IN-Newsletter
Vol. 25, No. 32
August 12, 2002
Development
There will be a welcome gathering for staff to greet new Development Associate Debra M. Johnson. Light breakfast will be served at 10 am on August 19 and all staff are invited to meet Debra and welcome her to ARRL.
The Education and Technology Fund has reached $199,401 from 3,409 donors. With renewed emphasis on this program at Division conventions, we hope to surpass the $200,000 mark.
The test campaign for W1AW Endowment has exceeded $21,000 from 476 donors. While this total seems small, it is a strong 4% response rate from the 10,000 prospects that received the funding request.
Implementation plans for the CNCS federal grant are nearing completion.
Likewise, plans to implement the new Diamond Club membership program are progressing. The launch is being coordinated with several departments including Sales & Marketing. Enrollment in the Diamond Club will be offered in the first and second member renewal notices. A special campaign mailing will go to major contributors, key prospects and 35,000 of our most loyal members. Letters and brochures are under development.
The third planned giving mailing containing estate planning tax information will be mailed to 15,000 active and lapsed members the week of August 12.
Production/Editorial
The September/October 2002 issues of NCJ and QEX have been released to the printer, as have the Proceedings of the Western States Weak Signal Conference and new printings of the ARRL Logbook and Low Band DXing.
Sales & Marketing
All members of the Sales & Marketing team are busy compiling input for the 2003 and 2004 revenue projections.
In keeping with the Boards' request to receive correspondence electronically, Deb Jahnke checked with Board Members to determine the file format preferred for lapsed member reports. After receiving input, the reports were sent out. Good news - several members have already positively responded to their efforts to bring them back into the family.
Fine tuning Siebel for membership, pub sales and advertising order processing continues with a sense of urgency as we quickly approach our computer switchover date.
Dennis Motschenbacher, Bob Inderbitzen and Deb Jahnke conducted numerous interviews for the new Sales and Marketing Specialist position.
Lisa Tardette had an extremely good summer week of sales calls. Traditionally this time of the year is extremely slow but Lisa's sales called totaled $4812.26. She's also been focusing on accruing sales of ARRL Image Communications Handbook. Marketing provided some additional description details for Lisa to use as ammunition.
Bob Inderbitzen participated in a meeting with author Frank Gentges, K0BRA, as he continues work toward an upcoming ARRL publication planned for 2003. Jan Carman organized the meeting so we could glean some early details about the book. The exchange was helpful as we prepare a sales and advertising strategy for the publication.
A book by ARRL instructor and teacher Cliff Jenkins, N7ZTY titled "Radio and Electronics" under considered for resale is being circulated at HQ. The Marketing team would appreciate feedback.
Bob drafted a survey that will be sent to existing ARRL Antenna Book customers. He has been refining the questions with members of the Book Team including Dean Straw. The survey may produce data that will be helpful as work begins on the 20th edition book.
Major planning is in progress to insure that our big fall membership mailing campaign is as effective as possible. A few new methods of asking for the membership will be tested and carefully monitored.
Advertising is surveying current clients to determine their advertising plans for 2003. Tear sheets and billings have been mailed to September QST Advertisers. International Broadcasting Bureau placed a new employment ad for the October issue of QST.
We had quite a few member inquiries recently regarding the availability of the Radio Shack HTX-420 Dual-Band Handheld (advertised in several issues of QST). After speaking with Radio Shack, we were happy to report back to members that the product is shipping this week.
The Advertising team is evaluating the entire Ham Ads (QST classifieds) pricing structure and marketing strategy. We believe that we can increase the viability of this product.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS Certificates 34
WAS Endorsements 22
25-Year Member Awards 44
40-Year Member Awards 17
Long Term Member Inquiries 7
A-1 Operator Nominations 6
A-1 Operator Certificates 4
Code Proficiency Certificates 4
Code Proficiency Endorsements 1
VUCC Endorsement Applications 1
Grids (Data Entry) 23
VUCC Initial Applications 3
Grids (Data Entry) 470
Processing Status: Current or within two weeks. For the coming week-Foreign WAC and VUCC awards, Extra Class certificates, compile the latest VUCC award recipient list for October QST, mail out long term member, WAS, and VUCC awards.
DXCC Branch
Weekly Report August 11, 2002
Beginning Cards 61,462
Cards Received 8,515
Cards Processed 4,304
Ending Cards 65,673
Applications Pending 604
Processing Time 4 Weeks
Year-to-date
Cards Received 385,743
Cards Returned 430,702
QRP Issued this week 1
QRP YTD 225
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on July 12, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on July 12, 2002. 1 Card Checker was appointed this week bringing the total to 151.
Contest Branch
Data entry for 2002 Field Day continued. Preparation of the DX CW article continued. The QST scores and boxes were prepared and sent to production. The QST version of the write-up was edited and sent to production. The Web article was received from the author and is being edited and prepared. The online databases for DX CW were prepared and sent to Web Services. Sidebars and boxes were prepared for the web version of the results.
Rules for the 2002 November Sweepstakes were finalized and sent to production. Certificates for 2001 Sweepstakes were printed and we began stuffing envelopes.
A coding difference regarding VHF/UHF bands between the Cabrillo specifications and the standards used in the Access databases in-house was discovered. It did not affect scores for the January VHF Sweepstakes, but did cause QSOs for about 30 stations to be reported incorrectly on one band in the online base. This has been brought to the attention of the Log Checking team for VHF/UHF events and the Cabrillo author. The master and online databases have been corrected. After the correction, the band winner tables for 300+ GHz were recalculated. The certificates for the January VHF SS were then printed.
QSL Branch
QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 08/11/2002 - 1,301,725. Cards mailed on 08/09/2002 - 59,150. Janet Rocco spent 7 hours conducting tours around HQ. She will be on vacation from August 12th through August 16th.
W1AW
Special thanks to Bill Moore, NC1L, for running the morning operating shift during the week while Joe was working the early afternoon/night shift for a vacationing Scott Gee. Joe Carcia built another PC interface for the Icom radios. This will allow the radio to "talk" to the PC not only during regular visitor operations, but also during contests. (To assist with all logging, WriteLog has been installed in all the Studio PCs.) Joe Carcia also repaired the 2-meter "Green Monster" bulletin amplifier. The relay circuitry that controls the filament warm-up stage had failed. (It should be noted that this particular amplifier has been in use at W1AW for over two decades. Repairs to it are becoming commonplace.) W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $7,407.
Field & Educational Services
NASA held a news conference about the next spacewalk; coverage included installing our next ham antenna. A third ARISS school QSO was done by the Expedition 5 crew; 120 kids at the European Space Center were thrilled. Rosalie interviewed and hired Howard Robins, W1HSR to start work August 19 doing the CCE job that Dan vacated to become the manager of our grants. Rosalie took part in a NASA telecon concerning updating lesson plans; NASA will incorporate one unit from Jerry's lessons. She went to a Seibel class, assigned some budget duties to staff, and reviewed a book for potential sale by ARRL.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning restrictions in Niagara Falls, NY (W2GR), and with covenant restriction questions in Los Angeles, CA (K6IRA), and Orlando, FL (NT0Y). He is currently contacting reviewers for the upcoming revision of the FCC Rule Book.
Field & Educational Support Team
Jean Wolfgang continues to assist with the arrangements for checks, gift certificates, plaques and presentations to the award winners. She also noticed an increase in inquiries about Scouting and ham radio.
Margie reports very good SSC renewal activity again this week. She sent affiliation paperwork for one new club for Director/SM approval, and is in contact with a long-lived club wishing to re-establish their ARRL affiliation. They had originally affiliated in 1949!
Jo-Ann Arel updated records for 29 clubs and 6 instructors, and shipped 6 Exh Kits, 7 Videos, 300 Brochures, and 2 JOTA Kits. She also completed the monthly inventory, conducted 2 tours, and assisted the Contest department. Her tally of revenue from F&ES for the month of July totaled $1700, a little higher than June's total.
Gail Iannone negotiated the room rate with the Dayton Marriott sales manager, saving ARRL money for our block of rooms for next year's Hamvention. She succeeded in having the price remain the same as last year -- they wanted to increase the room rate by $4 per night. She also sent 9 hamfest approval letters and 3 convention approval letters to the sponsoring clubs confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 16 door prize orders, and 2 label requests.
Mary Lau distributed ballots for one TX VicYIP grant, one IA Genl. Fund grant, and Foundation Board approval for its use of a new audit team. Sections with e-relays this week included: 4=KY;2 = MS, EWA; 1 = LA, WI, SDG, AR, and NFL.
The Big Project
Jerry Hill continues to work on the curriculum for our Big Project teachers. These are now going to our editors for review and edit.
Field Organization/ Public Service Team
Steve Ewald reports the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers published in their Summer 2002 edition of NARTE News, a one-page article on ham response to the Colorado and Arizona fires. The article was created from our Web stories by Rick Lindquist. NARTE and ARRL have an MOU. Steve announces two recent appointments in the ARRL NTS: Barbara Mattson, KA4UIV, of Spartanburg, SC, is the new Fourth Region Net Manager for Cycle 2. Dave Allen, WB0TAQ, of Colorado Springs, CO, has been appointed as Pacific Area Digital Coordinator.
Leona Adams received more Puerto Rico Section Manager ballots. Ballots are due at HQ on Friday, August 16, and will be counted on August 20. SM Jean Priestley, KA2YKN, of Southern New Jersey submitted a petition to run for the next term beginning January 1, 2003. Leona continued to support the Field Organization, handling over a dozen initial supply packages and sending new-ham labels for the Section Managers.
Chuck Skolaut has been conferring with Brennan on procedures to follow about the Volunteer Monitoring program, and fielded some regulatory and licensing questions when John Hennesee was on vacation early in the week. Chuck met with Mary Lau to gain some SM election background set up in the ARRL Field Organization Rules and Regulation, and the various procedures that HQ staff follows.
CCE
Jerry Ellis continues to answer queries about the CNCS grant and other CCE issues but manages to stay on top of all class duties and certificates as well.
Dan Miller reports that 165 students have now enrolled for the Connecticut Level 1 Emergency Communications Course sponsored by the United Technologies Corp. grant. Several students have already completed the training, which began July 15. We are working on a mailing to Connecticut ARRL members to help fill the remaining seats.
Plans for the Federal CNCS grant are progressing, and we anticipate a public announcement by August 16.
Dan was a speaker at a Newington mens' club; 10 seniors heard about ham radio and CCE. One gentleman had a 50-year-old photo of his son sitting at his rig in their Newington neighborhood. Another gentleman recalled when W1AW was built -- directly across the street from his house -- and the intense interference they suffered until problems were fixed!
Paperwork for in-person CCE sessions came from Nashua, NH, which graduated 12 Level I candidates, and Bedford, NH that had 3.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
Name Date(s) Reason
Dave Sumner 8/19 Vacation
`` 8/21 Medical
Mary Hobart 8/12-8/16 SW Division Convention
Mark Wilson 8/16 Vacation
Dave Patton 8/20-8/26 Tokyo Ham Fair
`` 8/23 JARL HQ
Jen Hagy 8/13 & 8/19 Vacation
Jerry Hill 8/16-8/18 SW Division Convention
Joe Carcia 8/16pm Vacation
Jean Wolfgang 8/16 Vacation
Leona Adams 8/19 Vacation
Ed Hare 8/23-8/25 West Virginia State Convention
Karen Isakson 8/5-8/12 Vacation
`` 8/16 Vacation
AnnMarie Pinto 8/12-8/23 Vacation
MaryAnn Macdonald 8/12-8/14 Vacation
Maty Weinberg 8/12-8/16 Vacation
`` 8/27-8/30 Vacation
Rick Lindquist 8/22-8/25 New Mexico State Convention
Bob Inderbitzen 8/19-8/23 Vacation
Wayne Mills 8/5-8/16 Vacation
Dennis Motschenbacher 8/13-8/18 TenTec & Huntsville Hamfest
`` 8/23-8/24 Boxboro Hamfest
`` 8/25-8/30 So. California Advertisers
Hanan Rayyashi 8/16-8/18 Huntsville Hamfest
Debbie Jahnke 8/12-8/16 Vacation
Brennan Price 8/17-8/23 Kansas State Convention & Vacation
