TSP News | Way-busy, good and bad “ PLASA members are asked to please contact PLASA’s standards office . . . if they know of local plans to regulate portable stages, so we can . . . let them know about our standards. America and Europe. (This is the bad “way-busy” in this article’s title.) A dozen reporters have contacted PLASA’s standards offi ce asking for interviews and information about standards for portable stages. While it’s good that reporters are paying attention to our standards—and one hopes the event managers and legislators will, too—getting this attention because of injuries and deaths is not the preferred way to get attention. We want no attention if stage collapses are the only way we can get it! We want people to put up outdoor stages, for the shows to go on, for everyone to have a good time—a profi table time, for the stage to be taken down without incident, and the whole cycle to be repeated over and over again, with no notice in the press about the shows other than they were scheduled to happen, they did happen, and they were great! All that and Support Equipment in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events , a revision of the existing ANSI E1.21 -2006. The existing standard is limited to only the portable stage roofs often used for outdoor events and the structures that support them. The new draft version has been rewritten so it addresses the design, manufacture, and use of all the portable structures used to support scenery, lighting, and sound equipment, as well as the stage roofs, with the exception of those structures that are erected for the use of the public, such as audience bleachers, food stands, and toilets. The public review of BSR E1.21 unintentionally coincided with the intense media interest in portable stages and the standards and regulations related to them, as a result of the stage collapses caused by this summer’s severe weather in North said, the stage collapses did happen, and PLASA’s standards related to portable stages have been getting attention. That attention will ultimately help our industry. One of the immediate ways the attention has helped is that we are receiving comments on the E1.21 revision from people we have not heard from before. The comments are coming in early and steadily, not all in the last two days of the review period, as is usually the case. The comments are coming from people who are knowledgeable and experienced, and the vast majority of the comments appear to be well considered and helpful. The other way the attention may help is if local municipalities set up permitting procedures or inspections for portable stages, as many might. We want local legislators to be aware of our standards and to use them, rather than writing their own. Our standards are good, and we have a procedure in place to continuously improve them; local municipalities are unlikely to write anything better. Furthermore, the FALL 2011 “ 64 FALL 2011