The Grass roots effort is always greener..

December 16, 2009 Indianapolis, IN - A bill introduced on Monday in the U.S. Senate would potentially add one electrical engineer or computer scientist within each of the offices of the five FCC Commissioners.

Introduced by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and co-sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia), Senate Bill 2881 would authorize each FCC Commissioner to add one staff assistant position to the three that are currently authorized. The new position of “staff engineer” would require that the holder either have a degree in electrical engineering or be a computer scientist. If eventually passed, the new authorization would affectively undo a loosening of requirements for technical staff at the highest level of the FCC that began more than 25 years ago.

Vinny Lopez, CEV, CBNT, president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), remarked, “Ensuring the technical integrity of the FCC decision-making is perhaps our most important legislative goal. This legislation will go a long way toward returning technical expertise to the FCC Commissioner's offices."  Lopez added, “We encourage other members of the Senate to support this well-crafted legislation. SBE will seek the introduction of a companion bill in the House and we will urge rapid passage of both Bills in the House and the Senate.”

The proposed legislation, which would amend Section 4(f)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 154(f)(2)), explains that the “staff engineer” would provide each commissioner with technical consultation when appropriate and interface with the Office of Engineering and Technology, Commission Bureaus and other technical staff of the Commission for additional technical input and resources. The staff engineer would need to hold an undergraduate or graduate degree from an institution of higher education in their respective field of expertise.


We have been working towards this for a long time. What we need for members to do is contact their senator and ask them to support this legislation.  Contact your House member and ask them to sponsor and support a companion bill. SBE will be helping to identify and secure a sponsor in the house as well. We also will soon be posting on sbe.org a list of Energy and Commerce committee members as well as contact information. This has been one of our most important legislative goals for the past 2 decades. Lets all get behind this and really help to make this bill a reality. Stay tuned for more.

 

Big news

There's some big news coming down the pipe today. Be sure to check www.sbe.org soon for something good.

First time caller, long time ranter

Today was a milestone, my first SBE Board meeting as president. Yes, it was on a conference call, but we got the business done that we needed to and no animals were harmed in the process. Thanks everyone.

Remain Calm, All is well

Server one is back online. Still, it will be the backup for a few days until it proves itself.

Another netcast posted

SBE President's netcast #2 is now posted at sbe.org. It was recorded during our recent trip to DC for visits to the FCC.

Don't ya hate it when...

Lost the boot disk in Server 1 last night. Avid (Pinnacle) was in there this am trying to restore it, but it's looking like a fed ex delivery is in order. Thankfully, server 2 picked up the slack and things are back to normal for now.

Washington Slept here

Been here in DC for a few days. Meeting with the FCC commissioner's staffs and some of SBE's strategic partners on topics of interest to our members. Learned a lot, and I think we did a good job of representing the Society to the Commission. We'll see where it goes.

3 weeks down.

Wow, It's been 3 weeks since I took over as president of SBE, can you believe it? I really didn't think it would be as busy as it is, there is a lot to SBE that the average member just doesn't see. John runs the day to day at the office, but it still takes a phone call every other day to take care of issues that may pop up. It's all good though. BTW, something grand on the horizon that I can't go into right now, but this is a good thing.

Thanks and welcome

Welcome to the first post in my new blog. I would like to thank everyone for all your support in the recent SBE elections, and promise you all that I will do my best for the membership. First, a little about me in case you don't know. I am Director of Engineering at WSYT & WNYS TV, the Sinclair stations in Syracuse NY. I have been here in various capacities since 1987, and really enjoy it. I have been a member of SBE since 1991, and am certified at CEV and CBNT levels. I have a great vision for the society, some of which is evident today in this blog. I will be updating this regularly with thoughts, information, and things that we are working on in SBE. I also plan on doing both audio and video netcasts when there is info that I personally want to share with the membership. The first of these efforts is currently up and in test mode, A channel has been created on Livestream.com that in time will feature SBE information, Educational programming, On-line chats, even chapter meetings could be streamed via this method. Look for more on this soon.