IN-Newsletter
Vol. 26, No. 39
October 1, 2003
Upcoming Meetings
November 8th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am
Volunteer Resources Committee
November 9th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am
Executive Committee
November 21st in Newington, CT
Division Election Ballot Counting
Development
Thanks to Sue Fagan and Tom Hogerty the Honor Roll of more than 100
clubs, organizations and industry partners that have supported ARRL in
2003 has been posted on the Development Overview page of the ARRL
website. The Honor Roll will be updated every Friday as new
contributions are received. An email message to all clubs announcing
the Honor Roll will go out October 1. The Honor Roll will also appear
in the November QST. That listing will include gifts received as of
9/24/03, the date that QST went to press.
The next issue of the Legacy Circle Letter for planned giving will tell
the story of Lloyd and Iris Colvin and their estate gift to ARRL to fund
the Colvin Award. The information in the newsletter will focus on
giving through insurance policies.
Development has been notified of an estate gift of the proceeds of an
insurance policy restricted to the W1AW Endowment. Details to follow
upon receipt of the gift.
Development is working with Jen Hagy on plans for a luncheon to be
hosted in Washington DC this fall. Guests will include representatives
from Capitol Hill and officials agencies. The date and details to
follow.
The special Spectrum Defense campaign against BPL has reached nearly
$283,000 for more than 5170 donors.
The Education & Technology Fund has reached nearly $93,000 from more
than 1470 donors.
The Diamond Club has reached 851 participants. Renewals continue to
roll in daily.
Development held a meeting with Alan Cohen and Mark Wilson regarding
eCommerce capabilities for Development contributions.
Media Relations
Jennifer did an interview with a Washington Post reporter who is working
on a story about ham radio emergency communications. He took down
information on ham radio's role during Hurricane Isabel and the
Northeast blackout. Jennifer explained why ham radio operators are
still a vital public service resource, and was able to get in a bit of
information about ARISS and the "Big Project." No word on when the
story might run. He was in the early research stage.
Jennifer has received some of the bio information requested for the Web
project. The initial round of requests went to ARRL Officers. The
second round will go to key ARRL staff members, and then Directors and
Vice Directors.
The PR Committee held its monthly conference call. Jennifer gave a
report on recent PR efforts at HQ, and individual committee members
reported on their activities since the last call. Among other things,
the group tossed around ideas for the PR forum at Hamvention 2004.
Unfortunately, and with equal disappointment on his part, long-time PRC
member Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, announced that he was stepping down from the
committee, due to other commitments (some ham-radio related) that demand
a lot of his time. Gary has always been one to give it his all, or
nothing. He assured the group that he'd still be out "beating the drum"
for ham radio whenever possible. We wish him the best.
The August clip reports have been sent out to the Directors.
Production/Editorial
A new printing of the Tech Q&A has been released to the printer, and we
reviewed the cover of the new edition of The ARRL Antenna Book.
Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 22, No 38 (Sep 26),
distributed to 66,445 ARRL members. Rick wrapped up "Happenings" for
the November issue of QST, and wrote/edited several stories for the Web
site and The ARRL Letter. Topics included ARRL's rebuke of FCC
Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy's "Broadband Nirvana" comments, the
fifth anniversary of resurrected FCC ham radio enforcement under Riley
Hollingsworth, the ARISS Punahou School contact, Amateur Radio
assistance for Hurricane Isabel (2 updates), the comment deadline (Sep
29) for the current set of Morse code-related petitions, and Rohn's
Chapter 11 bankruptcy declaration. Rick also prepared several news
briefs including ones on the 103rd birthday of the reputed oldest ham in
the US and the appointment of a new SM in Idaho. Rick also voiced,
edited and produced ARRL Audio News.
Dave Hassler finished the November installment of his QST "ARRL in
Action" column, edited six pieces for the ARRL Web site and began work
on the Web version of ARRL in Action.
Joel Hallas prepared the November "Product Review" column for
production, and began work on the December installment. In addition, he
and Production staff are wrapping up work on the November/December issue
of NCJ.
Bob Schetgen and Production staff are wrapping up work on the
November/December issue of QEX.
Logbook of the World
Logbook of the World interest and activity continued at a high pace. As
of October 1, we had more than 2000 registered users. Certificates have
been issued for stations in 50 DXCC entities, and there are more than
7,000,000 QSOs in the system. A greatly expanded FAQ and the fee
schedule were posted this week. Staff continues to handle customer
support issues as they arise. Most are coming in via e-mail and being
answered within a day. Work continues on the last major piece - the Web
pages to use Logbook confirmations for awards.
Sales & Marketing
Work is wrapping up on the Fall/Winter edition of the Publications
Catalog. It will leave for press within the next week.
We're seeing brisk returns to the 140,000 BPL theme membership mailing.
Over 1,000 individuals have joined or renewed, and we're just now
receiving peak returns each day.
The group continues its work on 2004 budget planning. Bob completed a
direct mail plan to support our publication sales effort.
The first 1000 customer feedback cards have been included with outgoing
orders. We'll use the next couple of weeks to track returns and
evaluate the feedback, most of which has been largely excellent.
A direct mail campaign was delivered to the post office on Sept 26. The
mailing solicits pre-orders for the new editions of the ARRL Handbook
and Antenna Book. It was mailed to over 35,000 customers.
Our quarterly NCJ & QEX email solicitation was conducted on September
23. In the week following the campaign, 130 QEX and 13 NCJ
subscriptions were received.
Results from a recent test support a slimmed-down renewal notice
mailing. The test included only a customer response piece in the first
and second renewal notices. Returns tracked closely when compared to
the notice we had been mailing which included additional information and
benefit inserts. Not including the superfluous inserts will decrease
the costs of the regular mailings. We'll continue to track and compare
results in the next months. And, we'll soon be testing some new ideas
on the third renewal mailing. One idea is to include a letter
specifically geared to current affairs or license class.
A publication email solicitation conducted during the week contributed
to $23,000 in online sales during the three-day campaign.
A new membership ad will be introduced in November's issue of QST. The
two-sided ad includes a printed application that can be cut-out or
copied to return. Another house ad in the same issue introduces ARRL's
VHF/UHF Antenna Classics as the newest title in the ARRL Classics
series.
We fulfilled additional requests from HRO for images to support their
upcoming catalog which features a large number of ARRL products.
The publications sales staff continues to solicit dealers and
distributors for advance orders of the ARRL Handbook and the new edition
of the Antenna Book, both of which debut in October. Ingram Publishing
has placed its largest single order to date--1062 copies of the new
edition of the ARRL Handbook (soft cover) and 80 copies of the hard
cover edition. Obviously we're pleased to see the order, but especially
delighted that Ingram has chosen to pick up the hard cover edition
again. Purchases of the current edition were primarily soft cover.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS Certs. (Replacements-no QSLs) 2
WAC Cert. (Replacement-no QSLs) 1
OTCs 5
Friendship Awards 4
RCCs 1
LTMA Inquiries 2
A-1 Op. Noms. 4
VUCC Initial Apps. 11
Grids 616
VUCC End. Apps. 2
Grids 219
VUCC Backfill Apps. 1
Grids 347
Awards Mailed 15
Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming
week-WAS and WAC QSL card checking, Extra Class certificates, process
VUCC certificates, mail out all awards processed this week, and enter
the awards-issued information for the latest batch of LTMA recipients
into their Siebel records.
Contest Branch
Data entry for the August UHF contest was completed and the complete
list of Logs Received posted to the web. Data entry for the September
VHF QSO Party was started. Plates for 2003 ARRL International DX
Contest and several additional plaques were ordered. Plaque sponsor
solicitation letters for the 2003 November Sweepstakes, June VHF QSO
Party and 2004 RTTY Roundup and were prepared and mailed. A problem
with the DX Certificate programs was corrected with the help of Alan
Cohen, who is also trying to fix a bug in the IARU Certificate program.
We began firming up authors for several of the upcoming ARRL Contest
events and should have the full slate in place for the next year soon.
DXCC Branch
For the week of:
September 28, 2003
Beginning Cards 131,422
Cards Received 20,201
Cards Processed 11,234
Ending Cards 140,389
Applications Pending 1,344
Processing Time 6.4 Weeks
Year-to-date (2003)
Cards Received 473,618
Cards Returned 543,750
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 15, 2003.
DXCC is currently entering cards received on August 22, 2003.
QSL Bureau
QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 09/28/03: 1,087,050.
No cards were mailed this week. Martin covered the morning bulletins at
W1AW for the vacationing Joe Carcia. Heather spent 6 hours conducting
tours around HQ.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie named Doug Rich, W7DVR, the Idaho SM. She took part in an ARISS
international teleconference meeting and continued to work with
Brazilian hams on getting their Brazilian astronaut interested in ham
radio. A large ham radio exhibit featuring ARISS was set up at an
educational conference in Canada that attracted 85,000 visitors.
Field & Education Support Team
Mary Lau reviewed revisions to Club Kit documents with Margie Bourgoin.
She also discussed new directions for multimedia projects with one of
her more prolific CD/DVD volunteer producers. Mary completed the
Foundation's annual filing with the State of Connecticut's Secretary of
State - Department of Charities division.
Margie Bourgoin received the approval from the EC for 9 newly affiliated
clubs. She entered their information into the database, printed letters
and certificates and mailed them. She assisted several instructors with
orders for classes. Margie also worked with Mary on revisions for the
online Club Kit.
Jean met with 2 Girl Scout leaders from Newington. She reviewed ham
radio and they exchanged ideas for crafts and demonstrations that will
pertain to Girl Scouts and ham radio.
Linda Mullally updated 26 club records and did I club reactivation. She
registered 7 Volunteer Instructors and 2 schoolteachers. She sent out 4
Exhibit kits and 8 JOTA Kits.
Gail lannone sent 2 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring
committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as
ARRL-sanctioned, processed 8 door prize orders, 4 label requests, and
sent 10 handout packages for upcoming events.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee is starting to get questions about third party agreements
now that international rules were changed at WRC. It was affirmed by
the FCC that when scouts are operating at JOTA, a third party rules
still exist between the US and other countries until Part 97 gets
changed. John reports seeing some activity on the SGL Reflector other
than his posts. He assisted amateurs with local government zoning
problems in Bernalillo County, NM (KM5FT); Castroville, TX (AB5QW), and
Jefferson County, CO (KG0PA).
Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project
Mark Spencer reports big news about a donation (approximately $6,500) by
a philanthropist ham in Texas, of 50 OPTAScopes for use with the
activity board concept. The news was relayed to other potential funding
sources in hopes it will stimulate additional funding to complete the
activity board concept (board development and procurement, and purchase
of inexpensive VOMs). The number of contacts Mark has with schools and
interested hams continues at a modest pace -- 28 this week. There were
an additional 23 downloads of the curriculum. One Project school/WIAW
QSO was made with one of our most active schools.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Leona Adams and the Mailroom ensured the Kansas and Tennessee SM
election ballots are going out. Members in those sections have until
November 14 to return ballots. Doug Rich, W7DVR, takes over as SM for
John Cline, K7BDS, who stepped down to further his professional
education. Leona and Steve worked with Doug to start the transition;
Doug's term lasts until September 2004.
Chuck Skolaut prepared for his trip to the ARRL Eastern Washington
Section Convention, held September 27, in Spokane.
Steve Ewald continued to gather news from Section Leaders in North
Carolina, Virginia and Maryland-DC about emergency response after
Hurricane Isabel. Steve reminded SMs on their Reflector about the
upcoming SET. SMs posted SET plans, such as the three Florida Sections
planning a Florida-wide SET based on a 3-day power outage.
CCE
Jerry Ellis provided numbers to Rosalie for budget work. He assigned
Level III mentors to students, posted class openings for October, mailed
grant refunds with certificates and ID cards to students, and handled
work for grads of Field Exams.
EmComm Grants
Dan Miller and Georgia hams mingled and spoke with congressional reps,
brigadier generals, FEMA officials and others at the FEMA Region IV
Consequence Management conference in Georgia. Thanks to Sandy Donahue,
SM Jim Boehner and Charlie Miller, the event provided for ARRL and
amateur radio awareness. Level II emcomm course beta-testing is winding
down. UTC graduates totaled 262 for Level I courses, 380 for Level II
courses and 189 for Level III courses.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
All Staff 11/27-11/28 Holiday
Mark Wilson 10/8-10/9 Vacation
Jennifer Hagy 10/15 Vacation
Dave Hassler 10/2-10/13 Vacation
`` 10/17-10/19 AMSAT Space Symposium
Annual Meeting, Toronto
Dennis Motschenbacher 10/2-10/6 Ten Tec Hamfest
10/10-10/12 NNY Section Convention
10/15-10/19 HRO, Pacificon Convention
11/6-11/7 Training
Rick Lindquist 10/30-11/7 Vacation
Mary Lau 9/29-10/3 Vacation
Zack Lau 9/29-10/3 Vacation
Dan Miller 10/9-10/10 Vacation
Bob Schetgen 10/3-10/10 Vacation
Joel Kleinman 10/6 Vacation
Stu Cohen 10/6 Vacation
Bob Inderbitzen 10/3 Jury Duty
10/17 Vacation
Joe Carcia 10/03 Vacation
`` 10/10 Vacation
Eileen Sapko 10/6 Vacation
