MINUTES
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
MAY 7, 1998
OFFICER?S PRESENT:
David C. Whipple (President), Rick Jones (Vice President), CharleneDavis (Secretary), Mike Midiri (Treasurer), Douglas Edmonds (Region 1, Vice President),Jerry Bleck (Region 2, Vice President), David Tuttle (Region 4, Vice President), Norman H.Forshee (Region 6, Vice President), Scott Sylvester (Region 7, Vice President)
OFFICER?S ABSENT:
Sandy Beitel (Region 3, Vice President), Shirley Schable (Region 5, VicePresident), Jeff Rodrigues (Region 8, Vice President).
The General Membership Meeting of INENA was called to order byPresident David C. Whipple at 10:35 a.m. at the Bloomington Public Library in Bloomington,Illinois.
APPROVAL OF INENA MINUTES:
A motion was made by Norman H. Forshee and seconded by Gene Valentine toapprove the minutes of the March 5, 1998 General Membership meeting. The motion passedunanimously.
APPROVAL OF TREASURE?S REPORT (Mike Midiri):
Mike Midiri informed the membership of the following account balances;INENA General Fund – $18, 032.82, INENA Educational Fund – $2,230.73 and Election Fund$4,002.71. A motion was made by Richard Tuma and seconded by Norman Forshee to approve theTreasurer?s Report as submitted. The motion passed unanimously.
INSTALLATION OF INENA 1998 OFFICER?S:
Installation proceedings took place for the following INENA 1998Officers: Mike Midiri (Treasurer) and Jerry Bleck (Region 2, Vice President). One officerinstallation remains.
OFFICER?S REPORTS:
PRESIDENT?S REPORT (David C. Whipple):
President Whipple advised the membership that a number of membersattended a wireless “Critical Issues Forum” in Schaumburg, Illinois. The forumwas sponsored by NENA. This forum also provided the INENA Chapter with an opportunity topromote the candidacy of INENA Past President Norman H. Forshee for 2nd. VicePresident of National NENA.
President Whipple asked for the membership?s support by promotingand voting for Norm in the up-coming election.
Mr. Forshee expressed his thanks to the Executive Board for theirendorsement and support.
VICE PRESIDENT?S REPORT (Richard Jones): Deferred tothe Technology Report
SECRETARY?S REPORT (Charlene D. Davis): No Report
REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS REPORTS:
Region 1 Doug Edmonds No Report
Region 2 Jerry Bleck No Report
Region 3 Sandy Beitel No Report
Region 4 David Tuttle No Report
Region 5 Shirley Schable No Report
Region 6 Norman Forshee The region will host a meeting after the NENAconference in June
Region 7 Scott Sylvester No Report
Region 8 Jeff Rodrigues No Report
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE (Kathy Monken):
The conference committee will conduct a meeting after the July INENAGeneral Membership Meeting.
The 1998 Annual Conference is scheduled for October 25 – October 28,1998 in Decatur, Illinois.
Greg Riddle advised the membership that he is still looking for speakersand ideas for the Annual Conference.
Greg has obtained a commitment from John Melcher (Texas) to speak at theGeneral Session. Please contact Greg via phone or fax with your ideas !
The total financial results of the October ?97 Annual Conference inDecatur, Illinois was $15, 465.64. This amount represents a 79% increase in receipts andis the largest amount ever netted. These funds allow INENA to reach many of their goals,promote Illinois Chapter members to National NENA offices and committee representatives,as well as, pursue the enactment of wireless legislation.
President Whipple extended his thanks to Kathy Monken and the entireConference Committee for all their work.
AWARDS COMMITTEE (Jerry Bleck):
Jerry informed the membership to be ready to submit candidates forrecognition at the Annual Conference. The awards nomination sheet will be included in theMay minutes. (See Attached)
NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE (Norman H. Forshee):
Norm requested anyone interested in seeking an INENA office next year orserving on the Nominations Committee to contact him via phone or fax!
HISTORICAL COMMITTEE (Mike Moos) :
Mike advised the membership the first meeting of this committee isscheduled for May 1, 1998. The committee members are; Mike Moos, Marci Schroll, JerryBleck and Charlene Davis.
CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS (Doug Edmonds and Norm Forshee):
Norm suggested to the membership, INENA Officers take their positionseffective with the Annual Conference instead of the new year. This would allow INENA tosolicit people from the National NENA Organization or other national organizations to cometo the INENA Annual conference meeting and conduct the Installation of Officers ceremony.Norm asked for a show of hands of those members who would support pursuing this by – lawchange.
No members present expressed opposition to the idea. The change would bevoted on at the 1999 INENA Annual Conference General Meeting and become effective with theINENA Annual Conference in 2000.
NATIONAL REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT (Ron Bonneau):
Ron advised the membership this has been an extremely busy year. TheTechnical Issues Director “open position notices” were mailed to the entiremembership and placed on the website. Sixty-three applicants responded. An Executive Boardsub-committee has narrowed the number of applicants to twelve. National NENA hopes toannounce the new Technical Director at the June conference.
Ron also advised the membership there will be an Executive Directorsearch. An outside search firm will be hired. The applications will be available at theNational Conference in June. There will be a sixty day advertisement period for theposition. The initial interviewing process will be completed prior to December 1998 andthe final selection will hopefully be completed by the end of December.
There will be a 3 (three) month training period for the new ExecutiveDirector by Bill Stanton, after which Mr. Stanton will vacate the position and become aStaff Member for 5 (five) months.
Ron stated the organization is extremely proud of Mr. Stanton?saccomplishments and his commitment. He took a 150 member organization to an Internationalorganization of 6,500 members.
Ron also advised the membership Costa Rica, South Africa, Spain andBrazil are interested in being affiliates. There is a committee in place, chaired by Ronand Dick Wells (from Vancouver), to discuss what Canada would like to do with regard tobecoming their own entity or remaining with International NENA. Ron stressed, one of themajor reasons Canada would consider separating from National NENA is the issue of 9-1-1not being an essential service per their CRTC (similar to Canada?s F.C.C.).
Ron stressed to the membership his endorsement of Norm Forshee forNational Office of 2nd Vice President and the value, experience and skills hewould bring to the organization.
Ron presented Rick Jones with his attaché case (a National NENA award)for being the recipient of the INENA Award of Excellence at the 1997 October AnnualConference.
ILLINOIS COMMERCE COMMISSION (Deb Prather):
Deb informed the membership of the following activity:
Cumberland County Order to Operate first week in June
Kendall County and Will County Modification request approved
Perry County Final Plan filed May 4, 1998
Vermilion County E9-1-1 Conversion completed
The ITA has filed Docket # 95-0503, which is a continuation of thePrimary Toll Carrier requirement to dissolve the current compensation agreement betweenthe incumbent LEC?s in Illinois , primarily used for Toll and provisioning specialservice type circuits.
There have been 2 (two) rounds of testimony. The second round oftestimony by the ITA is scheduled for May 13, 1998. Staff will have rebuttal at a laterdate. The second round will be used to identify those systems that will be impacted andthen offer them the opportunity to intervene. The current number of possible systemsimpacted by this docket stands at 12.
Deb explained staff sent a data request last year to new telcosquestioning if they have callboxes and whether or not they are facilities based etc. As aresult of the data request, 5 (five) companies have filed callbox waivers. Hearings havebeen conducted for 3 of the 5 with hearings for the remainder pending. No orders have beenissued.
Deb advised the membership Ameritech recently filed a petition to waivesome of the requirements of the Database Report in Part 725 (Section 725.400 F).
The issue of default routing is the last “major” issueremaining in Part 725 rewrite. Per Deb, the issue is extremely complicated, technical andhas generated increased cost concerns. Based on this issue another Subcommittee IIworkshop has been scheduled for June 10th and 11th. The location isyet to be determined. It is Deb?s intent that approximately 60 days after this lastsubcommittee session, “draft language” will be prepared and distributed. Afollow-up workshop will be scheduled (late summer) to determine if the rule re-write hasmet the 9-1-1 systems and commission objectives.
Deb. also asked that if anyone decides to intervene on an issue toplease let her know in advance. This request is being made in an attempt to expedite therule making process.
All information relating to Part 725 is available on the IllinoisCommerce Commission website www.il.state.us/icc.
ILLINOIS TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOC. (Ron Bloom):
Ron informed the membership that Jack Tharp has retired. The new ITAAttorney is Doug Dockerty.
Ron also informed the membership the CENTREX Trunk Equivalency issue hasre-surfaced. The ITA has filed a petition regarding the rule on the City of Chicago?sjudgment of 1 for 8 trunk equivalency. The rule does not state that CENTREX will now besurcharged at a rate of “one for one”. But, rather the Illinois CommerceCommission does not wave the authority to interpret or determine the ratio.
President Whipple asked INENA Attorney, John Kelly to comment on thestatus of the CENTREX/Trunk Ratio Issue.
Attorney Kelly stated, now that the request has been denied. Theoriginal rule is the “rule of the land” because the First District court is theonly court that has ruled on this issue. The rules impact may possibly be that eachmunicipality and/or county has the authority to negotiate their own ratio with their localtelecommunications carriers. It was stressed that one way this issue could beresolved uniformly would be through legislation. INENA cannot file a “classaction” suit on this issue.
Ameritech E9-1-1 Operations Manger, Gene Valentine, encouraged themembership to remember the CENTREX resellers will be affected and must be considered.These firms currently pay a unit of Ameritech a surcharge rate based on the existing trunkratio. A ruling changing this ratio (i.e. one for one) would have a “majorimpact” on these types of telecommunications businesses.
PART 725 SUB-COMMITTEE (Deb Prather/Rick Jones):
Deb advised the membership that the major issue is default routing. Theissues of testing standards and Local Number Portability will also be addressed in therule.
Rick Jones advised the membership another issue is Callbox Waivers. Oneof the problems described by Rick is as follows; in the Chicago area you have acentralized switch that may serve 7 counties while in the St. Louis area, on the Illinoisside the switch is located on the Missouri side, the callbox scenario does not work. Basedon this issue
PART 725 SUB-COMMITTEE some of the following options werediscussed by some of the new carriers; 1). Should there connection from their customerinto the existing 9-1-1 router fail, utilize diverse routing, 2) if the router fails(which occurs on a minute basis) switch those customers into the “switchednetwork”, 3) in the case of the St. Louis, Missouri scenario
(Ameritech router failure on the Illinois side) calls could be routedover a 7 or 10-digit telephone number provided by the customer.
Rick also stated alternatives have been discussed regarding defaultrouting. One scenario discussed was, MCI and TCG would need approximately 130 additionaltrunks into Ameritech?s router to match Ameritech?s current method ofengineering default routing. Based on this scenario some of the questions asked are; 1)who pays for the additional trunking and 2) who pays for additional routers, due to thefact existing routers would not be capable of handling the large numbers of additionaltrunks.
Rick suggested anyone interested in obtaining a more “indepth” understanding of the issues discussed should plan on attending the June 10thand 11th sub-committee meetings.
Rick also stated the re-write contains a clause on re-addressing,specific to rural route addressing or those addresses that are not 9-1-1 locatable. Thesuggested re-write states the address must be a 9-1-1 “locatable” address.
Rick informed the membership the rule rewrite has little impact on theCity of Chicago due to the uniqueness of their system (i.e. they currently have diverserouting).
Deb Prather and President Whipple expressed thanks to those members whohave provided suggestions and/or expressed concerns.
LOCAL NUMBER PORTABILITY (Rick Jones):
Rick advised the membership that on March 31, 1998 Ameritech turned onLocal Number Portability in the Chicago/Metro area. The total number of new customers (asof approximately 2 weeks prior to this meeting) was 200.
There is another carrier that has applied for the option of portingcustomers.
Rick stated in June Local Number Portability will be turned on inDecatur, Springfield and Champaign.
Rick stated he and many members of the subcommittee had hoped theChicago Metro area would be seeing the “Company ID” on their ALI screens, todate, this has not taken place. CAD and 9-1-1 CPE vendors must be notified.
Ameritech 9-1-1 Operations Manager, Gene Valentine informed themembership SCC has made provisions for this information to be displayed and is in theprocess of refining it on a regional basis. It is SCC?s goal to make all necessarymodifications once verses continually agitating the customer base with updates and/ormodifications.
Gene also advised the members Michigan has formed an AmeritechUser?s Group.
Rick stated the “847” area code will participate in a NumberPooling Trial, beginning June 1, 1998. This is the beginning of the customer basis beingunable to recognize a given area by its? prefix. Once, the trial has beencompleted the next affected area codes are 630 and 708. The “847” area code isalso expected to have a new shared area code.
A meeting will be held on May 8, 1998 in Springfield, Illinois with thelaw enforcement representatives from the Illinois Chiefs of Police, the Sheriff?sAssociation, the State Police and the FBI to discuss what to do when it is discovered theyfrequently change telephone companies, no one will know who to subpoena to obtain a legaltrace on their telephone number.
LAW ENFORCEMENT TRNG./STANDARDS BD. (Mike Moos):
Mike informed the membership the new fiscal year begins July 1, 1998 andfunds will be available for training.
Mike stated he has been advised by the Dept. of Public Health that newIllinois EMD flip chart books are in the process of being printed and will be availablesoon.
Mike also stated he received a call regarding an EMD instructor coursebeing conducted in the Chicago area. Mike advised the members to be sure the courses theyare attending are recognized by the Department of Public Health.
WIRELESS 9-1-1 LEGISLATION STATUS (Norm Forshee);
There was a meeting called by Senator Maitland that determined therewould be a surcharge of 75 cents (except for the City of Chicago). Approximately 25 centsof the 75 cents would go to the wireless carriers for Phase I cost recovery. A chargewould also be subtracted from the surcharge amount for having funds distributed by asingle point (the Sheriff?s Association). The surcharge would be submitted everymonth, once the cycle begins (180 days defines the initial cycle) after the bill issigned. The surcharge will be distributed first by zip code and secondly, where zip codessplit between systems, the receipt of the funds would be based on the MSAG. Theapproximate net amount a system will receive, per subscriber is 48 cents, if thelegislation is passed as discussed. Norm stressed, the average wireless surcharge amountacross the United States is 75 cents.
Norm also advised the membership that at the Telco/Vendor Conference,there was an excellent presentation on what cost may be incurred in the Phase II process.The speaker encouraged the need to partner with the vendors in the development of Phase IIneeds/issues.
Norm explained the Illinois Commerce Commission was named as aparticipant in the legislation and that the funds can be used to set technical andoperational standards without regulatory authority (i.e. price determination).
President Whipple informed the membership Senator Maitland was given atour of the McClean County 9-1-1 center by Bill Gamblin.
Mr. Gamblin stated to the membership he expressed, to Senator Maitland,some concerns of the 9-1-1 centers have, namely liability in call handling and the cost tothe systems.
The May 7, 1998 INENA meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.
REMINDERS:
The INENA General Membership Meeting Minutes are on the INTERNET at thefollowing website address:
http://www.geocities.com/~inena
The next General Membership Meeting is scheduled for Thursday,July 9, 1998 at the Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive St., Bloomington,Illinois.
Remaining 1998 INENA General Membership Meetings:
July 9, 1998 Bloomington Public Library, 205 East Olive St.,Bloomington, IL.
Sept. 3, 1998 Bloomington Public Library, 205 East Olive St.,Bloomington, IL.
Oct. 27, 1998 *Annual General Meeting, Decatur Holiday Inn, Decatur,IL.
ALL MEETINGS BEGIN AT 10:30 A.M.