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A very busy crew at AEM

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) was created by the merger of two associations back in 2001. Today there are about 865 members of the association including many of the names you are familiar with in the agricultural and construction equipment industries. Operating from the AEM headquarters in Milwaukee as well as an office in Washington D.C. they provide numerous services as well as represent members on public policy issues.

A current issue AEM is deeply involved in is the proposal by LightSquared to build a broadband system across the country to better serve rural America. The problem is, the frequencies being used by LightSquared bump up against the frequencies used by Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The strength of the LightSquared system can cause interference for some GPS systems, the company has offered some solutions to the interference but O’Brien says they have not proven successful. O’Brien says the idea of providing broadband to rural America is a good thing but they need to figure out a way to do that without interfering with GPS. He believes there are engineers who will be able to figure it out.

Another legislative interest is an effort called I Make America, a grassroots movement by AEM to get Congress to create and fully fund a multi-year highway bill to rebuild the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

AEM is also going to be deeply involved in creation of the 2012 Farm Bill, he says they want to make sure that federal crop insurance and some other aspects of the safety net for farmers is in place.

A big project for AEM is Ag Connect Expo, a bi-annual trade show that attracts key customers for exhibitors, educational events along with annual meetings for a number of organizations. Charlie O’Brien is Vice President of AEM; he says they want to make Ag Connect Expo “The next generation of the trade show” and to make it a worldwide event. That last show attracted visitors from 62 countries and every state in the United States and nine provinces in Canada. The next show will be January 29 through 31, 2013 in Kansas City.

O’Brien says the association also compiles information from their members for their members to help them get a better handle on developing trends in the world of agriculture and some of that information is available to the general public on the AEM website.

AUDIO:O’Brien talks about the association 11:15 mp3

Visit the AEM webiste here: