Attention packrats! Jim Cooper, Co-Commissioner Health & Safety, is attempting to put together a history of the Health & Safety Commission sessions.

He is missing conference programs from 1996 through 2000, and all copies prior to 1995. Is there anyone out there who has these programs stashed away that Mr. Cooper might borrow or get copies of the session descriptions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Those who can help may contact Mr. Cooper at jcooper@palomar.edu

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Copies of the second in the USITT Monograph series are now available from the Institute's Bookstore. Orders can be placed online here, or by calling 800-938-9488. The book was launched at the 2006 Annual Conference & Stage Expo where both Mr. Lee, center below, and author Delbert Unruh, right, drew a large crowd when they autographed copies of the work.

Take a few minutes to look at all the new books now available, including Miodrag Tabacki, a Design Monograph, winner of the 2006 USITT Golden Pen Award, and new books by member-authors including Dr. Randall W.A. Davidson and Arnold Aronson. USITT members receive discounts ordering either online or by telephone.

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There is still time to guarantee a 50 percent match on contributions made as part of the USITT @ 50 campaign. The Institute has drawn increasing support, and is very appreciative of those who have already participated in the effort designed to help USITT to secure its financial future and celebrate the organization's 50th birthday in 2010.

Donations made using the special support form available here allow donors to support research, students, international activities, or future initiatives of the Institute. This support is a marvelous start to celebrating USITT's 50th birthday.

Initial donations and intentions must be made by June 30, 2006 to qualify for the matching authorized by the Board of Directors. Anyone with questions about details of the USITT @ 50 fundraising, or estate gifting should contact USITT Treasurer Larry Hill at larry_hill@usitt.org.

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The listing of ETCP Certified Riggers is now available online here. These individuals have passed the rigorous examination in arena and/or theatre rigging. Find a certified ETCP rigger by using the search map or form. Direct contact information is available for many of these individuals.

The certification examinations are now available at centers throughout the United States and Canada for qualified riggers. For more information and deadlines click here. Those wishing to have the examination information and application forms mailed, contact Katie Geraghty, ETCP Certification Director, at 212-244-1505 or kgeraghty@esta.org.

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Behind the Scenes, the new initiative of the ESTA Foundation, is ready to help -- so help it spread the word.

Behind the Scenes is accepting applications for grants which can be used for medical or basic living expenses. Anyone living in the U.S. or Canada who has been employed for at least five years in the entertainment technology industry may qualify for support.

More information and applications are available on the foundation's web site at www.estafoundation.org/bts/grants.htm.

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BSR E1.17, Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite, the draft standard commonly called "ACN," is now available for public review through June 19, 2006. The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. There are 21 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the approximately 2.5 megabyte compressed file ACN.zip. Reviewers should also read the Readme.pdf file. It is not part of the draft standard, but it explains the structure of ACN and the changes that were made since the last public review. All the public review materials are at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.

There are several small changes that have been made to BSR E1.17 since the last public review, but the most important one--the one that made this public review essential--was the change to the SLP (Service Location Protocol) templates. These have been reworked to be fully compatible with OpenSLP source code. The previous templates were valid SLP, but didn't work with OpenSLP, so implementers of E1.17 would have had to develop their own code rather than use the popular, open-source, OpenSLP.

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