15 January, 2011

The  Halifax Broadband committee was called to order at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, Jan 15, 2011 at the Halifax Town Office. Present were committee members Eddee Edwards, Curtis Carroll and Gretchen Baker. Also present were Margo Avakian from the Deerfield Valley News, Hans Hammarquist and Chris Estep.

The Committee first discussed efforts to procure money for operating expenses via a Town Article Appropriation.

The main focus of the committee’s work for the day was to have been to draft a letter regarding the committee’s efforts to date. As Gretchen Baker had put together a draft during the previous weeks, the committee’s work was reduced to simple edits and addendums ( Thank You Gretchen).

A discussion of the SoverNet Fiber Proposal took place next. Curtis Carroll asked his fellow committee members how much support there was for the proposal amongst Selectman and School Board Members.

A brief discussion of what was to be placed into the town report in support of broadband took place. Other Topics included what to do about multiple providers; should we encourage many or focus on one.

The benefits of adding another member to the committee to make it easier to attain a quorum was debated. Margo Avakian pointed out that a larger committee would require more members for a quorum so nothing would be gained. The committee members agreed.

Why great Auk left Marlboro was discussed as were some recent and lengthy outages of theirs which had taken place in NewFane.

Edee Edwards stated that whoever came in the committee should make sure they have a clearly defined QOS ( Quality of Service) policy.

For next time: Carroll is to continue to try to reach a live human at VTEL in order to more accurately gauge their timeline for G4 development.

Edee Edwards will continue to work with Great Auk and towards having a representative of the company join our next meeting.

The Meeting was Adjoured at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted

Curtis Carroll