The meeting was call to order at 10:00am. Present were the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Secretary. Attendees signed the attendance roster that was passed around.

Approval of Minutes-June 10, 2003The chair provided copies of the agenda and previous meeting report. Moved by G. Carbonell and Seconded by Steve Brown that the minutes of the meeting of June 10, 2003 be approved. The previous meeting minutes was approved by consensus.

MembershipThe chairman stated he will continue to request participation from those states that still need representation in this committee. Vermont has had no participation in this committee for several years.The next meeting will be on December 9, 2003 at State Police Headquarters, ConcordNew Hampshire. Directions will be placed on the website at ner700mhz.org.According to the committee’s bylaws there should be an annual election at the fall meeting (this meeting). The Chairman announced that any person wishing to be a candidate for any of the three positions

Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary should make their candidacy known. No response was heard. G. Carbonell moved that the incumbent Chairman, George Pohorilak, Vice Chairman, Jerry Zarwanski and Secretary Jim Warakois continue in their positions for the coming year. Seconded by Steve Brown and Voted unanimously to continue the current leadership.

State UpdateConnecticut is attempting to form a State Executive Interoperability Committee (SEIC). The Connecticut committee has been distributing 800 MHz radios designed strictly for interoperability use.Massachusetts has a SEIC committee that is conducting meetings at various venues across the state for the purpose of enlightening the Public Safety Community on the current availability of interoperability plans, facilities, and working groups.Vermont representation was absent .New Hampshire indicated that December is the target date for the SEIC to meet. Mr. Kowalik indicated that the state of New Hampshire has many homeland security projects and additional requests for other radio communications projects.Maine and Rhode Island representation was absent.New York State announced their first SEIC meeting to be held on December 2, 2003. New York State will establish working groups for the various disciplines.Mr.Schlieman indicated that the two regions in New York would review other 700MHz plans (region 5, 24, 33, etc) to ensure uniformity of such plans. He reported that the NCC has a recommendation for standardized nomenclature. In regards to the state licensed channels New York State submitted a proposal for dealing with border sharing issues. Canada has agreed to set aside Channels 63 and 68 for border areas. The Chairman, George Pohorilak indicated Jerry Zarwanski and he would attend the Region 8 meeting that will be held September 10, 2003 in NYC.

FCC UpdateNCC report- All recommended rule changes from the NCC subcommittees were forwarded to the NCC. A recommendation for wide band interoperability and various completed documents were forwarded to the steering committee. Mr. Eierman indicated that TIA TR8 committee has a document in ballot that will be acted on in the next TIA meeting session.

CAPRADChair indicated that this committee will use CAPRAD. However, at this time the committee has used up all the funds available for training. It was reported that there was discussion (at the FCC) that the use of CAPRAD be made mandatory. Regional Planning committees will have to make use of the database to provide accurate information to adjacent regions. Mr. Kowalik noted that the CAPRAD web site has information available for all regions and data associated with all regions.

Plan Development - Scoring MatrixNew Hampshire indicated that the committee adopted the matrix in the previous meeting. Typographical errors were pointed out. The chair reminded the committee that the matrix document is a working document and changes or modifications are welcome. Mr. Eierman indicated that the FCC has not approved any 700MHz Regional Plans to date. The Region 5 original plan submission was initially rejected due to various reasons including; Tribal Nation notification, adjacent region approval, attachments including all regional planning activity documents associated with the region, etc. Region 5 has re-submitted their plan to the Commission with additional information.The insertion of a footnote was recommended for addressing language on Section 4, first paragraph-…For an analog system 0 points…The footnote would read "Where allowed for LP or mobile only or subscriber equipment". It was clarified that no analog operations is allowed for interoperability channels.

PresentationsMr. Speidel (M/A Com) presented "700MHz Update and Other Assorted Topics." A copy of the presentation was made available.Mr.O’Hara (SRC) presented "Final 700MHz General Use Narrow Band Allotment Pool-Region 8." A copy of the presentation was made available. Mr. O’Hara also discussed how the 700MHz Pool allotments were generated.4.9 GHZThe Chairman moved for this committee to convene their first 4.9GHz meeting in conjunction with the next 700MHz Regional Planning Committee meeting in December 2003. The motion was approved by consensus.

New BusinessNo new business identified.Meeting adjourned by motion at 12:20 pm.Minutes by: Jim Warakois, Secretary