**UNAPPROVED DRAFT**

Conference Call

March 3, 2000

IHETS Board Room
714 N. Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, IN

Present:  Ellen Watson, ISU Chair; Elaine Bennington, Ivy Tech State College; Wayne Bohm, USI; Carmin Schnarr, Vincennes University for Carl Koenig, Neal Vines, Purdue University.

IHETS staff:
Scott Beauregard, Tim Fisher, Dave King, Jennifer Ping, Tim Ping, Mark Rottler, Ed Stockey, Ed Tully, Jeff Walker, Betty Hart.

Watson opened the meeting and asked Dave King to provide a review of the backbone biennium budget and to also to review the background materials that have been distributed.

Originally we had 8 satellite channels, then we went down to 6 and now we are down to 4 with discussions taking place to possibly add one more satellite channel.

Tully stated that the bottom line is, we have a little over a million dollars to allocate and that is it.

Vines commented that Purdue placed a circuit order back in October and has now invested $80,000 and to justify putting in a T1 would be difficult.

Tully stated that we are loosing money on the 56k connections and will not be able to support the higher education institutions if we continue.

Tully also shared that frame relay, one of the frequently mentioned relief options, has a reputation of being unreliable across the state of Indiana.

King said that projections are lower than had been anticipated and bandwidth is being aggregated. We are changing to an OC3 in order to reduce costs. This will prove to be a cost-effective move and eventually the backbone will go in the black. It has taken four months longer than anticipated, with a positive cash flow anticipated sometime in October or November timeframe.

King is recommending that people not jump ship.

A breakdown of current/projected costs:

AISN	$16,500	Proposal AISN	$16,500
Current HE cost	9,000	HE cost	11,000
Current IHETS Sub	7,000	IHETS Sub	5,500

Due to the brief timeframe it is imperative that each representative from the management committee at the institutional level be prepared to respond and share concerns at the meeting on the 21^st

Much discussion followed with concerns and issues being shared, and frustrations being expressed.  An agreement has yet to be reached.

Tully commented that due to the limited time constraints and the exponentially growth we were unable to generate a plan

If anyone should have any suggestions to explore, contact Dave King or Ed Tully.

 

This conference call meeting will continue on Wednesday, March 7 at 9 a.m.

The next management committee meeting is scheduled for March 21^st.

 

The meeting adjourned at 1 p.m.