In light of the busy and somewhat controversial weekend on the Member's listserv, I decided to sit back and let the threads take their due course and see where it takes us. Several threads became rather heated at times, mostly due to the compassion and firm opinions of the writers. As I look at this debate from the 20,000 foot level, what I can see is that there are many great people involved with WISPA from differing backgrounds, financial abilities, geographies, and sociological beliefs. It is apparent to me that this debate is needed and it is healthy. It is a valuable learning experience for all who are willing to see and understand the opposing sides and realize that the road to success has many turns, crossroads, potholes and bumps and it is best traveled without blinders on. Given the diverse composition of WISPs, Vendors, Manufacturers and Consultants that make up our WISPA membership, I feel it is valuable to gain many perspectives when making decisions which will best suit our industry association. This method leads to compromise and unfortunately those not willing to walk in another's shoes will still fault in the decisions that are made through this process.
In preparation in writing this email, I felt it appropriate to reread and reflect on my President <http://www.wispa.org/presidents-message/> 's message I posted shortly after the election last summer. I don't want to reiterate every paragraph that I wrote last July but I will touch on a few points I made and goals I hoped to accomplish during this term. The first goal I made was to establish an open discourse with the membership to help guide our industry and the Board through the challenges that we are facing. I believe this has been accomplished for the most part through varied discussions on the Members list and others and through several surveys that we conducted throughout the year. In saying that, we still could have done better. As a board member and experienced WISP operator, I often take the member's opinions for granted. I will be the first to admit fault in that and I pledge to do better in the future as it is apparent that the issues I face may be totally different than those faced in the desert Southwest, the mountains of Idaho, the heavily wooded areas of Michigan or the suburban areas surrounding many of our larger cities. Each operator has his or her own perspective on each issue we face and we all must agree to compromise if we are going to succeed. Therefore, we need to hear from each WISP or manufacturer and be willing to understand their personal dilemmas. WISPA has grown significantly this year adding well over 150 new members since July of 2008. This support has really helped our association gain credibility in Washington DC as we were able to fund professional Legal assistance in our responses to NPRMs and NOI's as well as many personal visits and letters to the FCC, Congressmen and Senators. The Board members have been good stewards of our member's financial support by negotiating very fair rates for this assistance and I personally thank Steve Coran for his willingness to recognize our limited budgets and still press forward in his efforts to assist WISPA. Again, that being said, we still need to reach out and convince the many non-member WISPs around the country that there is power in many and their support is needed. I think it is also very important that we recognize the many vendors who have supported WISPA this year. It seemed hardly a week went by this year that we didn't add a new vendor member to our association membership. Please visit the Vendor Member Spotlight <http://www.wispa.org/vendor-member-spotlight/> page and look at all the vendors that believe in what we are doing and are reaching out to the WISPA members to support their businesses. We had successful tradeshows at ISPCON and Animal Farm this winter and have been invited to participate in two FISPA regional meetings, the next of which is coming up shortly. http://www.wispa.org/upcoming-events/fispa-regional-meeting/ . We have also committed to support Charles Wu's Winog, being held at the ITExpo <http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/> in Los Angeles on Sept. 1-3, 2009 as well as the Wireless <http://www.doubleradius.com/wirelesswithoutlimits/index.html> Without Limits Cruise on Nov. 9-13th by Double Radius. We hope to see many of you attend some of these events. This brings up a point that has been discussed in depth on the lists and amongst the Board. Can or should WISPA hold its own trade show. While some say it would be a revenue generator, others seem to feel that it would be a lot of work for very little payback. While I am somewhat undecided at this point, I would be willing to support such a show if it can be proven to me that we can successful plan and coordinate a successful show. The trend these days seems to be towards Vendor shows instead of industry shows. I believe this reflects on the signs and effects of the economy. Expensive fancy venues which often host industry shows are almost cost prohibitive for many people to attend and to the vendors who support them. If WISPA were to pursue a trade show venture, the committee in charge will need to be prudent and know their audience and vendor needs before securing a site. In paragraph four of my letter, I stated that one of my goals was to establish an Executive Director or Association Management firm for WISPA. Having been on the Board since its founding, I have long been aware of the intense daily workload of many of the Board members. I recognize my own time limitations and understand that to get to the next level and successfully market and administer WISPA, we need someone that can devote all their attention, whether it is a part time position or a full time position, to the WISPA administration and marketing tasks. Again, the Board has discussed this on numerous occasions and although we know it needs to be done, the Board did not feel that we were financially blessed enough yet to consider this move. It seems as though it is a "chicken and the egg" scenario. One of the options we are considering is a cooperative arrangement with FISPA who does have an executive director and is willing to share his resources. This is one of the reasons I attended the FISPA meeting in Orlando this spring and why we are planning on attending the next one in Nashville in a few weeks. Although we now have 9 Board members, I still am not sure that it was a wise move. My fear, when I wrote my letter, was that adding two more Board members would only lend itself to allowing other Board members to slack off. In my opinion, this has been the case. I would have been more inclined to hire a full or part-time director rather than add additional Board Members. I must recognize each Board member for their outstanding volunteer accomplishments for WISPA, but I also challenge them all to give MORE and not less. In talking to many bright entrepreneurs and associates over the last few years, it has been apparent to me that our dues structure is in need of an overhaul. I remember when we were writing bylaws and forming WISPA that we felt it important to keep our dues low enough to attract and keep members. While I am most likely a supporter of a dues increase, whether based on number of subscribers or some other method, I am also concerned that WISPA doesn't price itself out of the market and that we should explore other revenue stimulating models. One model that we used with great success this year was to ask the membership for donations to help us in our lobbying expenses during the Broadband Stimulus Debate in Washington. It might now be time to approach our vendor and principal members with a fundraising drive to help fund the initial cost of Executive Management and then hold the new ED management team accountable for cash flowing its own expense thought new member acquisition and other revenue generating programs. I am proud to say that one goal of hiring a web designer to give the WISPA webpage a new and more modern look has been accomplished. I would like to thank Frank Muto for his leadership of the web design committee in spearheading this charge. I am pleased with the website although I realize that there is much more we can do to it. We have also started using Press Releases from time to time to help bring WISPA into the news on occasion and the use of Twitter and LinkedIn has been an aid in getting the word out at no-cost to our members. I would like to thank Matt Larsen and his work with WISP-Directory <http://www.wispdirectory.com/> as well as Brian Webster and his mapping effort <http://www.wirelessmapping.com/> to assist with one of my goals. While there is still much work to be done, it needs to be understood that we can only map the coverage of those that report. We need each and every WISP to work with Matt and Brian to get their coverage areas mapped so that we can better describe the impact of WISPs in Broadband deployment across the United States. It has been a pleasure working with the current Board and all of the WISPA members this year. Our work is not done, nor will it ever be done as long as there is a WISP industry. We can get better and we can accomplish more in our charge to bring Broadband to the communities which we serve. We ALL recognize the power of Broadband or we would have never entered this business in the first place. We must be diligent in our efforts and more visible to the news media and to the communities we serve. We are blessed to offer products that are in demand during a time when many businesses are struggling to find such a product. While it is a very competitive landscape, it could be much worse. In closing, I would like to address the decision made by the WISPA Board this last week to compensate Board members who work more than 25 hours per month. Many of you may have noticed that I abstained from that vote which passed 5-3. In reviewing Robert's Rules, it became apparent that the President should not vote on matters when his vote does not affect the outcome. Therefore, I abstained. The following is an excerpt of an email I wrote to the WISPA Board. I have deliberated my decision on this matter and have read the email threads discussing this matter in their entirety. I can see both sides of the argument clearly and understand the perceptions this decision may have with our members and the decisions of others to run for the Board. I believe that the affirmative outcome of this motion will be positive in attracting competent members to run for Board positions. I see it (controlled compensation) as an incentive to work hard as a Board Member and have comfort in knowing that all of your hard work will be compensated for once a 25 hour monthly volunteer effort is completed. With this statement in place, I also wish to state that I too believe that an Executive Director or an Association Management Company is needed for WISPA. I have observed the time commitments of myself and others on the Board and greatly respect all that has been done for our association and our industry on a purely volunteer basis. However, we have advanced WISPA's reputation greatly the last several years and the demands on the Board and officer's time is becoming greater and greater with each success. WISPA is at a tipping point where we either chose an experienced and committed administrative effort or we will begin to fail in our own misery created by indecision and lack of time. I challenge everyone currently on the Board to take ownership of this important decision and begin defining the role of executive management and its duties. While, the decision may appear to some to be one of greed by the Board, please understand the thousands of hours that the Board members give to the membership each year. We do so, because we believe in doing our best to help our industry. If this decision does nothing else, it brings to light the need to budget funds for the management of WISPA and our successes. The members need to understand that with each accomplishment comes more responsibility and the costs associated with this added responsibility are greater than what a volunteer effort can sustain. As members desire more and more out of their WISPA membership, it has reached a point where there is hardly enough hours in a day or financial resources to accomplish all that is desired. I sincerely hope that we obtain a full slate of great candidates for the upcoming election. Should this slate be deemed adequate to fill all the positions on the WISPA Board, I will consider bowing out and letting new blood take WISPA to the next level. However, I am willing to continue on the Board should the slate not be filled or if I receive supportive emails from the membership for my leadership this past year. Those that know me, understand that I am an optimist at heart. I see little validity in those that present "doom and gloom" scenarios. I believe that rather than dwell on pessimistic attitudes and belief, successful entrepreneurs and in our case "associations" will spend their time wisely achieving what others say is unachievable. WISPA will be successful and we will build a cooperative effort which will include many more WISPs and Vendors across the country. I wish all the best of success in your businesses and invite you to recognize WISPA and the assistance it represents in your business by your membership support. If you are not a member of WISPA at this time, please go to http://signup.wispa.org today and join the many successful WISPs who do take our industry seriously. Respectfully, Rick Harnish -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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