Joe Coldebella:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. I’m Joe Coldebella, and we are at NTCA’s annual RTIME event in sunny San Diego. Joining me is Pam Becker, the executive director of the Foundation for Rural Service. Pam, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Pam Becker:
Thanks so much, Joe. It’s an honor to be able to share some information about FRS with you today.
Joe Coldebella:
It’s been a great event here at RTIME, I’m really looking forward for you to tell the story of FRS. But before we dig into that, I would love it if you could give our listeners how you got into the industry. It’s always interesting how people find their way into this broadband world.
Pam Becker:
Thanks. My current job is coming full circle. I started my professional life working on Capitol Hill and then worked for an association like NTCA, except its members were mechanical engineers. So it was a professional society in the Washington, D.C., area doing government relations things. I learned a lot about engineering and mechanical engineers, and it was great work. But then I moved here to San Diego and ended up being a fundraiser for one of the colleges of engineering here in San Diego because I could speak engineering, not because I knew anything about fundraising. But it turns out you can learn that part. I had a really great time here in San Diego for more than 20 years raising funds for non-profit organizations, mostly higher education, healthcare, and groups doing really great work out in the community.
But then my husband had a job opportunity, and so we moved back to the Washington, D.C., area four and a half years ago, or so, and had the opportunity to come to be with FRS, which is the philanthropic arm of NTCA. It was a way to do both fundraising and philanthropy, but in the association world where I started. It’s neat when your professional career picks up all the elements of things that you have done along the way and puts them together in one single package.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s great. It is crazy how life works its way out like that. FRS, if you could give us the 30,000-foot view of what that organization is?
Pam Becker:
FRS is the philanthropic arm of NTCA. This is our 29th year, so happy birthday. It was created in 1994 by the leaders of NTCA to be a place to accept contributions. So we are a 501(c)(3) charity like other organizations out there that accept your contributions. We ask for contributions from NTCA member companies, but also people who are connected in the industry, so both individuals and companies. We use those resources that come in a variety of programs back in the service areas where NTCA members have their offices and do their good work.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. It’s February 2023 and this is a kickoff. What are some of the things that you’ve done at RTIME to share with the members here? What do you guys have planned for the year?
Pam Becker:
Coming to RTIME is tons of work, but tons of fun. We get a lot of mail and emails from people, and I see the names and the companies, and finally get to meet them and shake their hands in person to thank them for their generosity. We just share information about FRS at our booth here. People come by to find out more about it. But we also have some fundraising events specifically that raise funds for our programs but are really about raising awareness. Here’s what FRS is, here’s what we do. We also have a 20-member board. We have administrative jobs that we need to do in our board meetings and committee meetings. How are we going to do our good work? But it’s fun to be in one place and for everybody to come together. That synergy, you just can’t beat it.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. This event has tremendous energy, and I really appreciate how approachable everybody is.
Pam Becker:
Yeah.
Joe Coldebella:
I know that you guys are inside the Beltway, and sometimes people say that the Beltway is its own little world. So it’s important that, as an advocacy organization, you do the work of showing the folks that what they’re doing there has real meaning. Could you expand on that?
Pam Becker:
Sure. When I think of advocacy, I’m thinking more of being a champion for rural communities and sharing with the general public and policymakers the unique challenges that rural communities face — the good stuff and the hard stuff.
Joe Coldebella:
Right, in terms of educating them.
Pam Becker:
Right. We do that in a variety of ways. Some of it is just general information, like white papers. For example, in the middle of the pandemic, we did a white paper about how important broadband is in keeping people connected. That’s certainly one thing that came out of that time. Everybody realized we needed broadband. We needed to be able to get our healthcare, do our work, and get our education from our dining room. I know I did it from my dining room table, and we couldn’t do that without NTCA providers. So that’s one of our parts. Instead, NTCA has a really robust general affairs team that does great lobbying activities. We are separate from them. They are lobbying on specific legislation. We are just lobbying for rural communities in general and the importance of rural broadband.
We do that in a couple of ways. The kids do a congressional broadband tour, which takes congressional staffers from their jobs in D.C., on Capitol Hill. They’re very knowledgeable, typically, about rural broadband, but maybe they haven’t ever seen it, so we take them to a rural community. We’ve gone to Montana, Wyoming, and Vermont, and this year we’ll take them for three days in August to eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. We go to rural places on purpose. We go to places where, “Oh no, God forbid their cell phone might not have service.”
We’ll fly to Fargo and do a tour around, visit companies, and go to construction sites. Then we’ll go to see what educational organizations are doing with broadband and see tourist sites and see how the local economy is impacted by broadband. There’s something about being there. These folks say, “I thought I got it until I saw it with my eyes. I held a piece of fiber in my hands, and now I understand why you can’t just put fiber anywhere.” What is that challenge? It’s an opportunity for them to ask questions. It’s quite unique. Not very many organizations do that Congressional Broadband Tour.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s great because it also gives you an opportunity to become true champions. So when they go back, they understand the problem. Obviously, money gets pushed in different ways and for different reasons. But if you’ve got someone there who’s had the boots on the ground, who understands the true impact that you guys are doing, the true impact the NTCA is doing, this must be super gratifying for your whole team.
Pam Becker:
It’s wonderful. You can see those light bulbs going off, and it turns out to be a really wonderful resource. I know that congressional staff maintains, they have found some information, they’ll leave FRS out of the loop and contact those, go back again and say, “Hey, I had some more questions. Can you help me talk through this?”
To be able to create those relationships is really remarkable. We’re going to be doing, at the end of March, a similar but very abbreviated session on Capitol Hill itself for congressional staffers. This is a new session of Congress. Lots of new folks coming up there who probably got broadband in their portfolio and may or may not know much about it. So we are going to do just a broadband 101 session for two hours in the Capitol. We’ve got some wonderful NTCA members, Stacy Brigham from TCA and Eric Kramer from Wilkes and RiverStreet, and Stacy’s going to do broadband 101. “Here’s what it is. Here’s what broadband is, here’s what wireless is, this is what wifi is. This is why they’re not all the same thing.”
Then Eric is going to give his perspective from being a GM in North Carolina about, “Okay, we got some funding or we didn’t get some funding. Here’s what’s going to happen next. These are my daily challenges. This is what it’s like to be in my community.” We’re bringing the mountain to them this time, and we’re hoping that it’s a little bit of a briefer session. But it’s a privilege to be able to provide that helpful information.
Joe Coldebella:
We’re here in San Diego, where connectivity is not a problem. Everyone has it. But then if you travel an hour, two hours out into rural California, sometimes it’s nonexistent. So awesome job. I love that. Anything else in terms of Capitol Hill or in terms of bringing those folks through? But those are the two main…
Pam Becker:
It’s not even Capitol Hill necessarily. It could be in, for example, the white paper that we did on the importance of broadband. I know a lot of NTCA members took it with them. They used it as just information when they went on their own visits to meet with folks in their state or in their county, just about, “Here’s some information.” And a nice leave-behind. It’s politically neutral. It doesn’t have anything to do with that. It’s just, “Here’s some helpful information.” So we are giving people that resource.
Joe Coldebella:
It’s true. In terms of issues, I don’t know if there’s anything more bipartisan in terms of getting sure that everyone’s connected.
Pam Becker:
But FRS, by design, is not about political advocacy. It’s education, education, education.
Joe Coldebella:
Education. I love it. Obviously, you educate those folks as well, but also, you want to have a connection with the community. I would love it if we could talk about your community development and, specifically, virtual living.
Pam Becker:
Sure. One of our programs is about community development. NTCA members are typically big community partners, community leaders, and often the 800-pound gorilla. No, they look to fund every little league team, bake sale, or whatever. They do that, and that’s really amazing. But our community grants are available for non-profit organizations in your service area. It could be schools. It could be first responders, volunteer first responders, your senior citizen center, your library, or whatever. It’s a competitive application process. In 2022, FRS gave out the most money that we ever have. We gave out almost $150,000 to-
Joe Coldebella:
Wow, that’s awesome.
Pam Becker:
… 31 organizations — lots of laptops and Chromebooks. But it’s also a weather station for a very small rural airport that needed something. It’s a heat sensor for a volunteer fire department to use. It’s playground equipment that lets them upgrade their equipment to be ADA accessible and to let everybody in the community play on the playground. It seems like small things, but they make a huge difference. So we partner with the NTCA member in those areas. They put in $500, we put in $4,500, and everybody wins. It’s one of my very favorite things that we do. There’s something about when I get to call the volunteer fire department and say, “Yeah, we’re going to give you some equipment to get a new walkie-talkie system.” For example.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s great.
Pam Becker:
I have had a fire chief start to cry on the phone, and I want to say, “Oh, my word, it’s $5,000.” It doesn’t seem like that much, but it makes the world a difference.
Joe Coldebella:
I would assume that not everyone wins, but it allows them to raise their hand in the community. So hopefully, if they don’t get a grant from the NTCA partner and FRS, they at least have an opportunity to showcase what it is that they’re trying to do.
Pam Becker:
Absolutely. In fact, we know many NTCA members who, actually then, if a particular project wasn’t able to get FRS’s funding, they have decided to pick it up and do it on their own. To me, that’s like the perfect example of all boats rising, and that’s the beauty of philanthropy.
Joe Coldebella:
I love it. The community outreach for development is awesome. Also, in terms of virtual living.
Pam Becker:
The virtual living room is very similar to the community grant program. It’s funds that are available thanks to a generous gift that came from CoBank, specifically for these projects. It’s meant to be a private space in a public area like a library.
We have two American Legion posts specifically for veterans to be able to access the VA’s Video Connect program and their telehealth program. A lot of times, the local VA medical center could be two hours away. And maybe you have an appointment, and you need to get somebody to drive you there.
We hear these stories about it takes an entire day to go get a follow-up on something. But if there’s a telehealth set up in your local community, you can go to the library to have the appointment. You can access telehealth, you can have your follow-up session for 15 minutes, and then go and have your regular day.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. It’s interesting because we’ve had folks on the podcast, doctors and such, and they say that the farther someone is away from a facility, the less they are to go to that facility, especially those in rural areas because most of those folks tend to be on the older side,-
Pam Becker:
Right.
Joe Coldebella:
… so, then that’s a barrier. It’s phenomenal that you guys are just doing these little things that are… It’s so funny, we think that, “Oh, wow, telehealth has been around forever.” But really, we’re just starting in terms of all having access, having people accept it because it’s one of those things as well. It’s always a little… you’re a little hesitant to open up and tell folks on a phone or a video call about your personal health.
Pam Becker:
We get that, and that’s why it’s important that it’s a private space. We have to follow HIPAA rules, and it has to have a door and be soundproof. But just to be able to have the technology accessible makes it easier for folks to do that. Every time we do it, we learn a little bit, and we do it a little bit better. But there are still funds available if people want to find out more about that.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. That’s spectacular. Obviously, we got doing things in Washington also in terms of the community. But you also have an outreach to students and young people as well. I would love it if we could touch on that as well.
Pam Becker:
That’s probably the area that people are most familiar with FRS. A big bulk of what we do are scholarships, and I think that people know what scholarships are. But we will give out about $120,000 this year for scholarships for people going to a two-year school, a four-year school, or a vocational school. They’re one-time scholarships, so it’s not meant to pay for your entire college education, but it is meant to get you going and to be that push.
Joe Coldebella:
Every little bit helps.
Pam Becker:
Every little bit helps. Again, that’s a beautiful partnership with NTCA members. They put in a little bit; we put in more. They get to hold the big check and go knock on that student’s door and say, “You’re going to get this scholarship.”
It’s exciting, but it’s very competitive. We are going to give out about 39 scholarships this year. The application has just closed, and we have more than 1100 applications.
Joe Coldebella:
Wow.
Pam Becker:
It’s almost like winning the lottery. I feel for it because I’m excited that it’s that exciting for folks. There are way more than 39 incredibly deserving and excellent students out there. I hope the word also goes with you. Everybody’s doing a great job, and just keep going for it.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s phenomenal. Scholarships — are there other opportunities for young people?
Pam Becker:
We also have the youth tour. It’s also been around for a long time. Scholarships and youth tours are one of the very first things that FRS ever did. This year we opened the youth tour up to 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, or 17-year-olds. It’s usually rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school. They come to Washington, D.C., for about four days in June. We do all the planning and all the organizing. The NTCA members pay for it, and we’ll have about 110 kids and 20 chaperones. Thank goodness for those-
Joe Coldebella:
I can only imagine.
Pam Becker:
… chaperones. Oh my gosh. We do all the typical Washington DC things — the museums, the monuments, and the historical things. But what makes our trip unique is that we also take them up to Capitol Hill and introduce them to some of those same congressional staffers that we already have relationships. They come from the same communities and were active in FFA and 4-H or lived in a town with only 60 people in their high school. They get it. I think it’s important for the high schoolers to understand that what happens in DC is all regular people, and they are looking out for them too.
We take them to the FCC, which is certainly not a typical DC thing. For many years we’ll have almost all of the commissioners, for example, of the FCC, come because who doesn’t want to come to talk to 100 high schoolers? They’re way livelier, and they want to come and they share. They’re excited about what they’re doing at the FCC, and they share it with these kids who have amazing questions. They get it. They absolutely understand how important broadband is because they are the kids who need it to take their AP Calculus class, which is not offered in person in their school. But they need to take it through everybody in Wyoming,-
Joe Coldebella:
Right.
Pam Becker:
… and that’s the only way they can do it. They get it. They’ve got hard questions about, “How do I get a hotspot on my school bus,” and things like that.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s also a great illustration so that the FFC commissioners know that. Just recently in the news in terms of the mapping,-
Pam Becker:
Exactly.
Joe Coldebella:
… there has been a big problem. Ultimately, the decisions that they make have a real impact on kids. One of those things where the internet is the great equalizer,-
Pam Becker:
Yep.
Joe Coldebella:
My biggest fear, with all this money coming into this space, is that the digital divide will not shrink. But unfortunately, the digital divide will grow even wider because some folks have gig speeds, and then you’ve got other folks that are completely unserved. It’s one of those things where making these connections are vitally important in terms of just for everybody.
Pam Becker:
One of the other beautiful things about youth tours is that these kids come from very small schools, so it’s often the first time they’ve traveled without their parents and been around 100 other 16-year-olds, which is why it’s a crazy thing. But over the course of four days, you can just see them blossom and lift their heads up and be like, “Oh my gosh, look at all of these other…” And they stay in touch with each other. That’s one of the beauties of social media. They stay in touch with each other, and they truly do have lifelong friendships.
Joe Coldebella:
Is it from all over rural communities-
Pam Becker:
All over the country.
Joe Coldebella:
… all over the country?
Pam Becker:
Yep.
Joe Coldebella:
Oh, that’s great.
Pam Becker:
We’ve had kids from Alaska. They come to DC. It’s amazing.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s phenomenal. This has been an awesome talk. Before we end, I always like to end with two questions when I can. The first question is our Back to the Future question. Pam, I’m going to give you the keys to the DeLorean. You get to go back in time to the beginning of when FRS was started. If you could whisper something in their ear to make the journey a little bit easier, what would you tell them?
Pam Becker:
I think I would tell them to think big and think bigger.
Joe Coldebella:
Think bigger.
Pam Becker:
I think, for a while, it really was scholarships and youth tours. Only in the past 10 or 15 years have we really added the community grant component, but we still need to think bigger.
Joe Coldebella:
Right. Absolutely.
Pam Becker:
There’s still a lot of work. How do you leverage those partners? Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. There are a lot of other folks out there doing good work. Who can we partner with? Who can we maybe fill in some gaps that they are not doing? We don’t have to be the solution for every problem, but there are things that we can do better than maybe others. So how do we take advantage of that in the best possible way?
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. I love it. Then the converse, the crystal ball question. If you were to appear in the future, 12 or 36 months, where do you see the organization going?
Pam Becker:
2024 will be our 30th year. This is a good time to be thinking, “Okay, we’ve gotten really good at this. What do we do next?” It’s the same answer, think bigger. Again, we can’t solve every problem.
What is it that we’re really good at? I think what it is we’re really good at is those partnerships with the NTCA member companies and those rural community-based providers and the ties that they have. I think a lot of folks, there’s that push and pull about living in a rural community is so amazing.
We want people to stay here forever, but we also want them to go out and see the world and then bring it back. How can FRS be part of that? How can we help? I don’t know the answer, and there are so many people out there who are smarter than I am at that. But just ask those questions and keep pushing and be a resource and make that difference and be an expert.
There are tremendous opportunities. I applaud NTCA for creating FRS. We love our board. We have a 20-member board, and they just keep pushing and pushing and pushing me and our staff to like, “Why can’t we do it this way?” And “Let’s think about that.” And “What would that look like?”
Joe Coldebella:
It was a tremendous amount of hindsight in terms of just, obviously, in 1994, the internet was literally nowhere near it is today, so kudos to them.
Pam Becker:
Absolutely, I’m looking forward to celebrating.
Joe Coldebella:
This was a phenomenal visit. Where can people go to learn more about you and your organization?
Pam Becker:
Probably the easiest way is to go to our webpage, frs.org. There’s access to all our educational materials, and our resources are in our pamphlets. They can also find out about scholarships: what are the deadlines, the community grants, and those kinds of things. We try to have some presence at the bigger NTCA meetings. We’re not at all of them, and we really like to create relationships with, often it might be the marketing person or the customer service person. The externally focused person at a company is usually also the person who’s paying attention to the FRS stuff and trying to spread the word in their community about those scholarships, for example. The more we can just create that visibility and that awareness within the NTCA community, the better.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Pam, thank you for educating me and our listeners. That’s going to wrap up this episode of the Broadband Bunch. Until next time, we’ll see you guys later.
