Minutes of Genesee Free-Net Board of Directors Special Meeting
March 10, 2005
Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
316 Water Street

PRESENT:
Dennis Cavanaugh, Chair
Larry Porn, Vice Chair
Solomon Johnson, Secretary

Scott Gifford, Board
Kay Schwartz, Board
Garry Viele, Board
Charles Wright, Board

Call to order at 5:26pm after a quorum of members had arrived. Chair Dennis Cavanaugh presiding. The special meeting was called to deal with implementing the GenTech dial-in modem pool.

Scott Gifford presented for board consideration an example message to be sent to each member and a suggested schedule of actions to be taken after the GenTech pool of modems are up and running.

March: New modems set up, internal testing.
Make sure we can get forward-on-busy to Merit number

April 4: Send out email to all users:
    * Announce new numbers, ask them to start using them
    * Explain why
    * Pointer to Web-based documentation for changing setup
    * Information about office hours in case of problems
    * Tell then clearly when the Merit modems will be reduced.

April 18: Send physical letter to all users still calling Merit
number, with same information as above. Be prepared for
lots of phone calls.

May 4: If we still don't have half of users calling new number,
send a second email to all users still calling Merit.

May 18: If we still don't have half of users calling new number,
start worrying. Another letter may be in order, or phone
calls to members.

May 25: If we still don't have half of users calling new number, panic.

June: Merit modems are shut off

Modifications discussed included sending the first e-mail message as soon as the new service is running then again on April 11, 14, 21, 28, May 4, 11. Also discussed was putting information messages on the GFN Web page. E-mail messages to the membership seemed preferred over sending physical letters.

Garry Viele has made contact with Jim Moran at Merit. Kay Schwartz asked if he could get Merit to issue us a 3-month bill so that we're on the same billing year as all the schools and libraries. That way we would pay for 100 modems in March, for 3 months (with apparently no surcharge) and then get onto a full year contract beginning July 1 for some number of modems (40?) with a 12 month commitment (no surcharge) and some number (10?) on a month-to-month basis (with 15% surcharge?) Garry has asked Jim Moran for the information and will inform the board Merit's response.

Garry will also ask for the list of people who can contact Merit on behalf of GFN. If GFN cannot drop to 40 Merit modems in July, consider paying Merit for 40 modems when the year bill ($46,000) is received and paying Merit for 60 modems on a monthly basis, with a surcharge, until the GenTech modems are ready. GenTech monthly billing, after the service is up and running, will be $1578 per month. There is a one time setup charge of $1000.

Montrose coverage with the GenTech service remains a question mark. Reliable information on calling Flint from Montrose is not available. Garry Viele sent a message to the board indicating Merit has 9 lines serving Montrose. Three (3) of the lines are no priority (token required) and six (6) are priority local (no token required.) He also supplied modem information for GFEC (Greater Flint Education Consortium) where three (3) priority local lines (no token required) appear available for GFN use.

Scott Gifford summarized: long term drop to perhaps a dozen modems with Merit. Seek quarterly billing from Merit through June 2005. If cannot get three month billing, when the Merit bill comes pay only the portion we want, 40 modems on a full year basis and 60 modems on a monthly basis with perhaps a 15% surcharge.

Adjournment: 5:49pm.

After adjournment Larry Porn and Scott Gifford discussed modifications for the message to members announcing the new GenTech service. Larry suggested putting the critical information first. Put message on the GFN Web page with setup information and list of numbers for GenTech dial-in use. We don't have the new telephone numbers of lines that will be available and need that data. We will have forward-on-busy. There is a fee but for usage only and it is minimal. (This was confirmed with Dave Curran of GenTech after the board meeting.) Every 10 Merit modems cost $380 per month (about $38 per modem.) Twenty-three (23) GenTech modems are expected to cost $390 per month (about $17 per modem.) It takes about three weeks to add more GenTech modems. Put information on the Web site and extend office hours for the switchover. Have members leave call back numbers and the times they will be available for contact.

Next Meeting:
Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 5:15 pm at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Respectfully Submitted,

Solomon T Johnson, Secretary