OABA UPDATE………………….…………by Bob Jhno, OBA Pesdn d CE First of all, thanks once again to now past President Happy


o sn A


Norris and the entire Board of the FFF’s for the personal recogni- tion that I received during your recent convention, after giving my OABA update. As I said when I accepted this recognition, many OABA members deserve this as well! Both Lisa Hinton and I real- ize that running our Associations takes a lot of good folks who are committed to our causes and mission to help us look good! At the end of April, I traveled to Washington, DC along with Jim


Tucker, President/CEO of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions and Barb Hensinger, Executive Director of the National Independent Concessionaires Association, meeting with the OABA's lobbying firm in DC and Montserrat Miller, partner with the law firm of Arnall, Golden & Gregory to prepare for a meeting later that day with officials at the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to find out why the mobile amusement’s industry's jobs in their J- 1visa, Summer Work and Travel (SWT) program for foreign stu-


dents were abruptly and without notice added to the prohibited


jobs list on May 4th. Both Barb and I spoke briefly about this dur- ing our comments at the Annual Meeting. This came as a huge shock to many of our member concession-


aires and carnivals when DoL published that summer jobs with traveling fairs and itinerant concessionaires were jobs that could


no longer participate in this SWT program. Both NICA and OABA started getting calls from many of our members who were getting calls from their Sponsoring Agencies, stating that their seasonal job orders could not be filled by returning or new, J-1 visa SWT foreign students. The DoS then modified their statement by allow- ing any students who had already received their visas, on or be- fore May 11th, to work this summer, even if their jobs were on the


prohibited jobs list. For well over 10 years these seasonal young people have en-


joyed working and traveling in the mobile amusement industry, experiencing American culture, improving their English language skills as they interface with fair patrons and other U.S. employ- ees. Carnivals and Concessionaires give them a broad range of cultural experiences by taking them to professional baseball games, museums and other activities, not to mention the fact they


experience Americas agricultural fairs in different communities


and states. When questioned by us during our meeting, they stated that last


year, they hired an independent survey firm to interview 14 out of 49 sponsoring agencies who place these students in different


industries, and in the traveling fairs industry, it became very ob-


vious, that DoS’s bigger concern was that they cannot track these J-1 visa students via the Government’s SEVIS program, a DHS/ ICE Internet-based system where DHS maintains location infor- mation on all international students who come to the United States to study and attend schools. SEVIS also maintains infor- mation on DoS-designated visitor program sponsors and J-1 visa exchange visitor program participants. While they did admit that this is the student’s or sponsoring


agency’s responsibility and not the sponsoring employers respon- sibility to let DoS know where they are living and working, we ex- plained that our members have had pre-defined, published sea- sonal routes for many years. And as many of you know, these routes do not deviate much. Despite this fact, DoS held firm to the fact that these J-1 students would not be allowed to travel with their employers. Policy Advisor for DoS, Daniel McCarthy, stated he had been


contacted by several members of Congress on this issue (at our urging) but they would not allow these young people to travel with their sponsoring employers.


Deputy Assistant Secretary commented that Secretary Clinton 36 In fact at one point, Robin Lerner,


r iet an O


was not in support of the program and the entire program was "on thin ice." Jim Tucker gave the DoS folks an education on the fair industry and told them that their definition of “traveling fairs” concerns not only


the fair community,


but


USDA, as well. While they may consider changing the definition and using more appropriate word- ing, we told them our goal is get our members back in this pro- gram, at least for this year. After our meeting with DoS, we


discussed possible short term solutions and alternatives that we believe DoS could implement, without any major policy changes, to allow OABA and NICA members to get additional J-1 students and help them get through this season. In addition, the OABA, NICA and the IAFE will be submitting


responses to the Interim Final Rules that DoS is making to the J- 1, SWT program, which were published in the Federal Regis- ter. These new rules will be taking effect on November 1, 2012. Meredith Advocacy Group, the OABA’s lobbying firm, will also


be helping with this DoS issue by contacting several members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, as will Jim, Barb and I, with our Congressional contacts. We urge those of you who have Con- gressional contacts to help this industry and do the same with your legislators. The bottom line is that this J-1, student, Work and Travel Program has been a great program for carnivals, con- cessionaires and the fair industry in America!


Have a wonderful summer and safe travels to all!


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40