Barbour County CDC office

Philippi, WV

10am-12am

Directions to Philippi from I79 Take the US-119/US-33 exit 99 to Weston/Buckhannon
Travel on US-119 N/US-33 E - go 12 mi	12 mi 10 mins
Take the WV-20 ramp to Buckhannon/Philippi/(US-119 N) - go 0.2 mi	0.2 mi
Turn left at US-119 N - go 0.2 mi	0.2 mi
Continue on US-119 - go 20 mi	20 mi 27 mins
Arrive at Philippi, WV 26416 Cross the Wooden Bridge into town to the first stoplight. The Barbour County CDC is directly in front of you on the corner. 124 N. Main Street 304-457-1225

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Marcel Fortin

Members Present

Jerry Edens, Jim Anderson, Dick Bartlett, Marcel Fortin

Guests Present

Gwen Hagaman

Partners Present

Approval of Minutes

Motion: Dick Bartlett Second: Jim Anderson All Vote Yes

Correspondence

Unfinished Business

1. “ WV. Distressed Communities Broadband Assessment Project” (BAP)

Next phase is return to communities for follow up discussion.

Discussed the Southern WV. Broadband Summit and how the BAP was quoted by the FCC chairman, Senator Rockefeller and Congressman Rahall. An article appeared through the AP service on Saturday, Sept. 16^th. discussing broadband and promoting Senator Rockefellers summity that referred to our survey. Marcel had been interviewed by an AP report when he provided testimony for the Legislative interims about the Alliance and the survey. The reporter included our information as part of that article and the article was carried throughtout WV, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Great exposure for our group and Marcel has received numerous emails and calls about the article.

2. 05/06 Benedum Grant

Brochures are in different stages of development. The Broadband conference is set for Oct 3^rd at the Charleston Marriot Pavilion. All members are urged to attend. Conference agenda is attached.

Barbour county has there brochure and will be going to print. 1500 copies 4 color for $560.00

3. 501c3 Status

The Alliance is officially a 501c3 organization! We need to discuss fundraising and plans for the future.

Marcel has been approached by different groups wanting assistance in applying for grants. Barbour County has offered to continue to provide the fiscal services working under our certificate and commented how effective we have been in spending our funds and that the banker that they work with for this project is impressed.

4. AllianceWV.org Website

Website enhancements being developed to create a site that reflects the identities of each of our champions. Suggestions are welcome.

Discussions on why the website was offline and all the efforts that Steve Reynolds did to move everything to another web hosting site. Thanks go out Steve!! . Marcel commented that the site was not aware of the site being down until 2 people contacted him to tell him as they were trying to find out what the Alliance was all about. Fortunately everything was up and running prior to the AP article coming out as Marcel received several emails asking for assistance in getting help to get broadband in areas throughout WV. These events show that the website is an important tool we need to use and make as user friendly as possible. Comments have been that our site is extremely informative and that it provides anyone with up to date information as to what we are doing.

5. Coal Connectivity Grant

Meetings have been held with Coal Industry representatives and we will be formalizing these relationships to create some type of industry committee. There is a high level of interest in assisting the industry to become more technology focused.

Marcel discussed meetings that are taking place with the Coal Association as to how we can help them get through the technology maize. The have been getting a lot of snake oil salesmen, as they call them, offering solutions to the safety issues they are confronted with and asked for us to help them sort through the proposals.

New Business

Benedum request for assistance in creating a Community Technology project. Benedum grantees were asked to strategize on creating a mini grant type project to begin Jan 07.

The Benedum Foundation called their technology grantees to a meeting on Oct 13. Grantees attending were the Alliance, Community Connect Foundation, Mission WV., Connect Corridors, WV. State Chamber and Glenville State College. She wants someone to spearhead a minigrant project and wants all these groups to colloborate. Funding is available as the Benedum has created a new strategic focus for their organization with Community Technology and how it could be applied to all their areas of concentration.

Reports: Community Reports

The reports presented last meeting showed the progress from the champions in attendance.

We need to hear from the others so we can share experiences and best practices.

Speaker:

Gwen Hagaman will provide a recap of brochure activities

Gwen Hagaman was present and discussed the brochure and the difficulty in getting busy people to work on this. She has committed to do what ever it takes to get each group to get through the process

Next meeting:

Oct. 18, 2006 Location: TBA

Adjournment

12:00 pm

Motion: Jerry Edens Second: Jim Anderson

Respectfully submitted: Marcel J. Fortin