IN-Newsletter
Vol. 25, No. 41
October 15, 2002
Sales and Marketing
Sales
2003-2004 plan review took precedence last week in the form of plan meetings, discussions and some modifications to expense and revenue spreadsheets. Janet Rocco is rapidly becoming a functioning part of the Sales and Marketing team while getting intense training from Deb Jahnke dealing with some of our analysis reports and graphs. Bob Inderbitzen and Deb continued to grapple with technical, coordination and deadline issues in order to bring an advertiser's specialty ad to fruition for the December issue of QST. This work continued into the weekend as e-mail traffic continued to fly between Bob, Deb, our printer and our customer.
Advertising
Staff gathered display ad insertions and Ham Ad classified ads for the December issue of QST. Targeted communications were made to those companies that had not yet responded to our flyer and subsequent postcard mailings for our December Business Guide feature. The listing count now exceeds 130. A flurry of follow-up faxes (over 100) were sent out on Wednesday and Thursday. The PDF versions of the flyer were also sent via e-mail to several others. Carol Patton entered the information from the confirmed insertions onto a spreadsheet to be given to Production on Monday for layout. A major manufacturer has expressed interest in the back cover of QEX. A QEX media kit has been mailed out to them. A follow up contact will be made closer to QEX deadlines.
Fulfillment
A setback in taking membership transactions live on the new system caused staff to shift into overdrive and enter over two weeks worth of memberships, status changes and changes of address into the TASS system. In addition to experienced staff working after hours and on Saturday, Janet Rocco received a crash course in processing address changes and pitched in also. These actions were necessary in order to produce an accurate QST December issue mailing list and generate accurate renewal notices. Although, due to complications, publications fulfillment had continued to process orders on TASS, they had accumulated a large number of back-orders to process on the new system. Upon hearing the word that we will receive a partial order of Handbooks this week, the Handbook orders not previously entered anywhere were hurriedly entered back into TASS and will be ready for the Warehouse staff to begin shipping the minute the books hit our dock.
Production/Editorial
Brennan Price attended the Eastern Washington Section Convention in Spokane this past weekend. We checked page proofs for the new printing of Now You're Talking! and the AMSAT-NA Proceedings has been released to the printer.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS Certificates (750 QSLs Field checked) 15
WAS Certificates (450 QSLs checked by staff) 9
WAS Endorsements (50 QSLs Field checked) 1
WAC cards checked for Walk-in 30
WAC Certificate (Walk-in) 1
5BWAC Certificate (Walk-in) 1
Extra Class Certificates 83
Long Term Member Inquiries 2
VUCC Initial Applications 3
Grids (Data Entry) 446
VUCC Endorsement Applications 2
Grids (Data Entry) 77
VUCC Certificates Processed 11
VUCC Initial Awards Mailed 11
VUCC Endorsement Awards Mailed 8
Also compiled the latest VUCC award recipient list for December QST. Processing Status: Foreign WACs - 4 weeks. Everything else is current or within three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, process foreign WAC and VUCC awards, mail out WAS awards and Extra Class certificates.
DXCC Branch
Weekly Report October 13, 2002
Beginning Cards 250,397
Cards Received 1,110
Cards Processed 11,382
Ending Cards 240,125
Applications Pending 2,525
Processing Time 7 Weeks
Year-to-date
Cards Received 621,001
Cards Returned 494,510
QRPs Issued this week 1
QRPs YTD 241
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 28, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on August 30, 2002.
Contest Branch
The draft of the 2002 ARRL Field Day results article for QST was finalized and sent to production. Work on an expanded article for Field Day for the ARRL Web continued. The full rules for several contests were finalized, formatted and sent to be posted to the Web. The MSC's VHF/UHF Contest and Awards Survey were post to the Web and a large number of follow-up emails were received and handled. Work continued on paper log data entry for the September VHF QSO Party, 10 GHz and Up, and August UHF contests.
QSL Branch
QSL Service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 10/13/2002 - 1,536,865. No cards were mailed this week. Janet Rocco and Heather Dzamba spent 9 hours conducting tours around HQ. Thanks for the help Janet. Effective Monday, the 14th of October, Heather will begin conducting tours on her own.
W1AW
W1AW received as a donation from Heil Sound Limited two (2) FS-2 A/B Foot Switches, one (1) Proset Plus and one (1) Proset Plus wired for Icom radios. Thanks to Dan Miller, K3UFG, for operating W1AW in the PA QSO Party. He made 108 QSOs on 40-meters SSB, for a claimed score of 46,440. Joe Carcia updated the web code practice files. With the assistance of his better half, he also processed the DX cards for the 2002 W1AW/5 IARU operation. Joe has also been wrestling with a finicky Harris amplifier. After consultation with a Harris Service Technician, it looks as though the problem is isolated, and a fix will soon be in the works. Scott Gee worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the month of October. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $9,349.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie moderated an ARISS-International school group telecon and composed the minutes. She received a call from a rep of the American Association of Blood Banks, who is interested in talking to ARRL about setting up an MOU.
Field Organization/Public Service
Upon return from a vacation, Steve Ewald is catching up with work and is now in gear to work on December QST's Public Service column and Section News.
Chuck Skolaut has been receiving a variety of interference reports this week. One case involves interference on 20 meters to the rebroadcast of shuttle launch (STS-112) communications on Monday, October 7. Other notable cases include interference to emergency communication nets in the Miami, Florida, and Chuck sent a tape recording to Riley Hollingsworth about jamming and interference to attempted emergency traffic on a local repeater in California.
Leona Adams has been preparing new SM Workbooks. Forty seven appointment-supply packages were sent out to appointees, and about 50 entries were input into the Siebel system. SM ballots have been flowing in steadily from Western Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Central Florida sections.
Field & Educational Support Team
Jean Wolfgang handled a call from a scout leader in CT who would like to participate in JOTA. She also sent email to HQ looking for people who would like to participate and to the clubs in CT. Last year only 2 JOTA surveys were received from CT. This year she is hoping to receive several more.
Linda Mullally updated 54 clubs with 1 reactivation. She registered 11 Instructors and 5 teachers, plus sent out 9 JOTA kits.
Gail Iannone completed the "Coming Conventions" and "Hamfest Calendar" for the December issue of QST. She also sent a Wouff Hong Supply package for the ceremony to be performed at the Pacific Division Convention being held on October 18th - 20th in Concord, CA; processed 6 door prize orders, 3 label requests and sent 6 handout packages for upcoming events.
Margie Bourgoin is still reporting a huge increase in activity for the Youth Sked database. She trained Linda Mullally on Siebel and updated Instructor and Teacher records on the new Siebel database.
Mary Lau updated several Contest rules and HQ email address files on the InfoServer. She also relayed messages for the following Sections and Division: CT, PAC, EWA, AR=2; SD, EB, KY=1 and SW Div.=1.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee assisted Alan Paul, KC2GZY with his ongoing antenna zoning matter which has gone to Federal district court. Even with the courts decision that he must be reasonably accommodated, the Village of East Aurora, NY is now requiring a $2500 permit fee. John also assisted amateurs with a covenant problems in Sugarland, TX (KD5FBA) and in Smyrna, DE (NR3PX) . John reports an increased number of questions about the legality of AMBER Alerts in the Amateur Service. They can be made legal if recorded, but a direct retransmission from another radio service is not permitted. He is also working on a new printing of The FCC Rule Book.
Emergency Communications Grant
Dan Miller reports that statewide announcements have been made this week to announce the opening of a UTC class for anyone interested in taking Level I and joining the ARES ranks, regardless of membership or affiliations. At this time, 23 people have enrolled. Also, 5 ARRL staffers have begun the "Hybrid" EC-001 class and completed the first 5 lessons.
CNCS classes are being processed for the 326 Field Appointments and AECs who enrolled last week. Thanks to Jon Bloom, a new assignment process will put students with mentors first by ARRL Section availability, then by geographic location availability. Eighty-eight mentors from all over our country have been enlisted to accommodate these students. As more mentors become available, odds will increase that students will be assigned to a mentor near them for better interaction both during and after the online class.
CCE
Jerry set up registration for Level II AREC and Antenna Modeling classes for next week, handled routine emails and phone inquiries, processed certificate requests and mentor stipends, aided with grant registrations, and upgraded some Field exam forms for restocking.
Howard Robins reports that the RFI course is a little closer to reality. We still have a significant backlog of certificates to print, but are progressing. The new course survey is underway, and already providing some direction. Little-by-little some of the minor modifications to our methods and procedures appear to be bearing fruit.
The Education and Technology Program
Jerry Hill contacted Gerry Frumento, President of the Connecticut Science Teachers Association, to learn about how they may work together to mutual benefit. Steve Ford showed Jerry a power point presentation on amateur satellite with audio included. Jerry would like to explore the possibility of developing lessons in this format for TBP.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
Name Date(s) Reason
Dave Patton 10/23-10/29 Vacation
Brennan Price 11/1-11/3 Georgia Section Convention, Lawrenceville
LouAnn Campanello 10/28-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington, DC
Dan Miller 10/18-10/20 Pacificon CCE Seminar
`` 10/29-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington DC
Mary Hobart 10/14-10/22 Vacation
`` 10/28-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington DC
`` 11/1-11/3 A&F Committee, Denver CO
Rick Lindquist 11/1-11/4 Vacation
Stu Cohen 10/25-10/26 Eastern States VHF Conference/Microwave Update,
Enfield, CT
