Greetings, I'm aware there is a flurry of activity with questions/answers which provides more exposure for candidates to the membership. It's great disclosure to see how your Directors will deal with issues and respond to potential conflicts. I hope that in my three years on the board I have proven my ability to manage both and to innovate new ideas that have helped to cause this explosive growth in membership, events, and core activity for WISPA.
Quickly to review my record in the first term I took a dormant Promotion Committee and adopted the idea that WISPA is known by no one except a few at the FCC. While we have been successful for many years longer than I have been on the board I felt we would need to make our Association more well known. I proposed and initiated our first WISPA Regional Show in St. Louis and as it grew, and Rick Harnish exited his duties as a WISP, thanks to lucky timing we were able to have Rick complete that show. I've always been amazed at his ability to promote a show and he has taken us to new heights at every show since. Next I started to do national press releases, authorize paying for formal White Papers (Thanks Matt), and other means to promote WISPA to the membership, the general public, Congress and other groups. I started to build alliances that have placed us in positions of equal lobbying with huge groups like WIA, Small Business Committee of Congress, the NFIB, Consumer Electronics Association, New America Foundation and others. Cooperative growth with others is the key to the most powerful message to Congress and others. I like to think that those agencies looked at us and said "Oh good, WISPA is getting serious about organizing their efforts". My second and third term has been as our Legislative Committee Chair and board Vice President. It's been quite a ride, meeting very important national figures that I didn't think I'd ever meet, these people are very intelligent but most had never heard of Fixed Wireless Internet. The first year was about educating them about our industry and how we serve the public. Getting Congress involved made it easier for the FCC to promote our causes, and they really are a big fan of ours. Despite all the hype from the legacy carriers, the FCC knows we are the most likely candidates for getting rural Internet deployed quickly, efficiently, and with a predictable cost return well below that of wired and cell carriers. My crowning achievement was the idea and completion of our first Advocacy Day taking 24 members of WISPA to Washington D.C. and meeting with 40 Congressional offices, with my greatest thanks for the members who showed such grace and diplomacy with their visits and participation. I am running for one more term, because at some point I need to concentrate on my business again. My final goal is to continue protecting your investment by stopping legacy carriers who want to take away your good work through legislation and FCC rulemaking. I want to work to achieve better back channel methods of stopping new Legislation that would harm our industry, to have every Congressional staffer ask the question "What about the Fixed Wireless guys?". This way we won't always have to watch the news wires to see what we missed out on and have to argue after it's already an in-process bill. I want to do another Advocacy Day and make it an annual event. I want to thank you for allowing me to serve these three years and allow me to complete my mission of making WISPA a nationally known and respected Association, quoted in the media as a resource, and Fixed Wireless a household name in America as a viable and long term competitor to any other form of last mile Internet delivery. I thank the existing board for believing in our common mission, welcome the new candidates who are pledging more volunteer time than they probably realize but if elected look forward to their individual efforts, and appreciate the support I have received over the years for my ideas to promote and achieve our powerful growth in WISPA. I would appreciate your vote one more time in this election. Forbes Mercy WISPA VP/Legislative Chair _______________________________________________ Announcements mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/announcements
