MINUTES OF MEETING
August 8, 1999

The E-Commerce Committee met in person on Sunday, August 8, 1999, at the ABA Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Those in attendance included Pat Wittie and Craig Othmer, Co-Chairs of the Committee, as well as Dan Silien, Dan Donohue, Jerry Walz, Alan Brown, Jon Shaffer, Drew Hungerman, and Phil Davis. Rand Allen attended for a few minutes to present his own thoughts on what this Committee might accomplish. Among other things, Rand emphasized that e commerce is a potentially huge area covering many issues, most of which do not affect procurement, and the Committee will need to maintain its focus on e-commerce as it relates to procurement law and procurement contracts, without attempting to stray into purely technical issues.

Each of the individuals present introduced himself and provided some background regarding his/her interest in the Committee.

Jerry Walz discussed the use of the conference web site <http://discussion.abanet.org:8080/~ABA/newuser> and the chat room capabilities. There was general agreement that meeting and communications will be conducted primarily through this site and through email. Jerry agreed to notify all committee members when the site is fully up and running, and to provide each of us with instructions as to how to use it.

Pat Wittie summarized the status of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), which was adopted in July by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, as well as two bills currently pending in Congress (the Abrahams bill, S. 761 and the Bliley bill, H.R. 1714). She noted that the Abrahams bill would essentially Federalize UETA, while the Bliley bill would not. Members of the Committee agreed to read UETA, with particular attention to its treatment of procurement contracts, in order to identify any issues that might need to be addressed as the States begin considering whether or not to adopt the Act. Our Committee home page has a link to the UETA web site.

At Rand Allen's request, the Committee agreed to prepare an overview document or introductory statement to be presented to the Council at the next Council meeting in Santa Fe, outlining areas of potential interest to the Section and the status of various current initiatives in the area of e-commerce.

Jerry Walz and Dan Silien agreed to contact Federal agencies regarding their initiatives in this area, and report back to the Committee. Dan Silien also agreed to monitor and summarize the activities of ABA Section on Business Law on e-commerce issues.

Dan Donohue agreed to attempt an overview of current state statutes on digital signatures and authentication, and (if possible) state regulations, to determine whether those statutes and regulations exempt procurement contracts or treat them differently than commercial contracts.

Jon Shaffer agreed to monitor and summarize the activities of the Litigation Section Committee on evidentiary issues in connection with electronic contracts. He also agreed to work with John Kuelbs to identify and summarize current international initiatives.

Drew Hungerman agreed to review and summarize the positions of various industry groups regarding the viability of relevant Federal legislation.

Craig Othmer agreed to assemble some cooperative purchasing contract language from a public contract initiative being launched by 14 western States.

The committee will work toward assembly of the overview document during the next few weeks, possibly convene a chat room test meeting or failing that, communicate by email in September so that a draft product can be reviewed and finalized in early October for inclusion in the November Council book.

Pat Wittie and Craig Othmer