Northern New Mexico T.A.G.
Minutes – Sept 19, 2000

The meeting started at 10:15am . Some folks had to turn back due to the closure of Hwy 284/85.

NEXT TAG MEET: 10-12noon Monday October 23rd at Del Norte Credit Union in Pojoaque, just south of the Casino.

Judith follow up e-commerce forum
Lisa Ed and Susan follow up pub pol forum
John put together the two community plan approaches
John start inputting maps from TAG site, consolidated into one, as able....(coordinates not available so need simple solution for integration) PV chair E-Zone creation and exploration
Lisa Ed and Pv bang out leg agenda in format to be distributed for lobbying support

PV and Chuck update membership list and reqs

John Dawson reported that the State has 4 people that are doing GIS maps and that the group has some capacity. John is willing have some mapping work done for TAG as long as it doesn't interfere with other work. The GIS maps can be done at street level or any Level desired by the group. Pat V. said that he would provide the GTE maps for Northern New Mexico to John for input to the map project. There was discussion about how to get information into the maps and Monica volunteered to try and get a copy of the LATTIS program for TAG. LATTIS has the street locations of all of the Telephone company offices. Susan reported that the PRC rulings require boundary maps for baseline reporting for switching systems and fiber-optic cables. Susan will check and see if the maps are available to the public or if they have been provided to the PRC under non-disclosure agreements.

Pat V spoke of the "telecom road show" covering the state, with Ed, Pat V, Pat F and Roberto Salazar giving presentations to educate communities across the state about telecom. Lisa reported Judith, Belinda Padilla and she met to lay out an agenda for a January e-commerce forum as a follow up to last year's Taos conference. The forum will answer "how to" e-commerce questions that surfaces at the previous forum. It will again be in Taos. See following report. Pat V spoke of the TAG calendar on which telecom events can be posted. Telecom "101" presentations are planned for ENIPC after the Native American FCC conference, ITTI. The Regional Telecom Coalition have also asked for one. Scholarships for Native Americans to ITTI are available thru NITI. See www.NITI.org. ENIPC is sending some folks. NITI has a contract with an attorney to help Native Americans file with the FCC and is producing a providers book for the Tribes (for all the country, not just our region.)

Susan gave a run down of the public policy forum planned for later in the year. October has too many conferences planned to hold the forum then. PRC regs were discussed. Topics included the PRC's ability to "fore bear" legislation, how the PRC can create an atmosphere of partnership to solve the state's problems as opposed to adversarial relationships, the state legislature's ability to set minimum bandwidth standards, and an architecture designed to attract telecoms to serve less desirable markets by initially lowering barriers to entry then changing to a structure more conducive to competition and normal market activities.

The creation of telecom enterprise zones like in Malaysia was discussed. A TAG committee was formed to create such a territory in the state (guidelines, strategy, etc). A meeting is planned for October 5th from 9-11, at NITI. Dubbed "E-Zone," it will be chaired by PV. Parking is in the lot across the street on San Francisco, only in the spots numbered 7-13, or try the Hilton's lot.

Pat V laid out a list of incentives that can be adopted by public bodies to stimulate investment in telecom. They include:

1. Share state bandwidth
2. Accelerated depreciation for telecom facilities
3. State infrastructure fund
4. Minimum bandwidth standards
5. Model statutes to align policies across territories (see www.mrsc.org)

Others mentioned were streamlining right of ways and IRBs. Next pub pol meet will be 11-12noon Oct 5th, following the E-Zone meeting.

Pat F said the Jemez Co-op telecom study will be done October 15th. The status of the RCTC could not be covered due to Cristina's absence. John Dawson is going to put together his community template plan (a status report approach) with Ed's community master plan (a things to do approach) to make a consolidated approach. The "E-zone" project will be a new community project since it is part of the solution for places like Rio Chama.

Ed and Lisa have written and submitted a proposal to the RDC to fund a regional telecom plan and finish the region's biz cases.

Pat V and Chuck have been nominated to co-chair membership. PV said the reqs are on line and will stand. Existing members can nominate new members to Chuck and PV, with the final say by the membership chair. Chuck and Pat will review current list and update the TAG web page listing.

1. Workshop development: Lisa Cochran, Belinda Padilla (Technology Commercialization Office at LANL), and I met and began discussion for an ecommerce conference to be held in Taos in January or February 2001 - this will be a part-2 to the Ecommerce 2000 Summit held in January 2000 sponsored by the TCO LANL, La Plaza, Electronic Commerce Resource Center, and National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

We discussed inviting Senator Domenici to be keynote speaker and will be contacting his office once we have a definite date for the conference. We will also be contacting TAG members for both cash and inkind contributions for the conference.

2. TAG's website address is www.laplaza.org/TAG. A calendar has been added to advertise and post telecommunication events in northern New Mexico. To add an event, simply go to the website, link on the calendar icon, complete the event form, and click on submit. I am manager, only due to convenience, of the calendar and I will approve all submissions for advertising.

3. Media Campaign - we need to develop a media campaign to publicize TAG and its mission. The following list of ideas for articles was developed to spark community interest in TAG and telecommunication issues in northern NM. Please review and contact me or Lisa Cochran, trade@nm.net if you or someone with your agency or company would be able to write the article for publication. We will also be contacting community members to write articles.........an obvious local point of view.

Are the telecom right of ways really paved with gold in NM or should we give away egress to get the infrastructure in faster.

Case studies-
How small businesses did well in rural areas-
we need names and examples feature in a series local people in small communities.

Horror stories of connection problems

Dirty copper

Incentives for competition

Businesses who left or took operations out of town as the infrastructure was not available.

Small businesses doing big things with ecommerce, like selling Santos in Japan

Patching together technologies to get there from here

Myths in the e-commerce game

Winners and losers in the telecom game

Mapping the infrastructure

Creative ways when can't get service - wireless Internet, etc

List of providers offering what and where

Setting service standards for growth not status quo

Sandra Necessary's program

How policy affects the big picture (like BLM gouging despite need for infrastructure)

4. Volunteers for membership on the Consumer Education Committee Who among us can/will volunteer time, ideas, energy and would be able to meet either face-to-face or virtually? I will be contacting you for assistance.