USTIN, April 16, 2015 – The board of directors of the Rural Telecommunications Congress voted here on Wednesday to elect a new slate of officers to lead the organization, building upon its work over the last several years. At its annual meeting held jointly with the Broadband Communities Summit, the Rural Telecommunications Congress unanimously approved as new officers:
“It is a humbling experience to be entrusted with the leadership of an organization with the history and institutional knowledge of the Rural Telecommunications Congress,” said Drew Clark, incoming President. “I gained a passion for the vital role of broadband as the leader of the Illinois Broadband Authority, and while living in and traveling throughout rural Illinois. I continue to experience the truth that better broadband leads to better lives through my work to help cities and rural communities build Gigabit Networks.” Clark is Of Counsel with the Salt Lake City-based law firm of Kirton McConkie. “The RTC has played a vital role in rallying rural America’s interest in broadband through its annual Rural Telecommunications Congresses,” said Jane Patterson, Immediate Past President, and who served as President from 2013 to 2015. Patterson has played a legendary role in enhancing technology access and adoption in North Carolina, and nationwide, through her leadership of the Rural Internet Access Authority and e-NC Authority from 2000 to 2012. “I’m confident that our new officers, including Drew Clark, Jason Whittet, Frank Odasz and Eric Ogle, will help to continue to enhance the voice of rural America on issues of better broadband,” she said. The RTC’s roots date back more than 15 years, when a group of concerned citizens, local and state government officials, consultants, and others met under the aegis of the Aspen Institute in Colorado to discuss how the western states could benefit from the utilization of high speed broadband services. The RTC has been the voice of rural America concerning broadband since 2002. Since then RTC has hosted events in locales including Des Moines, Iowa; Spokane, Washington; Lexington, Kentucky; Little Rock, Arkansas; Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont; and Springfield, Illinois. These events have showcased the importance of a strong broadband infrastructure to eliminate the digital divide, enhance the quality of life in rural America and encourage broadband adoption and education in rural America. “The country’s economy and quality of life is enhanced with a strong an essential infrastructure to connect us all in a digital world,” said Keith Montgomery, former Vice President. “RTC has been a strong voice for broadband adoption and education.” “I want to congratulate the newly elected slate on their leadership role with the RTC,” said Hilda Legg, former Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Vice Chairman of Broadband Communities Magazine. “I have observed this entity for 15 years: The hard work and energetic efforts has created one of the most significant organizations for deploying broadband in rural America.” “The RTC can have an indelible mark on the rural communities and families through its advocacy, education and vigilant support toward the goal that every rural resident will have access to high-speed broadband connectivity,” said Legg. Besides the newly-elected officers, the other members of the RTC Board include:
About RTC The mission of the Rural Telecommunications Congress is to facilitate the development of a reliable and sustainable rural broadband ecosystem to ensure a strong future for rural America. Incorporated in Tennessee, the RTC operates as a non-profit organization and has an application for 501(c)(3) status pending with the Internal Revenue Service. For more information, visit http://www.ruraltelecon.org. When I talk with small businesses owners and managers about their use of technology and the Internet, quite often I get responses like, "Well, we're a store-front business so our priority is to serve our local community and not so much on selling to the rest of the world." It is amazing how many business owners still consider their broadband strategy as nothing more than a static website where they think no potential customer closer than 500 miles away will ever try to contact them.
But the Internet is more than just reaching potential customers with a website. To be an efficient business, broadband must be incorporated into every facet of operations. This means both externally to serve and support customers, and internally to bring about efficiencies and cost savings to business operations. This is important to every business, from traditional manufacturers and retailers all the way to location-based service and hospitality industries like hotels and restaurants. No article I remember reading has illustrated the integration of various important broadband services better than a recent article from Inc. Magazine. In this article, the owner of a local, multi-location BBQ restaurant explains how they successfully integrated technology to operate an entire business powered with various desktop, mobile, and cloud-based broadband applications. For Archer's BBQ, which has quadrupled sales the last four years to reach $1.2M today, broadband enables everything: work schedules that employees check from their phone, online banking and electronic payroll, cloud-based video surveillance to peek in any store from anywhere, inventory and logistics management, mobile ordering, point of sale payment processing, as well as the ability to market and manage customer loyalty and retention programs through social media. The article offers a quick look at the inner workings of a modern, successful, broadband-enabled small business. The owner says, “We couldn’t have run the business the way we do now 15 years ago. When you look at how many facets of the business are affected by the power of mobile, it’s incredible.” Posted by Eric Ogle There is a high degree of awareness of how differences in Internet connectivity contribute to the “digital divide” experienced by many rural areas. Less is understood about a very real divide that exists from a lack of utilization. That’s right, just as important as “speed” is how much businesses and organizations utilize the Internet. Using the data SNG has collected in numerous states between 2012 and February 2015, SNG can actually quantify this digital divide. Just as significantly, we can identify the types of organizations (industry, size, rural/urban, etc.) that are experiencing the greatest gap in utilization. To quantify utilization, SNG developed a Digital Economy index (DEi) to reflect how many Internet-enabled processes and applications an organization uses. SNG measures the use of 17 applications on a ten-point scale (ten being best) to develop the DEi. For example, an organization using 8 of the 17 applications would have a DEi score of 4.7. As SNG research has been conducted in numerous states, each with rural and urban components, SNG has uncovered the digital divide that exists based largely on the size of the community businesses are located. View the full article : http://sngroup.com/the-rural-broadband-digital-divide
Broadband technology is an essential tool to those who are linked to the land – modern farmers and ranchers, landowners, builders, and loggers that feed and supply the nation. Their efforts and success drive a significant component of the USA and world economy. The attached article from The GRIT website highlights how farmers do their monitoring interactively. This is just one example of how the farmland is improved by technology and wireless broadband. Learn more about these fascinating stories from the RTC website and send us examples of how broadband is used in the rural America. “Country Internet Access - Tools" - GRIT Magazine This important topic will be explored at the 2015 Broadband Summit this April in Austin, Texas. RTC will sponsor a Broadband and the Farm panel session on Tuesday, April 15, that will provide a commercial perspective of how broadband is needed on the farm, a state perspective on its importance to the farming and state economy, and discussion on how fiber and wireless networks are essential infrastructure to rural America. The RTC panel will have Mark Lewellen – Manager Spectrum Advocacy, John Deere & Company, Dan Hunter – Assistant Commissioner for Water and Rural Affairs, Texas Dept. of Agriculture, and an Iowa State Broadband Representative and will be moderated by Keith Montgomery, RTC Vice President & CFO Declaration Networks Group Inc. Posted by, Keith Montgomery RTC Vice President |
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AboutThis is an area where RTC members post information about RTC happenings, along with technology efforts in their states as well as commentary and insight into national policies that effect rural communities. Categories |