Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, October 12, 2006

Board Members Present: Floyd Child, Marido Huber, Andrew Hedden, Joel Rainville,
Joan Higinbotham, Tamir Nolley, Tom Cassidy, Robert Vose
Board Members Absent: Kevin Jenkins
Ex-Officio Present: Lance Leupold, Edie French
Others Present: Pamela Colby, Beth Peloff, Jim Derks

Child called the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m. Turn off cell phones.

I.Opening Business

A. Comments from public, staff and board - none.
B. Approval of the agenda. Approve Agenda. Item 2C should be Comcast.
MSP Nolley, Higinbotham.
C. Approval of Minutes from the September meeting. Move Rainville from
absent to present. MSP Hedden, Nolley. Approve minutes MSP,
Higinbotham, Hedden.



III. Reports

A. City of Minneapolis - C. John Harrison not present.
Colby said mere was no report from city.

C. Comcast Report - Lance Leupold presented
The subscriber count is 78,628 in September. Comcast sent out its first
mailing to subscribers listing changes in billing system. Switching high speed
Internet and digital voice to from Time Wamer to Comcast. Prices have not
changed yet. Roadrunner email addresses will change to Comcast.net.

B. Executive Director's Report - Colby presented
Business plan. The Franchise Officer Gail Plewacki has requested that we
submit a business plan for next year. The Capital Needs Budget and Operating
Budgets have not approved by board and so are not included. This business
plan includes some new performance measures, including tracking the
demographics of who attends classes. We are working on new tools for
tracking statistics. The board has until Monday to give feedback. Send
feedback through email by Monday morning. Motion: for board to adopt
proposal to let Executive Committee approve document. It must be approved
by Tues at 9 AM when Colby has a meeting with Plewacki. MS Higinbotham,
Rainville. Discussion. Vose asked if financial document includes equipment
needs? Vose said that he believes the city's needs assessment represents the
city's position. Staff may have a different idea, but this is the city's position.
Higinbotham asked if the city adopted this report as their policy. If not, they
aren't bound by it. Child asked if we can take out the capital plan. Rainville
said that this business plan is just for next year. The franchise agreement is a
different thing. Vose says he doesn't want MTN to say something in a
business plan the boxes us in. Vose suggested that we add a capital section
that says our capital needs are reflected in the needs assessment and then say
what we need out of the needs assessment for the next year. Child asked if
Colby can get the business plan done and approved between now and
Tuesday. Colby said there is not that much to do, but she has been told by
city staff the needs assessment is only a wish list. She said the only option is
to pursue the issue at a political level. Colby said that Rainville is planning to
come to the meeting with Plewacki on Tuesday and asked if any other board
members would be able to attend. No one else committed at this time. Huber
said she would like to get approval of the business plan from the whole board
not just executive committee. The previous motion was withdrawn by
Higinbotham and Rainville. A new motion: that the board work on business
plan that Colby will email tomorrow before noon and then discuss it and vote
online by Monday at noon. MS Huber, Higinbotham. Discussion. Vose,
speaking against the motion, said he would like to empower Colby to decide
when enough people have voted. Higinbotham, speaking for the motion, said
that we need a majority (5 board members) to vote to approve it. French asked
if ex officio members could comment. Yes, but they can't vote. Nolley said
he feels like this is not enough time to make a decision about it. Colby said
that we knew there would be some time crunches, but we need everyone to
make the time for it. If you need to, you can abstain. MSP Huber,
Higinbotham.

Operating budget. It will be included in the business plan, which will be
emailed tomorrow.
New office space: Colby passed out a letter from John Rimarcik about
swapping office space. The deal is almost complete. We will meet with John
around technology needs and improvements to the space.
We just got a new phone system. It works well, with just a few kinks.
Next Friday we are hosting a regional NAMAC meeting.
We are hiring an administrative assistant to help with bookkeeping and
Access to Art publicity.
We are completing the fourth show of MTN Access to Art. Ask Beth if you
would like a DVD copy of it.
Server. Update from Jim Derks: We bought the first of a new model and have
found a few bugs. We sent it away for 1 month and it came back 3 weeks ago.
There's also lots of work to do on logistics. Martin is trying to come up with a
tape numbering system and a system for allocating channel time. We plan to
launch the new server at the end of January.


C. Minneapolis Public Schools - Edie French presented
The Schools are also implementing a server based playback system for
increased flexibility.

D. Treasurer's Report: none

November 9, 006 next meeting

III. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 6:38 p.m. MSP Nolley, Hedden.