IN-Newsletter
Vol. 27, No.12
March 23, 2004
Upcoming Meeting
April 24th in Newington, CT at 8:30am
A & F Committee Meeting
Development
The W1AW Endowment has reached $87,833 from 1247 donors. Follow up
letters have been mailed to three target audiences totaling 25,000
names.
The carryover of the fall Spectrum Defense Campaign has exceeded $56,000
from 860 donors. A new campaign is in preparation.
Development is working with Dan Miller and LouAnn Campanello to prepare
the six month progress report for the CNCS grant.
Development is preparing research in preparation for a meeting with a
donor who is considering a significant gift to ARRL.
Media Relations
The "Year In Review" section of the 2003 Annual Report is complete, and
has been forwarded to Dave Sumner for editing.
Ed Hare and Rick Lindquist traveled to Westchester County, New York, to
meet with a Wall Street Journal reporter. The reporter is gathering
information for a possible follow-up BPL article, to include the ham
radio angle. Ed and Rick got on the air to demonstrate the effects of
BPL in the village of Briarcliff Manor, and discussed the various
aspects of the BPL issue at length.
Jennifer was invited to represent the League and put on a PR forum at
the Western New York Section Convention in August.
ARRL booth supplies were shipped out for the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB) convention in April. Once again, ARRL member Bill
Cornelius, K8XC, is heading up the volunteer effort on behalf of the
League. Jen thanks Lisa K and Gail for gathering up the needed supplies
for shipping.
Production/Editorial
The 2004-2005 Repeater Directory, a new edition of The General Class
Q&A, VoIP: Internet Linking for Radio Amateurs and the Southeastern
States VHF Society Conference Proceedings have been released to the
printer. The May issue of QST will be released to the printer March 25.
We checked printer's proofs for Low Power Communications.
Maty Weinberg has been covering for Helen Dalton during her sick leave.
We wish Helen a speedy recovery.
Graphics staff created an attractive "BPL logo," color CD labels for the
new ARRL Video Series VCDs, as well as the cover design for the new
TravelPlus CD.
Rick Lindquist and Ed Hare spent the better part of March 16 with Ken
Brown, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, to demonstrate BPL
firsthand (at Briarcliff Manor, New York) and to discuss its
implications for the Amateur Service. His article appeared March 23.
Rick reports that The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 12, went out to 67,115
members on March 19. Among other items, Rick prepared stories on
Comment due dates and membership guidance for the BPL proceeding; a new
ham radio-related video from The Ham Band in Denmark, a Daily Point of
Light Award to an Iowa ARRL-affiliated club, the first ARISS school
group QSO with a school in Scotland (on St Patrick's day, no less),
Hamvention special achievement award to ARRL President Emeritus George
Wilson, W4OYI (plus other award winners), ARRL President Jim Haynie's
upcoming appearance on the Coast to Coast AM radio program (Mar 20) and
Best Buy Foundation Te@ach grants to four ARRL ETP schools (updated).
He also edited the QRP Community Web column for March and prepared the
Happenings column for May QST. With voiceover assistance from Jennifer
Hagy (and soundbite contributions from Dave Sumner on the BPL story),
Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for March 19.
News Editor Dave Hassler completed his QST column, ARRL-in-Action,
edited four features for the ARRL Web site and contributed several small
news stories.
Joel Hallas has completed work on the May installment of the Product
Review column, and he is wrapping up editorial work on the May/June
issue of NCJ. The June Product Review column is well underway, and
equipment for July is under evaluation.
Sales and Marketing
In addition to their product order fulfillment duties, Fatima Lorusso,
Zoe Belliveau, and Danny Sayad are training to process membership
renewals that are phoned in. As part of our ongoing effort to
cross-train fulfillment staff, they are processing the memberships while
still on the phone. Processing in this manner allows us to cut back on
the number of invalid credit cards that require follow up and minimizes
the number of pieces of paper that would require another fulfillment
staffer to process. In time, we will add broken continuity and first
time members to the mix as these require a few more steps.
We're evaluating the results from a survey conducted in February of
emergency service volunteers and other individuals closely connected to
them. The responses provide feedback on a handful of new merchandise
ideas to directly support these volunteers. The data was collected by
Steve Ewald and compiled by Janet Rocco.
Some additional analysis of 2003 membership mailings has contributed to
further honing the Technician and Technician Plus leads for the latest
membership campaign. A local letter shop is handling the assembly and
mailing of this large campaign, which should hit the post office on
March 24.
Planning for the upcoming ARRL exhibit at Hamvention continues. An
impressive 14-foot banner has been designed using artwork created for
ARRL's 90-year celebration. The banner will take the place of the fixed
exhibit that has served as a backdrop for the last few years. Following
the examples of some of our sister societies that exhibited at the big
European show in Friedrichshafen last year, a portion of our exhibit
space (in front of the new banner) will be set up to serve as a meeting
space for members, volunteers and leadership to congregate and visit
during the event.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS QSL Cards Checked 450
WAS End. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1
A-1 Op. Noms. 12
A-1 Op. Certs. 2
LTMA Inquiries 2
VUCC Initial Apps. 9
Grids 544
Awards Mailed 86
Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-WAS
and WAC QSL card checking, VUCC and A-1 Operator awards
processing/mailing, and Extra Class certificates.
DXCC Branch
For the week of:
March 21, 2004
Beginning Cards 71,052
Cards Received 9,390
Cards Processed 14,051
Ending Cards 66,391
Applications Pending 523
Processing Time 4.2 Weeks
Year-to-date (2004)
Cards Received 88,686
Cards Returned 148,690
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on February 20, 2004.
DXCC is currently entering cards received on February 24, 2004.
Because of their level of participation in the DXCC program, the radio
societies shown below were invited to submit one nominee for DXCC Card
Checker:
Poland Russian Federation
Denmark Portugal
Norway Israel
Also, due to their level of activity, one additional nomination was
offered to:
Sweden Italy France
Contest Branch
Certificates for the 2003 September VHF QSO party were printed and
queued for mailing within the next couple of weeks. Web results for the
2003 EME Contest were finalized and opened to members. Work was done on
the Web results for the 2003 November CW Sweepstakes and sent to Web
Services. The draft QST SS CW article was received from Production,
edited and sent back with changes. Section-level competitive paper logs
for the November Phone Sweepstakes were entered into a logging program
and sent to the log checking team. Final scores for SS Phone were
received, merged into the databases, tables prepared and forwarded to
the author.
QSL Bureau
QSL Service Status: There is a delay of approximately 2 weeks. This
week 163 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 230
pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of
03/21/04: 217,875. No cards were mailed this week.
W1AW
Joe updated the web code practice files. He also assisted the building
manager with a circulator pump replacement on the station's main floor
heating boiler.
Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of
the month of March. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in
the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot, and worked the early afternoon shift on
Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie finalized 2 PowerPoint presentations and helped Frank Bauer with
the US ARISS Team's presentation, for the ARISS international meeting
next week. Thanks goes to Linda who pinch-hit with Rosalie on doing
paperwork for newly affiliated clubs. Rosalie held a departmental
meeting, and compiled data for a few items for the P-SC telecon. She
found a co-sponsor for our second education annual award.
Linda Mullally updated 53 club records with 1 reactivation. She
registered 8 Instructors. She checked a membership roster for a club,
and gave a huge assist with work needed to be done for the newest batch
of affiliated clubs. She handled 1 SSC renewal, 2 Label requests and 4
Club Vanity email requests. She sent 10 Exhibit Kits and 3 JOTA Kits.
Gail Iannone sent 7 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval
letter to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's
approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 3 label requests,
11 door prize orders, and sent 12 handouts packages for upcoming events.
She coordinated convention travel for the following HQ staff: Wayne
Mills, Midwest Division, Apr. 30-May 1, Lebanon, MO; Dan Henderson,
Maryland State, Mar. 27-28, Timonium; Dave Hassler, Iowa State, June
11-12, Sioux City; and Jennifer Hagy, WNY Section, Aug. 7-8,
Williamsville.
Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project
Mark Spencer set up and staffed a booth at the International Technology
Education Association's national conference in Albuquerque. NASA paid
for his registration, booth space, electricity, etc. Mark processed
requests from Project schools for the TV Remote Decoder Kits. Another
Project application arrived; Monday will be the cutoff date for new
applications.
CCE
Jean Wolfgang is creating a new flyer to be included in the EmComm
graduation packets. The flyer will invite the graduates to enroll in
our CCE on-line technical courses. The first class of the online
Technician License course will begin on Monday, April 6--we have four
registrants thus far. Jean processed 2 CCE field tests and several
grant graduates.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee reports that SGLs, LGLs and some SMs are using the SGL
Reflector as an exchange of ideas concerning state government issues and
Amateur Radio. If any SM, SGL or LGL wishes to subscribe, they should
send a message to John Hennessee, N1KB at n1kb(a)arrl.org. They should
list their name, call, ARRL position and at least two e-mail addresses
(very important) to subscribe to the SGL Reflector.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Leona Adams prepared for the Oregon SM election getting ballots ready
for the printer. The statements from the two candidates (WA7VDT and
KZ7T) were proofread and formatted prior to printing. Leona prepared
supplies and did record keeping for several new-appointees, and compiled
and sent five Official Observer test packages to those who have been
recommended.
Chuck Skolaut handled two OO monitoring requests from the FCC's Riley
Hollingsworth, and sent these to the appropriate Section leaders. He
received four audio tapes concerning possible rule violations on 75
meters. Chuck is reviewing the tapes along with a couple of other audio
tapes and reports on interference problems on 20 meters and another one
in Florida.
Steve Ewald compiled 186 replies to our recent survey about possible new
ARES-related products. The SECs, DECs and ECs provided additional ideas
and suggestions. Thanks to Janet Rocco for compiling the results and to
Bob Inderbitzen for analyzing the data and comments. Steve and Dan
Miller identified SMs, SECs and STMs who haven't taken ARRL's Level l
course yet; we are sending personal invitations to encourage them to
sign up.
EmComm Grants
Dan reports that UTC grads for Level II total 22, and for Level III, 16.
CNCS grads for Level I total 693, for Level II, 156, and for Level III,
87. Hybrid classes continue to increase in number and have proven to be
beneficial for students who have limited online or computer access, and
for those with limited computer skills. Dan gave a seminar and talk at
the Communications Academy, a ham radio emcomm event in Shoreline, WA.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
Dave Sumner 4/12-4/21 IARU Reg.1 EC Meeting, &
Vacation
`` 4/27-5/6 Geneva,
ITU working party 6E Meeting
`` 5/12-5/16 Vacation
Mark Wilson 3/24-3/29 Vacation
Mark Spencer 3/30-4/5 NSTA Conference
Rick Lindquist 3/26 Vacation
Joe Carcia 4/5 Vacation
Robert Inderbitzen 4/1-4/2 AES Superfest
Dennis Motschenbacher 4/22 Sales meeting GA
`` 4/23-4/24 SVHFC Technical
& Banquet Speaker
`` 5/13-5/17 Vacation
Deb Jahnke 4/15 Sales call-Baker &
Taylor - NJ
Kathy Capodicasa 4/15 Sales call-Baker &
Taylor - NJ
Scott Gee 4/8 Vacation
Danny Sayad 4/15-4/19 Vacation
Rosalie White 3/24-3/26 ARISS-international
meeting
Dan Miller 4/1-4/2 Vacation
Dan Henderson 3/26 Timonium, MD Convention
Jodi Morin 3/26 Vacation
Stu Cohen 4/8-4/13 Vacation
