The Shutesbury-Leverett Broadband Group is meeting tonight at 7pm at
Shutesbury Town Hall. We are over seventy-five people, but you don't
need to be a member to come by!

Possible agenda items:

1. Shout it out! It is generally agreed that making more noise, and
doing a better job to get the word out can have a dramatic effect. This
is annoying sometimes, but it is relatively easy and POWERFUL. In your
correspondance, say:

- I want service;
- There is no cable provider or DSL providers;
- The Town is interested in attracting providers;
- You represent a group of over seventy five households, neighborhood
associations, and individuals who are town officials;
- Please make a record of the overwhelming interest in high speed
internet from you and the entire town of Shutesbury, or to transfer you
to someone who can do so;
- I have attached a one-page description of our efforts (attached as
word doc here) to your emails;
- Would you like me to send you some additional amterials or put yopu on
our mailing list?

CONTACT INFO FOR COMCAST:
Go to https://comcast.com/localization/Default.asp and fill out the form.
Go to http://comcast.com/ContactUs/customerservice.asp and fill out the
form.
Email: eastern_press@cable.comcast.com,
chq_publicrelations@cable.comcast.com,
corporate_communications@comcast.com, and comcast recipients listed
above if you chose.
Call: 888-633-4266

CONTACT INFO FOR VERIZON:
Email: more_information@cable.comcast.com, michael.pequignot@verizon.com
Go to www.verizon.net to fill out the "Can I get DSL?" form
Go to http://biz.verizon.net/pands/dsl/availability.asp to fill out the
DSL for businesses form.
Call (800) 567-6789 and (877) 483-5793 or (888) 649-9500.

CONTACT INFO FOR REPRESENTATIVES:
Congressman John Olver: 202-225-5335, 413-532-7010,
State Representative Stephen Kulik: Rep.StephenKulik@hou.state.ma.us,
413-772-2727, 617-722-2210
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg, 413-484-1649, 617-722-1532,
Sen.StanRosenberg@senate.state.ma.us, srosenb@k12s.phast.umass.edu

2. Committee Status. Better to discuss in person.

3. Political report. Michael Dichiara will be hosting a meeting with
State Representitive Stephen Kulik
(www.state.ma.us/legis/member/s_k1.htm) and a couple us to discuss our
efforts with Comcast, Verizon, and the several finance-it-ourselves
wireless, DSL, cable, and fiber optic scenarios. Michael has also been
in contact with Congressman Olver's aide, Kristen Wood about federal
financing options. And we are planning to approach Congressman Rosenberg
soon, too.

4. Other financing and grant information.

5. Mark Bucciarelli has done some research into sucessful
Fiber-to-the-Home build-outs around the country. There are over seventy
of them up and running already (www.ftthcouncil.org). Marketing,
financing, and technology are just a few of the aspects that should be
discussed.

6. Aron Goldman attended a Franklin Hampshire Connect Steering Committee
meeting last week in Greenfield. I was very well received, and came away
with some good contacts, some reasons to be encouraged, and some reasons
to not be encouraged.

7. Comcast. Better to discuss in person.

8. Aron Goldman met with the head of Hidden Tec (hidden-tec.net), Amy
Zuckerman. They have 400 members. I would like to discuss areas for
collaboration, and announce their next event: June 16, 5-8 pm in Three
Rivers. An author of a book on rural technology, Joel Kotkin, and a
researcher with federal funding, Delore Zimmerman, will be there and
interested in learning more about regional needs. See the web site for
more info. Also, apparently you don't need to be a tech professional to
be part ot it, you just need to use tech to accomplish your work.

9. Thanks to Stephen Bannasch, we have a great online survey
(http://deanbrook.org/broadband/survey.html), and we are getting more and
more media coverage:

"RESIDENTS SEEK FASTER CONNECTION," May 28, 2003, Betsy Calvert, The
Springfield Republican
http://www.masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1054107178307460.xml?nnhf%3E

"Shutesbury Eyes Cable Co-op," Richie Davis, The Greenfield Recorder,
April 14, 2003

"What's New?", www.shutesbury.org, April 2003

"Group to Explore Faster Internet," Amherst Bulletin, Jan 17, 2003

"Residents Want to Surf," Scott Merzbach, Hampshire Gazette, Jan 11-12, 2003

"Broadband in Shutesbury?", Our Town, p.1, Jan 2003

--
Aron P. Goldman
Policy Development
73 Weatherwood Road
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
Tel: 413 549 1193 Fax: 413 549 1194
Email: goldman@policydevelopment.org
Website: www.policydevelopment.org