Tim Berelsman welcomed the group and called the meeting to order.

Nancy Tiemeier recorded the Shareholders that were present.

Senior Members Present

• Independents Fiber Network (a CNI Company)
• Enlite (Consolidated Electric)
• OARnet
• OneIT
• NetGain
• Horizon
• Bresco Broadband
• Metalink Technologies, Inc
• NKTeleco, Inc
• CentraComm

 

Associate Members Present

• KG Myers Construction
• Cologix

Treasurer’s Report

It was moved to approve the current budget and was approved.

Chairman’s Report

Your initial Board of Directors and Officers for Ohio IX have volunteered their time and energy to establish and launch our business as a non-profit.   I am very proud and thankful for their individual efforts and for you support as members in Ohio IX.

In no particular order, the initial Directors and Officers of Ohio IX have taken the following acts on behalf of your company, Ohio IX, starting with formally establishing the company as a non-profit in late 2015 through April 2017

 Declared the Company’s official place of business as 555 Scherers Ct; Columbus, OH

• Established and filed the Domestic Articles of incorporation:
  • as a 501c(6) company on 12/09/2015
  • with Paul Schopis as the incorporator and President;
  • with Mercury Agent Company as the Statutory Agent; and
  • with 1 class of membership

• Established the Company’s Code of Regulations
• Accepted Paul Schopis request to resign as President
• Confirmed the initial board of Directors consisting of:
  • Paul Schopis
  • Greg Dunn
  • Tim Berelsman
  • Doug Payauys
  • Nancy Tiemeier
  • Kim Gerhart
  • Steve Steele
  • Luke Skidmore
  • Brad Scott
  • Kevin Goodman
  • Jason Gintert

• Elected Tim Berelsman as President, Doug Payauys as Vice-President and Treasurer and Nancy Tiemeier as Secretary
• Established Chief Technical Officer as an other officer of the Company with Marijan Adams accepting the position
• Held monthly board meetings, primarily at the company’s principal place of business, to conduct business on behalf of the Company
• Filed Amended and Restated Domestic Articles of Incorporation
  • On May 12, 2016 by Nancy Tiemeier as Secretary;
  • Modifying the articles to allow for 2 classes of membership
• Adopted an Amended and Restated Code of Regulations
• Changing the Board Officer titles for President and Vice President to Board Chairman and Vice-Chairman to mitigate actual or potential conflict of interests

• Adopted a Code of Conflict Policy

• Adopted a Director Agreement
• Registered domains for Ohio IX and set-up web server and initial Email addresses for Ohio IX
• Applied to register and received from ARIN an ASN for Ohio IX and IP address space
• Adopted Application forms, set initial membership fees and Agreement for
  • Senior Members (Members holding an ASN)
  • Associate Members (non-ASN holders) who will help further the purpose of Ohio IX, which is promote the common business interests of the members and improve business conditions in the Internet communications industry.
• Established a Technical Committee with Marijan Adams as chair
• Established a Marketing Committee with Kim Gerhart as chair
• Established a post office box
• Established a checking account
• Established initial targets for Membership of 15 along with a preliminary start-up budget
• Announced and Held a meeting open to the public to announce the membership structure and solicit members
• Received and Approved Applications for Membership from:
  • SENIOR MEMBERS
    • Independents Fiber Network (a CNI Company)
    • Enlite (Consolidated Electric Cooperative)
    •  OARnet
    • Everstream Solutions
    •  OneIT
    •  NetGain
    • Horizon (a Chillicothe Telephone Company Affiliate)
    • Bresco Broadband
    • Metalink Technologies, Inc
    • NKTelco, Inc
    •  CentraComm
  • ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
    • Sigma Technologies
    • KG Myers Construction
    • Cologix
    • Accent Communications
  • Established an account with XERO for accounting records along with a check & balance procedure between the Treasurer (Doug Payauys) and  Chairman (Tim Berelsman) for the approval of payments
  • Accepted financial and equipment donations from members
  • Established a Policy for the use of and revocation of a limited number of free cross connects donated by Cologix
    • Ohio IXs internal needs first
    • Management connections to OARnet as NOC
    • Director Companies and Committee participant Companies for donation of employees time to Ohio IX
    • Appointed Brent Beatty and Lynn Child to the Marketing Committee
    • Established a revised logo for Ohio IX and launched a new website
    • Took out an Insurance Policy for Directors & Officers with Telecom Insurance Group
    • Took out a General Liability & Umbrella Insurance Policy/Binder with Telecom Insurance Group
    • Entered into Master Service Agreement and Colocation Agreement with Cologix
    • Entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with OARnet for Network Operation Center Services
    • Installed purchases and donated equipment, including Ethernet switching fabric and peering server, for Ohio IX at the Cologix’s datacenter
    • Established Connectivity with Members and went active with traffic on the Exchange between members. Bresco and OneIT were the first two connected to the Exhange.
    • Adopted a budget for 2017 based on additional growth in the membership
    • Waived 2017 membership renewal fees for all members active on or before December 31, 2016
    • Applied for tax-exempt status as an Ohio Nonprofit Corporation, 501(c)(6) with the Internal Revenue Service.
    • Maintained fee structure for new Senior Members and new Associate Members
    • Established a Preferred Network Content Provider (PNCP) for use with National/Multinational Transit Providers and High Value Content Providers on a contract basis rather than membership basis
    • Entered into an Agreement with HE as a PNCP
    • Initiated negotiations with other prospective PNCPs
    • Declared and Sent notification to Senior and Associate Members of Ohio IX’s Initial Membership Meeting

The move was made and seconded to ratify the actions taken by the company. It was approved.

Tim Berelsman presented the Amended Code of Regulations. The following changes were discussed  – The Board of Directors was changed to 7 members to having a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 11.  It was also stated that each Senior Member can only have one person on the Board.  The Code of Regulations was approved.

Election of Directors: The following were elected as Directors for the next year:

Tim Berelsman – Chairman

Doug Payauys – Vice Chairman and Treasurer

Nancy Tiemeier – Secretary

Marijan Adam – Chief Technology Officer

Kim Gerhart – Board Member

Luke Skidmore – Board Member

Paul Schopis – Board Member

Brad Scott – Board Member

Greg Dunn – Board Member

Steve Steele – Board Member

Brent Beatty – Board Member

Lynn Child – Board Member

Call for Other Business: No additional business

Closing Remarks: Tim Berelsman thanked the members of the Board for their work over the past year.  Doug Payauys also thanked Tim and the members for their hard work.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45.

Respectfully submitted

Nancy Tiemeier

 

Attendees:  Tim Berelsman, Doug Payauys,   Marijan Adam, Kim Gerhart, Nancy Tiemeier, Brent Beatty, Luke Skidmore, Shelby Anderson, Doug Duff,  Lynn Child, Paul Schopis, Brad Scott, Roll Call

Roll call

Membership Applications

Secretary Report

Treasurer’s Report

CTO Report

Governance Committee

Marketing Committee

• Results from Press Release
• New potential members
• Automation of registration
• Annual Meeting – Planned for April 20^th at 3:00.  Develop and send out the invitation.

Old Business

New Business

Next meeting – April 6th at 1:30 at Cologix.

Meeting Adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Tiemeier

Attendees:  Tim Berelsman, Doug Payauys,   Marijan Adam, Kim Gerhart, Nancy Tiemeier, Brent Beatty, Luke Skidmore, Shelby Anderson, Greg Dunn, Lynn Child, Brian Riley

Roll Call

Membership Applications – No new applications at this time.

Secretary Report – Minutes Approved

CTO Report – Customers that are turned up – IFN, Bresco, NetGain and OneIT.  We should have Horizon and CentraComm LOA’s this week.  We have sent an email to OARnet to ask about their LOA.  We are working on turning up CEC.

Discussed that everyone should be listed in peering.db.  Radb is another one we should like to join.

Governance Committee

Marketing Committee – We discussed the Press Release and when we want to send out.  The Marketing Committee will draft a press release for us to review.   Will have a draft for the next meeting.

Martini Media Group will talk at the beginning of the February meeting. They were the company that has helped us design our website.

Old Business –

1. OARnet Request for turn-up
2. Call for Progress Reports on Prior Business Items (Tim) – no update

New Business – It was brought up that we should do an annual meeting in April.  Hopefully this will help to get new members as well.  We discussed doing an open house to help with recruiting.  We are looking at OARnet or Ice Miller to hold the event.  Also discussed getting sponsors to help with the cost.

Next meeting – February 9th at 1:30 at Cologix.

Meeting Adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Tiemeier

Attendees:  Tim Berelsman, Doug Payauys, Paul Schopis,  Marijan Adam, Kim Gerhart, Nancy Tiemeier, Brent Beatty, Lynn Child, Luke Skidmore, Shelby Anderson, Brian Riley

Roll Call

Membership Applications – No new applications at this time.  Shelby still needs to get with Tim to discuss the formal policy for assignment and revocation of rights to Ohio IX cross connects.

Secretary Report – Minutes Approved

Treasurer’s Report  Invoice has been sent to Accent.  No expenses from this month.  We are still waiting on an invoice from OARnet which Paul will put together. We need to pay OARnet for the switch and optics as well as maintenance.

We need to decide if we want to purchase a back- up switch next year.  We can either wait until we need it (OARnet usually has them on hand) or if we are able we can go ahead and purchase so we already have it if needed.  We will look at finances for next year and decide what we want to do.

CTO Report – The fabric is live.  OneIT and Bresco are connected and peering.  We have 5 cross connects completed and waiting on LOA’s for the rest.  Marijan has provided information to IFN regarding peering.  OARnet is waiting on their router to go live in the South in the next couple weeks.  Multi-level peering is ready and routes are being exchanged.  The user interface is not ready yet.  What we wanted to use isn’t going to work, it is too automated.  We want members to be able to see at least 2 things: traffic on all ports and routes in the route servers.  May look at IXP Manager as read only.

Marijan would like to get some cable management for the cabinet.  Brent Beatty will provide a 2U cable management system for him to use.

We would like to find out what the cost is from OARnet for Optics.  There are other sources that provide less expensive optics.  Mark Fulmer from OARnet will provide us their price.  Could be a big savings to buy them elsewhere.  We would vet one first and if good can order more.  Fiber Store is source he has found and knows many people who use them.

We discussed some additional items for the Welcome Letter and Brent will update.

We are not using BGP due to issues.  They are working to correct it so we can start using.  This should be fixed in a few weeks.

We discussed that we want to make sure Marijan is getting the help he needs to move things forward.  Luke is willing to help on the technical piece.  He feels we are ok now but we wanted to make sure he knows that it isn’t all on his shoulders and we can help with whatever is needed.

We need to update peering db with the Ohio IX control.

Governance Committee – No updates at this time

Marketing Committee – The presentation and Leave Behind was sent out to everyone and is also stored on the shared drive.

Discussed who is sending out the Welcome Letter.  We need the information put into a Google Form and will create an account for them to be sent from.  Nancy will send them out when it is ready.  Marijan will help Nancy to get it set up with in Google.  Kim will provide an opening paragraph and Marijan will provide a link to Kim.

Kim has access to update the website through Word Press.  We need to make sure we are keeping the website updated and we are doing back-ups so no issues.  May need help from the technical committee.  Kim will look into it and let us know if she needs help.

We have put a member prospect list on the share drive.  We need all members to help and market and acquire new members.   If you have someone you are talking to, please add them to the spreadsheet so we can track it.  This will also help so no one is being contacted by multiple people.  Tim needs to add original prospects to the list.  Doug will send his list to Kim to add.  Marijan will contact Agile.

If anyone is going to shows let us know.  We can see if it is worth going or you can take information with you.  Keep us posted if you hear of any local events that are worth going to.  We can use press releases to let people know we are attending.

We need to do a press release to let people know that we are exchanging traffic.  Doug is going to check with Greg Dunn to see if we can use their PR wire service.

Brent suggested we may want to speak to groups to talk about the IX, can be small technology groups.  We need to use our connections to promote this.

 

Old Business – Doug is working on draft of the budget.  Please provide any budget dollars you think you need as soon as possible.

New Business – No new business

Next meeting – December 15^th at 3:30 at Cologix, will go out after to celebrate the holidays.

Meeting Adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Tiemeier

Attendees:  Tim Berelsman, Doug Payauys, Greg Dunn, Marijan Adam, Kim Gerhart, Nancy Tiemeier, Steve Steele, Brent Beatty, Lynn Child, Luke Skidmore, Shelby Anderson

Roll Call

Secretary Report – Minutes Approved

CTO Report – The information has been sent to the founding members to get LOA information for the cross-connect.  Marijan is meeting with OARnet to integrate the IX Manager on Tuesday.  It will be automated.  They need to decide everything that they want automated.

Bi-Lateral Peering will be ready next week.  Multi-Lateral Peering will be available the following week.

We will allow 1 MAC address per port.  We can look at Jumbo Frame down the road.

Governance Committee – We received the Board of Directors form from Greg Dunn and the Conflict of Interest form from Brent Beatty.

Shelby looked into the sales tax issues and we are ok.  We need to start discussing the Not For Profit filing at the next meeting.

Marketing Committee – They received the Mock-up of the website and the new logo.   The content is being updated.  We will change the Leave Behind to match the changes on the website.  We will have available for the booth at the Columbus Connect event.

The booth needs to be manned.   Doug, Luke and Kim volunteered to help man the booth.

The Welcome Package needs to be put together.  It needs to list what is needed (transport/equipment).

Old Business –

Insurance Application – No change, Tim has been getting quotes

Cologix MSA – still depends on insurance

HE – We still need to contact them

Mass Market –

Status of members joining DB – Ohio IX will be listed in DB.  Would like members to list in there as well.

No other update on Mass Market –

Document Sharing – Some members have used Slack for Forum.   We are checking into setting it up.  It can have a public and private side.  More information will be provided at the next meeting.

New Business –

Monthly membership status – No additional senior or associate members.

Strategic Plan – Tim suggested a mission and vision statement.  This is to be used for internal use only.  Doug suggested making the mission statement more simple.  He is going to draft some changes for our review.

Discussion on Timing / Need for Strategic Planning – tabled for now

We need to discuss budgeting for 2017 and fees for next year.

Next meeting – October 6, 2016 at 1:30 at Cologix.

Meeting Adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Tiemeier