[RTC List] Follow-up from RTC luncheon

Tue Jun 9 15:01:14 PDT 2009

Some good thoughts Larry. The board is meeting today at 4 and I will 
bring your post to the meeting to see what kind of traction we can get 
on these matters.

Larry Goldberg wrote:
> First of all, kudos to all who organized and pulled off yesterday's 
> luncheon.  Job well done and I, for one, thought it was very effective 
> (and timely).
>
> Now the hard work must begin.  Unfortunately, the "take-away" from the 
> meeting (everyone, please correct me if I'm wrong) were the following:
>
>     * No one is in charge.  There are a lot of players all
>       volunteering to help make something happen, but no one is
>       coordinating everything. Jacqueline Debets (Humboldt Co.
>       Economic Dev. Dept.) stated one of the more notable
>       contributions by saying that a "Prop. 50-type" organization was
>       being organized with a circulating MOU between several counties
>       behind the scenes and that this entity, if it's ever formed, may
>       become a conduit for all projects.
>     * "Jump into the pool - the water's great" (Connie Stewart) - all
>       projects are welcome (there are no sharks in the water, to our
>       knowledge).  While there is no process for submitting a
>       proposal, no guidelines to meet and no stated goals or
>       objectives, everyone can volunteer their project for future
>       consideration.
>     * While there is a concept being circulated for eight separate
>       fiber links in Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino and Trinity
>       counties, there are "only one concept" and have not been adopted
>       or even discussed at length.  They are just one more "idea in
>       the hopper" for future consideration.
>     * There is no census on ownership of any publicly-funded project.
>        This topic requires some serious discussion insofar as we are
>       spending our children's inheritance so we better get it right!
>     * Sean McLaughlin has advanced an idea that I believe has merit.
>        He calls it the "70-10-10-10" concept.  His idea, as I
>       understand it, is as follows: set aside 70% of whatever money is
>       received (or requested) for middle-mile projects (regardless of
>       the technology used), 10% for wireless projects (primarily to
>       reach outlying communities which may not be on any fiber path),
>       10% for public agencies (and adoption education efforts) and 10%
>       for last-mile and pilot projects.  I think this is something
>       that merits additional discussion and, if we can agree on it, we
>       should lobby for this to whoever does the final proposal.
>     * Humboldt Co. (several representatives were present) needs to
>       take an active role in this process, but has yet to take any
>       "official" stand.  I recommend that we request that a discussion
>       item be added to an upcoming BOS agenda for time to discuss this
>       issue and begin to get a plan in place for how to proceed.
>     * Time is of the essence.  We stand to lose our "edge" by falling
>       behind the timeline.  Regs are expected to be out by mid-July,
>       so we have approximately 30 days to get our act together.  We
>       all want this to succeed, but it could easily degenerate into a
>       free-for-all if no one steps up to the plate to get this process
>       organized.  I personally would like to see Kathy Moxon and Sean
>       McLaughlin take lead roles (along with Connie who is de facto
>       leading the charge right now) to get the process organized and
>       begin the vetting process (develop criteria for meeting our
>       needs & develop a "master plan" to determine how we want to
>       proceed).  Combined with an outside consultant (several names
>       have been circulated) we can get on track but we need to move NOW.
>
>
> Given the uncertainty of everything related to this issue coupled with 
> the potentially vast amount of money which may be in play (at least 
> 10's of millions of $, I expect), we should be organizing, as a group, 
> RIGHT NOW.  In my opinion, it is not enough that the RTC have a 
> quarterly luncheon, listen politely to some speakers and go back to 
> our business assuming that "someone" is taking care of things.  We 
> need to ORGANIZE now and, at a minimum, develop a platform for what we 
> want to see come out of this process.  To this end, I recommend to the 
> RTC board that any or all of the following be considered:
>
>     * Convene "emergency" meeting of RTC membership to discuss these
>       issues and develop a strategy for how we're going to help in the
>       process
>     * Develop an official RTC statement of our recommended objectives
>       for any project which emerges from the process to address our
>       region's long-term broadband needs.  This should NOT come from
>       one individual or even the board as a group, we need the
>       membership involved in this!
>     * Develop working committees who will volunteer to help with
>       technical vetting, organizational management and whatever else
>       it will take to get the best proposal developed by the community
>     * Start meeting with elected officials to educate them on the
>       matter and get their "buy-in" for everyone to work together on
>       this project
>     * Monitor the process with regular updates to everyone to keep us
>       all "in the loop" as fast-breaking news develops
>
>
> That's my two cents worth,  I would love to hear from others on how 
> they think we should proceed.  I must emphasize, however, that we 
> don't have time to waste.  I know it's June and lots of folks are 
> thinking about vacations and Summer projects, but this is probably the 
> biggest single opportunity that we, as a group, have ever had to deal 
> with since RTC was formed.  I, for one, don't want to lose our 
> standing as an area who has spent as much time analyzing our needs 
> only to fall down when it really counts.
>
> As an aside, I should mention that we have a Google Group forum, 
> Northcoast Broadband Forum 
> (northcoast-broadband-forum at googlegroups.com 
> <mailto:northcoast-broadband-forum at googlegroups.com>), which was 
> organized after last year's Broadband conference to discuss topics 
> just like this.  I recommend that anyone seriously interested in this 
> topic sign up (or send me a request and I'll sign you up) so we can 
> continue this discussion online in-between our infrequent meetings. 
>  We should post all proposals, documentation and public discussion 
> topics so anyone who may be interested can participate.  Just an idea.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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