Hello everyone.  Below is the announcement that Bob Lichter distributed throughout Alford announcing our meeting there tomorrow evening.  I do not anticipate that we will reschedule due to weather as it appears the storm will be or almost be over.  However, I will keep a close eye on things and should there be a problem I will e-mail everyone as well as call WSBS.  I will also give Julie Scott from Alford a heads up so she can e-mail the Alford residents.
 
Hope to see a good turn out tomorrow evening.
 
Discussion topics are:
 
1.  Grant request to the BRPC (We all owe a major debt of gratitude to Tony Blair).
2.  National Grid GIS Data request and non disclosure agreements.
3.  Identify areas of concentration and sub committees to begin the template development to work through many and varied issues that may arise in communities as vendors begin to approach towns.
 
Charlie
 
The next monthly meeting of the Southern Berkshire Technology Committee (SBTC) will take place on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, at 7 PM at the Alford Town Hall. The meeting is open to the public.

Consisting of representatives of 11 member South County towns (Alford, Egremont, Great Barrington, Lee, Monterey, Mt. Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Sandisfield, Sheffield, and Tyringham), the SBTC is a community-led group that was formed to expedite the deployment of modern broadband infrastructure to local rural communities. The SBTC believes that broadband access is an absolute requirement for economic development, education, communications, health and safety, and quality of life in our towns – and that its deployment is the contemporary equivalent of rural electrification and telephone initiatives of the past. The group includes representatives from the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce and broadband committees that were formed in towns across our region to address the discrimination against rural communities with regard to high-speed Internet access. The members of the Committee represent a cross-section of our communities: technology experts, professionals, educators, small business owners, retirees, families and concerned citizens. Further information is available at http://southberkshiretech.org/.

Please come to this open meeting, which will be a good opportunity for residents to ask questions and to learn about ongoing efforts to bring high-speed Internet capability to unserved areas of South County.