2025 Convention Program & Auction Catalog 20 All proceeds from Sunday night’s Auction go directly to building programs and services for PCCA members. All our government relations work, education programs, workforce development efforts, and damage prevention initiatives are sustained by your generous donations to the Auction and the bids we receive on Sunday. So please, bid early and bid often! Working to Save the BEAD Program The PCCA Board and Government Affairs Committee have identified the survival of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program as the number one short-term threat to the association and our members. Several legislators who have traditionally been PCCA allies have been outspoken about targeting the BEAD program as government waste, largely due to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) provisions in the program and its extremely slow rollout by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. To help preserve the BEAD program, PCCA has engaged Mercury Public Affairs, the group we worked with on the 811 Emergency campaign and our immigration campaign. Mercury is extremely well connected in Washington, D.C., and has been instrumental in helping us get access to decision-makers in the Trump White House and critical members of both the House and Senate. We are pushing the Trump administration to modify BEAD through NTIA action that cuts the DEI provisions while saving the infrastructure provisions. In other words, “Amend it, don’t end it,” as PCCA’s Jaime Steve likes to say. Important Education Activities The Auction has been bankrolling PCCA’s education programs for years, first the Young Construction Professionals and now the Leadership Development Program, the PCCA Scholarship Program, educational speakers at our meetings, and the Who Will Do the Work? program, which develops and implements utility construction curriculums at technical schools and community colleges. We are currently working with State Technical College of Missouri, Terra State Community College (Ohio), Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, Northwood Technical College (Wisconsin), and Somerset Community College (Ky.). PCCA facilitates meetings with representatives from the schools, where they share their experiences and learn from each other’s successes and failures. PCCA awards four $10,000 scholarships each year to the children and other dependents of PCCA members’ employees as well as the newly created $1,000 “Who Will Do the Work?” Scholarship for students at PCCA-affiliated schools. PCCA Auction Proceeds at Work See an OverRides installation in action here www.duraline.com/installations/override-installations Performing an OverRide allows you to jet or blow in MicroDucts to create new pathways for fiber, hassle-free. Did you know you can ADD FIBER TO A NETWORK WITHOUT ADDITIONAL DIGGING? (800) 847-7661 _ www.duraline.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE3MDU=