Attendees: Mike Shaughnessy, Bill Fiske, Jonathan Gallishaw, Jim Monti, Peter Adamy, Sharon Hussey, Pam Christman, Steve Foehr and by invitation Julie from Verizon

Minutes from the December 17, 2004 meeting were reviewed and approved.

New Business
2005 Updates to Salary Schedule

• Sharon presented the proposed changes to the hourly and salaried ranges in accordance with last year's decision to adjust the schedule.


• Bill expressed an interest in keeping the low end of the ranges in line with state wages. Sharon explained that she had structured RINET's ranges that way last year and this year's changes are minimal updates (based on the same index used by the federal government).


• The difference between part-time employees and consultants was discussed.

Mike moved to approve the 2005 Salary Schedule and Jim Monti seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously.

Unfinished Business
Bandwidth Rates for 05-06

Bill made a motion to accept the bandwidth rates as presented by Sharon and Peter Adamy seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously.

Reports

• Sharon reported briefly on the performance review for the Manager of Network Operations and services. The Board expressed its approval.
  
• It is noted that the November and December minutes were approved electronically.
  
• Sharon also reported on the most recent OSHEAN Board Meeting. It was a successful meeting resulting in a very positive resolution focusing on the creation of a paper on the ways in which OSHEAN can work with the K-12 community through RINET. Outside the meeting, Everett expressed an interest in returning to RINET board meetings in the future. It was also brought up that RINET may have services that OSHEAN would like to buy in the future. RINET is also very interested in some of the work that OSHEAN is doing with the creation of security products.

Discussion

• Sharon reported on the offer of RINET membership to CLAN in response to recent discussions between OSHEAN, RINET, and CLAN. CLAN represents 73 sites. CLAN has chosen to become a RINET member for the 05-06 academic year and will be using RIDE's 470 for their E-rate application this year.
  
• Mike suggested that RINET should show good faith to OSHEAN by increasing the amount of bandwidth purchased through OSHEAN in a way that makes good business sense to RINET.
  
• Sharon also mentioned that RINET would likely be purchasing other products from OSHEAN as well.
  
• The Board respects Sharon's ability to make short-term decisions that would foster long-term relationships. Furthermore, it is agreed that an MOU with OSHEAN regarding this issue would be unnecessary.
  
• Mike Shaughnessey brought up the idea that we may need to examine in the future the possibility of having CLAN representation on the board. The other question is: would we look at CLAN as a separate business line, or as part of the school category? There is no problem with commingling school and library services so most likely it would make sense to keep them in the same business line.
  
• Mike brought up the importance of balanced school membership on the RINET BOD. He discussed the addition of a private and parochial representative and the way in which the addition of a library seat would affect the K-12 balance.
  
• Peter Adamy addressed the importance of choosing board members strategically, so that even non-K-12 members have a relationship with and an interest in the K-12 community.
  
• Jim M. also brought up the fact that in practice we operate by consensus, not by a majority vote, so a Board member's concerns are not ignored by forcing a majority vote.
  
• There are three seats in question that the Board of Governance needs to address. The Brown seat, a possible CLAN seat and a possible Private and Parochial seat.

• Julie presented an overview of the program. It would be a special offer available only through RINET to teachers. It is not available statewide, but the online signup site will be able to determine if a given home can qualify. Asymmetric speed: 1.5 download 384 upload. Distance from the CO will affect actual speed. As expected with the standard consumer offering, Verizon will handle customer service.
  
• The $50 rebate and the customized website make this different from Verizon's standard consumer offer.
  
• There could be multiple levels of service if that were to be desirable. Sharon agreed that multiple levels might be a useful option. Julie will investigate. It might be possible to bring in teachers who already have DSL by allowing them to upgrade to a faster connection or a year contract.
  
• Mike brought up an interesting point about using a secure VLAN that could access the Internet through RINET's bandwidth. Could that reduce cost? RINET might pay a startup fee. This would have a ton of value added and the Board was enthusiastic about this possibility.
  
• It could be expanded to include the broader school community and would help to bring the promise of data-driven decision making into homes of teachers, administrators and students/parents.
  
• Steve noted that RIDE is interested in creating a metadirectory to provide a single login for the myriad computer-based services. This could be a way for Verizon to compensate for Cox's lead in the market. Julie will take this idea back to the office.
  
• The possible new direction does not make the DSL offer null and void. That can be pushed out in March and this can come later.

Under Bill's authority, Mike moved to adjourn and Jim Monti seconded. Meeting adjourned at 11:15.