Posted June 25, 2002
IN GEAR
June 21st Meeting – Rose Patterson regaled us with her usual wonderful selections, including “Just in Time.” President Philip Shore, clearly enjoying his last few weeks at the podium, decisively “gonged” us to order. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, and inter-table greeting, David Roudebush provided the invocation in which he bade us “rejoice and be glad” in the day the Lord has made. Sgt. At Arms, Mary Joan Pugh introduced our guests: Lynn Kay with Al LaPrade, Dale Heiger with Mike Miller, and Kevin Redding of the Central NC Land Trust with Keith Crisco. Visiting Rotarians included Michael Trogdon, Tom Pugh, Rhonda Burch, and Joey Trogdon, all of the Randolph Club, and Bruce Jones of the Salisbury Club.
Next week’s program will feature a review and wrap up of Prez Philip’s year – “That was the year that was” sort of thing. Phillip announced birthdays for Huntley Bossong, Richard Johnson, Clarence Pace, Alan Pugh and an (almost) final “honorary” birthday for yours truly. (I do think it so accommodating of the club to have my real birthday celebrated as a Rotary holiday – especially since I’ll be Bald Heading for the national holiday weekend. Thank you!) Phillip also mentioned that Garner Sizemore, recently discharged from the hospital, will celebrate his birthday next Friday and that cards and visits are welcome.
<July 12th will mark the inaugural meeting for incoming President, Mac Whatley, who as we met, was either preparing to go or was in flight to Barcelona, site of the RI Conference. Since Mac is flying into a general strike, he should have some interesting experiences to share upon his return. <Phillip read a lovely thank you letter from Stephanie Dawn Moffitt, one of our scholarship recipients. She expressed gratitude for the financial aid, which will enable her to embark on becoming a veterinarian. The scholarship means that she will be the first in her family to attend a four-year college. <Phillip indicated that there will be a benefit dinner for Christian Companions on Wednesday 11:30 – 1:00. <Culture Time: Phillip read a little ditty “To Have and Too Old,” about an aging bride and bridegroom waiting to tie the knot until they could afford it. <We have also received an invitation for the entire club to visit a Rotary Club in Turkey. All those in favor…
Al LaPrade of the Internet Committee presented the program. Despite dealing with the irritant of the incredible sinking microphone, Al delivered a most informative address. Actually the address portion was about 5 minutes long, but the Q & A was extensive. (Ed. note: Due to the technical nature of the presentation, any errors or misrepresentations are the responsibility of the technologically-challenged author.) Al heads up Community Web, an Internet and DSL service provider (among other things) since 1995. Al applied for and received authorization from the state to start a local telephone company, Ready Telecom, Inc. Due to the necessity of having a legal and regulatory ‘firewall’ between Community Web and regulated telephone services, the two are separate entities. (For some reason, Al doesn’t want FCC’s “help.”) He explained that this company grew out of Community Web’s difficulty in getting telephone service for Internet communications. Ready Telecom is an original, not resale, voice telephone service provider. Lynn Kay, his guest, is Project Manager for Ready Telecom.
Ready Telecom is regulated, as are all telephone companies. They have installed fiber optics to provide higher-grade, improved customer services locally. In addition to T-1 service, they can, in the right environment, offer a fiber ring that provides redundancy. Local ownership means response by a real person to trouble calls. The company has a 24-hour call center. The responder can ascertain the type of problem and then respond with an appropriate level of urgency. Ready Telecom will even “run interference” with other providers if the problem proves to be in their equipment. Ready does lease infrastructure/hard lines from Sprint. Al feels that it is local customer service, going the extra mile, which differentiates Ready Telecom from the competition. While the company is currently limiting its customer base to commercial service, they are looking at concentrations of new residential development as a potential market for high level service.
Looking to the future, in response to Shiv Harsh’s question, Al said that single line usage for voice, data, and video transmissions while possible, are currently very costly. Geographic concentration of customers is needed to make such service cost-effective enough to be attractive to residential and most commercial consumers. Currently North State Telephone has a couple of trial neighborhoods for this type of service. Elizabeth Cox asked about the future of flat rate/no long distance service. While Al lacked a crystal ball, he did say that fiber optics have so expanded the capacity of the existing infrastructure so that it does drive down costs and moves us toward a time when flat rate service may be the norm. Mike Miller and Sandy Grey asked about regulatory fees. Al indicated that all telephone lines, even the more than 700 Community Web lines used for internet, for which voice transmission isn’t a possibility, have regulatory fees applied to them. He would love to have everyone contact their congressman and advocate for reduction or elimination of these fees.
President Philip thanked Al for his timely program. He indicated that Mike Freeland is happily approaching the end of his term as Treasurer and reminds those that pay dues annually, semi-annually, or quarterly – now is the time to make those payments.
Sunday, June 23, we have a choice of musical programs. “Tribute to America” with a large multi-church choir and 23-piece orchestra will start at 6:00 at First United Methodist Church. At 6:30 a program of swing music will be performed at Bicentennial Park. Phillip concluded the meeting with these parting words of wisdom: “To be a creative genius, it is not as difficult as my previous comments may have made it seem. Know that if you change 1 element in an array of elements, you have changed the whole thing.”
Written by: Peggy Morrison; Edited by: Allen Holt
