E-Raters, We have an opportunity to get our chief gripes about E-Rate directly to the attention of the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) front office.... if you can get back to me today. I have been contacted as part of a targeted outreach effort by SLD to reach those states that seem to have benefitted the least from the E-Rate Fund. I have promised to fire off an email to SLD with my "TOP TEN GRIPES" in hopes that they will work with us to find a way to resolve them. I could do this list easily myself but I want to make sure my gripes match yours. SO I'll start the list and ask you to add to it. I will post the completed list back to these lists after I send it to SLD. Thanks bunches especially those of you who have already returned your Letter of Agency packet. Edna Maine's "TOP 10 GRIPES" about the E-Rate process. 1. The inability of SLD, the Client Service Bureau, PIA and NECA to understand that Verizon IS New England Telephone, NYNEX and Bell Atlantic. Any librarian worth their salt would have made a see reference connecting these names and pointing out that the SPIN # 143001288 is listed as New England Telephone because that was the name of our phone company when its SPIN# was issued. Their database is inaccurate and the problem should be fixed by them without wasting the time of tech coordinators and library folk at individual sites. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Edna M. Comstock, E-Rate Team Coordinator Learning and Technology Services Maine State Library 64 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333-0064 1-800-322-8899 or 207-287-5620 [log in to unmask]