5 is putting forward from its cash We still have to come up with 12-5 correct and we've got we've got seven 71 so we are It's um, it's time. It's time to shake trees. It's time to shake trees And when I get I'll get I'll talk about that a little bit from the business Has there been a request to The think for mont people as to whether Additional funds may be available for this project I don't think anybody's even inquired. I would inquire there's additional funds. Okay We didn't hear that from you, but I don't know but I don't know if they're available for this project. Okay It still need to be matched typically So that's it's one of our big public bugger booths So so the RFE had mentioned that they're going to favor Applications that are providing matching funds not necessarily one-to-one, but whatever matching And so we do as cd. We have an advantage to bring those other funds in I mean we have a disadvantage in the sense that our timing for this project and the work we're working on the sort of little out of sync In terms of our RFP here, you know using the usda, you know putting something out In anticipation of what why do we put out a fairly decent rfp that's pretty comprehensive and Pick a consultant who you can say well, we have this much money We don't say how much money we have we just look at see what we get in for For bids on doing all the work It's sort of an interesting little bit of a catch 22 I had a question if that's okay So i'm jeremy the alternate from playing field and the question that I had was I've been doing a little bit of shaking of trees and one person that I spoke with Is a designer who offered To donate design time. I guess he's a web developer. I mean it looks Looks like good stuff to me. I don't really know much about it to be honest But is that something that we can use as matching for either Of these grants I know in the usda grant they allow in kind matches that we use that in our grant application Okay, and I haven't I don't know about the thank you for my question would be We design work be relevant to match for I mean in terms of a business plan this certainly would be You need to have a website that you can't have a business without a website Certainly not an intermediate business And he also apparently does marketing as well So and it might be something one thought that I had was maybe saying well If we can get a contract from him like say he'll donate X number of hours To the project as you know on an as needed basis or something like that It's something that popped into my head as soon as he offered it. I was like well, maybe we can Get that in there as an in-kind donation To help out with that 75 At a minimum we should track it Good So who should I Let know Well, I guess it's a business development committee, you know the program so Although we're looking for some other help on the financial side of things Jonathan do you have any best practices on tracking in-kind donations? I mean you track it. Yeah, absolutely. There's lots of different when there's templates that you can use Mm-hmm Sure, I mean I can I would be happy to provide some of my own templates that I use for sure I mean it would be ideal to have You know a database where you can track You know commitments Acknowledgments like something like razor's edge or a little green light I I'm very familiar with razor's edge, but I mean those In that sort of thing that sort of system costs money and razor's edge can be clunky, but I did just Provide some analysis of databases for smaller nonprofits for tracking this sort of thing like not just In-kind donations, but all donations and major donors that sort of thing and my My conclusion was that little green light is very Agile for this size of an organization with you know, that's just starting up and doesn't have a lot of Doesn't have a huge donor database Thanks So is that something that you Do the in-kind donations have to have to happen before they're used for the match or can you Get the person under contract to say we will provide X amount of services No, I would say in terms of any sort of commitments. You should have a commitment form That the the entity receiving the commitment completes And basically, you know, it's it's a time stamp form that lays out all the information and commitment It'd be something as vague as a verbal handshake, but You know, ideally you have Input at the who the what the when the where and the why and then you file that Form and you also track it in some sort of larger donor database You know in terms of number of hours Estimated value of their work, etc But at the very least we should have some sort of Commitment form Either for you know commitments of cash or in-kind services Anything more on grants Feasibility study who we need a motion. Oh, yeah, you did one take to make a motion that we Submit a letter of intent to Submit a proposal to the Department of Public Service Sir second all second Any more discussion all those in favor say aye. Hi any opposed feasibility study business plan Was reporting on this The business development, I'm gonna leave you just The business development committee and it's I guess has been working on this. I mean Jerry and myself and Michael and great The co-committees been working on this we completed a draft version about two weeks ago and it's been circulated within the committee and I didn't get a lot of comments, but Jerry went through the whole thing and we There's a second version on the shareable drive right now That the members have and it basically has been You know followed some of the grant language we have in the USDA grant that we said we were going to do and then A few other things that went out in that grant that I think we needed to have in the RFP like timetables and All the boilerplate stuff you need to put out an RFP The other thing is and I'll put these documents on that my google drive because I don't know how to get things on to the cv5 Drive yet So I'll be sending out a link to my google drive, which you don't even know where it is, but you'll be able to access the rfp the the grant application stuff survey results And I have one other thing I want everybody to have access to Oh, oh, yeah, so gray kelly and he can talk to this in Jared tom has prepared a really nice diagram of Getting a whole process of the the Operation together and I'm going to put that on the web if that's okay with you. Greg. Do you want to describe it a little bit? Sure, I'll Provide you an updated one. So I've updated it too. So this is okay. We can coordinate on that But so I have a few copies. I didn't We'll have to share But basically looking at what needs to be done And And and who could do that so, you know, there's so It steps through this the steps of getting from Qualifying towns to through to being ready for construction so And and what I wanted to do so we did several of us went down and met with A valley net so I want to update with some of their input on this so So that will be available I'll have an update you and I can update together and Within a few days have available for everybody to be able to download I mean in terms of the discussion, I don't know we near Jeremy hasn't really Outline how board members post things on to our Google Drive and not or who had permission to do that So in the meantime, I've just taken upon myself that I think I have a List a mail list for the business development committee And I'll just send I send links to my Google Drive documents and then There's an I then I It's sort of interesting how we manage all the information we're going to be developing and collecting and organizing. So We need a data structure. We need all of those things But I'm not in charge of that part. So and I was The last Business development meeting we found out from David how much data he has that which is A lot of it would be a consultant saying, oh, we need to get this data Well, David already has the data. So that Accelerates and simplifies so and and a lot of that data was from green mountain power But we could then be Going to wek and saying, well, would you provide this kind of data? See if they have it to be able to provide So great wek has given us their poll data But one thing I added to this whole thing today. I talked to Barry Bernstein who's can't be here tonight They are negotiating a contract with Delco to run fiber to all their substations So that actually has some benefit potential benefit to us. I don't know Michael. What do you think? Sure. Sure. Thank you The things are going there's a lot of pieces moving. I mean it seems like it's awfully slow, but at the same time It's I don't know if we could go any faster Didn't Barry tell us that when he was here two months ago? Oh, I don't know he may have I thought that was something about So We could ask them where they are on that because two months have gone by and He's in there developing a contract. They are So they've agreed then to do it. It's just fine point We can get up there. He was waiting for hearing our our Two people who was supposed to work with them in the partners Didn't get in touch with them He didn't know that we had done that So there's one more deal that we have to Execute so it seems like for the next agenda. We should put this item Sorry, it's feasibility business plan back on the agenda and have maybe go back To some of the discussions we had earlier and some of the people who presented to us. Yeah who might be Capable of doing that kind of work. They're probably all capable of doing it in different degrees And I think at a minimum they would be the list Right, that's what I would think Okay Couldn't we authorize him to get Like a presentation from this gentleman that says, you know, this is what I've done and and Because to me like he said you can't have a business without a website and and we sort of have a website but Yeah And and if we could make it usable then we could guide people there We could send people there and they could be oh my god. I want to join And have a donate button We don't need to criticize what we have Just need to acknowledge what we have is not doing the job And why should it you know and but you know, here's a person that says he knows somebody Who's willing to do it for nothing and we don't have any money And money's money, right? Those two things going to go together. Yeah Well, also you were saying he also does marketing and that's certainly something else that we've got to consider at some point Down the road. So maybe the two of them would be maybe the two of you could sit down and he could Give you something that was in writing, but the two of you could sort of Come with something substantial and because if he's willing to give us $2,500 of his time. Yeah, that's a ton of money My only concern about that is who owns it after Right, and that's a really good point really good development and and we should own it right. Yeah Is he willing to do that? I don't know. I haven't gotten into him. I just got connected with him as a person He's he's in marshfield and runs a design company Like runs a graphic design company and he's got like six meg internet and he says it's really hurting his business So he's highly motivated to help out So, you know Okay A couple meetings ago, we were talking about the website and we get somebody volunteered to do To be headed up although they weren't a designer But we also talked about the elements of the website that we expected So I think the probably what we need to do is identify what we need Hand it to your buddy Get a get a you know, he'll he'll tell us what kind of ours is going to put into this kind of thing And we'll have a field for coming forward So does anybody have the list of those things? Should be in the minutes from two months Yeah Minutes and presentations and we had a whole list of Ten things maybe maybe a bit more of a cooperative process if he's used to designing these he probably has a better sense That this is what you actually want to put on your website in order to make that Exactly. Well, we have content and let him Come up with a design how to display it to make it consumable So this gentleman is an alternate so who on the board might we the three of them can get together I mean, it doesn't matter Whether an alternate or a delegate he can certainly no, but the alternate. Have you been here every time? I mean I mean I've been here since last uh since the spring Since you got my email right Jeremy's been coming to the business development Meetings. Oh, okay And he and jared thomas who was actually building who's created the development website that has not much content So jared and jeremy and this guy from playing field could probably get together and yeah put this thing At least make some good progress And then jeremy hanson and or I can meet with you guys to To get the content to you. Yeah, I mean we should Start thinking pretty quickly then about You know if we are going to have this guy do work for us and if he's going to do it for free Then we need to start figuring out all this in-kind donation tracking Especially if it's going to help us with the usda grant And I guess we need to figure out if it's going to help us with the vermont grant as well Well, is it for free or is it in kind? Well, I mean if he's donating his design services donating, okay If he's saying i'm doing this for free then we can call it an in-kind donation, right? Especially if we have a commitment from him and a piece of paper, right little green light you say You raised a good question We should have documentation forms for all of this because jeremy's been I mean jared's been donating time. I've been donating time A lot of people have been donating time We should definitely be tracking despite the fact that we're municipality. We should be tracking all volunteer hours Because it's valuable So just to that point and then I want to change the topic In our in the craft town of craft spurry project all the committee members tracked their time And usda rural development and nbrc accepted Those tabulations as in-kind contributions towards their grants so that is important I think we've sort of wrapped that discussion up So I wanted to go back to the other one we were Just I think there may have been one more point. Oh, yeah, the other point is that Once this design has to be maintained And so that the trick of you know, here's the design work. Here's all the contents up there Somebody then has to feed the feed the bees and occasionally there's some redesigns and other elements added Like progress, you know, what's going on? So we have to figure out That part the back end part sure well I mean if we own it then we can hire a different designer to fix the other guy's work I agree that if we don't own it, it's a lot less valuable to us And the other thing is If this guy does good work and he's got reasonable rates You know, we can you know, there's nothing that says that we can't continue on hiring him as a as a subcontractor After, you know, we've sort of exhausted his or his willingness to Give us free services So I guess that would be My response to that So Michael, you wanted to go back to the feasibility study discussion I'm confused At one point we were bringing in presentations and sort of leaning towards picking someone And it's pretty if I'm wrong in my understanding, but I think at some point we said We're not going to do it that way. We're going to do an RFP And wait for a bunch of submissions and That process was going to start a while ago Or maybe it was going to start once we get one of these grants and I'm confused as to Why we don't have a clear process to get to a consultant It is are we waiting for something to put out an RFP or are we considering not doing it through an RFP process But through a consensus discussion about the about presentations. We've seen does anybody know Let me tell you one thing. I did not write an RFP not to put it out today So you have one you shared it with you. I forgot I mean, we didn't have any money to put an RFP out too I mean that was one thing with timing because we couldn't pay the consultant. Yeah, correct So what one comment on that and then I'll shut up. That's lots of consultants are willing to take their money later It depends on their financial situation, but that's not unusual if they think if it's towards A grant that's going to pay for them Don't do it You know, I think we also got sidetracked because of the whole Not easy fiber, but valley net Discussions that Jeremy's brought up a couple of times which at least in my understanding of that Would kind of preclude all of no, you think why to be I go against it It could preclude that yet. I don't think there's a sentiment around the table Oh, okay. It should well in the meeting that we went to with valley net Michael you went myself and Jeremy was there and They weren't offering to write the whole RP. They're willing to help Okay, you know give their input, but they weren't going to say oh, here it is That was what was said in the meeting Okay I guess I'm a little I'm with you now. I'm I remember Jeremy Henson did say They at early in his early discussions with them That they proposed to write up a whole thing a whole plan right and we wouldn't need to consult them anymore Right, we would just that was that was some going them and yeah, it would go from there, right? We'd raise money fund a piece of the development Which is a very different process So that's not what they're saying now is what you're saying. I didn't hear that. Did you hear them say that? So what I thought my takeaway from the meeting was That they were going to come back to us with a proposal with a series of agreements, right? Right, okay potential agreements with the last agreement being an operating agreement if we go that if we go with that direction But it was like Preparing the feasibility study preparing the business plan writing the statement of work For this that and the other thing, but there was a series of like three or four steps Okay, and what I might take away was they were going to Provide us with that And they're going to provide us with a proposal They're going to provide us with a proposal right right, but it also I agree with you without being said but that in that We still had to provide a lot of the the specifics So they already have a template. I'm sure you know, they've done it and they were saying Yes, they'll do it, but we still had to provide A lot of the the data that goes into it True they already had a business plan template. Yes, and based on their experience of n years That they could fold our information into And so that's what I meant by them saying they would help right that you know Yes, they probably would be doing the majority of the work But there was work that we still would have to do so would we be hiring them to do that work or would they Be doing that brought us Hiring them firing That's why there's a series of And was there a time frame around one year delivering that or was it or the next steps? That's what I was just going to say public body, so I don't think we can just hire somebody I guess I'm a public servant Yeah, so they can they can build on that they can respond to the rp we can evaluate it compared to all of the other stuff That comes in all five and are they I think Ready-made they'll be they'll have a cheap bid right. Yeah Okay, yeah, I'm That kind of process um And again, uh, you know, we're not getting much done except putting stuff on uh next month's agenda But again, I think that's probably something we really have to have some serious discussion about So that we can move forward in a timely manner and You get this this process going and start evaluating the proposals that Mike is The timing of all these grants being available later than we want them to be Yeah, and we're trying to figure out what do we tread water and then get their money to do these things Where do we get started now and hope we'll get the money to cover them I think we're going right now. We have money. We had, you know, $50,000 of Tenably $50,000 plus 20 something $7,000 or the match money in kind money. So we're ready to roll Well, we need to raise 5500 more dollars. Yeah, I'm gonna next we'd be assured of it all But getting your responses viewing that that's all gonna take time We may as well get that out, right Yeah So what are the next steps with regards to the rp I was hoping the the business development committee could weigh in and say this is it and we can Yeah, we issue it You never read it No, because you're coming. I mean there was I think The first I think the reddit was jerry And in campus Can't actually had a good contribution. So I'm happy about that So I have seen Comments to make on it But we can set a time by when we would have it ready. I'll send it back. I'll send out a note to the business But the goal is September 1st, right? Okay, that's a reasonable goal Two weeks So the next I don't think so I think the committee is going to issue the rp He didn't ask that question I asked whether we were going to see it Anybody can say oh, yeah, no everybody would get it Sorry, I don't mean to get it and we're going to see it because it's been posted. We're going to see it in advance Absolutely. Yeah On your google drive On your google drive Somewhere posted a cloud Okay moving on And I have no idea what this one is about and and I'm not to put you on the spot But it's treasured position and so I I mean, I know we've had the discussion before but I have I haven't had a discussion about it We haven't had a discussion about it and we haven't had a finance committee meeting. So I'm not sure I didn't hear anything from chair. I mean about what it was Jeremy had asked for suggestions for the budget and I sent him an email. That's a treasurer Or you know reason or something like that. That must be where that because that should be a budget I don't know Okay, so you think that might be that when I thought I thought I wonder if that was my email Okay Another item for next month, you know what we can just re reissue the same same agenda Okay, uh from porch forum, Jeremy hands. He's not here Survey back to david. It's the david me Thank god he came Well, or are we all would have been? The a number of I mean I can tell you the towns that somebody put posted the survey on there Front porch forum would be berlin cabot callus east montpellier marshfield middle sex montpellier orange Plainfield and williams town the rest of the town still looks like it hasn't been posted yet because there's no When did williams town posted because I get the forum and I didn't result Well, somebody did in williams town. You know what could have happened if somebody in orange posted it instead It was okay to show up. I did. I do. Yeah, so it was the orange posting that ended up in williams town I think the plainfield posting ended up in marshfield. Probably so thank you Brand forwarded it on Anyway, so so far 455 people have done the survey Um 125 of them in the city of montpellier And that was because and this is interesting the mayor put it on her front on her facebook page So that's how effective certain mechanisms are of marketing or getting people to do things So that's sort of the tally at the moment. I think In callus, we had 54 people and that was have to put it in front porch forum twice And my next step in callus is to ask the select board to Put it on itself the chair of the select board is as well as put it on the town's website, which it's not on right now But in terms of getting people to fill this out via just normal internet methods. I don't think we're gonna get A lot more people. I think the second posting is a good idea after three weeks That's what I did and it doubled the number of people who filled it in. How many do you get from middle sex? middle sex were it About 52 How many oranges I truncated that piece of the Report, sorry When orange looks like this about 15 Wow Holy cat My answer What did you want to close this by? Well, I don't know if it's gonna go We're just gonna something I got to go back to the business committee about because it's a key piece of the feasibility study Okay, so we need to figure out what is the rationale for A decent number and do we want to have us do more lake work to get more people to fill it in? Do we want to We we have some other ideas on door-to-door stuff, right Greg? Refresh my memory A whole inventory. Oh, right Holy kale We'll get later The biggest highlight takeaway so far about 450 people that have filled it in is they If cv5 are brought competitively priced broadband services, how likely are you to subscribe? Newly 50 percent said Definitely would and another 43 percent said probably would so there's a pretty large of the people who filled out this From a survey which are probably an interesting subset of the community. It's a good sign And interested The second question that became so eye-popping is In stating that you would definitely or probably subscribe to cv5, but what are your primary reasons and Quality of service is greater than 50 Um improve reliability 52 percent Referred locally owned 52 percent prefer highest speed 68 percent Then the most interesting question is would you be willing to invest in the planning construction and our operation of this network? in the first 24 months of operation Uh about 60 people said they'd loan money About 30 people said they'd give a gift And 250 people said they were pre subscribed So that's pretty interesting data And then from the valley net meeting they said of those that for in their experience Those that said they would pre subscribe when they actually Went to them saying we're coming to your town It was about 80 percent So if we could get more people to fill on the survey it would certainly be helpful How does the presubscribed work? I've been asked the question. How does the presubscribed? You know how the csa works? It's kind of same It was money and we'll eventually get the internet And at some point you do get service then you don't have to pay for a certain number of months until that's You know this is this is one of those things you do to a customer database So you can say this customer paid two years in advance even though we don't have the service So there's a lot of pieces to make this happen. I mean it's no doubt about that though Like I was asked that question as well And I told the lady that I couldn't answer that there were just not there yet because we don't know what our rate structure is So we can't say that we'll give you 12 about a service for you know 500 dollars until we know what You know 12 months of service is going to cost so anything else on the survey Helen and I talked about doing the survey in Worcester and we Unfortunately, we didn't need one of us got to do it, but Our feeling is that and you can correct me Our feeling is that doing it Rather than asking interested people To reply as to ask everybody that you can find to do it Just go face to face and And have maybe a smaller survey because there's only a few really important questions on the survey a lot of other questions, you know You would start with the important and then work your way up to the other questions, but You know just saying to people You know The only people they're going to fill it in or the ones that are mainly Disatisfied with the service that they have And they may just be a smaller of 500 people out of central vermont Is not very many not a very high percentage but if you know I think that alan and I should so you know the So going to the Worcester transfer station right saturday morning Yeah, but I never go to the train. There's lots of people that never go there. I go to On their door A lot of people come from outside of Worcester. Oh, yeah, that's a really popular. It's a great thing David, what if we were willing to go door to door? How would we get the numbers into the survey off your phone? Yeah Do it on the phone what if you don't have You can store it and then upload it there Yeah, but you said you had a very little cell service anywhere in Worcester. Yeah Have you done it on paper all day to enter it? Uh now we're getting somewhere So do you have a paper copy of David's? Uh, I can create one It's a digital form I don't have any cell service So yes, I'll do that. Um What was I going to say? I think that putting that together just to Feel there just putting it together face to face from Worcester Where cell service and internet all are terrible We would be able to judge The 500 that came from the interested people as to whether or not That's a real number You know, is that is that representative by is that a representative number not a real number but a representative number Of interest is there anyone on the board with some strong significant statistical background that can say This amount of percentages. This is the coefficient of variation and probably that general right next to you I think the best data is just coming from ec5 as they share If we really want to have a statistically valid survey, we could contract with UVM and CDAE program and they could conduct the survey for us, but and they would do it by telethon and and also through mailings and all of that, but I mean also This couldn't cost more than that's going to cost more money and or you could get like an intern or something like that or Um, what we could also do is well, I just would like to say one thing to keep in mind is That all data tells the story and right now This data is telling a very very positive story and if we should Not hesitate to use the information that we've collected already In terms of like the percentages of persons who are interested when we apply for grants and that sort of Even though even if we're going to move forward with a more formal or more statistically valid survey, but I was just wondering if there's like we can do a fairly easy run at it and say this is a Low bar number that if we get over five, I mean 500 is actually a very large number for a statistical survey Yeah, but it's not statistical because it is selection by itself. Yeah, it's got some bodies. It doesn't mean it's not statistical It means you have to change the number. Yeah, and if you do telethon surveys You're only going to get a percentage of the population that's over the age of 30 because it's all landlines because Rarely are telethon surveys conducted Or are rarely are you reaching cell phones via those surveys? And if you pay for surveys, you're going to get another subset of the population I'm getting a point where I don't answer my cell phone anymore. Yeah, it's a it's a it's it's such a mess to be perfectly No, but but to bring it back here If if Alan I there's what seven roads and blisters, so But they're really long They're not that long, you know, we all have bicycles and uh, so You know We could do it, you know in a weekend. This is a great case for this So so what what david was referring to was that we'll also charge you with getting the poll numbers as you're going A lot of the polls are in the woods and you know Well, well the thing about Worcester anyway is that washington electric has polls And the phone company has polls And sometimes they share a poll a tall poll Washington electric has tall polls and the phone company has short polls And you know, they're all going to fall over any day now The phone company, so I don't know if the I don't know whether or not even caring about polls is going to matter about In the long run, you probably won't Anyway, yeah, keep tracking your hours on on that because We prefer to be walk One last question michael no another question comment on on door-to-door is the best way Yeah, this by hands down the best way to get an accurate poll of the populace More people be home. You're going to get a greater cross section But even with seven roads in a town It's a lot of work if you know, it's going to take a long time for each survey to be filled out or this field The explanation you're giving and all that it takes a long time One way to make but nobody's self-selected. So it doesn't so you're still getting that's right statistically Accurate sample. I'm not disagreeing. Okay, um, but what I'm suggesting For everybody whether it's Worcester or anyone else is to think about Skipping homes do doing it consistently every three or every six or every two or every seven homes That's statistically good too And you don't have to knock on every door But you do want to get you want to cover large areas and get large numbers figure out how many we can do In a weekend or a week or a month and then figure out how many Doors you have to skip in order to achieve that That's my suggestion Like a recipe for revolution. I mean my neighbor if I don't go to his house, but I go to the next person's house I'm gonna know I'm gonna get him no zucchini. I'm not gonna have my driver's You should do marsh field and Good The Worcester representatives figure this out for themselves and do whatever feels good to you I'll get you okay. We'll trust you. Okay, and we'll look forward to My suggestion for everybody reports. There you go. I would like to we really need to close the survey down by the end of September Okay, I mean in terms in terms of it. We got a consultant that needs to work with this data, right? That's my feeling so the urgency is there And if somebody has some better ideas about how to collect it on the other hand these Visibility grants are going to be awarded in november Well the USDA one we had So are we going to tell the state well, we don't really need to do it feasibility? That's We need to do it because that's our requirement to get the money, but we want the second 30 pass, right, right? To get paid for what you've already done and us doing a lot of that work And that's what I said to clay purpose. I said, you know I want to apply and I don't need a feasibility study. So what am I supposed to do with this? I would he said we didn't think of that And he said maybe in the next round we can make some adjustments And I said but that means that delays certain people a long time. So that we will all feed them this question You know, I mean we're not the only ones you're not the only I mean It's a problem Moving on yes Reports back from meetings with other ISPs. That's what's jeremy's agenda, but I have a feeling it's what you already Told us about as far as meeting with valiant But we weren't there jeremy only jeremy jeremy met with The northfield cable. What's it mean? Trans video He's moved to george goodrich from trans video. Wasn't it just jeremy anyone else? It was because he just talked to him on the phone, didn't he? I don't know the report of the last time though. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought he's all right Uh, and was there and oh and set and uh, champlain valley. Did he report about that last meeting? He spoke to them as well Um I think committees should be doing that Groups of people should be doing that but anyhow, I can't speak to anybody. So another uh carry-over item Mm-hmm But we can't talk about the ballonette thing Oh, we just did Well, we did we did it. Yeah enough. Were you here? Yeah, I was awake for that part. Don't be cruel And it's back to david I can be everything our business development committee that pretty much is we've already covered everything the business development committee did That's all right Thanks for that report. Yeah Budget We should have one. Yeah, well, we probably ought to be developing it anytime soon And I think where it was left is that If I saw from jeremy and beckham work, well people were going to send things their needs to jeremy and We were going to go from there. Okay I suspect we don't have a lot of information yet except for treasurers Okay Let's put that one on the next agenda too. Okay um Review of back burner items committee assignments and membership Well, the back burner items are whether or not we should allow other towns In and there was still equipment policy anybody have a burning desire to Bring up either of these items. I just wanted to mention that when I sent out that survey I got an email from somebody That I should have up right now any second now. No, I'll really have it Talk us through this now who wanted if she wanted to know if we were coming to current I think I think that was it and I said Talk to your select board. I didn't say no Because we don't have I committed to any other towns. So I said um if I I pulled first I pulled up on the map to see exactly because I've been there I used to go in at night there, but That doesn't mean anything to me. And so, um Well, it means something to me, but just not that and and so I I looked it up on a map and it looked like if washington signed on chrys will be right next door I think it was correct Because it was tops Anyway, they're all wet towns. Yeah, but it was all but all in that area And I said well, you need to talk to your select board and get them to Communicate with us And that was where that ended But it came up when I sent out because they were very excited. She was very excited at the possibility so so Is there a committee that's responsible for this task because what I think we need is a product is A document that describes these are the these are the criteria that this body looks for for to entertain membership of a different town There is not Right now Well, the question is whether or not we are going to accept a more membership Or you know, we've not settled the last last meeting we hashed it out pretty well. We decided 23 And we're here right We kind of The consensus was kind of We don't really want a bunch more towns. There are a couple of them that we would Encourage and I think they were more town in washington, was it water bearer. I think Washington was definitely on was Washington on washington for the two towns that we might encourage but that we were Feeling like maybe we don't want to expand any bigger yet You're certainly not seek out other folks. Yeah, but we would consider if they came We didn't close it. We left it open. We didn't let it open And I think Jeremy was talking about a number like 20 years something But we didn't come down firmly in that he had a couple places he wanted to talk to next And we kind of let him go do that. Yeah, and but it's left open. Yeah. Yeah, that's why we're recollecting to us Um, and I think it probably does call the question. That's something we need to decide sooner But later, especially as we start moving forward if we're going to start taking grant money Start talking about feasibility if you want to have some boundaries and planning boundaries. Yeah, and do we We know that washington electric serves 40 towns, right? So and that may make a difference if we in fact partner with them um as we go down the road and they May want to I mean I had some discussion with barry about this a little while ago Yeah, they'll be in middle sex for some other meaning and You know that idea that if they serve 40 towns Might this expand to cover the same footprint that they have and you know, I said it's certainly possible We're going to have to talk about it. But if if they really become a viable partner Um With us in that then and that's something they want to you know push for then Probably fairly feasible that we would look at at doing that I mean, I also would be much easier to do if they you know, they already have relationships and business relationships with a lot of customers there So, okay Allen Washington electric has Is it like five? Is it 50? Is it seven? I have the date. I just haven't brought it. I mean, I could tell you but I don't know Right now You're saying between five Boy, if that I mean if if that ever gets connected to fiber If you have all those hubs around this area, that's that's an unbelievable It'd be significant. Yeah Well, the question is how many velco already has fiber to Yeah, they have fiber to a significant number already Up substations. I mean playing field in east Montpelier recovery. I know that Is that information available? Yeah Oh, no, well No, the velco data. No You can see you can see a powerpoint slide with their stations And if you didn't snap it when they were showing you Michael may know Do you get the map? Is it shareable or are you interested in not I have a poster. Huh? I have a poster. I can hand you The how old is that poster? It's old But it has it has velco fiber in it. Yes As of then. Yes, it then. Yeah So can I if I look at a substation can I with the naked eye determine if it has fiber going to it? Yeah, probably. Yeah So, why don't we do it if you know what the cable looks like? Yes This would be really important information you're going to have. You can yeah Greg I think it's all I think all the sub all the white substations are going to have With the exception of the one in adamant and Or maple corners a couple of really tiny tiny ones The berry told me today they were going to go to make they are That's a great So in your conversation berry suggested sort of That They would be willing to do all 40 talents Without saying he suggested if they're willing to do any right, right? Exactly. They mean they soften the terms They're going to do any right, but if berry Barry is the heart of wash and electric co-op right at the moment. So But he's still you know, again, but he indicated that there is financial decision, but But we'd be money too So So if if only work Covered those 41 towns a hundred percent in fact in most wet towns, they're less than 50 percent coverage of the town And we have to be cognizant of that We think we're riding on wet through all these towns right and we still have to work with green mountain power And all the rest and so that's a whole other story. Can we get any electric space? Or are we doing make ready for those poles? Are there towns that are a hundred percent wet? Nope No, none of them No, you a wester. No, wester wet. Wek is A co-op, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's up there members vote say we want this and we're willing to have our bills Go up a little bit. It's a way to Advance all of this. There's there's money there. If your town has a state highway, I can guarantee you it's not wet Okay, but Wek is pretty close to this main highway also because oh, yeah, it's cheap so Which is for those I'll send out the link to my web map that shows everything So you can look at yourself and as the substations it has Who owns what poles where and You want to spend a lot of time on the website any foyer issues or community information issues with you sending or Public meeting law stuff like you're sending us all these links. It's all public data I just want to make sure it's not a meeting Unless people start responding to it. It's a discussion. Okay, so if you're just sending out the information Do not discuss this or we're right back to me only Anything else Approval of july 9th minutes. Yes due to technical difficulties Of um my printer. I do not have the minutes with me. So We'll move that to next month as well. Okay David, would you repeat would you work on the minutes for us from people to give us You haven't done enough today So, you know normally at this time we do a round table, but I think I'm just going to turn it over to David Let him finish out tonight. What do you think? It's a lot of what do we have to say I'm looking for help I mean I I do a lot and I can do a lot, but it is sometimes a little overwhelming Good There is a Montpelier story. So tomorrow city council is going to be discussing The telecommunications needs of its public safety activities Montpelier is a part of central mont public safety authority, which is also Barry and I think I don't know. Sometimes there are insomniates or not And and the the idea and this does have mr. Whitaker behind it, but the city has Agreed to take it on as a topic Is that the land-based radio towers Will benefit from being a part of the fiber network. Some of them are Served by fiber at this point. I know that rock of ages is to talk to terry le valley at the state But not all and not many But in order to develop a system that's more efficient and redundant and to Prepare for the first net future, which is to move to lte signals for first responders Then indeed Land-based radio towers as well as cell towers will be interconnected. So He is Whitaker is requesting that the city council instruct public service of public safety authority to do a feasibility study of Of what it would take to link all of the critical elements of their telecommunications system And he is requesting the city council to request cv fiber To coordinate its planning activities so that as we learn about infrastructure that's available We're also considering the public safety stuff So you may get an instruction from myself or dan at the next meeting that city council has asked cv fiber to consider in its planning to integrate with public safety and a Kind of offer a supporting element to that is it's a revenue stream The system the public safety system is pretty expensive And to the extent that it is going to be upgraded And it needs to be upgraded for few reasons then Thinking of it as a customer Can be a significant revenue source. I thought we already were But maybe maybe i'm forgetting. I thought we were already considering them Working with public safety. I thought we'd already discussed that And that we wanted that that was like because we talked about you talked about the space that they have on the polls and I went to a meeting with them and Okay Anything for the go to the order me. Yeah, I have some chocolate Now now you tell us Yeah, so a couple of things. First, like I said earlier, I have been kind of shaking a few trees. I'm trying to get some money Mostly that has been harassing my neighbors But on that note, I did write up an email sort of like hey, we're looking for money So if anyone else knows people that they think might be interested and might be willing to pitch in a little bit of money Or might have some fundraising ideas And you want a template email Let me know and I can send you that. I also sent it to Jeremy. Um, never heard back from him. So Did you get anything with it? Was it successful? I don't know. Okay. I mean, I didn't like say, hey, if you donate, please tell So, I mean if if our and I missed the The budget if we got money in this month, but Not from your town. Not from my town. Okay. Well, unfortunately, I wasn't successful. So maybe you don't want to use my email I had drafted an appeal letter also I think back right around christmas time and sent it out too. So Um, and another thing is one thing I did get was a person that is my neighbor Said that he might have some fundraising ideas So I'm planning to talk to him in a week or so and see if You see what he has and then would probably end up bringing that here If it's something that the board would need to do rather than sort of an informal thing Okay Jump in real quick Just on that about the getting donation how many respondents that we had about the survey from front porch farm 450 So would it be worth putting something on front porch forum that requests donations and see if we get 100 people to donate? Well, I will I will dig out all the people who said they would donate Send it to the respective people Who said they would from each town. Great. Yeah, then we can each slide. Yeah. Yeah Actually, I do have a comment Um, I've missed a few meetings. I wasn't on the list. We'll get that strange But um, I was thinking about an audience that maybe you haven't talked about is gamers Gamers want high-speed internet Higher the better. Yeah, so there might be some money there Not quite sure how we reach them, but it's just something I'd like to talk about the dark web the people with the lights on actually I guess they probably have a listserv Join the game and tell them to give us money Are you from playing field? Look, I'm out shooting you because I have faster internet than you It's like hurting cats tonight, you know I agree with the gaming sentiment. They walk among us. Uh, I think, um In terms of appeal letters the best most effective kinds of appeal letters tell stories um, I think one thing that we should consider by You know sending letters to people and posting in front porch foreign is gathering stories collecting stories like the person in marsh field who because of the They're incredibly slow internet their business is struggling Telling that person's story with their permission Is going to be essential if we are actually going to be composing and issuing appeal letters that are designed to generated massive influx of cash, um, so You know, I every organization that I've worked for that has Drafted these sorts of appeal letters. We I I have even Participated in things where we've issued one email where it's just saying what we're doing and here's how we're helping people And I've done an issue an email where I've um, it's telling a story of one person and how they're impacted by the work that the organization does and those That latter email is about eight times more effective than the former So that's good to know. I mean There are best practices when it comes to drafting and issuing appeals letters or emails or or posting on social media And I think we should Take that into consideration, but story gathering is first and foremost Um, all right. I'll see if I can get that guy's great. I know I said he wouldn't mind. Yeah This is a campaign It's thought of a bunch of people just sending out some letters It has to be an organized campaign and maybe the marketing guy Web design design guy is a guy who can help us Formulate the campaign and we say that we say the campaign starts one october or pick a date But and then we we work toward that and come up with our message and what the letters are going to be What the campaign is going to be we need to get organized now pressure releases Just a thought Just Emailing my neighbors saying hey hit something. If you want to chair the marketing committee And we'll throw some other people on it And they will they will they will focus on this campaign The trick is to not oversaturate your audience Tom I'll use my roundtable that uh, I think I've heard like three awesome ideas here Can we before we leave the room make them actionable somehow? A point so very quickly I don't have a suggestion behind that I mean It's very pretty to a committee or We could we could I'll see you about great. Well, uh I agree with ray. We need to get organized. So we have $5,500 remaining to raise and then we will have $50,000. So, you know, there's a bit of a story in that well Getting organized and and having some People focus on then the rest of us receiving that can disseminate that But if it's left to each one of us to try to draft the email, I mean It's not going to be very effective. So We should Focus on that take some action Michael I'm going to try to remember to take my memory pills I Will send out an email Alex and a center reminder for you A recurring reminder right So I the public safety idea is a very interesting one and it what I'm hearing is it sounds like The city of Montpelier wants cv5 or to somehow coordinate Some communications capabilities within the public safety community in Montpelier It it sounds like frankly something that's needed in all the communities Right. Yeah, that was the origins of cv PSA was that multiple communities would work together on a communication system It seems like that could be leveraged for public funds I mean, you don't have it's my knowledge. I don't have commitments from our communities to contribute But here's a value add service that that They could benefit from which would help seed perhaps To some level of effort. So if this could be somehow Organized aggregated, you know put into a into a plan From Montpelier probably to start with perhaps we can see how it can be extrapolated for the whole Organization well and there's a money aspect to this the central mont public safety authority has money And so they are prepared to spend money on a planning piece And so whether and I don't know how to do this but whether it can be crafted So that some of their money Goes to central mont fiber planning covering the in-kind counter covering the matching Our matching needs But again, I don't know how to make that happen But that's a possibility because it is that that is there's overlap in those planning understanding what the the hard infrastructure is For public safety communication system what already exists Integrated with our planning you take $5,000 for them for our $30,000 effort Then we've got $5,000 of match So I've only been here since what april may have whatever it was, but I haven't heard this table that We have the capability frankly to do planning for public safety. No, we're gonna hire Yeah, it would wind up hire somebody to do that right, yeah But this is a very interesting piece. I look forward to seeing it. Montpelieu He'll say do it A nice statement of work would be a would be a good start as to what do it means, but we'll have to draft that I'm wondering if There's this term called the tipping point and You know, it seems to me and like you have only been here for a few months. So I don't know the history You guys do but It seems that it's been really very slow and It's obvious to me tonight that there's a potential to really start moving much more rapidly Not just because of the money but because of the interest So as soon as you throw it out there and for 450 people say Yeah, I'm interested and then they're going to talk to their pals and friends and they'll be interested So we've lit a match. We've not We haven't lit the fuse. We've lit the match to light the fuse And so we either we either have I think that we should accept this as The tipping point and we should all start thinking about Hiring somebody To do that work because there's money right there right away and we give us Some some agenda of Okay, it's really working out. Okay, you know an opportunity To start saying we can do this because When I got here nobody seemed to be convinced that this could happen Except Jeremy and maybe you and so you know and you I think the three of you have been convinced you guys I'll give you the tripod. There you go. So So and that's really important. It takes three people to make a business. There's no business that's successful with one or two So here we are. I think we should start thinking of this as let's Let's accept this. It's going to work So that's I guess that's my My hope right today anyway, okay Alan you're hiding back there Any thoughts Yeah, I mean this this is this is feeling like much season to me And we're really in the middle of it. We don't see the end of it I worry that You know, we did talk about the public safety thing the first year And had fairly long discussions And I think one of the things we concluded from those discussions was we have to remember our mission And our mission is to bring fast high-speed internet underserved areas underserved rural areas And there are any of a number of other things we could do Because they would bring revenue to us or because we could get them done fast But they might not necessarily be helping us get closer to our overall goal And I worry that if if we don't get a sharper focus on what we're what we're committed to doing We could end up being in mud season for not just months but years I mean we've we've now we've now sort of been spinning our wheels for over a year And I mean part of it I'm beginning to realize has to do with the nature of technological change in Vermont I mean I I can't believe how disorganized the state has been for so long when getting this job done You know the whole notion of these dark fiber cables lying somewhere out there that we could tap into Why are they there? Well, because somebody in the legislature thought it would be a good idea to have a line going through Roxbury or Williamstown or something like that So I think part of it is a problem that that precedes us and it's much more complicated than I know I realized was When I first got into this last year But I do think that the most important thing we have to do is to just stay focused on the goal of We're trying to get broadband To people who don't have it in rural areas And that's that's what I think we should have a laser-like focus on I hear you but I'm from Montpelier And they're representatives from Barrie And so we do wonder whether Providing a service to not underserved areas does I wonder whether that does provide A system that facilitates getting it to the rural areas because I have studied ec fiber And they were able to get started because they had literally millions of dollars of not donations, but investment and pursuing rural fiber absent that is Very very very difficult and we will learn when we get these feasibility studies But it's not going to be automatic. So and I'm not saying that it's unnecessary That that we need to consider the Montpeliers and the Barrie's But I I think it's important to consider it as a possibility So we understand additional revenue streams because again, I've learned ec fiber is going to be very very difficult to replicate We need that boost that they got from million-dollar investors And it will be interesting when we go to vita With a $30,000 business plan whether vita feels that that's sufficient to provide millions of dollars to cb fiber I have two comments and What Alan was saying so it's another takeaway from the meeting with valley net they said Providing service to towns that already have service you Lose the people your supporters that are in the underserved or unserved You know, they're like why are you given to them? They already have it, you know, so you lose so that was something that they had experienced And The other is that the public safety there can be some overlap I you know, it has to be looked at on maps Where are those and do they coincide with areas that would Want to be served Michael I want to speak to this comment too, but not about the public safety thing We are in the mud And we've been in the mud and out of the mud frequently through this process. I agree One reason we're in the mud is because we're a municipality And we're a group of 17 towns who have to follow all kinds of special rules because we're a municipality and we have to organize in very efficient and Regimented ways with finance policies and all those things and we spent a lot of time developing structure and And debating it and passing it and and we only meet once a month And so that that took up a lot of time and it's still going to take up more time And we can't escape that because that's what we are I don't think Building fiber is difficult. It's costly But it isn't difficult. It isn't I'm I'm not one of the ones who thinks we can't do it I think we can do it and we will do it And once we get rolling It'll be surprising how well it goes. There's going to be all kinds of crazy setbacks that I know about that too But it isn't That hard It's really getting the funding And getting the funding Isn't going to come from Our community. It's going to come from the big guys And that's why we're going through these processes of Responding to rfps and trying to ally without electric co-op and so forth All of these things are necessary And it's frustratingly slow But keep the faith We're going to get there John Yeah, you know to Beat on now a little bit and and agree with them But it comes back to washing and electric because washing electric is serving underserved people And green mountain power is is serving, you know, the high density More or less the much higher density population Whereas washing electric isn't so you know any encouragement that we can give to barry and the people that he works with then I think that I think that we should follow up on that and you know 41 towns Even if the people are sort of spread out the way they are for washing electric We're providing a service. I thought that's really what we're trying to do here Make some money so we don't go out of business over a weekend, but But at the same time is to is to get I have three mega. I don't know what you guys have but I have three meg I used to have one and a half So, um, you know email is really slow at one and a half, you know, don't don't put any attachments at one and a half Yeah Jeremy, can you Maybe touch face with the the guy who's the designer and ask him if he'd be wanting to come into the next meeting And give us a little presentation about, you know, his work product the kinds of things he does let us ask him some questions figure 15-20 minutes we'll put it on the agenda for and if and then we'll grow in for half Or until he's done Anyway, if that works out just get in touch with well, like myself or back and just we'll make sure it gets on the agenda One last word I guess I heard this sort of depression. I wouldn't be putting the amount of energy I'm putting into this If I didn't think it was going to be successful So the way things have gone for this whole meeting We've deferred a lot to the next agenda and unfortunately this last item, which is adjournment. We're going to have to defer also So don't go anywhere. Just go sit here and wait till the next We're adjourned