IN-Newsletter
Vol. 27, No.14
April 7, 2004
Upcoming Meeting
April 24th in Newington, CT at 8:30am
A & F Committee Meeting
Development
The W1AW Endowment follow up letter is yielding results. The campaign
has now reached $119,762 in contributions from 1,595 donors. Over the
course of the campaign about a dozen multi-year pledges have been
received.
The 2004 Defense Campaign spillover has reached $64,247 from 906 donors.
The new campaign is expected mail by mid-April to all ARRL members.
The Brandenburg Life Foundation has committed $25,000 to sponsor the
August 2004 Teachers Institute training program of the Education &
Technology Program. Follow up letters have been mailed to four
individuals seeking the balance of the funding needed for this project.
Dave Sumner held a successful first meeting with a New England donor who
is considering a substantial estate gift to ARRL.
Plans for the Donor Recognition Reception in Dayton at the Air Force
Museum are nearing completion. So far we are expecting 35 attendees,
but the deadline for RSVPs is April 30 so that number is expected to
grow.
With assistance from MaryAnn Macdonald, work on the Donor List for the
Annual Report is nearly complete. Any donors who have not responded by
the April 13 deadline will be listed as anonymous.
Media Relations
Jennifer worked with a reporter (also a ham and ARRL member) with The
Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee. She pointed him to Web
resources for FCC stats and a listing of famous hams for a lengthy
feature article that may appear in an annual magazine published by the
newspaper.
The March issue of Contact! was posted to the PR pages. This issue
includes two special BPL-related contributions by Rich Moseson, W2VU,
sample letter to the editor and a comprehensive list of talking points.
Jen posted a note to the PR reflector about the availability of these
items, along with a link to the new ARRL handout on BPL. One ARRL
member already used Rich's sample letter, and got it printed in The
Huntsville (Alabama) Times.
A reminder about the McGan Award nomination deadline (May 21) ran in the
Contact! newsletter, was prepared for the Web news crawl and was posted
to the PR reflector.
Jim Haynie agreed to do an interview on BPL with KHWB, a Warner Brothers
station affiliate in Houston.
Jennifer is reviewing work from the Public Relations Committee on the
Speakers Bureau Project, designed to help Public Information
Coordinators set up their own section-wide speakers bureaus.
Production/Editorial
The May/June 2004 issues of both QEX and NCJ have been released to the
printer.
After wrapping up work on QEX, Bob Schetgen turned in the June QST
Digital Dimension, Technical Correspondence and Hints & Kinks columns.
Rick Lindquist reports that The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 14, went out to
66,662 members Apr 2. Rick prepared news stories on FEMA's letter to
FCC backing away from its earlier BPL stance, ARES assistance in CO
wildfire, Dave Sumner's letter to the mayor of Penn Yan, New York, In
Brief (12 items), Spectrum Protection Act cosponsor list grows, New
amateur world LF QSO record, and several Web news briefs. He also
edited the K7RA Solar Update and the news feature "What's Really
Happening in Penn Yan," by Gary Pearce, KN4AQ. With voiceover
assistance from Jennifer Hagy, Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL
Audio News for Friday, Apr 2.
Joel Hallas has turned in the June QST Product Review column as well as
several items for New Products. He has wrapped up work on the May/June
2004 issue of NCJ. Product Review testing is well underway for July's
column.
Dave Hassler's monthly Web version of "ARRL-in-Action" has been posted.
He also edited several feature stories for the Web site, wrote up
several small news items and reviewed submitted general interest
manuscripts.
Sales & Marketing
With the arrival of all sizes of Field Day shirts, Fatima Lorusso, Danny
Sayad, and the warehouse crew processed all back orders containing
multiple sized shirts. Back orders are processed this way so only one
package will ship to recipients instead of one separate order for every
shirt size requested. Field Day shirt back orders are processed this
way as Seibel splits all back orders into separate orders.
For the last six business days of March, Fulfillment staff participated
in a promotion of the 2004 ARRL Handbook to telephone customers. In
addition to any $15 order, staff was allowed to offer the title for $25
instead of the regular price of $34.95. This was presented as a
challenge. Bob Inderbitzen offered staff tips for phone up-selling.
Our top seller was Danny Sayad with a total of 17 copies. Following
Danny, were Cathy Stepina and Fatima Lorusso with 10 copies each.
Congratulations are in order to all participants who helped us achieve
our March sales goals.
Deb Jahnke completed end of March Publication Sales preliminary detail
reports and arranged for royalty payments to be issued.
Since we have recently had a number of QST tear-out advertising sections
in a row, we queried advertisers to check on perceived value. Several
of our advertisers felt that the tear-out did increase their visibility
and were pleased with the final outcome of the pieces.
Bob Inderbitzen organized an ARRL exhibit for Superfest, held annually
at the Amateur Electronic Supply headquarters store in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. He attended the event on April 2nd and 3rd. He also
conducted a forum, "Planning for Ham Radio's Future: ARRL's License
Restructuring Proposal," drawing from the presentation prepared by Joel
Harrison. 75 attended. 60 membership applications were taken at the
event--a healthy increase over previous years (41 in 2003; 24 in 2002).
26 of these were new or lapsed sign-ups, the balance renewals. For
their big help staffing the ARRL exhibit, special thanks goes to Dick
Isely, W9GIG--Central Div. Director, Don Michalski, W9IXG--SM Wisconsin,
and Richard Polivka, N6NKO--Central Div. Assistant Director Wisconsin.
Work is underway on the spring/summer edition of the ARRL Publications
catalog.
A handful of Section Managers have made a compelling case for extending
the free Repeater Directory membership incentive to renewals they
administer. For an undetermined trial period, we have agreed to extend
the free book premium to lapsed (or previous members) and membership
renewals. While HQ administers most membership renewals without
offering a free book premium, we're hopeful that Section Managers will
effectively handle more brand new memberships and multi-year renewals as
an incident of administering more membership transactions. A copy of
the membership application (for distribution by Section Managers) and a
handy sign-up poster are available to SMs via their area of the ARRLWeb
site. Printed application forms are also available. Questions about
this service should be directed to the Sales & Marketing Department or
email circulation(a)arrl.org.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS QSL Cards Checked 350
WAS Certs. (1200 QSLs F/C) 24
WAS Certs. (1050 QSLs ES/C) 21
WAS End. (50 QSLs F/C) 1
WAC Certs. (234 QSLs ES/C) 39
WAC Certs. (42 QSLs F/C) 7
5BWAC Certs. (60 QSLs ES/C) 2
A-1 Op. Noms. 5
LTMA Inquiries 5
VUCC Certs. Processed 12
VUCC Initial Apps. 2
Grids 204
VUCC End. Apps. 1
Grids 75
Awards Mailed 39
Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-WAS
Specialty and VUCC awards, compile the latest list of VUCC award
recipients for June QST, mail out all awards processed this week, and
enter the latest batch of LTMAs into the members' Siebel records.
DXCC Branch
For the week of:
April 4, 2004
Beginning Cards 56,131
Cards Received 11,717
Cards Processed 14,059
Ending Cards 53,789
Applications Pending 417
Processing Time 2.4 Weeks
Year-to-date (2004)
Cards Received 109,585
Cards Returned 182,437
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 15, 2004. DXCC
is currently entering cards received on March 18, 2004.
Contest Branch
Preliminary scores for the RTTY Roundup were reviewed and a request to
check on several areas was sent to the log checker. As this is the
first time he has done RTTY logs we are doing more than the usual
"reality checks" on the scores. Shipping of 2003 SS pins was completed.
Discussions were held with other designated HQ staff on the board
directive of looking into a youth component for future Field Days.
Several investigations regarding possible rules violations were reviewed
and letters sent to the parties in question. A PowerPoint presentation
for the NC State Convention was edited and finalized. Data entry for
paper 2003 DX CW Contest logs was started.
QSL Bureau
There is a delay of 8 days. This week 170 pounds of cards were received
from members. Approximately 180 pounds of cards are waiting to be
processed. Cards mailed as of 04/04/04: 308,175. No cards were mailed
this week
Field & Educational Services
Another ISS "tourist," who may fly late this year or next, is interested
in getting his ham license; the ARISS team is working with him. In
coordination with Rev Morton and Walt Stinson, Rosalie named Bill
Edwards, WU7Y, as Wyoming SM, after Jay Ostrem moved from the Section.
Rosalie edited the QST article on the International Humanitarian Award,
edited the minutes she took at the three days of ARISS meetings held in
Holland, debriefed Rick on news from the meeting, wrote her trip report,
and began handling action items from the meeting.
Gail Iannone sent 12 convention applications to the Executive Committee
and notified the sponsoring committees confirming the EC's approval of
their events as ARRL-sanctioned. She also sent 5 hamfest and 2
convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the
Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed
2 label requests, and sent 8 handout packages for upcoming events.
Linda Mullally updated 49 club records and did 5 club reactivations.
She registered 9 Instructors, and checked membership rosters for 11
clubs. She handled 5 Special Service Club renewals, 2 label requests, 4
Club Vanity email requests, and sent out 4 Exhibit Kits and 1 JOTA Kit.
Linda assisted Rosalie by getting 17 new affiliated clubs' records into
the Siebel database, and mailing out 9 Charter of Affiliation
certificates and 3 Special Service Club certificates. She also assisted
by filling out ARISS QSL cards to 35 students from one school -- they
had SWLed Mike Foale's QSOs.
CCE
Jean Wolfgang has assigned mentors for the first online Technician
License Course. On Tuesday this course opens with 13 students. The
second class for the same course will open on Tuesday April 20. We
already have a few students registered in that class, also. Several
mentors have expressed an interest in mentoring this class, however,
Jean chose to assign 7 mentors who also participated in the beta test of
this course, since it's the first section. Other mentors who expressed
an interest will be included for the following course sections. Jean
continues to learn the Access program and apply it to her duties. She
is reviewing the tables containing the mentors' names and the courses
they are qualified to mentor, and looking at the registration numbers
for non-grant-funded classes.
Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project
Mark Spencer set up and staffed a booth at the National Science Teachers
Association national conference. He took handout materials and hands-on
items to attract the attention of teachers. NASA provided financial
support for this booth.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee reports that there has been some discussion on the SGL
Reflector in response to his inquiry about SGLs working together in
multi-section states. John assisted amateurs with local government
zoning problems in San Jose, CA (N6KJ); Groveland, MA (KD1NA) and with
covenant problems in Hoschton, GA (N3UJ) and Morrisville, NC (WD1H).
EmComm Grants
Dan Miller prepared for a ham radio forum and exhibit for the National
Hurricane Conference next week. He and some of our Section Leaders will
participate in the forum and round-table discussion. This is the first
year, thanks to our grants, that we have had an exhibit at this
conference.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Leona Adams and Steve assisted our new Wyoming and San Diego SMs as they
get started with their terms of office. Leona also reports that, thanks
to the Mailroom Staff, the Oregon SM election ballots were shipped out.
Thanks to Chuck, Steve and Leona, she is sending even more of our field
appointee initial supplies via electronic means. She also sent Section
budget activity reports to SMs for their information.
Steve Ewald participated in a telecon of the Ad-Hoc Committee on ARES
Communications (ARESCOM). He is preparing to e-mail, for ARESCOM, their
"Interim Progress Report" (shared at January's Board Meeting) to SMs,
SECs, STMs and NTS Area Staff, soliciting comments. The package
includes the NTS Area Chairs' "proposal in progress" on best meeting
present and future emcomm-response needs, and an FAQ about Winlink 2000
as it relates to emcomm. Steve is getting some good responses from SMs
to his inquiry about finding and keeping good Section Leaders.
Chuck Skolaut received an OO-monitoring request from Riley Hollingsworth
concerning 3808 kHz and 7295 kHz, and forwarded it to the OOCs in
appropriate areas. He reviewed taped documentation about AM operation
on 75 meters, and a tape recording of interference on a net on 14308
MHz. This was in direct response to an FCC monitoring request. Chuck
is also studying audio tapes from South Texas dealing with long-standing
problems on a 2-meter repeater.
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW:lk
Staff Absentee List
All Staff 4/9 Holiday
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
Dennis Motschenbacher 4/22 Sales meeting GA
`` 4/23-4/24 SVHFC Technical
& Banquet Speaker
`` 5/13-5/17 Vacation
`` 6/4-6/5 Georgia Section
Convention
Deb Jahnke 4/15 Sales call-Baker &
Taylor - NJ
`` 4/20-4/21 Vacation
`` 4/23 Vacation
Kathy Capodicasa 4/15 Sales call-Baker &
Taylor - NJ
`` 4/13-5/16 Dayton
Hamvention
Scott Gee 4/8 Vacation
Danny Sayad 4/15-4/19 Vacation
`` 5/13-5/16 Dayton
Hamvention
Dan Miller 4/5-4/8 National Hurricane
Conference
`` 4/12-4/14 Vacation
`` 4/29-5/2 SJV Section
Convention
Steve Ford 4/19-4/23 Vacation
Stu Cohen 4/8-4/13 Vacation
Scott Gee 4/8 Vacation
Dean Straw 4/23 International DX
Convention/Visalia
Dave Hassler 4/15-4/16 Vacation
Judy Miller 4/12-4/14 Vacation
Bill Moore 4/12 Vacation
Eileen Sapko 412 Vacation
Wayne Mills 4/22-4/26 Visalia Convention
`` 4/30 Lebanon MO
Convention
Dan Henderson 4/30 Greenville SC Convention
Lisa Tardette 4/12 Vacation
Robert Inderbitzen 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention
Roseanne Lawrence 5/13-5/16 Vacation
Fatima Lorusso 5/17-5/19 Vacation
