Thank you for attending the 2013 CalCom Annual Conference & Network Evolution Seminar!
To all who joined us in South Lake Tahoe for the CalCom Annual Conference…we’d like to say THANK YOU! Our members always manage to come together, snow or shine to have a good time!
Mother Nature helped kick off our show with a bang, by gifting us with the first snowfall of the season! It was a generous way to welcome us to Tahoe.…unless you were traveling that night like Sara Hughes with GENBAND! She had the most treacherous adventure from Texas to Tahoe out of anyone…we hope your travels home were not as eventful Sara! Some of you made the most of the unpredictable weather, like Bill Harder from Volcano Telephone taking a moment to make a snow angel outside of the hotel!
All and all, the weather didn’t slow us down. We had a jam-packed agenda full of education and networking opportunities. We heard first-hand about the future of the FirstNet emergency network and how rural communication providers can get involved with the state. CalCom, and our members would like to initiate a partnership with this program to help strengthen the opportunities we have to get involved. We will share more information with our members as this program rolls out. We also received an update from Western Telecom Alliance on policy matters at the FCC level, along with an update from the California Public Utilities Commission, Senior Analyst regarding the CASF Grant that is underway. Our keynote speakers, along with the breakout session speakers provided a variety of topics and expertise throughout the four days.
The Annual Awards Dinner was well attended and all recipients were present to accept their recognition and award. Some of our awards were kept a secret, so we’d like to give a special thank you to those companies who helped organize behind the scenes to make sure the awardees were in attendance that night! A special thank you to Moss Adams LLP and Cal-Ore Telephone Co. for keeping a secret!
We would like to congratulate all of the award recipients that were recognized at the Awards Dinner with a heart-felt earnest hand shake from a very convincing Mark Twain impressionist:
Kelsey Conklin- Scholarship recipient
Shelby Lofy- Scholarship recipient
Volcano Telephone- Fleet Safety Award
Sebastian- Fleet Safety Award
Volcano Telephone- Occupational Safety Award
SureWest, a Consolidated Communications Co.- Occupational Safety Award
Russell H. Young, Sebastian- Driver of the Year
Robyn Husmann, Sebastian- Community Spirit Award
Bob Hensley, Cal-Ore Telephone Co.- Industry Leadership Award
Lorrie Bernstein, Moss Adams LLP- Industry Leadership Award
We are pleased to report that we raised over $1,700 for the Robert Ringman Scholarship Fund from the Silent Auction. Thank you for all of the generous gift donations from individuals and companies, and to those of you who bid on items. It exceeded our expectations, and proved to be a successful addition to the conference. We look forward to helping more students continue their college education in the future by providing them with financial assistance from the RRSF.
We’d like to thank the following members for their hard work planning this year’s conference:
Mike Zaccagni, American Power Systems
Kim Lindeberg, The Lindeberg Group
Linda Lupton, SureWest, a Consolidated Communications Co.
Terry Hammond, Sierra Telephone
Helen Woosley, EnerSys
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of any of the presentations you saw during the conference, please contact the CalCom office and we’d be happy to assist you.
We’d appreciate your feedback:
A conference survey is available for you to jot down some comments about your experience during the conference CalCom Conference survey. We use your feedback to improve upon future events, so please share your thoughts with us. You may email, fax or mail your survey back to the CalCom office.
Email: mariann@calcomassn.org
Fax: (916)922-3648
Mail: 1329 Howe Ave, Suite 216
Sacramento, CA 95825