The FCC no longer lets any of their staff interact with the public in person-- not just the ham radio public but the American public. Even the nitty-gritty working-level folks from Gettysburg can't go to the NCVEC meeting to discuss mundane data-processing items with the VECs. Riley kinda ignores that ruling and does his own thing. So even if a convention wanted Bill Cross to appear, he could not go. By the way, don't get too jazzed up by the idea of seeing the last of Bill Cross. Waste of breath that he is, the FCC could very easily replace him with something even worse. That's the one thing I trust the FCC to do: make a bad situation worse. 73 - Kay N3KN