Dear ECFiber Supporter,

 

This is the first of a series of twice-monthly ECFiber updates from various members of the ECFiber Steering Committee on the progress of the ECFiber project and what you can (further) do to help us make it a success.

Progress:

We've also prepared a report about the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Internet Project (ECFiberNet) for inclusion in town reports, to let voters know how important this project is, how it will be funded, how voters and residents can help the project, and how important it is to vote in favor of the ballot question at Town Meeting.

We are well on our way to crafting a coherent draft of governance documents and contracts that are being shared with selectboards, relevant state agencies (such as the VT Telecom Authority, the VT Municipal Bond Bank, and the VT Public Service Board), and potential financial investors for their input.

We have begun the process of working with the VT Municipal Bond Bank and engaging a financial advisor to bring our capital lease to the market - preliminary indications are that the current financial turmoil has not yet affected the municipal capital lease market, but time will tell.

The VT Telecom Authority is prominently featuring our presentation on their website at  www.telecomVT.org

Jim Masland has been keeping legislators apprised of our effort - we recenty made a presentation to a small group at the Vermont statehouse.

 

We just issued a  press release with more details of the current state of the project - you can view it on the ECFiber website at  www.ecfiber.net under the Press Room link.

On the marketing side, we have nearly 1,000 pre-registrations for ECFiber service! We really need you to reach out to your friends, neighbors, colleagues, employers, local businesses and institutions to solicit their support - find out more below.

We have scheduled informational meetings in almost all participating towns - see  www.ecfiber.net for current information on dates and locations for public presentations near you.

What You Can Do:

• Encourage others to go to local informational  meetings - see the most current list of upcoming meetings at www.ecfiber.net 

• Go to town meeting and speak in support of this item. You never know what will happen at town meeting; we want to be sure that accurate information about the project is available during the discussion period.
  
  
• Reach out to friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and ask them to pre-register. There is a sample email at the bottom of this page for you to send to friends and colleagues, an you can print out paper forms that you can pass out at the link below.
  

• Contact local institutions and get a statement of  support and help with pre-registrations - these could include realtors, banks, school boards, chambers of commerce, rotary, lions, etc.

http://www.valleyfiber.net/documents/ecfiber-statement-of-support.pdf

• Contact your state representative and senator and  let them know you support this project.  You can find the contact information for your Senators and Representatives representing your town at

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We have come a long way.  We still have a long way to go.  The focus after town meeting will be on getting the financing - the more pre-registrations we get, the easier it will be to arrange for the financing that we will need for this ambitious project.  Please help us keep up the momentum.

The ECFiber Steering Committee,

Tim Nulty
Loredo Sola
Bob Merrill
Jim Masland
Stan Williams
Leslie Nulty

         info@ecfiber.net

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Sample email to send to your friends:

Hi Neighbor,

I have pre-registered for high-speed internet, telephone and cable TV services from ECFiber, a planned community-owned, privately financed fiber network that will offer service to EVERYONE in our town, starting in the fall of 2009.

What is ECFiber? It's an exciting new project to help towns create fiber-optic networks throughout the community, covering ALL of the households and supplying high-speed Internet, telephone service, and television service.

We need to get private financing for this project, and a high number of pre-registrations in our town will help that effort.  The level of pre-registrations in our neighborhood and town will also be a factor in deciding who gets service first!.

For more information about the project and how to support this effort, visit www.ecfiber.net. You can pre-register there online,  or print out the form and mail it to ECFiber, c/o ValleyNet, 58 North Main Street, PO Box 486, White River Junction, VT 05001

Thanks in advance for your help - call me if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

[Your Name Here]