Communication and Customer Service Committee 
12/14/05 Minutes 
Members Present: Michael Callahan, Byron Champlin, Retha Fielding, Larry Gilpin, 
Mary Krueger, Jeffrey Osburn. 
Next Meeting 
Full commission meeting Monday March 13 9-12 at the House of Representatives Hall at 
the Statehouse in Concord. (This location has yet to be confirmed). 
Open 
Larry copied and distributed 4 of the committee recommendations drafted by Byron. The 
group decided to go through those drafts and discuss any further changes. The group also 
decided that we create a binder with all of the research and notes used to support the 
committee’s recommendations – a committee history for anyone who would like to better 
understand what the group wanted to do. 
Meeting 
Larry shared with the group feedback from two committee members who could not make 
this meeting. The first comment, which related to recommendation #4, was the idea of 
recommending there be a position created to coordinate the education and outreach piece. 
The second, which related to recommendation #3, was to emphasize that the fact many 
court staff are reaching retirement age, it is even more critical to ensure the court is doing 
all that it can to recruit and train new staff. 
The group started by talking about recommendation #4. 
Mike C. suggested a wording change. 
Jeff asked about how we should use the web site in outreach and education. 
Larry told the group that Laurie Morrow suggested that the subcommittee offer to 
volunteer to help implement the outreach and education program. 
Mike C. suggested that the group consider making a recommendation #5 to require the 
Chief Justice to report back to the full commission within a specific time frame about the 
progress of implementing the commission’s recommendations. 
Jeff expressed concern over “pigeonholing” members of this subcommittee to be the 
volunteers for implementing the subcommittee’s recommendations. 

Retha clarified this suggestion from Laurie to say that the volunteer could be members 
who have experience in outreach and education and who could share that experience in 
order to help the court set up the outreach and education plan. 
Mary pointed out that there are two volunteer issues – using volunteers to help with 
outreach and education and using volunteers to implement the broader recommendations. 
Mike C. – suggested that recommendation #5 could require the Chief Justice to report 
back to the full commission within 6 months of issuing the report. 
Retha commented the paragraph referencing stats should be used to point out the 
opportunity that the court has to inform the public because the public knows so little 
(clean slate). 
Jeff – asked about what we are educating the public about. 
Retha – says that it would depend on the audience being targeted, whether it is external or 
internal – but, generally the idea is to tell people about how the court works, how it is 
changing, how the courts are relevant 
Mike C – about the court’s limitations… 
Retha – there are some idiosyncrasies in our system, this is how we transition and 
why…etc… 
(More discussion about wording) 
Byron arrives! 
The group told Byron about the committee history binder/folder idea. 
The group moved on to recommendation #1 – mostly changing language. See the draft 
recommendation for more. 
The group discussed making it more clear the idea that courts should be able to use 
technology to avoid scheduling lawyers at two different courts on the same day and time. 
The group moved on to recommendation #2 where it was agreed to delete the section 
related to e-filing because it was unclear as to whether this is something that will increase 
efficiency without limiting the capacity of some people to do business with the court. 
The group discussed teleconferencing and video conferencing and refined the 
recommendation (see draft recommendations). 
The group moved on recommendation #3. There was discussion over the idea that a 
number of court staff are getting ready to retire making it more pressing to ensure that 

they are being replaced by qualified and well trained people. (see draft recommendation 
for more on this) 
Close 
Byron agreed to make the changes to the drafts based on these discussions. He will run 
those past Larry and then have Mary distribute them to the committee. Committee 
members will be asked to comment within one week. Byron and Larry will review the 
comments and make changes. Once the comment period is over and once comments are 
incorporated into the recommendations, they will be submitted to Kathy and Will as our 
final draft. 
Larry will draft a cover letter to go with that submission and will send that to Mary. Mary 
will send that letter along with the draft recommendations to Julie. The letter will indicate 
that the committee is also submitting a committee history binder (hard copy) 
ADJOURN