There were approximately 10 counties represented at the meeting (some counties had multiple reps) and also 4 persons from INDICO.

Financial report stated that the group has $40,000 currently – and WayNet has not yet paid its dues. I informed them that we would need an invoice & it would be paid promptly.

First on the agenda was a report by Dr. Rosenbaum on the IU research project concerning state funded Community Networks in Indiana. (You’ll remember that HUGE survey form you all received last summer.) While interesting, most of the research took place prior to last December. Since that is like 5 years in Internet time – the research is already outdated. He will be sending us a copy to review in detail.

Jerry Sullivan gave us an update on the INDICO site. This was the only "touchy" part of the day. If you haven’t visited the INDICO site lately – drop by (http://www.ai.org/indico/) . There was definitely some unrest on the part of the Community ‘Nets in the way the site was changed and handled this past spring. Instead of going directly to the county community net they’ve made visitors go through several more "clicks" to get to our respective sites. Jerry explained the reasoning behind this and how we could try to get our site listed directly.

We then had a panel discussion of the experiences of several of the community nets including Crawford County/NobleCAN/ and Indianapolis OnLine. While we are all different – some still using volunteer help, some use directors, some function as ISP’s, some are leaving the ISP route and becoming more information brokers. All are struggling with the idea of sustainability.

The best thing to come out of the discussion was an agreement to set up a mailing list that is limited to people on the ICNA contact list only. There was consensus that we had valuable information to share among ourselves – but that the ICNA-M list had become so broad that we were all reluctant to post to it. Once it’s up and running I will forward all pertinent information to the board.

Another idea that was discussed was the potential we had as a group for political activism. While we are non-profit and cannot "hire" a lobbyist – we can act as a group to let our representatives know how we feel regarding financial support for community nets at the state level. We discussed the possibility of hiring someone to watch and interpret the current legislation and informing the community nets. Although there were only about 20 people in that room – you can go backwards and figure they each represent at least a 12 person board – which represents many interests in many communities across the state. We really could have quite an impact if we act as one voice.