[SBE] Discussion topics

[Kent Winrich]

<rant mode>

Clay I think you are hitting right on a topic near and dear to my heart.....
Younger engineers.

I have been harping on an number of boards and reflectors.. what have YOU
been doing to keep this business going?  Are you (not you Clay.. "you" in
general) mentoring anyone?  Have you taken anyone to the transmitter site?
Do you have someone over your shoulder for a day to see what you do?  Mainly
I get silence.... to me that means most people are doing NOTHING.  The
"kids" I work with are more than willing to do the work, but they don't know
what to do.  What appears to be laziness, is actually fear of doing
something wrong.  Give them proper direction and they do just fine.

I was hoping that SBE might be a path for younger engineers.  After some of
the rounds here, maybe not.

See, I work with about 30 - 50 potential engineers PER YEAR here on Ft Bragg
(and there are many more across the country and around the world, plus some
of my co-workers as well).  These are people that are educated, but may need
a little help from the engineering community..... some guidance and hand
holding.... mentoring.  To be honest the comment about this being useless
chatter is in a direct OPPOSITE direction: stiffing communication between
members, discouraging new people to chime in, and not helping younger
engineers understand what is out there and what other people are dealing
with.  Even if it is as "trivial" as tower heights.  You have created this
list Chriss, so I guess it is yours.

What many older engineers forget is that all the information you have in
your heads and you find boring, are exciting and interesting to many others,
especially new engineers.  Trust me.

I am sure at one point all of us were the star eyed engineers, and had the
helping hand of another engineer.  I was very fortunate to have a wonderful
Regional VP of Engineering when I was at Clear Channel!

So if it doesn't help YOU in YOUR business, well excuse me!  Unless your
delete key is broken it should not be a big deal.  And if you have an email
reflector going to your Blackberry... well what do you expect from an email
reflector? (which is why I DONT have a reflector going to my Treo).

Not all topics interests me.  So I delete it.  End of story.  If there is no
interest in a topic it will die on its own.

As of right now, I am not seeing any real benefit from my membership to
SBE.  AND, I don't see any real help for younger engineers.  Heck even on
the SBE web site you need to be a member just to see the internships
available.  If I were a potential engineer I would just click out and go on
to another site.  Or is it that there are no internships?!?!

In regards to education, there are two seminars... and they are on
leadership??  Unless you are a VP of Engineering, this is useless (IMHO) as
members are typically a one man shop.

What about these new technologies?  Where are the seminars for those?  What
about "old" (but never changing) technologies.... I had to go outside of SBE
to go to an AM transmission seminar.  Why isn't SBE doing things like that?
Just because the older members know about these things, doesn't mean other
or new members don't need education like that.

What about the chapters??  Has anyone visited any of the Chapter web sites?
I did a random click on a few....

First One:
Next Meeting December 1st

Next one:
Past Meeting December, Next meeting TBA

Third:
Next meeting August, 2006!?!?!

Fourth:
UP-TO-DATE NEWSLETTER!! (Way to go Milwaukee!! And always he best meetings
too!)

Fifth:
No meetings currently scheduled??

Sixth:
WOW San Diego!  AWESOME!

Seventh:
web site cannot be found

And so on....

I guess my point is (in a rambling manner) is that if we:
1) don't communicate with each other
2) don't mentor our younger people
3) belittle younger engineers
4) don't share the history of engineering
5) don't educate the members we presently have
then we are doomed as a business and an organization.

You want new members and new engineers?  Get off the high horse and get to
the level of the new potential engineer.  There are some incredible
engineering minds here that I and others have a lot to learn from.

I am sure I have ruffled some feathers.  My apologies to those people. But I
figure if we don't express our concerns then nothing gets done.

Kent Winrich, K9EZ
Broadcast Engineer, Systems Analyst III
BAE Systems - Ft Bragg, NC
---and---
BroadcastPro.Biz
Raleigh, NC

</rant mode>

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:28 PM, k7cr <k7cr at blarg.net> wrote:


> Fred posed this question -

>

> > Are there any figures on what percentage of current SBE members are

> > within five years of retirement?  Ten years?  It goes by rather

> > quickly...and then what?

>

> This issue goes well beyond the matter of where SBE will find it's new

> members.

> I am within 5 years of retirement (my choice) and as I look over my

> shoulder

> I find no-one chomping at the bit to take my job...much less even apply

> for

> it.

>

> No one wants to get dirty, put on chains on all 4 and head up the mountain

> in the middle of the night to work on something analog with 8kv on the

> inside.

>

> When I started in this business back in 1961 there were plenty of young

> Hams that were eager to apply their skills to things in a broadcast

> operation...

> but today those folks are old too.

>

> Largely broadcasting, Radio and TV, have become computer based operations

> with the bit of analog tossed in just to rattle the minds of those that

> think that

> 15 volts is high-voltage and who are totally confused by schematics.   In

> many

> ways these folks are disconnected from the world that we knew and, in some

> cases, continue to operate within.

>

> I could go on and on -

>

> My $.02

>

> Clay Freinwald, K7CR

> Member of the Board

>

>