In-Newsletter
Vol. 25, No. 13
April 2, 2002
Upcoming Meetings
April 20th in Ft. Worth, TX at 8:00am
A&F Committee
Development
On March 25-26, the campaign to support the ARRL Education and Technology
Program mailed 170,000 pieces of mail to active and some lapsed members.
The first contribution was received on April 1. Follow up letters will be
mailed at the end of April. In addition to the mail campaign, a web
presence has been created with a link from the top of the ARRL home page.
Due to IRS and postal regulations, thank you gifts for contributions of $250
or more are only presented on the web. A new certificate, pin and mug have
been created for this campaign.
Response to the first quarterly planned giving mailing has been strong.
Nineteen respondents have expressed interest and have requested more
information. Two members have identified their commitment to a planned gift
to ARRL. This activity brings our total planned giving commitments to five.
A proposal for a tiered membership program has been submitted for review and
approval by the Board.
Development will be presented at the Maryland Convention in Timonium on
April 6 and 7, including a presentation and Q & A on Saturday afternoon.
Media Relations
Plans for the annual PR forum in Dayton (Sunday May 19th at 8:80 AM) are
almost complete. This year's title is "Emergency Response: Telling the
Amateur Radio Story." The program will focus on promoting ham radio and
dealing with other public relations issues when disaster strikes. The
speakers have been lined up and all necessary information has been submitted
to the Hamvention Forums Chair. The Public Relations Committee will hold
its annual meeting in Dayton again this year. Those members who will be
traveling to Dayton will attend.
Jennifer was interviewed for an article that appeared in the Chattanooga
(TN) Times Free Press. The reporter was interested in how ham radio was
faring as a hobby today and he interviewed several members from a local
club. She was also interviewed by a reporter from the weekly La Faria News
in Texas. The reporter asked to be put on our press list, particularly for
press releases that have to do with ham radio emergency communications.
Everything is set for ARRL's presence at the National Association of
Broadcasters convention beginning April 6th. The ARRL booth will be well
stocked with handouts and volunteers ready to answer visitors' questions.
Jennifer submitted a brief news item to Rick Lindquist for the Web.
Several requests for radio and TV public service announcements were
fulfilled.
Publications
The May issue of QST has been released to the printer.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie prepared a report on how ARRL networks with served agencies we have
MOUs with, and a summary of SM usage of on-line resources for the VRC
teleconference she was part of Wednesday night; she also drafted meeting
minutes. She created two PowerPoint talks for the annual ARISS
International Meeting. She wrote the agenda for, and took part in, an ARISS
School Group Meeting, and prepared minutes of the last meeting.
The ARISS team was exuberant over getting these quotes from the Expedition 4
ISS crew, since their return to earth is delayed 1 month while the new crew
trains to fix the robot arm: Astronaut Dan Bursch, KD5PNU said: "Please
pass on my many thanks to whoever helped setup the St. Thomas contact...it
was a lot of fun, and I am ready to do these ANYTIME!!" Astronaut Carl
Walz, KC5TIE said, "It was great talking to the Zeehan Primary School. They
had good questions, and everything worked out exactly as planned. Looks
like I'll have a chance to do a few more school contacts with our extra time
up here." The K7RAT school QSO is scheduled to air on Saturday's Weekend
Nightly News on NBC. The IMAX media kit for their new film, Space Station,
makes mention of ARISS.
Regulatory Team
John Hennessee assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Fountain Hills,
AZ (AC7HF) and Montgomery County OH (N8XCR) and with amateurs experiencing
zoning problems in Cape Coral, FL (K1KHP), Crowley, LA (K5UA) and Malvern,
PA (W3BG). He also processed the Volunteer Counsel application of Trevor
Lewis, KD1YT -- until he applied, there were no VCs in Vermont.
Brennan Price completed the monthly Monitoring System Report for IARU Region
2. He began review of documents from Chris Imlay for a potential brief
bank. Brennan reminded coordinators of the deadline to get payment for
submissions to the Repeater Directory. Tape in one case was submitted to
the FCC. Per President Haynie, Brennan asked a Volunteer Counsel to assist
a NJ ham cited by local authorities for allegedly causing interference.
Brennan summarized for a Web story, the NPRM proposing to bar a range of
repetitive amateur applications -- the NPRM will not affect the vast
majority of dismissed amateur applications (those dismissed without
prejudice for procedural deficiencies). It only affects applications denied
or dismissed with prejudice.
C-CE
Dan Miller reports 36 C-CE graduates this week. An exam session in St.
Charles, MA resulted in two Level I, two Level II and one Level III
certifications. Four people have graduated from the Antenna Modeling
course. Requests for beta-testers for the new course on satellites has been
sent.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
The Oregon Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements were
set to be mailed Thursday afternoon (March 29). Leona Adams handled the
preparations, and thanks goes to the Mailroom staff for getting these out
before the April 1 deadline.
Steve Ewald hosted Major Buzz Szarek, WM1W, of the Air Force Research Lab in
Rome, NY, who had a proposal to conduct a joint simulated emergency test of
APRS this summer. Radio amateurs in New York state will be invited to
monitor the progress of a plane equipped with APRS and then report pertinent
data to a central point. This could possibly serve to demonstrate an
emergency application of APRS. Details need to be worked out. Steve has
been preparing for his trip to the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando.
The Big Project
Jerry Hill is representing ARRL at the National Science Teacher's
Association national convention. NASA paid for the booth space,
registrations and electricity, etc. The convention normally brings in close
to 20,000 schoolteachers.
Field & Educational Support Team
Mary Lau added new participants to the ARRL Web Resources Listserver, and
gave readers assigned topics for both the Field Appointees and Web/Software
programmers. Topics under discussion involve use, content, general
improvements, tools and utilities for ARRL Section Web pages.
Margie Bourgoin wrote a note to SMs and ACCs to ask them to "nudge" the
Special Service Clubs in their Sections to please update their records;
notes will go later, to the clubs themselves. Margie also extends a huge
thank you to Forrest for all his help in figuring shipping times and costs,
and for doing the actual shipping of 1000 Archie comic books to South Africa
for future ARISS QSOs to be done by ISS visitor Mark Shuttleworth.
Shuttleworth's company paid $430 for the shipment.
Jean Wolfgang coordinated with Tom Hogerty for making two changes on the
certificate (for the next running of Kid's Day) on the ARRLWeb. She also
provided Handi-Ham material to assist a gentleman with Parkinson's disease
who found it very hard to operate his radio.
Linda Mullally updated 47 records for affiliated clubs plus 2 club
reactivations. She registered 3 ARRL registered instructors and 1
schoolteacher; she reports that 33 students graduated this week from the
on-line C-CE classes.
Gail Iannone sent 8 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees
confirming the Division Directors' approval of the events as
ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 14 door prize orders, 2 label requests, and
sent 15 handout packages for upcoming events. She coordinated travel for HQ
staff for the following conventions: Rosalie White, K1STO, Wyoming State, on
May 24-26 in Casper; Mary Lau, N1VH, San Francisco Section, on June 28-30 in
Ferndale, CA; and Ed Hare, W1RFI, Atlantic Division, on May 31-June 2 in
Henrietta, NY.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS QSLs 50
WAS Certificates 16
5BWAS Ceritficates 5
WAC Certificates 25
WAC Endorsements 5
A-1 Operator Nominations 2
A-1 Operator Certificates 6
Long-Term Member Inquiries 20
VUCC Initial Awards 4
VUCC Grids (data entry) 335
VUCC Endorsements 6
VUCC Grids (data entry) 420
For the coming week - WAS and WAC QSL card checking, foreign WAC awards,
Basic WAS awards for March and VUCC data entry and mailing of awards.
DXCC Branch
Week Ending March 31, 2002
Beginning Cards 40,479
Cards Received 9,236
Cards Processed 11,990
Ending Cards 37,725
Applications Pending 272
Backlog Time 2 Weeks
Year-to-date
Cards Received 126,975
Cards Returned 209,340
QRP Issued this week 1
QRP YTD 177
Card Return: DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 15,
2002. Card Processing: We are entering cards received on March 22, 2002. 1
Millennium award issued -- now totaling 2,982.
Contest Branch
The second issue of the biweekly ARRL Contest Rate Sheet newsletter, edited
by Ward Silver, N0AX, was published March 27. It included several
contributions and suggestions from readers. Circulation is now 1500 and
growing -- not bad for a publication first announced less than a month ago.
We are making good progress with the various aspects of online contest
results. We are planning to unveil the online 2001 CW Sweepstakes results
-- with the online score database, expanded writeup and online Soapbox --
in April. Printed results of this contest are scheduled for June QST, which
goes to the printer April 24.
QSL Branch
QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 03/31/2002: 530,475. No
cards were mailed this week. Janet spent 4 hours conducting tours around
HQ.
W1AW
Joe updated the web code practice files. He also worked the Monday and
Tuesday night shifts for a vacationing Scott Gee. Scott worked on fast and
slow code practice runs for the month of April. He handled evening phone
sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot.
W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2002): $3,098.
73,
Sincerely,
David Sumner, K1ZZ
Executive Vice President
DS:lk
Staff Absentee List
Name Date(s) Reason
Dave Sumner 4/3 Washington
`` 4/4-4/8 Vacation
Mark Wilson 4/1-4/3 Vacation
Dave Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation
Carol Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation
Mary Hobart 4/6-4/7 MD State Convention, Timonium
Diana Lamson-Lucas 4/12 Vacation
Steve Ewald 4/1-4/4 National Hurricane Conference,
Orlando
Rosalie White 4/3-4/7 Annual ARISS Meeting, Montreal
Brennan Price 4/5-4/7 Washington State Convention, Yakima
Leona Adams 4/15-4/17 Vacation
Rick Lindquist 4/5 MD State Convention, Timonium
Joel Kleinman 4/10-4/12 Vacation
