HomeMy WebLinkAboutNACACMeetingMinutes_01-19-2016
North Andover Cable Television Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
th
Date: January 19, 2016
Time: 5pm-6pm
Place: Police Department 1st Floor Conference Room, 1475 Osgood St, North Andover, MA
01845
Attendees:
Committee Present: Christopher McClure (Non - voting)
Ronn Faigen (Chairman)
Brian Fraser (Non- Voting)
Chanida Oros
Paul F. Blinn
Other Committee: Arthur Fundeklain
(absent) Robert Parker
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Agenda
● Call to Order
● Acceptance of Minutes
● Discuss Initial Letter to verizon and Scheduling Ascertainment Hearing
● Old Business : Attorney Selection and Timeline
● New Business : Discuss Negotiation Strategy and Goals
● Adjournment
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Meeting was called to order by Ronn Faigen at 5:00pm.
Approval of Minutes
Ronn Faigen, CAC Chairman, made a request for meeting minutes of the previous meeting to be available
on the CAC drive a day or two before the next scheduled meeting. All in favor. Ronn Faigen made a
th
motion to approve minutes of January 12. All in favor.
Discuss Initial Letter to verizon and Scheduling Ascertainment Hearing
CAC members reviewed the draft of letter to Verizon, in reply to Verizon renewal commencement,
submitted by Attorney Bill August as of January 14th, 2016. CAC members discussed that they feel
comfortable that there is no specific timeline mentioned in the drafted response letter. Ronn Faigen made
a motion to approve the draft of the letter. All in favor. Christopher McClure stated that he will inform
Bill August so Bill August will send the approved response letter to Verizon.
Old Business : Attorney Selection and Timeline
Christopher McClure summarized that now CAC has retained the attorney and ready to start developing
timeline. Christopher McClure mentioned that CAC should start looking at identifying timeline for public
hearing as Bill August suggested. Ronn Faigen suggested that CAC should look at Fall 2016 ( September
or October 2016) for the hearing which will give us time to work on our strategies and our assessment.
Chanida Oros mentioned that CAC should look into conducting a survey to gauge the town’s overall
satisfaction level.Chanida Oros stated that there is a need to develop a study to understand a list of cable-
related needs and interests of the city’s residents so we all can be well prepared for the hearing. Chanida
Oros also suggested that CAC members to review the previous Verizon’s agreement to understand the
agreements in the previous license for further ascertainment. Ronn Faigen stated that the town of North
Andover had already conducted the thorough understanding study before granting Verizon’s initial
license. Chanida Oros suggested that town can do a simple survey so we can understand town’s residents
overall satisfaction and potential issues that might come up during the hearing. Christopher McClure
suggested he can help putting together an online survey for residents. Chanida Oros suggested that CAC
should start looking at the survey developed by other towns. Chanida Oros also asked a question
regarding the previous agreement and if there is a need to do look into if Verizon has complied to certain
agreements as signed in the previous contract. Brian Fraser stated that he remembers that there are few
clauses that Verizon agrees on and we probably need to do some compliance assessment.
New Business : Discuss Negotiation Strategy and Goals
Brian Fraser stated that to further analyze the cable’s related needs, CAC also needs to discuss with other
key stakeholders such as schools etc. CAC members discussed that we need to understand our budget
needs before developing our negotiation strategies. Brain stated that he is working on his cable studio
budget for CAC to review in the near future. Ronn Faigen discussed about CAC cabled data needs such as
homepassed, penetration, revenue per subscribers etc. Chanida Oros suggested that CAC should make a
request to Verizon as Verizon should have all data that CAC needs. CAC also agreed to make a wishlist
for data to share with Christopher McClure to forward to Verizon.
Other Business
Ronn Faigen mentioned that he has a friend whom he wants to ask to join CAC to ensure that we have all
CAC votes for quorum as we are moving forward on this project. He also encourages all members to
recruit new volunteers as well.
Next Steps
● Christopher McClure to inform Bill August that CAC has approved the response letter to Verizon
and voted to proceed to send it off to Verizon.
● Ronn Faigen asked Christopher McClure to contact Verizon’s representative to gather important
database such as town subscribers, town homepassed, town penetration % and subscriber revenue
for further analysis.
● All CAC members to review Verizon’s initial license to understand clauses for compliance needs.
● All members to gather ideas for developing our initial cable satisfaction online survey.
Adjournment
Meeting was unanimously adjourned at 5:55 pm. Respectfully submitted by Chanida Oros, Committee
Member.
Upcoming Meeting Date
nd.
February 2, 2016, 5pm-6pm, Police Department 1st Floor Conference Room, 1475 Osgood St, North
Andover, MA 01845 (TBC)