IrelandOffline Public Meeting

LegacyUser

As our membership has now grown to nearly 500, we feel it is important to have a public meeting soon so that as many people as possible can have their say in how we should be going forward as an organisation;
also, we need to formally appoint a ommittee and officers. We would also hope to get a lot of media coverage for the meeting to raise our profile even further

From past experience we feel that Dublin is best location and Sunday is the best day to facilitate those travelling. We believe, however, that it is important that those people who have been involved in meetings with Esat, Mary O'Rourke, ODTR, etc. are available to give a first hand report/view on
how those meetings went and what we learned from them. Unfortunately, we cannot get a Sunday before the end of the month when all those people are available. This takes into August which is right in middle of holiday period when a) it might be difficult to get people to attend and b) media interest/coverage is likely to be poor.

There are 2 options:

1) If we want to go for a Sunday meeting to encourage people outside Dublin, we probably have to postpone it to late August/early September. Whilst this could encourage a high turnout and media coverage, we would worry about it causing loss of interest among supporters.

2) We go for an earlier meeting held mid-week and accept that we are likely to get a lower turnout from people outside Dublin.

Please you let us know your feelings on this by emailing me at martinharran@esatclear.ie with subject "Public Meeting" indicating which of the following apply:

a) I am likely to attend a Sunday meeting in early August
b) I am likely to attend a mid-week meeting in July
c) I think it would be best left to late August/early September
d) I am unlikely to attend any public meeting.

It would be useful if you could include where you are so that we can get a feel for geographic spread

Thanks in advance

Martin Harran
Acting Chairman, IrelandOffline

LegacyUser

a) I am likely to attend a Sunday meeting in early August
b) I am likely to attend a mid-week meeting in July

I live in Bolton Street and work in Dun Laoghaire (and depend on public transport)

As far as a date is concerned I believe that sooner is better.

Bard

I'm a committee member. I believe three things are important here.

1. Representatives of the press to be present at the meeting. (I believe Elana says this is deffo gonna happen... which is great)

2. As large as possible a crowd. (The more people we get at a public meeting, the more credibility we come away with, and the more our targets - Eircom, Esat, ODTR, etc. - are likely to sit up and take notice of us).

3. The sooner the better... YES, I agree with that sentiment... and while that may be to the detriment of point 2 above (i.e. more people will be able to come if more notice is given) - we have to keep this "hot" ... so the sooner we can feasibly arrange a large scale public meeting for IrelandOffline the better, IMHO.

Cheers folks...

the website will be updated *soon*... can't say when - am just rebuilding my PC, O/S, etc. after a major hardware and software crash. Who says Windows 2000 is invincible, eh?

---

Bard

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First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

LegacyUser

Sooner is better. I live in Dublin city centre, post the time and place when ever its decided and i'll be there.

LegacyUser

Yea Same here, the sooner the better, Personal preference is for Sunday meeting as I am not working most weekends.

Also it's good to see some progress. Well done folks.
My support as always is with the committee.

LegacyUser

In regards to the public meeting I am happy with any date (weekend preferably though), but I do think it is important we are in a position to insure media coverage, therefore holding off until the main mediums are back up and running after the summer break is preferable.

One of these mediums being Pat Kenny. I don’t think many people are aware of how much he championed SNL users in the immediate aftermath of the ACT letter-( The day after to be exact- even before Ireland Offline was established). Here are some selected quotes from both parties to prove my point.

PK: “I’m joined on the with ACT from Esat… How can you do a thing like this?”
ACT: “We have doubled internet access in Ireland…”
PK: “And now you’ve screwed a proportion of them?”

PK: “I can understand you suspending taking new customers on but I cant understand you penalising existing customers. That was a business decision you took and you were wrong, so tough.”

PK: “Am I mishearing you here, You wanted Eircom to bail you out of this difficulty. The people you targeted, maligned and pilloried over the years.”
ACT: We have led the market….
PK: “You mean you were buying capacity from the incumbent. I’m perplexed about this. Hang on you want eircom to install the infrastructure and capacity and then sell it to you at a wholesale rate.”
ACT: “No that’s not the case at all”
PK: “Look, Look Andrew I’m trying to explain to the public here the situation.
Admit straightforward that was your business model. A lot of people buy bread from a baker and sell it onto the public.”

As you can see he was pretty miffed too and fielded e-mails that whole week on the issue. He also is an internet user and has complained in the past about the whole regulatory environment. He has also got an eircom hi speed line and thinks the pricing is crazy. Overall he sounds like a great mouthpiece for getting our message across.
The reality is he would have no problem with promoting the cause and sending out the roving sniffer hound, Philip Boucher Hayes to cover it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he would even host an on-air debate. Quite often when his researchers call up people, they’re too afraid not to appear out of fear of the bad publicity. As far as I know he still on vacation but he is someone we should focus our potential media exposure through.

Overall this would be one of the reasons for holding back on the public meeting until we guarantee a high level of coverage. Not just in relation to someone like PK but the media as a whole. Another line of focus previously mentioned could be through David McWilliams and “Agenda” on TV3 which also has been keen to focus on Competition Issues in the Irish Market in the recent Past. There are arguments both for and against waiting, not to mention the momentum of general interest slipping. Replies on the topic welcomed.

[BTW, if ppl want to hear the interview w/ ACT, as far as I know its not on the RTE.ie archives. However if there is demand I will upload it in real media format for use if ppl want? Please let me know.]

80p.




[This message has been edited by 80project.com (edited 08-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by 80project.com:


In regards to the public meeting I am happy with any date (weekend preferably though), but I do think it is important we are in a position to insure media coverage, therefore holding off until the main mediums are back up and running after the summer break is preferable. </font>

The meeting is planned for 19th July for reasons that will become clear over next day or two. Just to whet your appetite, we should get a lot of publicity in August

Elana BTW has been working on getting something going with Prime Time and possibly Late Late Show but as you pointed out yourself, there's no point in that until autumn schedules start.

Martin




[This message has been edited by o_donnel_abu (edited 08-07-2001).]

dahamsta

Another point about Pat Kenny is that he traditionally has an older audience, which would be a boon to Ireland Offline, since a good portion of younger people are already only too well aware of the problems.

As far as I know he still on vacation

No, he's Irish, he's on holiday. Alternatively, you may use the expression "holiers".

Overall this would be one of the reasons for holding back on the public meeting

I don't believe this should be seen as an reason to postpone a public meeting - anything that delays interaction between supporters will only detract from the numbers. If necessary, Ireland Offline should hold more than one meeting to avoid this. It's possible - although I admit it is only a possibility - that a subsequent meeting might attract even higher numbers.

if ppl want to hear the interview w/ ACT, as far as I know its not on the RTE.ie archives. However if there is demand I will upload it in real media format for use if ppl want? Please let me know.

I would be very interested, as I missed it first time around. You'd want to get the nod from RTÉ first though.

adam

LegacyUser

To Martin,
the july date sounds fine and I'll do my best to be there. My only worry was it being a non-event in terms of the media but if thats not a worry, lets "press" ahead w/ that date.

To Adam & others,
Heres the Pat Kenny interview of ACT. If theres any technical probs just put up a reply. Enjoy!

http://www.dotie.f2s.com/rm/pk152001.htm


80p.

dahamsta

Link is wrong in the ram file 80p, it points to a file on your local drive. Also, you forgot to prepend "http://&quot; to the link for real.com. Sorry.

adam

LegacyUser

Please see new topic IRELAND OFFLINE - MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!

Martin

LegacyUser

I'll try to fix it and let u know
(Bit of a schoolboy error as they say)

80p.


[This message has been edited by 80project.com (edited 08-07-2001).]