MCUTC Business Meeting Minutes | Utilities Telecom Council

UNAPPROVED - Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 Business Meeting Secretary's Report March 28, 2007

2007 UTC Region 6 Business Meeting Minutes

The meeting was held at 8:00am on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at the Radisson Hotel (Lenexa, KS).

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Chris Jerome (Mid American Energy)

Secretary Report - The minutes of the 2006 MCUTC business meeting were read by Secretary Brian Gragert (Omaha Public Power District). Minutes were moved to be accepted by John Hamilton (Mid-American Energy) and seconded by Bernie Weigel (Midwest Energy). The report was approved by a voice vote.

Treasurer Report - Mary Reliford presented the Treasurer’s report. Rick Speck (Kansas City Power & Light) moved to accept the report and Denny Hill (NIPCO) seconded the motion. The report was approved by a voice vote.

Old Business - • Technicians meeting – This has been discussed in the past and it was agreed by the group to shelf this topic for future discussion. John Hamilton (MEC) moved to shelf this topic and Al Johnston (Central Electric Power COOP) seconded the motion. It was approved by a voice vote.

New Business - • Host Hotel – No significant complaints were submitted by the group. There was, however, a water leak in the ceiling of the meeting room during the business meeting. • Projector – Pat Glunz (Nebraska Public Power District) thanked Denny Hill (NIPCO) for supplying the projector for the presentations on Tuesday. Denny said that he will bring it again next year and John Hamilton (MEC) said that he would bring one next year also as a back-up. • Presentations/Presenters – In general the group thought that the presentations and presenters were good. Bill Lundy (NPPD) stated that he thought that there were too many vendor presentations. He thought that he got more out of member presentations on current projects, etc. John Hamilton urged members to consider volunteering for presentations for next year. • UTC Name Change – The National UTC Board is proposing changing from “United” to “Utilities” Telecom Council. Brett Kilbourne from the National office gave a brief background of the reasoning behind this proposed change. Rick Speck (KCP&L) then explained a by-law in the regional UTC charter that states that any proposed changes to regional by-laws are to be recommended to the regional board 60 days prior to being voted on. Rick Speck motioned to bypass the existing 60 day by-law so that this issue could be addressed at this business meeting. The motion was seconded by John Hamilton (MEC) and approved by a voice vote. Rick Speck proceeded to motion that we change the region 6 name from United to Utilities Telecom Council contingent on the National UTC board approval. Lynn Miller (Corn Belt Power Coop) seconded the motion and it was approved by a voice vote. • Registration Forms – Chris Jerome asked Mary Reliford if she approved of placing a .pdf registration form for future meetings on our regional website for both vendors and members to use. Mary approved. John Hamilton (MEC) motioned to place registration forms and finalized meeting agendas for future meetings on our website. Bill Lundy (NPPD) seconded the motion and it was approved by a voice vote. • Ice Cream Break – Chris Jerome stated that John Rexford (CES) suggested having the Monday afternoon ice cream break in the vendors room. This would keep members in the room and around the vendors exhibits during the break. Pat Glunz (NPPD) suggested that as long as there is room that he agreed that it should be in the vendor room. • Food/Refreshments – Bill Lundy (NPPD) stated that all of the food provided during the conference was excellent. Rick Speck agreed and said that he thought that overall the hotel service and amenities were as good as they have been since we have been there. • Meeting Site – Moving the site of the meeting was discussed and it was agreed upon by the group to keep it at the current location. Pat Glunz (NPPD) motioned to keep the location the same. It was seconded by John Hamilton (MEC) and approved by a voice vote. • 2008 Meeting Dates – Mary Reliford reported that the Radisson in Lenexa was available next year from (3/10/08 to 3/12/08) or (3/31/08 to 4/2/08). Bill Lundy (NPPD) said that early March could have weather impacts for people traveling. Pat Glunz (NPPD) reported that he talked to several vendors and they had no preference as to next years dates. Lon Renner (NPPD) motioned to have the 2008 MCUTC meeting on 3/31/08 to 4/2/08. The motion was seconded by Jeff Hoefer (Aliant Energy) and approved by a voice vote. • 2007 MCUTC Board Meeting – This meeting is usually held the last Monday of September. IT was discussed and the date was set to Monday, September 24th, 2007. Mary said that we could again use her church for the meeting. Rick Speck said that he will line up a back-up site. • Nametag Designations for Board Officers and Vendors – Mary Reliford has these from past meeting and she will use them next year. John Hamilton (MEC) also suggested making the vendors nametags a different color so that they are more visible during the conference. Mary will look into having this done next year. • New Secretary - Pat Glunz (NPPD) explained the rolls of the officers and asked for volunteers. No one volunteered. John Hamilton (MEC) motioned to table the topic. Bernie Weigel (Midwest Energy) seconded the motion and it was approved by voice vote.

Election of Officers - Chris Jerome (MEC) announced new MCUTC officer positions: Pat Glunz (NPPD) - Chairman and Brian Gragert (OPPD) - Vice-Chairman.

Remarks Of Incoming Chairman (Pat Glunz-NPPD) - Pat thanked Chris Jerome and Mary Reliford for their work. He also thanked Brett Kilbourne for coming from the UTC national office. He also thanked all of the members at the meeting for attending this year’s annual conference.

Drawing of Door Prizes - Brian Gragert (OPPD) drew this years’ winners which were John Hamilton (MEC) and Kevin Kramer (Central Iowa Power)

Meeting was adjourned.

Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 Business Meeting Secretary's Report April 5, 2006

Minutes of the UTC Region 6 Business Meeting

The 2006 Region 6, April 5, 2006, business meeting was called to order by Chairman John Hamilton (Mid America Energy).

The minutes were read by the Secretary Patrick Glunz (Nebraska Public Power District), minutes were moved to be accepted by Rick Speck (Kansas City Power and Light) and seconded by Tony Wilson (Sho-Me Power Electric Coop). The report was approved by a voice report.

Mary Reliford presented the Treasures report. Rick Speck moved to accept the Treasures report. Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) seconded the motion. The report was approved by a voice report.

Old Business— Tech Meeting—Rick does not have time or resources to do this by himself at this point and time. Rick questioned if we should get a committee together to lead this effort. The original vision was to have a tech training day and that people attending could get CEU’s for attending. There was hope that the National UTC would do something however, we have not heard anything from them. Rick asked about having it in the fall. Chris was concerned that the end of the year tends to get busy. John brought up that Rick had secured their training center and that it could be used to help defer some of the cost. Topics—Internet security, Tower 101 and Grounding Rick Speck moved to table the topic and Chris Jerome (Mid America Energy) seconded the motion, it was approved by a voice vote.

New Business— This years meeting—Chris Jerome questioned should we change the meeting from Monday-Wednesday to Tuesday-Thursday. Matt Schnell stated his preference was to keep it the same days. Rick Speck stated that in the past we have had our meeting adjacent to another region. Several people preferred to keep it the same (Monday to Wednesday). Bill Lundy made a motion to keep the same days and it was seconded by Bernie Weigel (Midwest Energy Inc.). It was approved by a voice vote.

Chris Jerome stated the main ball room had some AC issues on Tuesday.

Matt Schnell stated that there were issues with the Internet access.

John Hamilton stated the wireless microphone gave out in the afternoon on Tuesday. He also relayed that he had a good discussion with the sales manager about this problem.

Matt Schnell moved to keep the meeting in the same location. Chris Jerome seconded the motion.

John Hamilton asked if the sessions were to long. Bernie Weigel stated that breaks between each speaker would be better. John Hamilton stated that most of the presenters were long because question and answers. Matt Schnell stated that presenters need to allow time for question within of their presentation. John Hamilton stated that we need to police this so that we do not have this problem. Bill Lundy also stated that we need to tell the audience of the expectations on breaks and start times. Matt Schnell stated that we need to be sensitive to start times so we are respectful to our presenters.

Mary Reliford suggested that others have used 40 minutes for presentation, 10 minutes for questions, and 10 minutes for breaks. It was move by Rick Speck and seconded by Matt Schnell to do this next year. This was approved by a voice vote.

Content—Rick Speck stated he appreciated a balance between vendor and member presentations. John Hamilton said he felt that the content was ok.

Vendors—John Rexford told John Hamilton that they vendors had no significant complaints.

Next Years dates—Bill Lundy stated he like early April and not May. Rick Speck talked about April 2nd and that was pointed out as Good Friday week. The last week of March was suggested by Rick Speck made a motion for the March 26th-28th in was Seconded by Pat Glunz. This was approved by a voice vote.

Web Site update—Chris Jerome said he will work on it over the next few weeks. He will try and put as many presentations on the web site as possible. He will have pictures on the site as well as; the unapproved minutes from this years meeting. The web site is utc.org and they go to the region 6 section.

Secretary for next year—John Hamilton explained the responsibility of the position. Then he tried to explain the work that is required. A request was made for any volunteers, no volunteers stepped forward. John Hamilton stated that if there are no volunteers he would be willing to retain a position. Bernie Weigel stated that it would be nice to have a new company provide an officer.

Incoming Chairman comments—Chris Jerome thanked John Hamilton for his work; he also thanked Rich Speck and Mary Reliford for their support.

Executive Meeting—Chris was looking at September, 25th it was motioned by John, and seconded by Lon Renner (Nebraska Public Power District). It was approved by a voice vote.

Prize drawing—John Hamilton questioned if this is effective because we only had 6 sheets turned in. There were several people that thought it was not beneficial. It was said that maybe the prizes should be drawn from the members at the business meeting. John Hamilton also stated that we need to take this to the vendor reps and see what they want to recommend. Matt Schnell stated his recommendation was to get rid of it. Rich Speck said that maybe we should do a drawing in the middle of the day on Monday. Bill Lundy said maybe a short introduction from each vendor would be good; typically this takes to much time. Another idea was to have the vendor do a fishbowl give away through out the day. Matt Schnell stated that if we needed to do anything additional maybe we need to do something late in the day to generate energy to keep members around.

Spot Light vendor—has been Alcatel and it was decided to retain them for next year.

Prize Drawing for 2006—Rich Speck drew Matt Schnell and Lynn Miller

Rich Speck moved to adjourn the meeting and Bernie Weigel seconded the motion. It was approved by a voice vote.

Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 Business Meeting Secretary's Report April 6, 2005

Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6, April 6, 2005 Business Meeting

The 2005 Region 6 Business meeting was called to order by Chairman Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative).

The minutes were read by the Secretary, Chris Jerome (MidAmerican Energy). John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) moved to accept the minutes. Stan Stegelman (Omaha Public Power District) 2nd the motion. The minutes were approved by voice vote.

Mary Reliford presented the Treasurer’s report. Mary reported that the fees for the conference are about right for the costs of the conference. Mary asked if we where happy about the facilities in the “Ball Room” and if we should stay in that room for the second day of our conference. (The opinion was that we where all very pleased and that we should continue the second day in the “Ball Room”) Mary also reported that Alcatel wants to sponsor the Tuesday Night dinner again for the 2006 meeting year and that NEC wants to sponsor the Ice Cream Break. The biggest complaint that Mary reported was the air-conditioning of the rooms. She said that the Hotel was working on this problem. Another complaint was that the Internet was down during the conference.

Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) moved to accept the Treasurer’s report. Stan Stegelman (Omaha Public Power District) 2nd the motion. The report was approved by voice vote.

Old Business – Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) gave an update about the Tech Meeting. He said that Rick Speck (Great Plains Energy) had been working on this and that there was a conflict with UTC for this Fall Meeting. This is why we did not have the Tech Meeting as we had hoped. So the decision was made late last year to defer this meeting until the Fall of 2006.

John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) asked about the morning rolls. John questioned the need for the rolls and that they cost $6 per person. It was discussed that it should be noted in the meeting flyer that coffee would be provided on the meeting days.

Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) raised the idea that we should possibly go out for lunch than have lunch provided by the Hotel. However, he was concerned that maintainng the group during this time was beneficial for job related discussions. Mary stated that the lunch cost was only $13 per person. At this price the lunch was good enough for the value. Matt also asked that the serving table be placed away from the wall so both sides of the table could be accessed. This would cut down the serving time.

Bill Lunday (Midwest Energy, Inc) asked if a survey was sent out last year. The general opinion was that this was not done.

Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) stated that if we did a technical meeting that one utility host this session. If this went well then the next year have a different utility host this. John Hamilton added that if we did this then the attendees could visit the host facilities and see how others are doing their operations. However, John was not sure where we stood on this technical meeting. No conversations had been made with Rick Speck about this.

New Business -

Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) stated that the time that Jill Lyon used for the morning session was very good and that next year we should try and give her the same amount of time. While we missed the FAA & FCC presentation, Jill had covered a lot of relevant topics and that she did an excellent job in her update to us. Matt suggested that we look for similar topics in next years meeting.

John Hamilton stated that the rest of the meeting topics appeared to be well received. Also that Mike Cannon did a good and that Mike was pleased to come and speak to us. John stated that Mike Cannon was a Substation person but his topic was very relative to our operations. Plus the fact that all of the attendees work very close to Substation Operations.

John Hamilton stated that the “Band Manager for 700Mhz” presented by Matt May was very interesting. This topic is very relative and that it is always changing. An update in next year meeting would be of great interest.

Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) raised the question of next year’s presentations and the idea of having the presenters provide a copy of their Power Point slides to the attendees. This way we could be more focused on the presentation rather than trying to write notes. Bill Lundy suggested that they should try and provide the slide notes to keep the amount of copies at a minimum.

John asked Mary if this is possible for us to obtain the slides of the presenters and have them copied for all of the attendees. Mary said this was possible. John added that he would try and include this as an action item for next year meeting.

Pat Glunz (Midwest Energy, Inc) asked if there was any interest in having CISCO come and give a presentation to our meeting. John Hamilton stated that we had CISCO come in the past to talk to us about security. John suggested that we should talk to Rick Speck about having CISCO come next year and that Rick may know some contact in CISCO.

John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) spoke to John Rexford that he had many positive comments about the program from the other Vendors. They liked our format for this meeting. While we are open to suggestions we believe that we have a good set-up for our meeting schedule.

John Hamilton thought that we should try and talk to the other members who did not come to this years meeting and that our meeting can compete with the National Meeting.

Mary Reliford stated that our next year meeting schedule needed to be set now due to other groups scheduling of the Hotel and dates are filling fast. It was decided that the April 3-5, 2006 would work out for everyone. The fact that these dates are later in the year and that winter weather would not be an issue works for everyone. Matt Schnell moved that next years meeting date be scheduled for April 3-5th, 2006. Al Johnston second the motion. The motion was approved by a voice vote.

Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) asked about the Web page up-date. Chris Jerome (MidAmerican Energy) stated that he wanted to add a link page of all the vendors. Chris also stated that he spoke to almost all of the vendors and they would be pleased to have this in our web page as well.

Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) has volunteered someone from his group to become secretary of Region 6. A name will be announced at a latter date.

John Hamilton stated that between Mary Reliford and Rick Speck, the job of the Secretary was made a lot less demanding. John also stated that he wanted to thank Mary for all of her hard work and for all of the fine efforts that Rick has done over the past years.

John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) stated that he was going to take an active roll in getting the Technical meeting set in place this year. He will work with Rick Speck about this.

Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) made the motion to nominate John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) for Chairman for this year and Chris Jerome (MidAmerican Energy) for Vice-Chairman. Matt Schnell (Nebraska Public Power District) second the motion. The motion was approved by voice vote.

John Hamilton (MidAmerican Energy) made his incoming remarks. He thanked Al Johnston for all of his hard work and support that he has given us. The quality of the meeting was reflected in Al’s leadership and also in Rick’s and Mary’s hard work over the past year. John also stated that he enjoyed being secretary and Vice-Char under Al’s leadership and that he looked forward to this year as being Chairman. John also stated he would be available for anything that is needed by this group. John can be reached by phone or by email.

Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) brought up the schedule of the next executive meeting. At this time it will be scheduled for September 26th, 2006 on a Monday. John stated that anyone is welcomed to attend this meeting.

Drawings for the two door prizes were made. Chris Jerome (MidAmerican Energy) and Darwin Schloemer (Midwest Energy) won the prizes.

Bill Lundy (Midwest Energy) motioned for adjournment of the meeting and all members voted in favor.

At the close of this meeting, Pat Glunz (Midwest Energy) was appointed as Secretary for 2006.

Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 Business Meeting Secretary's Report March 31, 2004

2004 MCUTC Business Meeting Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 March 31, 2004 Business Meeting

The 2004 Region 6 Business Meeting was called to order by Chairman Dennis Hill (NIPCO).

The minutes were read by the Secretary, John Hamilton (MidAmerican energy). Bill Lundy (NPPD) moved to accept the minutes and they were approved by voice vote.

Mary Reliford presented the Treasurer’s report. Mary reported that the counts for meals were much closer to the actual attendance than they were last year but there was still more meals purchased than people attended. She reported that the meal counts could be cut by another 20%.

Rick Speck (Great Plains Energy) moved to accept the Treasure’s report and the report was approved by voice vote.

Old Business—No old business was brought up.

New Business

Al Johnston (Central Electric Power Cooperative) thanked the MCUTC Board and members for their participation. Al also recognized Dennis Hill for his good work as MCUTC chairman.

A general question was posed to the group about the format of this year’s meeting. John Rexford (CES) said that he had not received any negative feedback about the format or the Monday 10:00 AM start. John volunteered to send out a vendor survey to receive further feedback. He stated that he did not receive many responses from a survey he sent out last year but the time span between the meeting and the survey may have been too long. He said he would try and get a survey sent out by the end of the week. John also suggested that a survey be handed out along with the vendor stamp at next years meeting with a request that the completed survey be returned with the stamp.

Everyone agreed that the meeting is inexpensive and good value is obtained by attending. Members were encouraged to contact other members to attend next year.

A suggestion was made to move the member roundtable discussion to earlier in the Tuesday program. This would give the attending vendors a chance to hear about current and future projects. A further suggestion was made to have a registering member include a short summary of projects in his registration form. The registration form might include some general project types such as AMR (automatic meter reading) for the member to elaborate on. Rick Speck (Great Plains Energy) noted that the roundtable has been used as a variable time buffer to end the session and that it is open ended so that each member can take as much time as needed to describe the projects.

Rick Speck volunteered to send out an attending member E-Mail survey by the end of the week to solicit additional feedback on the meeting.

A question was brought up about companies’ projects and potential conflict with non-disclosure polices. No members had any concerns with this issue and Brett Kilbourne (UTC National) said that he had not heard any concerns about this at other meetings.

Bill Lundy (NPPD) suggested that a detailed technical session be included in next year’s meeting as a draw for more attendance. He suggested such topics as grounding or lightning protection.

Rick Speck will include a question on the survey he is preparing on what future topics the members would like to see covered.

John Rexford commented that the condition of the meeting hotel this year was the best it has ever been. John also said that the vendor display room has a problem with getting electricity to the center tables. The outside tables have electricity which is set up by the hotel stall by taping down extension cords to the floor. But John said that the hotel staff always seem to stop short of wiring the center tables leaving this to be done by the vendors themselves. Mary said that every year she presents to the hotel a drawing of the vendor room layout and notes which tables need electricity. Al Johnston said that he would make an inspection of the room the night before the meeting next year and make sure the wiring is in place.

The topic of rolls with coffee was discussed next. Dennis Hill said that he likes rolls in the morning to help smooth out the coffee. Mary said that the hotel charges $6 per person for rolls and this was why the board elected to drop them for the meeting this year. Jeff Luker (Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative) suggested that maybe an option for paid breakfast tickets should be included in the registration form. Rick Speck suggested that further negotiation with the hotel might be called for to reduce the price of the donuts.

Rick Speck summarized his thoughts on a possible fall technical meeting.

Rick is proposing a three day meeting on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The dates have not been set. Possible topics are IT Security, LAN Technology, and Mobile Data. Rick met an expert on these topics in another seminar and thinks he would be available to give some sessions at the proposed fall meeting. In addition, CES (Wes Bridges) has volunteered to present Towers 101 that was presented at UTC national. In addition, CES has offered to provide a tour of their tower manufacturing facility. Also, a session on RF exposure is being considered. Rick has a contact that could present this.

Rick suggested that the fall MCUTC board meeting occur on the Monday before the technical meeting. Rick is sure that the cost of the technical meeting would be very reasonable. Rick thinks that the N national UTC would participate. John Rexford said that he had a contact that could present a session on voice over IP. Rick said he would consider any option but wanted the conference to be vendor neutral.

Bill Merkle (Ameren) suggested that maybe the MCUTC annual meeting and the technical meeting could be combined. John Hamilton said that the audience for the two meetings would probably be different so combining the meetings would not be as effective as two separate meetings. John Rexford suggested adding a question on the member survey that Rick Speck is preparing to gauge the interest in a fall technical meeting.

Rick mentioned that the meeting could be held jointly with another organization such as IEEE. John Rexford suggested that it could be held jointly with the APCO association (the Law Enforcement association). Bill Merkle said that Ameren had attended joint EDACS user group meeting with APCO members and said the interests of the two groups are different.

Bill Hanssen (Lincoln Electric System) said that it would be a good idea to award CEU’s (continuing education units) for attending the sessions. CEU’s are required for professional engineers to renew their licenses. This could be an additional way to increase attendance. Rick said he would investigate this option.

Bill Lundy suggested that September would be the best month to hold the fall technical meeting. The later months are too busy. Brett Kilbourne suggested a session for less technical people might also be a draw. This could be a “boot camp for managers” session. Stan Stegelman (Oneok) mentioned that maybe the meeting could be held at a KCPL facility which would further reduce the cost.

Next years meeting date was next on the agenda. The meeting is tentatively schedule for March 28-30, 2004. Mary noted that March 27 is Easter Sunday and might present a problem for attendees. Re-scheduling the meeting will depend on motel availability. Bill Lundy suggested that the board should meet later and set the date.

Dennis Hill made a report on the MCUTC Web site. He noted that several vendors had located the meeting through the Web site and had requested to join the annual meeting. Dennis suggested that MCUTC continue the Web site and the group agreed.

For new officers, Chris Jerome (MidAmerican Energy) was nominated for secretary and elected. Officers for the upcoming year are Al Johnston-Chairman, John Hamilton-Vice-Chairman, and Chris Jerome-Secretary.

Drawings for the two door prizes were made. Al Becker (Corn Belt Power Cooperative) and Bill Merkle (Ameren) won the prizes.

Chris Jerome motioned for adjournment of the meeting and all members voted in favor.

Minutes of the MCUTC Region 6 Business Meeting Secretary's Report March 26, 2003

2003 MCUTC Business Meeting

Old Business

Allan Johnston read the notes from the 2002 MCUTC Business Meeting. Mary Reliford reported on the MCUTC treasury. George Schindler noted that no one from the Mid Central region had volunteered for the Spectrum committee.

New Business

MCUTC WEB site discussion

Dennis Hill led a discussion about the MCUTC WEB site. Most of the members in attendance visit the WEB site from several times a year to several times a month. Dennis volunteered to place links for topics of member interest such as RF exposure calculations, and Cisco and wireless security. John Rexford requested that vendor links be included on the WEB site. Dennis mentioned that he would be glad to publish member’s project information in the Member Only section of the WEB site. Matt Schnell and Dennis Hill suggested that if anyone had equipment to sell then listing the equipment on the WEB site for other members to see could be another way for the WEB site to serve all members.

Vendor Day discussion

Attendance by members was way down as compared to previous years. Many expressed concerns over reduced travel budgets and the impact on lower attendance. Matt Schnell mentioned that he hoped for a larger travel budget in 2004, several others concurred. The officers will follow up on the idea of supplying MCUTC bags for carrying pamphlets and other goodies on Vendor Day. The Vendors expressed satisfaction with the BBQ and the golf shoot out. Stan will send out Thank You notes to the participating vendors. Jill Lyons made the good point that active members need to call and visit with non-active members about the Regional Annual Meeting. This is an effective tool in raising the attendance levels. Dennis Hill mentioned that there could be a Vendor spotlight on the WEB site for supplying the funds for the Vendor dinner. The inaccurate head count for the meals is wasting money and ways to obtain accurate head counts were discussed. Mary thought that by including the meal tickets with the confirmation of a paid registration and also reducing the headcount given to the hotel then we might save money. The idea of dropping the formal Introduction meeting, so as to save time, was discussed. An email follow-up reminder to the registration form mailing was discussed. Mary and Denny will look at two different weeks for the Annual meeting in 2004. For 2004, Matt nominated Dennis Hill for MCUTC Chair, Allan Johnston for Vice-Chair, and John Hamilton as Secretary. Nominations were accepted and voted in favor of. Dennis Hill spoke of how the strength of MCUTC came from its members. He looks forward to his tenure as Chair. Executive Session was set for Monday Oct. 20, 2003. The meeting will hopefully be held at The Community Christian Church. Mary will update us on the disposition of the meeting room. A drawing for the door prizes was held. Group photos were taken The Business Meeting was adjourned.

Allan Johnston Recording Secretary

Chairperson George Schindler opened the meeting at 8 a.m. Dennis Hill read the minutes of the 2001 meeting. John Hamilton moved to approve the minutes as read and Matt Schnell seconded the motion. All attending members approved the 2001 minutes. Mary Reliford presented the Treasurer’s Report. A motion was made by Rick Speck and seconded by Chris Jerome to approve the report.

There was no old business to discuss.

Under new business, the 2003 MCUTC Annual Meeting has been changed to March 24, 25 and 26. This is due to the National UTC Meeting being held in Houston, Texas during the week of May 4th. Traditionally, this has been the MCUTC meeting week. UTC asked if we could change our meeting date to accommodate them. The reason being, they found that the past five to six years family attendance is down and having the meeting in June also interferes with family vacations.

Rick Speck was recognized for his efforts in arranging the great dining that we all enjoy in the evenings at our MCUTC meetings.

UTC asked each region for a volunteer to fill the local position of Regional Advisor. This will be a contact person for questions that pertain to UTC or MCUTC. Several years ago each region had a Frequency Coordinator that would be available for such purposes. Frequency coordination now takes place at UTC and that regional person is no longer available to help field questions. Chairperson Schindler asked the group if there was anyone interested in filling that position. Chris Jerome offered to take the newly created position.

UTC also asked for regional representation on the UTC Spectrum Availability Task Force. The purpose of the task force is to work with other regions and UTC to find radio frequencies that can be used by critical infrastructure utilities. They would be charged with the duty of going to the Commission to request more spectrum. The reason the UTC wants region input is because spectrum needs vary in different parts of the country. George Schindler will accept that position.

Bill Coffee’s responsibilities have changed with Motorola. Bill was our liaison between the vendors and MCUTC. We now need to find a replacement for Bill. Rick Speck indicated he would follow up and find someone to take the liaison position for MCUTC.

Dennis Hill demonstrated the features of the MCUTC web page. MCUTC is the first region in the country to have its own web page and it was displayed to the other regions at the spring UTC Board Meeting.

October 7, 2002 was selected for the fall MCUTC Board Meeting to plan for the 2003 annual meeting.

Matt Schnell assumed the position of MCUTC Chairperson for the upcoming year and thanked George Schindler for a job well done. Matt expressed his appreciation to Kansas City Power and Light for all the work they do every year to make our meetings the great success that they are.

Allan Johnston was elected Secretary and Dennis Hill was elected Co-Chair for 2003. The meeting was then adjourned.

/s/ Dennis L. Hill Recording Secretary

Region 6 Business Meeting for 2001, Secretary's Report.

Doug Weston opened the meeting at 8:02. Matt Schnell read the minutes. John Hamilton moved and Dennis Hill seconded minutes for approval. Mary Reliford Presented the treasurer’s report which was approved with Dennis Hill moving and Kirby Diller was seconding the motion.

During old business, a discussion on the Web page and posting of the newsletter on it was held. Discussion included calling National UTC directly about putting our information on the National UTC web page. George Schindler recommended an action item to get with National and start a dialog on this issue. John Hamilton, Rick Speck, and Dennis Hill will work with National on the Web site issue. Stan S. moved and Kirby seconded the motion on this issue. George will take the action item and get with Bill Moroney on the national and regional issues for the Web page.

Steve Ingersoll recommended sending a post card to the members who did not come to the regional meeting. Rick will make up post cards and get them out to the members to distribute.

Al will do the Newsletter. We will look at 3 newsletters, this summer, late fall, and one in January. Steve I. moved and Stan S. seconded the motion to have Al as editor. Stan S. moved and Steve I. seconded that next year’s meeting for 2002 be held at the Holiday Inn on May 5th through the 8th Rick Speck encouraged members to contact Vendors to come to the 2002 meeting.

Question was asked by Dennis Hill about the status of committees in the Region. After some discussion it was decided that the chairman would set up committees if needed.

Bill Coffey reported that the vendors were happy with the meeting format and liked the location.

George Schindler assumed the position as chairman of the regional UTC and thanked Doug Weston for a job well done. He also thanked Mary for all the work and time she puts into our region UTC each year.

Dennis Hill was elected as Secretary for the coming year and the meeting was adjourned.

Matt Schnell Secretary