TSTCI Member Central
2016 Annual Membership MeetingDear TSTCI Members and Associate MembersThe Stars at Night are Big and Bright… deep in the heart of TSTCI. It’s time to get ready to shine at the TSTCI Annual Meeting, October 5-7, 2016 at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio. Yes, October is right around the corner so we are opening the registration for the Annual Meeting. Another great line-up of information sessions, interacting and networking time with your co-workers, peers and exposure to new friends and associates. The array of opportunity at this meeting is plentiful. The TSTCI Program Planning Committee, TSTCI Staff and the TSTCI Board have put together a fantastic conference – and we’re inviting you. The Wednesday evening Welcome Reception and Vendor Table-Top Display event has become a highlighted event. We’ve increased the time for this event to allow more interaction with our treasured Associate Member vendors who work hard with and for you and who work hard and for TSTCI. We also share this opportunity to help raise funds for our PAC with our traditional Live and Silent Auctions – which we have also improved and timed a little better for the interaction of the evening! Two years ago, we switched things up a bit and moved the Annual Membership meeting to Thursday afternoon and introduced our now annual “Rural Matters Dinner & Awards Banquet.”. This schedule of events allows us more time shared with our all of our members, Full and Associate, and provides a more community-environment to announce and introduce our new Board members and Officers to the whole Association. The Awards Dinner also gives us a special platform to recognize the recipients of the two Annual Awards – the “TSTCI-Legend Award” – which focuses on someone who has help guide the industry and the Association for many years; and the “TSTCI - Friend of Rural Award” -- that recognize someone – either internal or external to TSTCI -- that has or is making an extraordinary difference to/for/in Rural Texas. Our industry, our members and our Association have so much to be proud of and we want to take the time to officially recognize those efforts. We hope you will plan to join in the celebration of our industry and of our rural roots. So, registration is now open for the Annual Membership Conference & Associate Member Table-Top Display at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio, October 5-7, 2016. In addition to some of the social events we’ve outlined above, the Annual Meeting is also the time where we come to do the business of the Association. It is the meeting where we do the State of the Association, we elect new Board representatives and we are introduced to the Officers that will lead TSTCI for the next year. As is true every two years, we will be entering a legislative session in January 2017 and several issues critical to our membership will be decided in Austin. Our membership will be updated on legislative issues and regulatory issues. We have posted a Pre-Agenda for this outstanding meeting but allow me to outline some of the highlights. As we do every year, we begin our time together with the Annual Wesley B. Roberts Memorial Golf Tournament – This year, we are taking you to a new golf location –Canyon Springs Golf Club. Golf begins on Wednesday, October 5th with breakfast at 7:00 am in the Golf Clubhouse and a Shotgun Start Tee-Off at 8:00 am. The golf fee includes the cart rental, green fees, driving range balls, full breakfast, beverages, lunch and prizes. Registration for the golf tournament and opportunities to assist with golf tournament sponsorships is available on the online registration page. After golf, get your groove on and join us beginning at 4:30 for the “Vendor Table-Tops” during the “Where the Stars are Still Big & Bright Welcome Reception” which goes through 7:30 pm. This evening event is highlighted by our Associate Member Table-Top Displays and our traditional PAC-benefiting Silent & Live Auction. Each of these events are important to our Association so we’ve worked the plan to give each aspect of the evening time to shine. We encourage all attendees to honor our Vendor Displayers with your time and presence. The Silent Auction items will be intermingled and will run from 4:30-7:00 pm. We are also making improvements to our Live Auction event. We will present the Live Auction items in three 15 minute segments (the first beginning around 5:00) and spaced hourly throughout the evening. It is a lot of important stuff offered at one time – but each and every one are worth your time and our effort. The Silent & Live Auctions benefit the TSTCI PAC so please consider donating items for the Auction. We include a list of all Auction Items and Donors, so help us out and let us know if you’re bringing an auction item and a description and value would be helpful. We want to give credit where credit is always due. Let us know your plans so we can include you in our plans for the program and on-site sponsor board. Thursday morning after a hosted breakfast and welcome, our keynote speaker, Steve Gilliland, opens our day with “Making A Difference.” Steve is one of the most in-demand and top-rated speakers in the United States and Canada. His motto is "If you take care of people, the business will follow." Implementing this principle, he has helped people grow their businesses and expand their lives by teaching them to rethink their work, their relationships and themselves. Steve launched his full-time speaking career and built a multimillion-dollar company on the same philosophy he expounds to his audiences. If you continually learn more about your company, your industry, your customer and yourself, you will always be a leader. You will be purpose-driven rather than process-driven, and you will make a difference. Steve learned great compassion for people and commitment to a hard-work and balanced-life ethic at the knee of his highly principled Christian mother. If you haven’t noticed on the meeting registration page yet, our speakers are doing a little promo about their talk. It is a great way to get a little insight in to who you’re going to hear and what they are going to talk about. Go check out Steve’s teaser! And then, whether we like it or not, we have to keep keeping you current on the Federal USF saga of ACAM. Steve Meltzer, JSI, will pick up the baton with his presentation “ACAM – Now What?” Later in the morning Lennie Blakeslee, CoBank, will outline “Industry Trends in Financing.” Before we break for lunch, Mike Poth, FirstNet (invited) will tell us “Where We’re Headed.” After lunch, only those attending the Annual Membership Meeting will return for the afternoon session --Annual Membership Meeting & Election of Directors.” This meeting is open to TSTCI ILEC members and their signed-in designees. After that full day of business, plan to join us for an evening of pleasure and grace as we gather for our 3rd Annual Rural Matters Dinner & Awards Ceremony. For the last two years, this event has given us fun, memorable and nostalgic moments to share. Please note that as there is not an additional charge to attendees for the banquet, we would very much appreciate knowing if you and your spouse are planning to attend (for catering guarantees). We always make arrangements for a vegetarian dinner option or other special dietary needs, so please let us know of any special dietary requests. We have several opportunities for sponsorships of this important event including “Table-Sponsorships” and “Hosted Bar Sponsorship.” Table sponsorships are a great way to get extra recognition--your table will be reserved with your name and you will also get to invite other registered attendees who you would like to be seated with you at your table for eight. In addition, you will be listed as “Table Sponsor” in our promotional material and will get verbal and signage acknowledgment during the conference. Remember, too, this is part of the package for our Premiere Sponsorship – which we acknowledge Eastex Telephone Cooperative and VTX1 Companies for being our 2016 Premiere Sponsors. Details for all sponsorship opportunities are included on the website sponsor page. Please make plans to join us for an evening honoring our industry and some of your peers. Friday, after a continental breakfast, NTCA’s Rick Schadelbauer will give an assessment of “The Economic Impact of Rural Broadband.” We will end the day and the conference with a Closing Keynote speaker, Harvey Kronberg (invited) of the Texas Quorum Report who will give us a “Political Forecast – Sunny or Stormy?” In this political environment, this should be a must hear presentation! Before we adjourn for another year, we will draw for the Grand Prize graciously sponsored by Texas Communications Expo. Please plan to join us in San Antonio!Registration for MeetingRegister early for best rates. >>More Info Award Dinner Sponsorships – Table Sponsors and Hosted-Bar Sponsors
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