IN-Newsletter
Vol. 27, No.34
August 25, 2004
Development
The spring 2004 Defense campaign has exceeded $239,000 from more than
4600 donors. The fall campaign is close to production and will be
mailed to current members in mid-September. Thank you gifts have been
chosen that include a striking silver and red pin, a mug, and at higher
levels, a 50' tape measure, a stainless thermos with carrying case and a
64K pen drive. The final three items will bear "ARRL" in red.
The Diamond Club solicitation to approximately 30,000 targeted members
is expected to mail the week of September 30. The prospect file
includes criteria on longevity, license class and geography.
The new Loyal Member Award program will be launched to 50, 60, 70 and
80+ year members by Labor Day. Pins have been ordered and a unique
personalized plaque has been created using the QST cover from January of
the 50th year, 60th year, 70th year and 80th year. The plaque is
offered to members of 50 years plus at cost plus shipping. Debra
Johnson is working with John Proctor and Kathy Capodicasa to effect the
award of one year of Diamond Club benefits to this group. The
congratulatory letter from Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, has been composed and
certificates are being printed. The audience for this program segments
is approximately 2800 members. The goal is to complete this initial LMA
mailing before the Spectrum Defense campaign is mailed in mid-September.
A new Maxim Society plaque was awarded to Diamond Club Director Bruce
Marcus, N1XG.
Top donors will receive complimentary copies of the 2005 Handbook and a
reproduction of the first QST.
Estate gifts have been received from the Marion Evans Trust totaling
$41,820 and a partial distribution from the Kainen estate of $14,089.
Both gifts will go into the ARRL Endowment, but since neither gift was
designated to a specific fund, they will both be put into the General
Fund of the ARRL Endowment.
Production/Editorial
The 2005 ARRL Handbook, significantly revised this year, was released to
the printer August 20. Congratulations to everyone involved on a job
well done!
The October issue of QST will be released to the printer August 26.
Dean Straw has been at ARRL HQ to assist with the Handbook wrap-up.
Along with Rick Lindquist, he attended the New England Division
Convention in Boxboro, Massachusetts, last weekend.
Sales & Marketing
Congratulations to Rose-Ann Lawrence who passed her General Exam -- and
Aced it!
Pre-orders for the 2005 Handbook continue to accumulate at a fast pace.
Online orders have exceeded 1,300 units. Two email solicitations
conducted during the week helped to drive even more orders to the site.
The next component to this rollout includes direct mail.
Nineteen membership applications were returned from the New England
Division Convention in Boxboro, MA, held August 14-15. Half of these
were new or previous members.
Very encouraging discussions continue with the leadership of the United
States Power Squadron. Dennis Motschenbacher will be attending their
annual Governing meeting, participating in a number of closed meetings
covering topics relevant to both organizations.
Members received a glance at the upcoming September issues of QEX and
NCJ in an email solicitation sent on Monday. By the end of the week,
online sign-ups included 25 subscriptions for NCJ and 157 for QEX.
The mailroom completed a 5,000-piece membership solicitation on Friday.
This is largely a test mailing, the results of which will help hone the
planning for a larger campaign in the fall.
We are anticipating delivery of ARRL's RF Amplifier Classics very soon.
Pre-orders for this new title are nearly at 300 units.
Advertising is currently working on October QST. Although we will see
several advertisers returning after long absences, unfortunately two
advertisers have opted out of QST for the remainder of the year.
Maha Energy, who had committed to returning in the October issue,
indicates they will not be doing media advertising with us for an
indefinite time. Despite all persuasion attempts, they claimed that our
pricing was simply more than they could afford. In addition, Comet
Antennas has decided to bow out for the remainder of the year. Although
they conceded that sales did increase after advertising, they plan to
track sales for the next several months without advertising and regroup
in the new budget year. We are still working with Comet to persuade
them to be a part of our 8-page November QST tear-out section.
Dennis Motschenbacher attended the New Mexico State Convention in
Albuquerque. He participated in the ARRL Forum lead my Director
Stinson. Dennis made a technical presentation and was the Banquet
Speaker at this well attended hamfest.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS Certs. (Replacements) 4
WAC Cert. (Replacement) 1
LTMA Inquiries 3
VUCC Certs. Processed 14
VUCC Initial Apps. 2
Grids 221
Awards Mailed 48
Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks.
For the coming week-Ship the 5BWAS plaques, WAS and WAC QSL card
checking, foreign WAC and VUCC awards, plus add the 50- and 60-year
awards information into the Siebel member records for the recently
issued awards.
Contest Branch
The final editing of the Online DX Phone results was completed and the
results opened to the membership. Data entry for the IARU HF paper logs
continued, as did shipping of 2003 10-Meter contest certificates.
Presentations were prepared for the 2004 Alabama state convention in
Huntsville. Individual email requests were again sent to all problem
Field Day entries asking for revised submissions.
Logbook of the World
QSO records entered into the system 49,526,885
QSL records have resulted 1,702,323
Logs Processed 64,266
Active Certificates 10,953
Users registered in the system 7,781
Current Applications 88
Ready Applications 30
Applications Awaiting Mail 58
QSL Bureau
Processing time is approximately 7 days from receipt. This week 114
pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 130 pounds of
cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 08/22/04:
688,975. No cards were mailed this week.
W1AW
Joe updated the web code practice files and uploaded W1AW/90 logs to
LoTW. He created the W1AW Qualifying Run texts for September and
processed three Qualifying Run entries. Joe also began processing QSL
card requests for the Joe Walsh/Bob Heil ARRL SSB DX contest operation
held last March.
Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of
the month of August and early September. He worked the early afternoon
shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia and also handled some
evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots.
Field & Educational Services
Rosalie worked with Department of Homeland Security in planning ARRL's
part in National Preparedness Month (Sept). She sent a report to NVOAD
on ham ops in the days following Hurricane Charley. She, Dan, Steve and
Jean took part in a meeting with a CNCS rep. Rosalie set up a staff
meeting with a ham from Belize wanting to work on Restructuring. SM
Hill thanks Rick Lindquist for his fine story on California fires. The
ARISS Team held a successful QSO for Challenger Learning Center in
Illinois, and a monthly international telecon.
Linda Mullally updated 47 club records with 2 reactivations; she renewed
6 Special Service Clubs. She registered 8 Volunteer Instructors and 1
schoolteacher, and handled 1 label request. She sent 1,404 assorted
brochures, 4 Exhibit Kits and 2 JOTA Kits. She answered multiple
questions on hand-out-material availability from members planning
activities for National Preparedness Month. A thank you goes to Mark
Spencer for typing an ARISS QSL card in Braille for a sight impaired
ham. Another QSLer wrote on his card: "Although I've been a ham for 36
years, this contact with the ISS got me more excited than I've been
about ham radio in a some time."
Gail Iannone sent 6 hamfest approval letters and 3 convention approval
letters to sponsoring committees confirming the Director's approval of
the events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 16 hamfest/ convention
material orders and 2 label requests for upcoming events, and sent Wouff
Hong supplies for the ceremony to be performed at the West Virginia
State Convention, August 28-29 in Weston and the Kentucky State
Convention, September 10-11 in Louisville. She reviewed affiliation
paperwork for 6 new clubs to forward to Directors and SMs for approval,
plus acknowledgement letters to club officials.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Steve Ewald, Rick Lindquist and other staff stayed in touch with Florida
Section Leaders in Hurricane Charley's aftermath, coordinating ARES and
ham radio support, along with ARES teams assisting from other sections.
Steve took part in daily NVOAD telecons and the monthly National Citizen
Corps' telecon. ARES continues to provide assistance for Northern
California fire fighters. Steve visited 4 SMs and 5 SECs at Boxboro,
and NLI SEC KA2D and a Red Cross volunteer visited here at Hq. As back
up for Chuck (on travel), Steve sent an FCC monitoring request to
central US OOCs (and SMs) about an interference issue.
Saturday, December 4, will be the date for this year's SKYWARN
Recognition Day co-sponsored by the National Weather Service and ARRL.
ARRL's Amateur Radio Awareness Day has been moved to September 18. An
announcement of this went to Field Organization Leaders and affiliated
clubs.
Leona Adams has made preparations for the Minnesota SM election ballot
counting that will take place on August 24. Ballots were due at HQ by
Friday, the 20th. George Tranos, N2GA, has been nominated for another
term as SM of New York City-Long Island.
Club/Mentor Program
Norm Fusaro's new Power Point for club programs, on mobile HF, was
posted to the Web, thanks to Tom Hogerty. Norm completed a story for
clubs and mentors on a young Floridian ham and her whole family of hams;
he learned the kids were active in Florida's hurricane emcomms. He,
John Hennessee and other staff met with Bob Fox, V31MD, to discuss
license restructure and mentor support for new hams, including young
people and schools, in Belize. Norm and Mark Spencer discussed various
ways ARRL clubs may help and support schoolteachers and school clubs.
CCE
Jean Wolfgang is tracking down outstanding reimbursement and stipend
checks, exploring the possibility of offering students and mentors an
option to donate the reimbursement back to ARRL programs. She saw an
increase in CNCS grads as a result of an email she sent to mentors
encouraging them to aid students in finishing before the end of the
grant year. She approved 2 emcomm test sessions, and reassigned 3
students of a mentor who had become ill. Jean solicited mentors for
upcoming classes assigned, and assigned mentors for two emcomm Level 2
sections, and the Antenna Modeling classes to open Aug 24.
EmComm Grants
Both of Dan Miller's recent grant-funded events were successful. APCO
(public safety officials' conference) in Montreal had 30 people in
attendance, and Boxboro had more than 30 people present. The folders he
gave out for the first time at APCO seemed to be well received. His new
survey for served agencies garnered some good stats to review. Dan
began preparing for the next seminar, in Phoenix, and sent materials
ahead; 70 people signed up already, to attend. We are inching closer to
our CNCS Year 2 goal of emcomm grads as the end of the month approaches
-- CNCS grads total 1880. UTC grads total 25 for Level I, 130 for Level
II, and 144 for Level III.
Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program
Mark Spencer reviewed feedback from the Teachers Institute. Teachers
found the experience rewarding and well worth their time; adjustments
will result from the lessons Mark learned at the institute. Plaques for
the annual awards conveyed at the July Board meeting arrived and have
been sent to presenters. Work progresses on the L/C/DSP board; Mark is
on track to have them for teachers in September. The next kit is a
receiver produced by AmQRP organization; stop by if you want to see this
neat little receiver. Mark will develop curriculum for it that looks at
the circuit block level down to the component level to make building the
receiver a real learning experience.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee participated in a NVOAD (National Organizations Active in
Disasters) teleconference while Steve was on a Citizen Corps telecon.
John reports receiving an increase in questions on Echolink and IRLP.
He reviewed the constitutions of clubs seeking ARRL affiliation. He
received word that the antenna zoning restriction faced by Ken
Claerbout, K4ZW, who is building a station in very rural Maine, was
finally resolved through the regional Land Use Regulatory Council. Ken
was very appreciative of ARRL support in his case. John assisted an
amateur with a local government zoning restriction in Sahuarita, AZ
(K7ZY) and assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Annandale, VA
(AB4CG) and Lake Wylie, SC (W4LNY).
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW: lk
Staff Absentee List
All Staff 9/6 Holiday
Lisa Kustosik 8/30 Vacation
Perry Williams 7/16-9/7 Vacation
Dennis Motschenbacher 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention,
Phoenix, AZ-personal
`` 9/8-9/10 US Power
Squadron Governing Mtg, JAX, FL
`` 9/22-9/24 PacNW Client
Visits
`` 9/24-9/26 EWA Section
Convention, Spokane
Steve Ford 8/30-9/1 Vacation
`` 9/10 Digital Communications
Conference
John Hennessee 8/19-8/31 Vacation
Dan Miller 8/26-8/29 SW Div Convention,
Phoenix, AZ
`` 8/30 Vacation
Judy Miller 8/26-8/27 Vacation
Joel Hallas 9/3-9/7 Vacation
Mark Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation
`` 9/2-9/3 Vacation
Pam Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation
`` 9/2-9/3 Vacation
Heather Dzamba 9/3-9/10 Vacation
Mary Hobart 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention
Danny Sayad 9/3 Vacation
" 9/17 Vacation
Joel Kleinman 8/27-9/1 Vacation
Dan Henderson 8/23-8/27 Vacation
Wayne Mills 8/23-9/3 Vacation
Steve Ewald 8/26 Vacation
Kathy Capodicasa 9/7-9/13 Vacation
Lisa Tardette 8/30 Vacation
Mark Spencer 8/27-8/30 WV Convention
Rose-Ann Lawrence 9/3 Vacation
Joe Carcia 8/27pm Vacation
