Re: [WISPA] [WISPA Members] 2010 WISPA Board Elections
Good Morning Everyone, I will need to agree whole heartedly with Matt here. I would like to add some history and evolution of WISPA to put things in perspective. WISPA was started when John Scrivner, Matt Larsen, Marlon Shafer and others became frustrated with the paid management of Part-15.org. Over the course of the next 7-8 months, the Founding Board worked late in to the night many nights each week, to put together the WISPA bylaws and birth our new trade association. We obviously wrote the bylaws to avoid what we perceived to be the evils that could possibly destroy our industry and trade association. It was important to us to avoid paid Board members and enforce the volunteer grassroots effort we were putting together. We all donated financially as well as through our efforts to pay our attorney and accountant to file our bylaws and Not-For-Profit Trade Association status. Those early days were tough. We were battling Part-15 for recognition and members. We banked nearly all our dues and created a community for our industry that we felt would be attractive to new and old WISPs. It was important to us to create this community to create a sense of companionship and ownership for each WISP, whether a member or not. At that time, there was a lack of understanding in Washington DC as to what a WISP was, what we did and who we served. It was important at that time to make trips to Washington to educate the FCC and Congress about our industry. I would like to give credit to Marlon as he planned and managed many of those early trips. Over the next five years, Broadband has changed from a privilege to a necessity. The Government began to fall behind other nations in Broadband adoption, infrastructure and pricing. It seems that only in the last 2-3 years has Broadband all the sudden become a priority at the Government level. When that recognition was made, the flood gates opened at the FCC. Studies were done, NPRMs and NOI's were issued at an alarmingly rapid pace. In a way, WISPA's grassroots and tight purse strings attitude now would allow us to go to work for our members and respond to all the FCC and Congressional inquiries and rule makings. It was also at this time that Jack Unger took the helm of the FCC committee and Rini Coran was hired as our Washington based legal representation. These two gentlemen have done a fabulous job in my opinion keeping their eyes open and ears in tune with the rapidly changing events. The work effort of the FCC Chairman probably increased 10x over what was needed previously. It became obvious to Jack and to the rest of the Board that this position was outgrowing the volunteer effort we once perceived. WISPA was maturing and the Board needed to adapt or get out of the way. While WISPA is still a small trade association and our members and non-members serve often sparsely populated areas, we knew we needed to conserve our funds and decided that there were few people qualified for the FCC Committee Chair role like Jack was. He was semi-retired (had time), had been a WISP (one of the very first), had written a book about the industry and had a background in technical writing and FCC Doctrine. His willingness to volunteer 25 hours/month of Board time is commendable given the many hours he now receives payment for as the FCC Chair. WISPA has a treasure in Jack Unger and it is this treasure that we need to take care of carefully. I will regret the time when Jack moves on. His leadership has brought great respect to WISPA nationally, amongst other lobbying trade associations, corporate America and our Government institutions. Jack is my hero! Any leadership position will invoke criticism. Jack has a great temperament to roll with the punches and stay the course for what he, the majority of the FCC Committee and our legal counsel deem as important agendas to pursue. In reality, these petty arguments about Board pay are a growing pain which we need to get past. As I said earlier, WISPA has matured and is continuing to evolve. We have seen the benefits of spending our dues wisely on paid representation. Our NOI and NPRM responses have been very professional the last two years under Jack and Steve's guidance. They are noticed and commented on by other trade associations. Other trade associations are reaching out to WISPA to join forces and create joint filings. It was not this way a few years ago, when our few filings were pretty much ignored and deemed irrelative. Most successful trade associations in the communications industry are much bigger than WISPA. Their dues are much higher and they pay full staffs and legal teams to do this work. They are often our competition and sometimes our allies depending on the specific topic at hand. WISPA will need to get over our insistence of being a volunteer effort. We need to continue to mature if we want to succeed long term. The old phrase, You get what you pay for is now a
Re: [WISPA] [WISPA Members] 2010 WISPA Board Elections
- Original Message - From: Rick Harnish To: memb...@wispa.org ; 'WISPA General List' Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 6:16 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] [WISPA Members] 2010 WISPA Board Elections Good Morning Everyone, I will need to agree whole heartedly with Matt here. I would like to add some history and evolution of WISPA to put things in perspective. WISPA was started when John Scrivner, Matt Larsen, Marlon Shafer and others became frustrated with the paid management of Part-15.org. Over the course of the next 7-8 months, the Founding Board worked late in to the night many nights each week, to put together the WISPA bylaws and birth our new trade association. We obviously wrote the bylaws to avoid what we perceived to be the evils that could possibly destroy our industry and trade association. It was important to us to avoid paid Board members and enforce the volunteer grassroots effort we were putting together. We all donated financially as well as through our efforts to pay our attorney and accountant to file our bylaws and Not-For-Profit Trade Association status. mks: Hiya Rick, This is a GREAT write up. I have just a few nits to pick. First, we spent about 18 months on the by-laws as I recall. It drug on forever it seamed. The re-write is also taking a very long time (partly my fault as committee chairman). Those early days were tough. We were battling Part-15 for recognition and members. We banked nearly all our dues and created a community for our industry that we felt would be attractive to new and old WISPs. It was important to us to create this community to create a sense of companionship and ownership for each WISP, whether a member or not. At that time, there was a lack of understanding in Washington DC as to what a WISP was, what we did and who we served. It was important at that time to make trips to Washington to educate the FCC and Congress about our industry. I would like to give credit to Marlon as he planned and managed many of those early trips. mks: It's a great thing that we worked hard to save that money. It gave us the over $100,000 that we've spent on filings over the last year and a half or so. mks: And for any trivia buffs out there, the first WISP (in terms of who we are now) trip to DC was a What is a WISP trip in 2001. If I recall correctly it was me, John S., Mike Anderson, Patrick Leary, and Allen Marsallis. Over the next five years, Broadband has changed from a privilege to a necessity. The Government began to fall behind other nations in Broadband adoption, infrastructure and pricing. It seems that only in the last 2-3 years has Broadband all the sudden become a priority at the Government level. When that recognition was made, the flood gates opened at the FCC. Studies were done, NPRMs and NOI's were issued at an alarmingly rapid pace. In a way, WISPA's grassroots and tight purse strings attitude now would allow us to go to work for our members and respond to all the FCC and Congressional inquiries and rule makings. It was also at this time that Jack Unger took the helm of the FCC committee and Rini Coran was hired as our Washington based legal representation. These two gentlemen have done a fabulous job in my opinion keeping their eyes open and ears in tune with the rapidly changing events. The work effort of the FCC Chairman probably increased 10x over what was needed previously. It became obvious to Jack and to the rest of the Board that this position was outgrowing the volunteer effort we once perceived. WISPA was maturing and the Board needed to adapt or get out of the way. While WISPA is still a small trade association and our members and non-members serve often sparsely populated areas, we knew we needed to conserve our funds and decided that there were few people qualified for the FCC Committee Chair role like Jack was. He was semi-retired (had time), had been a WISP (one of the very first), had written a book about the industry and had a background in technical writing and FCC Doctrine. His willingness to volunteer 25 hours/month of Board time is commendable given the many hours he now receives payment for as the FCC Chair. WISPA has a treasure in Jack Unger and it is this treasure that we need to take care of carefully. I will regret the time when Jack moves on. His leadership has brought great respect to WISPA nationally, amongst other lobbying trade associations, corporate America and our Government institutions. Jack is my hero! Any leadership position will invoke criticism. Jack has a great temperament to roll with the punches and stay the course for what he, the majority of the FCC Committee and our legal counsel deem as important agendas to pursue. mks: Yes, the filings have been great. I hope they bear fruit! In reality, these petty arguments about Board pay are a growing pain which we need to get past. As I said earlier, WISPA
