SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA BROADBAND SERVICES

BOARD MINUTES
November 20, 2014
6:00 PM

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bingham Lake Darren Kalvig
Heron Lake John Hay
Lakefield Ern Malchow
Round Lake Keith Stubbe

ALTERNATE BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bingham Lake Carol Goeman
Jackson Ken Temple

OTHERS PRESENT Dan Olsen, Naomi Pederson

1 - Open Meeting: The meeting was called to order at 6:05 PM by Keith Stubbe, Chairperson.
2 Review and Approve Board Minutes: The minutes of the October 23, 2014 meeting were approved
on a motion by Ern Malchow and second by Ken Temple. All were in favor and the motion carried.
3 Review Financials and Approve Payables: Board members reviewed the October financial
statements, budget report and payables listing. A motion to pay the bills as listed was made by Ern
Malchow and seconded by John Hay. All were in favor and the motion carried.
a. 2015 Budget Discussion Dan reported that re-transmission negotiations are underway. It
will be a very busy time with staff gathering required FCC Data Collection information; the
report is estimated to take at least 200 hours to complete. We will be looking at more
revenue with the 2015 budget. SMBS also needs to look at cable and internet rates. Dan
distributed information regarding increasing internet speeds as well as rates.
Dan recommended that SMBS look at ways to share resources with WindomNet. After some
discussion, the board agreed to have a joint board meeting with Windom and Attorney Chris
Sandburg to discuss a shared manager agreement and to explore joint system operations.
4 Old Business
a. Windom Master Services Agreement: The Windom Attorney reviewed the master service
agreement between SMBS and Windom. The Windom City Council approved it. It is basically the
same agreement as last time. Ern Malchow suggested having Attorney Pat Costello look at the
agreement on behalf of SMBS. A motion to have Pat Costello review the agreement was made
by Ern Malchow and seconded by John Hay. All were in favor and the motion carried.
b. Other - Darren reported that he had attended the quarterly SynKro meeting in August. They will
be having another meeting soon.
5 New Business
1

a. Flow Analyzer Dan distributed a quote for a Calix Flow Analyzer. This will help identify and
isolate internet slamming that has taken place several times in Jackson. This tool will help us
secure our fiber ring from cyber bullying. This software will cost $9,840 and will be shared
between Windom and SMBS. Each entity will pay $4,920. After some discussion, a motion to
have SMBS purchase the software and have Windom pay SMBS for its half was made by John
Hay and seconded by Ern Malchow. All were in favor and the motion carried.
b. On-Line Customer Care Naomi reported that a test run with credit cards on the OLCC web-site
was successful. The site is ready to take credit cards. Naomi reported she was under the
impression that the site would be able to take credit cards as well as payments from checking
and savings accounts. Staff completes a lot of checks by phone. There is also a much lower fee
to process checking/savings payments versus credit card. Source One Solutions stated that they
did not know we wanted checking/savings payments and want to bill us a one-time fee of $500
for programming this feature. She requested that the board approve the programming. A
motion to pay a $500 programming fee to Source One to allow checking and savings payments
on the on-line customer care web-site was made by Darren Kalvig and seconded by Ken Temple.
All were in favor and the motion carried.
c. Other Dan reported that TV Everywhere is up and operating. It is in the testing phase. QVC is
the only channel available. Customers will be able to sign up by using their account number.
More channels will be added.
Darren inquired about Analog vs Digital. There had been a lot of discussion about this in the
past. Dan reported that work is still being done on this and some changes will be made.
7 Adjournment: Having no further business to discuss, a motion to adjourn was made by John Hay and
seconded by Ern Malchow. All were in favor and the meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM.

Respectfully Submitted by Naomi Pederson

Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services

Keith Stubbe, Chairperson

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