NECSI Council Meeting Minutes

Palm Springs, CA

January 26, 2001 - 8:30 am –12:00 noon

 

 

Meeting Called to Order at 8:30 a.m. by Mark Lynn.

 

Members Absent: Maureen Gaynor, Charley Eicher

 

Adoption of Minutes Charlie moved to adopt Minutes from October 6, 2000. Motion passed.

 

Financial Report   Datacomm has committed to make the first installment of ~$1400 this quarter. After this meeting Datacomm will decide whether to continue as a partner. Council elected to not maintain a booth at this years Advantage (users group).

Greg moved to adopt Financial Report. Motion passed.

 

Committee Reports

 

Marketing                                                                                Ed Mikesell

Nothing new to report

Recruitment / NECSI Membership                                         Gary Laxdal

Gary voiced a concern that NEC has been accessing the site but does not pay membership dues. Apparently some member dealers are providing NEC with passwords. The recommendation was made to change passwords more frequently and request all dealers not make these passwords available to NEC.

Training                                                                                   Greg Osler

Nothing new to report

NEAX 2000/2400                                                                     Gary Laxdal

Nothing new to report, 129th port pricing issue is in the un-finished business.

Key System                                                                              Ron Brennan

Nothing new to report

Wireless                                                                                   Gordon Maconi

NEC has been out marketed by inferior products the council will address strategies with NEC in the meeting to follow

IP -                                                                                           Charlie Eazor

NEC has produce product brochures but the overall market message is still absent. IP training is now becoming an issue.

Alternate Channels                                                                     Sean Campbell

No response for NEC regarding the issues put forth at the October 6, 2000 meeting. i.e. NEC agreed to provide a copy of the VAR agreement. NEC agreed to address the posting of prices on the web.

 

CROSSTALK                                                                            Suzanne

NEXT COPY DEADLINE:    March 8, 2001

 


Unfinished Business

 

Ø       Major/National Accounts Program - Published by NEC December 7, 2000. The council has not agreed to support this program or any non-NECSI member who are referred by NEC for installation services.

 

Ø       NEC: NEAX 20002 pricing at 128 ports. NEC published permanent pricing adjustments January15, 2001.

 

Ø       Greg to check into NEC Leasing trade-up program. Who is getting leads for expiring leases? This item was not addressed.

 

Ø       Account Representative Roles -Seeking clarification from NEC as to the responsibilities and performance measurement of their Dealer Account Representatives. No update as of this mornings meeting.

 

Ø       Confidentiality agreement for Board Members and any NECSI members privy to non-disclosure information. Generic agreement on-file and available should a situation requiring such an agreement arises.

 

Ø       NEC System product pricing program (convoluted and confusing). We need to know our price before we go out – not after we go through the ‘price relief game”. - what is our REAL price from NEC? The council has previously discussed the problem caused by recording all Dterm sales in the 2400 category. NEC has not responded to this matter

 

New Business:

 

Ø       Dates for 2001 Board meetings will be

o        Jan 26, 2001            Palm Springs

o        Apr 25, 2001            Dallas

o        Jul 27, 2001            Denver                        Tentative date

o        Oct 26, 2001            Jacksonville            Tentative date

 

Ø       Budget for 2001 not available from RCR.

 

Ø       Datacomm warranty partnership presentation – The board defined the nature of a vendor relationship with this association. We offered to publish articles and accept advertising in the quarterly Crosstalk newsletter. We will assist the vendor in distributing marketing material to the dealers and providing reference from dealers that are using the product.

 

Ø       Establish travel expense guidelines

o        Airline tickets not to exceed $600.00. Tickets above that amount will require prior approval by the board Treasurer. Board members agreed to use Saturday stay whenever it will reduce the overall cost.

o        Hotels not to exceed $200/day, maximum of 3 days. (NEC customer hotel)

o        Per Diem - $100/day Food & Entertainment

o        Car Rentals – Max $200 & 3 days

o        Taxi’s – as required

 

Ø       The council reviewed the mission statement and elected to make no changes at this time

 

Ø       Moved to drop the booth from the NEC users group portion of NEC Advantage - Motion Passed.