Craig,
Obviously any donation will be appreciated. I believe some of the larger WISPs will be willing to put in $500-$1000 towards this effort, knowing the importance to their business. I spoke to Steve Coran a short while ago and expressed concern over the quick pace this legislation is being pushed through Congress and what would be done from his perspective over the next three months. He will be getting me a plan of action shortly and also stated that once it makes it through Congress, it will be sent to the FCC, NTIA and USDA for Rule Making. At this time, our lobbying efforts will need to be moved from Congress to these Departments to help construct the rules and policy in which this money will be dispersed. We appreciate your contribution and know that we don't want to unduly burden your business with this contribution. We do however see the need for everyone to put up a little so that the aggregate donations can be used to protect our interests. If you would rather make a smaller donation monthly, that can be done as well. Please state that when making your pledge. Every little bit helps! With that said, I also encourage anyone who is not a member of WISPA yet to sign up and support WISPA and these efforts with membership dues. If you have been procrastinating or don't think WISPA does enough for you, please reconsider and go to http://signup.wispa.org and apply today. For the 30 new members or so that have joined in the last few weeks, we appreciate your support. Our billing personnel has had some illness in her family recently and is running behind on invoicing. She will be getting caught up very soon. Thank you for your patience. Respectively, Rick Harnish From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Craig House Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:35 AM To: Motorola Canopy User Group Subject: Re: [Motorola II] Broadband Stimulus Act Representation Financial Needs I realize that different sized WISP's can afford different amounts of contributions to this cause and I think it is worthy of a donation from my company. What I am curious of is, what would the average donation need to be assuming all Wisp members were to contribute the same amount to make this funding possible? Craig A House Operations Manager Total Wireless Communications. Rick Harnish wrote: To all WISPA members and interested parties, I am writing this as a member of WISPA and as a WISP who is concerned about the upcoming Broadband Stimulus Legislation that is moving through Congress as I speak. I feel that it is imperative that we as a group work diligently to lobby our congressmen on the abilities of WISPs to meet the Broadband Deployment Issues at hand. There is a large amount of funding that will be made available for Broadband Providers to extend their networks. We need to speak up and be heard NOW or we may not have access to this funding in the process of awarding Grants and Loan Programs. To do this, we need to hire representation as a group to make sure our interests are heard as this policy and procedure is defined. We have received a quote from Steve Coran, Rini-Coran and Mercury Strategies to represent WISPA for three months for a fee of $30,000. I have attached this proposal for your review. The Board has this proposal under consideration and Tom DeReggi is heading the Legislative Committee to work directly with Rini-Coran and Mercury through this process. Our concern as a board is that this fee on top of the fees incurred for the TV Whitespaces work that Rini-Coran is doing for us will rapidly deplete our financial resources. However, it is very valuable work that needs to be done to insure that the WISP industry has a future. Our dilemma is that we need to raise additional funding from our members to insure that WISPA can still exist and remain a meaningful Association to represent your interests as this Broadband push continues in the future. I am seeking voluntary donations from individual operators and Vendors to assist in making this happen. We have always kept dues low to make sure we included even the smallest WISPs but our fees do not allow us to have the resources to lobby the way we should. We will publicly post the company names of those who donate to this cause and I am seeking suggestions on how we can compensate those who donate with some sort of preferential treatment in the process of obtaining grant writing resources and prioritizing those grant applications in the work flow in good measure for your donation. This is a very resourceful group of operators and I encourage your participation in deriving this plan. WISPA is growing daily in membership and respect amongst the telecommunications industry. With a new website on the way, potential costs of Association Management, TV Whitespaces Lobbying efforts, US Broadband Coalition strategy and other upcoming expenses, I see no choice but to bring this to the membership for input and review. We are on the verge of doing something to insure our placement in the future. We all need to help one another. If you would like to speak to me directly, please call me at 260-827-2482. I prefer email but will speak to anyone, time allowing that would like to talk. Respectfully, Rick Harnish President WISPA _____ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.15/1921 - Release Date: 1/28/2009 6:37 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
