Electronic village of Abingdon

 

“91^st Day” Subcommittee

 

MINUTES

 

29 November 2000   12:30 PM

 

          The scheduled meeting of the Electronic Village of Abingdon “91^st Day” Subcommittee held in the Johnston Memorial Hospital Cafeteria was opened by Dr. F. H. Moore, Jr., Chairman.  There were eight participants present.  These included:

 

Dr. F. H. Moore, Jr., Chairman	Al Bradley, Secretary
Eric Schuler	Steve Galyean
Burt Bassham	Mathew Matt
John Mongle	Ray Millsap

 

          The minutes of the 25 October 2000 meeting were approved as presented.

 

          The next item for review was the status of new connections, including:

 

NAME	ADDRESS	COST	STATUS
Chad Eikhoff (Dr. John Lentz Office)	350 E. Main	N/A	COMPLETED
Penee & Steve Wilson	304 E. Main	N/A	COMPLETED
I R T, Inc.	PO Box 1357/314 E. Main	N/A	COMPLETED
Campbell Funeral Home, Inc.	250 E. Main St.	N/A	Evaluating
Robert M. Howard	122 W. Valley St.	N/A	Evaluating

 

The extension to the proposed new Police Department and recreation complex is underway, but again, no further reportable progress has been made.

 

Dr. Moore advised us of a presentation by Bristol Virginia Utilities Board at the recent Techno-Expo event which was well attended and during which representatives of BVUB discussed their venture into Information Technology via fiber optics.  An article from the November 29, 2000 Bristol Herald-Courier concerning BVUB filing a lawsuit in federal court that would allow BVUB and any municipality to provide telecommunications services was discussed at length.  Some representatives of the E V A 91^st Day Subcommittee will meet with BVUB representatives on December 6, 2000 to discuss the possibility of an interconnection of the two systems.  Such an interconnection would allow a redundant connection for Internet purposes.

 

Dr. Moore also discussed his recent meeting with the e-Communities Task Force.  A brief description of this group is as follows:

This task force grew out of a need originally identified by the Governor's Commission on Information Technology. During regional meetings of the Commission, several communities expressed the desire to meet their citizens' needs for information, interaction and assistance without repeating the mistakes of those who had gone before. With so many localities in the Commonwealth, the most effective way to meet this need appears to be developing blueprints for action that can be disseminated over the Internet, with the guidance of stakeholders for communities of all sizes.

 

Working with industry, education, government, and non-profit partners, the task force will identify the core principles that underlie successful e-Communities. e-Communities are about much more than just putting government information and other services on-line. Their success depends on members of the community exercising local leadership and actively participating in commerce, information exchange, volunteer opportunities, school events, learning cooperatives, equipment sharing or other efforts.

At the past meeting, the e-Communities group had spent the entire meeting trying to define an e-Community.   Dr. Moore discussed with the Subcommittee members the concepts that were being developed there in this regard.  Dr. Moore had used some of the E V A materials such as Mission Statement and Goals with that group since we had considerably more practical experience than many of the members of the e-Communities task Force. 

 

          The next EVA meeting will not be held on the normal last Wednesday meeting date, but will be held on January 3, 2001.  There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:48 PM.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Albert C. Bradley,

Secretary