June 2008 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

RE: [arrl-odv:16875] Re:ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas
by K8JE 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

Brian, Good thoughts. I've just appointed a new, experienced Webmeister and will pass these on to him for his consideration. Incidentally, I'm calling him a Webmeister because of the great German heritage in ZinZinnati. 73, tnx, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je(a)arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is! -----Original Message----- From: n3llr(a)earthlink.net [mailto:n3llr@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 7:15 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:16875] Re:ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas Brian, Excellent comments. The idea of reaching mobile devices is dead on in my book. Thanks for sharing! - Bill N3LLR -----Original Message----- From: "Brian Mileshosky" <n5zgt(a)swcp.com> Subj: ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas Date: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:10 am Size: 10K To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> All - A great friend of mine, and loyal ARRL member, Scott Westerman W9WSW (VP of Comcast for New Mexico and Arizona and a reporter for This Week in Amateur Radio) and I chatted about the upcoming ARRL website redesign project. Scott wades in this kind of stuff every day as part of his career and for fun, so I trust his views. Rather than being just a casual web user, he actually DOES this and knows about it from a year-2008 marketing and promotional standpoint. I offer his unedited words of advice as food-for-thought for the ODV or the upcoming board meeting, and for the benefit of ARRL's soon to be improved presence on the web (see below). Perhaps this can be a part of future conversations with our chosen web design company. 73, Brian N5ZGT Director, ARRL Rocky Mountain Division ============================================================= Email from Scott W9WSW: To follow up on our dinner conversation this week, here are a few humble thoughts about leveraging the Internet at the League. An able web design house can create an appealing and usable portal for the League and deploy search engine optimization techniques to get it noticed on Google and Yahoo. These days that's website 101. Extending ARRL.org's reach beyond the base site should be part of any proposal you receive. Here are some ideas: The new reality of the Web: "People want to consume their content, at their convenience the device of their choice." It's important to keep this in mind as you consider a communication strategy. Think beyond traditional websites, to cell phones and social networks, to Chumbys and Twitter. You should make your content available to every possible medium. The key is RSS, alternately defined as "really simple syndication" or "rich site summary". Deploying content in this format makes it easily assimilated into just about any display engine. Learn more about how RSS works here: http://en..wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) A key take-away - Each of the important sections of your website should have an RSS feed. Use ARRL.org to enhance the QST experience: Printing costs limit the amount of information we can share in the magazine. Use your web presence to allow members read expand versions of QST's content, with more data, more words and more pictures and graphics. An example: In QST equipment reviews, allow the user to take a 360 degree visual tour of the rig, spinning it around with the mouse. Open the top of the radio and let the viewer zoom in to the circuit boards. Put MP3 files of the rig audio outputs on the site and flash video of the wave forms as they cross the scope. Rendering the website on multiple devices: You're off to a good start with the mobile edition. Think of enhancing it in a version for the IPhone. It's also possible to put some code on the main page that reads the browser type and renders the content specifically for the browser automatically. This is typically done to identify the dozen different cell phone browsers to maximize the quality of the experience on that device. Blogging: Part of your web presence should be a blog that one or many of the league staff contributes to. "It seems to us", Sean's contest news, interpretations of FCC actions, even "the doctor is in", translate well to this approach. With categories and RSS feeds for each author, readers can do their own filtering and the blogs can be updated as developments warrant. The blog differs from the front page news on the site in that it allows the League to put a human face on amateur radio's most important advocates. Social Networks: Once a bastion of primarily the young, networks like MySpace and the more ubiquitous Facebook are garnering followers of all age. Facebook has a group feature that is tailor-made for the League. If you explore the groups, you'll see that some folks have taken it upon themselves to reach out. There's a Field Day group and an interesting Young Assistant Section Manager group. Having an officially sanctioned presence is another way to reach out to both current and potential hams. Recruit volunteers who know this space lead the charge. Twitter and Friend Feed: The hottest new - new things are the microblogs. At www.twitter.com, you have 140 characters to speak your piece.. Sounds a lot like packet radio. It's a phenomenon that, like a DX Cluster, has become a popular way for friends to exchange hot news in real time. At Comcast, we've discovered that it's a great way to seek out customer issues and provide instant response. Think of a twitter feed specifically tracking 20 meter DX, as a way for section managers to communicate, an augmentation for weather spotters or perhaps something integrated with APRS or Packet, where your over the air message weather message can be relayed to on-line followers. Friend Feed is an aggregation engine where you can read RSS feeds, share links and write comments. The League should have an ARRL room on FriendFeed where hams can share information and opinion. Chumby and beyond: As new devices are born, the League should encourage developers to help place key ARRL information there. One example is the Chumby (www.chumby.com) Ostensibly a wifi video device, Chumby can play flash widgets, audio and video streams and podcasts. Still in its infancy, it's used to display everything from weather information to EDIS alerts. It can format an RSS feed to display ARRL headlines, pictures, etc. in ways limited only by your imagination and ability to write code. Content alliances: Survey your membership to see which web applications are their favorites. My two current faves are the awesome Google Earth MUF display and the DX Summit website. How could we develop hooks into these two resources to display the MUF information graphically in a Java app on the league website, on a Chumby, or on a cell phone? Why not include a flash application on the League home page that refreshes every three minutes with the latest DX Cluster Information from DX Summit? Incorporate links to ham content on YouTube and podcasts, too. Think about what is most valuable to your members and find a way to include it, enhance it, or re-invent it. Instant Messaging: Part of the Division and Section contact information should be an Instant Messaging address. With universal communicators like. www.meebo.com, it's not critical to choose a single platform like AOL Instant Messenger or Google Talk, but sharing that information is another way that members can have meaningful dialog with leadership. A natural initial reaction to all of this is, "how much will it cost and who will do it?" My friend Rob Curley faced the same challenge as he set about transforming the website of newspaper where he worked. He was able to do it with most of his current staff, without major incremental expense. It turned out that new revenue streams more than paid for the enhancements. All it requires is creative thinking and open minds. One of the things that makes our hobby at once both wonderful and excruciating is that we often have a split personality:. We are at the forefront of innovation but also resist change. Where member communication is concerned, the reality is that the young are moving away from the printed page and won't wait for the next month's issue. If we can make our content portable, relevant, up to the minute and easy to find and use, that can help grow membership and take us several steps closer to a more intimate relationship with those we serve. Hope these thoughts are helpful! W9WSW

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[arrl-odv:16880] Re:RE: Life Memberships
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

I was sad to see Ralph, W2CVF in Silent Keys recently, but I don't think he regretted for a moment having signed up for Life Membership just last year -- at age 101. ARRL doesn't lose money, on average, on new Life Members in the Life Membership program. The original Life Members got a very good deal, mainly because the rate at the time was 20 times the annual dues rate (it is now 25 times) and because the inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s raised our costs and forced increases in the term dues. However, since then we have been able to cover the equivalent dues of new LMs from the return on investment of their LM payments. The principal risk to the ARRL in offering Life Membership is that inflation will return without being offset by improved return on investment sufficient to keep pace with rising costs. If you run into an early LM who feels guilty, Mary Hobart has the cure. Dave K1ZZ in Friedrichshafen ________________________________ From: w3kd(a)aol.com [mailto:w3kd@aol.com] Sent: Thu 6/26/2008 1:22 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:16876] Re: Life Memberships This is WAY outside anything I ought to be commenting on, but my mentor, Bob Booth, W3PS, always told me that ARRL life membership was not an investment, it was a way of showing support for the organization, and that explained why, quite frequently, very old people become life members for the first time. So perhaps it is best to look at this as Greg does. 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay BOOTH, FRERET, IMLAY & TEPPER, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD(a)ARRL.ORG -----Original Message----- From: G.P. Widin <gpwidin(a)comcast.net> To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 8:28 pm Subject: [arrl-odv:16869] Re: Life Memberships dick(a)pobox.com wrote: > I cannot, with a clear conscience, sell our current (25 x annual) life > membership to a person who is over 50-55 years old. It's great > revenue for > the ARRL, but it's not a good investment for these people. I got my life membership when I was in my late 40s--who knows if I've got 25 years left? But my rationale is, there's no other organization I'd rather "over-pay" to than ARRL. So, if the League benefits by my not achieving the full 25 I "paid for", at least I know it's in a cause I believe in. I don't know if you'd have trouble selling that, but that's the way I sold myself. ;-) -- 73, Greg, KØGW ________________________________ Get the Moviefone Toolbar <http://toolbar.aol.com/moviefone/download.html?ncid=aolcmp00050000000011> . Showtimes, theaters, movie news, & more!

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[arrl-odv:16879] RE: [arrl-odv:16864] ARRL CONTEST UPDATE
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

The topic of the "profitability" of Life Memberships is one that has arisen periodically, at least in my tenure. I apologize to those who have been through this before as this message is likely to be a little long. For starters, I believe the A&F discussion to which Jim Weaver and Jim McCobb are referring is the last time we had the Life Member reserve (the liability we carry on the ARRL's balance sheet) evaluated for "adequacy" by an independent actuarial firm. As actuaries, they're prone to speak, not in specifics, but in generalities based on several, varying sets of assumptions. Nonetheless, their basic conclusion at the time was that the Life Member reserve was adequate..."under the most favorable assumptions". It wasn't really meant as an evaluation of the profitability of a single Life membership. They also noted that..."the reserve level is quite sensitive to the assumptions used. Therefore, the Life Member reserve fund should be reviewed for adequacy every three to five years." The assumptions used in the analysis include the cost of servicing a member and its projected growth, future investment returns on the Life Member portfolio and the projected mortality of the Life Members as a group. As a result of the actuaries' analysis, the A&F Committee recommended that we have the reserve evaluated on a periodic basis. The last evaluation was as of 12/31/05 so it's likely we'll do it again next year about this time. In my opinion, we can't debate the profitability of Life Memberships based on the one, next Life Member who joins. We must look at the Life Member Program in its totality. As several of you have pointed out, there are thousands of the current 20,000-odd Life Members who paid significantly less than $975 for the privilege, some as low as $125. Unfortunately, the annual cost to support these members is the same as for those who paid $975. So, are we losing money on the Life Members who joined last year? No. But is this the same answer for those of you who paid $125 many years ago? Again, the answer is "no". Hence the conclusion of the independent actuaries. The topic of a discounted rate for Senior Life Members is also one that has come up on a regular basis over the years. Those who point out that seniors shouldn't pay the full rate because they aren't likely to live the full 25 years aren't wrong. However, the other side of that coin is the 30 year old Life Member who is more than likely going to live beyond the 25 year assumption. Using the same philosophy, if you're going to go to a real, actuarially based rate, these members should be charged more than the 25 times we're currently charging. You can't use the argument for actuarially defined rates on only one subset of the total population. It defeats the purpose of using that methodology. It should also be noted that the rate of 25x was never actuarially determined. It was the creation of the Board way back when. In fact, I believe the original rate was 20x and raised after a few years when it was decided that the initial rate wasn't sufficient. Any actuarially based rate charged would have to be built using the same assumptions noted above. (costs, investment return, mortality) For what it's worth, it has always been my opinion that the ARRL should not try to act like an insurance company in these matters. I don't believe it's prudent for the organization to take on all the financial risks that insurance companies do. We're not built for that. As noted by others, part of the motivation for signing up as a Life Member is to support the organization. If it is looked upon solely as a financial transaction, we wouldn't have gotten all the Life members we have. I hope this helps frame your discussion of the subject. If I've only muddied the waters, I apologize. 73, Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY Chief Financial Officer ARRL, Inc-The National Association for Amateur Radio 225 Main St. Newington, CT 06111 www.arrl.org <http://www.arrl.org> Phone: (860) 594-0212 E-mail: bshelley(a)arrl.org <mailto:bshelley@arrl.org> From: K8JE [mailto:K8JE@arrl.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:44 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:16864] ARRL CONTEST UPDATE Dick, Marty et al, To make certain I wasn't smoking pot while attending an A&F meeting that discussed the financial aspects of Life Memberships, I asked Jim McCobb if he remembers the same thing I think I remember - i.e. we now lose money on Life Memberships. He said he has this same recollection. As is true of reviews and projections of financial matters of this type, conclusions of meager profitability, breaking even and small losses are based on more factors than I, as a simple, non-finance person fully understands. I accept that this means also that there will likely not be unanimity in thought among all experts who may review our LM situation. When it comes to fiscal health I am likely to be a "the glass is half empty" kind of guy, as I am on this issue. In this case I put more weight on the pessimistic side of the discussion than on the neutral side. My takeaway from this discussion may not mean the sky is falling; however, it certainly means we may want to carry sturdy, steel-ribbed umbrellas and prepare for rain. Thinking strictly of my contribution to ARRL dues through life membership, I feel pretty certain that the LM dues I (and many of my friends) paid have been spent quite some time ago. With the exception of donations we make to the League, we and many others are drags on the budget. Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je(a)arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is! ________________________________ From: Marty Woll [mailto:n6vi@socal.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:56 AM To: K8JE; arrl-odv Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:16864] ARRL CONTEST UPDATE Dear Jim et al., I have heard nothing up to now about the League losing money on life memberships, and I find it difficult to believe that would be the case. When a member pays a lum sum of 25 times the annual dues rate, that money is earning a return every year. At today's $39 annual dues amount, that lump sum of $975 is earning about $49 annually - more than the annual dues amount - using our recent average return rate of around 5%. Even if dues later go up 20%, we're still better off with the up-front lump sum. A higher investmet return would only make this an even better deal for the League. We should also consider the actual incremental cost of serving a life member. Most of ARRL's overhead and operating costs would be the same whether Joe Ham is a non-member, annual member or life member. Our added out-of-pocket cost for a member - life or otherwise - consists primarily of printing and sending twelve issues of QST per year. I recall Harold estimating that cost to be less that one dollar per month, or under $12 per year. I saw a much higher cost-per-member number in an actuarial study done several years ago, but I never saw any basis for that cost number. If, as I suspect, it included allocated overhead and general operating costs rather than true incremental cost, I believe that's the wrong basis for decision-making unless we risk having the majority of our members becoming life members, which is not the case. In fact, an evaluation using incremental costs would likely support the introduction of a discounted life-member rate for seniors. [And no, I don't buy the argument that younger members would be subsidizing older ones; actuarial calculations don't work that way.] By the way, the same member-cost assumption affects the amount transferred from the Life Member reserve to the operating account each year, probably another matter that warrants revisitation. Finally, consider that a life member is a guaranteed set of eyeballs for our advertisers, a guaranteed part of our constituent count when we go to Capitol Hill, a member who does not require our incurring the cost of annual renewal solicitation, and possibly a more loyal supporter of ARRL. Let's promote the heck out of Life Membership! 73, Marty Marty Woll N6VI Vice-Director, ARRL Southwestern Division ADEC, ARES-LAX-NW BCUL 15, LAFD ACS CERT

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[arrl-odv:16878] Re: Riley Hollingsworth Retirement and Replacement -- Confidential
by n3llr＠earthlink.net 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

First thing would be to immediately kill the story on ARRL's website soliciting attorney's with a ham license... Second, I like your thought on talking with Kris Monteith about the importance of amateur enforcement and getting a strong, qualified person in that position.. - Bill N3LLR -----Original Message----- From: w3kd(a)aol.com Subj: [arrl-odv:16877] Riley Hollingsworth Retirement and Replacement -- Confidential Date: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:43 am Size: 12K To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> MEMORANDUM To: ARRL ODV -- Confidential From: Chris Imlay, W3KD Re: Riley Hollingsworth Retirement and Replacement Issue Date: June 26, 2008 Greetings. I wanted to bring you up to date on the Riley Hollingsworth replacement issue, because it seems to be a problem in the making, and because it is going in an entirely different direction than Riley allowed us to believe. Riley is retiring July 3. This is not news. He told us this on April 28. But at that time, when Riley announced for the second and obviously now final time that he was retiring, he had led us to understand that his replacement was his hand-picked colleague, Bill Knowles-Kellett. He said that Billwould almost certainly be his replacement and wanted the job. I had met Bill on an earlier occasion in Gettysburg and he is certainly competent to take Rileys place. Bill is not a ham, but was experienced in land mobile radio enforcement issues, which are not significantly different from ours. Riley said that Bill was interested in the job and was going to get a ham license as part of the deal. Riley also said that he would not retire unless he was certain that the enforcement program would continue unabated as he had been doing it. He claimed he had the requisite assurances that this would occur. Then things started to change. Riley said that the Enforcement Bureau would have to post the job publicly, and that Riley was worried that the job would be moved to Washington. If that happened, Riley said that he was concerned that the job would be diluted, and that the person that replaced him might be tasked with a significant number of other enforcement obligations and that Amateur Radio enforcement might take a back seat. Riley had suggested that we meet with his boss in the Enforcement Division, Kathy Berthot, Chief of the Spectrum Enforcement Division. I met with her (and with George Dillon, a colleague of Rileys at FCC in Washington) in May, and made a strong pitch that Rileys work be continued unabated. I also mentioned that while I understood that Bill Knowles-Kellett was interested in the job, and we would be satisfied with Bill, we couldnt attempt to tell the Commission how to run its ship and had no intention of attempting to do so. However, our concern was that the enforcement program in the Amateur Service had validated our strong belief that a very small bit of deterrence in Amateur Radio enforcement is sufficient and necessary, and that we were adamant that the program that Riley has been administering must continue without substantial change. I received hearty assurances from both Kathy and George that they agreed with that. They said that the job had to be posted, and that the resolution of that was out of their hands. We have since learned that the Chairmans office micromanages all hiring of even the lowest level staff, and that no assurances can be given by anyone at the Bureau level at FCC about any hiring decisions. After that meeting, strong interest in the job was expressed by Laura Smith, a lady who had worked in the past for ITA (now EWA, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance) the former Industrial Telecommunications Association, a land mobile association. She was known to me as an administrative person, but very knowledgeable about land mobile radio regulation. She left ITA and moved, as it turns out, to Carlisle, PA, about 45 minutes from Gettysburg, with her husband, and she is now doing freelance work or contract work from her home in Carlisle for the land mobile lawyers at the Shulman, Rogers law firm in Rockville, MD. She heard of Rileys job and lobbied hard to get it. Riley and Bill called me to sellARRL on Laura, who at the time seemed to be the front runner for the job. She may still be for all I know. Bills being as vocal about it as he was made me think that he didnt have any interest in the job himself, if indeed he ever really did. The situation deteriorated further when the job was posted. It was posted as a GS-15 job, which has a salary range of between $115K and $145K per year or thereabouts, so it is a pretty spiffy job for anyone who wants it. But it was posted as being in the Washington area. Riley thinks this is broad enough to include Gettysburg, but I dont. I am afraid that it will be a D.C. job and that Rileys fear about the job being diluted is very real. It is not unreasonable for them to post this job, but Rileys assurances to us have largely been shown to be unreliable so far. ARRL went out with its own news release about this job, essentially soliciting anyone with a ham license and a law degree to apply. This is not necessarily a good strategy, because there are some hams with law degrees in the Washington area that would not do a great job replacing Riley, but who might want the job due to the salary level. On the other hand, a ham would be better in this job than a non-ham. It is unclear what the status is of the continued interest of Laura Smith. So, while we have very little input into this process and no control at all, we will have to keep the pressure on the Enforcement Bureau to continue the enforcement program unabated, and perhaps it is timely to remind Kris Monteith, the EB Chief (who probably is not overly warm and fuzzy with us now since Joel and I gave her a very difficult meeting about the BPL matter awhile back) that we have high expectations for Rileys replacement. Your thoughts on this subject are welcome. I believe that this is a very high priority issue, and I bet Rod Stafford does as well, since it was on his watch as ARRL President that we returned from the dark times of no Amateur enforcement at all, and the difference has been amazing. Incidentally, contrary to what you will read on ARRLs web site, it was not Riley who brought Amateur Radio enforcement back; it was Richard Lee, who has now faded into obscurity at FCC due to some whistle blowing he did (quite properly), but before Rich fell from grace at FCC, he resurrected Amateur Radio enforcement single handedly, and put Riley into the job (after Rich did it himself for a time, and very effectively, I might add). 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay BOOTH, FRERET, IMLAY & TEPPER, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD(a)ARRL.ORG Get the Moviefone Toolbar. Showtimes, theaters, movie news, more! !

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[arrl-odv:16877] Riley Hollingsworth Retirement and Replacement -- Confidential
by w3kd＠aol.com 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

MEMORANDUM To: ARRL ODV -- Confidential From: Chris Imlay, W3KD Re: Riley Hollingsworth Retirement and Replacement Issue Date: June 26, 2008 Greetings. I wanted to bring you up to date on the Riley Hollingsworth replacement issue, because it seems to be a problem in the making, and because it is going in an entirely different direction than Riley allowed us to believe. Riley is retiring July 3. This is not news. He told us this on April 28. But at that time, when Riley announced for the second and obviously now final time that he was retiring, he had led us to understand that his replacement was his “hand-picked” colleague, Bill Knowles-Kellett. He said that Bill would almost certainly be his replacement and wanted the job. I had met Bill on an earlier occasion in Gettysburg and he is certainly competent to take Riley’s place. Bill is not a ham, but was experienced in land mobile radio enforcement issues, which are not significantly different from ours. Riley said that Bill was interested in the job and was going to get a ham license as part of the deal. Riley also said that he would not retire unless he was certain that the enforcement program would continue unabated as he had been doing it. He claimed he had the requisite assurances that this would occur. Then things started to change. Riley said that the Enforcement Bureau would have to post the job publicly, and that Riley was worried that the job would be moved to Washington. If that happened, Riley said that he was concerned that the job would be diluted, and that the person that replaced him might be tasked with a significant number of other enforcement obligations and that Amateur Radio enforcement might take a back seat. Riley had suggested that we meet with his boss in the Enforcement Division, Kathy Berthot, Chief of the Spectrum Enforcement Division. I met with her (and with George Dillon, a colleague of Riley’s at FCC in Washington) in May, and made a strong pitch that Riley’s work be continued unabated. I also mentioned that while I understood that Bill Knowles-Kellett was interested in the job, and we would be satisfied with Bill, we couldn’t attempt to tell the Commission how to run its ship and had no intention of attempting to do so. However, our concern was that the enforcement program in the Amateur Service had validated our strong belief that a very small bit of deterrence in Amateur Radio enforcement is sufficient and necessary, and that we were adamant that the program that Riley has been administering must continue without substantial change. I received hearty assurances from both Kathy and George that they agreed with that. They said that the job had to be posted, and that the resolution of that was out of their hands. We have since learned that the Chairman’s office micromanages all hiring of even the lowest level staff, and that no assurances can be given by anyone at the Bureau level at FCC about any hiring decisions. After that meeting, strong interest in the job was expressed by Laura Smith, a lady who had worked in the past for ITA (now EWA, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance) the former Industrial Telecommunications Association, a land mobile association. She was known to me as an administrative person, but very knowledgeable about land mobile radio regulation. She left ITA and moved, as it turns out, to Carlisle, PA, about 45 minutes from Gettysburg, with her husband, and she is now doing freelance work or contract work from her home in Carlisle for the land mobile lawyers at the Shulman, Rogers law firm in Rockville, MD. She heard of Riley’s job and lobbied hard to get it. Riley and Bill called me to “sell” ARRL on Laura, who at the time seemed to be the front runner for the job. She may still be for all I know. Bill’s being as vocal about it as he was made me think that he didn’t have any interest in the job himself, if indeed he ever really did. The situation deteriorated further when the job was posted. It was posted as a GS-15 job, which has a salary range of between $115K and $145K per year or thereabouts, so it is a pretty spiffy job for anyone who wants it. But it was posted as being “in the Washington area”. Riley thinks this is broad enough to include Gettysburg, but I don’t. I am afraid that it will be a D.C. job and that Riley’s fear about the job being diluted is very real. It is not unreasonable for them to post this job, but Riley’s assurances to us have largely been shown to be unreliable so far. ARRL went out with its own news release about this job, essentially soliciting anyone with a ham license and a law degree to apply. This is not necessarily a good strategy, because there are some hams with law degrees in the Washington area that would not do a great job replacing Riley, but who might want the job due to the salary level. On the other hand, a ham would be better in this job than a non-ham. It is unclear what the status is of the continued interest of Laura Smith. So, while we have very little input into this process and no control at all, we will have to keep the pressure on the Enforcement Bureau to continue the enforcement program unabated, and perhaps it is timely to remind Kris Monteith, the EB Chief (who probably is not overly warm and fuzzy with us now since Joel and I gave her a very difficult meeting about the BPL matter awhile back) that we have high expectations for Riley’s replacement. Your thoughts on this subject are welcome. I believe that this is a very high priority issue, and I bet Rod Stafford does as well, since it was on his watch as ARRL President that we returned from the dark times of no Amateur enforcement at all, and the difference has been amazing. Incidentally, contrary to what you will read on ARRL’s web site, it was not Riley who brought Amateur Radio enforcement back; it was Richard Lee, who has now faded into obscurity at FCC due to some whistle blowing he did (quite properly), but before Rich fell from grace at FCC, he resurrected Amateur Radio enforcement single handedly, and put Riley into the job (after Rich did it himself for a time, and very effectively, I might add). 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay BOOTH, FRERET, IMLAY & TEPPER, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD(a)ARRL.ORG

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[arrl-odv:16876] Re: Life Memberships
by w3kd＠aol.com 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

This is WAY outside anything I ought to be commenting on, but my mentor, Bob Booth, W3PS, always told me that ARRL life membership was not an investment, it was a way of showing support for the organization, and that explained why, quite frequently, very old people become life members for the first time. So perhaps it is best to look at this as Greg does. 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay BOOTH, FRERET, IMLAY & TEPPER, P.C. 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD(a)ARRL.ORG -----Original Message----- From: G.P. Widin <gpwidin(a)comcast.net> To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 8:28 pm Subject: [arrl-odv:16869] Re: Life Memberships dick(a)pobox.com wrote: > I cannot, with a clear conscience, sell our current (25 x annual) life > membership to a person who is over 50-55 years old. It's great > revenue for > the ARRL, but it's not a good investment for these people. I got my life membership when I was in my late 40s--who knows if I've got 25 years left? But my rationale is, there's no other organization I'd rather "over-pay" to than ARRL. So, if the League benefits by my not achieving the full 25 I "paid for", at least I know it's in a cause I believe in. I don't know if you'd have trouble selling that, but that's the way I sold myself. ;-) -- 73, Greg, KØGW

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[arrl-odv:16875] Re:ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas
by n3llr＠earthlink.net 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

Brian, Excellent comments. The idea of reaching mobile devices is dead on in my book. Thanks for sharing! - Bill N3LLR -----Original Message----- From: "Brian Mileshosky" <n5zgt(a)swcp.com> Subj: ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas Date: Thu Jun 26, 2008 1:10 am Size: 10K To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> All A great friend of mine, and loyal ARRL member, Scott Westerman W9WSW (VP of Comcast for New Mexico and Arizona and a reporter for This Week in Amateur Radio) and I chatted about the upcoming ARRL website redesign project. Scott wades in this kind of stuff every day as part of his career and for fun, so I trust his views. Rather than being just a casual web user, he actually DOES this and knows about it from a year-2008 marketing and promotional standpoint. I offer his unedited words of advice as food-for-thought for the ODV or the upcoming board meeting, and for the benefit of ARRLs soon to be improved presence on the web (see below). Perhaps this can be a part of future conversations with our chosen web design company. 73, Brian N5ZGT Director, ARRL Rocky Mountain Division ============================================================= Email from Scott W9WSW: To follow up on our dinner conversation this week, here are a few humble thoughts about leveraging the Internet at the League. An able web design house can create an appealing and usable portal for the League and deploy search engine optimization techniques to get it noticed on Google and Yahoo. These days that's website 101. Extending ARRL.org's reach beyond the base site should be part of any proposal you receive. Here are some ideas: The new reality of the Web: "People want to consume their content, at their convenience the device of their choice." It's important to keep this in mind as you consider a communication strategy. Think beyond traditional websites, to cell phones and social networks, to Chumbys and Twitter. You should make your content available to every possible medium. The key is RSS, alternately defined as "really simple syndication" or "rich site summary". Deploying content in this format makes it easily assimilated into just about any display engine. Learn more about how RSS works here: http://en..wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) A key take-away - Each of the important sections of your website should have an RSS feed. Use ARRL.org to enhance the QST experience: Printing costs limit the amount of information we can share in the magazine. Use your web presence to allow members read expand versions of QST's content, with more data, more words and more pictures and graphics. An example: In QST equipment reviews, allow the user to take a 360 degree visual tour of the rig, spinning it around with the mouse. Open the top of the radio and let the viewer zoom in to the circuit boards. Put MP3 files of the rig audio outputs on the site and flash video of the wave forms as they cross the scope. Rendering the website on multiple devices: You're off to a good start with the mobile edition. Think of enhancing it in a version for the IPhone. It's also possible to put some code on the main page that reads the browser type and renders the content specifically for the browser automatically. This is typically done to identify the dozen different cell phone browsers to maximize the quality of the experience on that device. Blogging: Part of your web presence should be a blog that one or many of the league staff contributes to. "It seems to us", Sean's contest news, interpretations of FCC actions, even "the doctor is in", translate well to this approach. With categories and RSS feeds for each author, readers can do their own filtering and the blogs can be updated as developments warrant. The blog differs from the front page news on the site in that it allows the League to put a human face on amateur radio's most important advocates. Social Networks: Once a bastion of primarily the young, networks like MySpace and the more ubiquitous Facebook are garnering followers of all age. Facebook has a group feature that is tailor-made for the League. If you explore the groups, you'll see that some folks have taken it upon themselves to reach out. There's a Field Day group and an interesting Young Assistant Section Manager group. Having an officially sanctioned presence is another way to reach out to both current and potential hams. Recruit volunteers who know this space lead the charge. Twitter and Friend Feed: The hottest new - new things are the microblogs. At www.twitter.com, you have 140 characters to speak your piece.. Sounds a lot like packet radio. It's a phenomenon that, like a DX Cluster, has become a popular way for friends to exchange hot news in real time. At Comcast, we've discovered that it's a great way to seek out customer issues and provide instant response. Think of a twitter feed specifically tracking 20 meter DX, as a way for section managers to communicate, an augmentation for weather spotters or perhaps something integrated with APRS or Packet, where your over the air message weather message can be relayed to on-line followers. Friend Feed is an aggregation engine where you can read RSS feeds, share links and write comments. The League should have an ARRL room on FriendFeed where hams can share information and opinion. Chumby and beyond: As new devices are born, the League should encourage developers to help place key ARRL information there. One example is the Chumby (www.chumby.com) Ostensibly a wifi video device, Chumby can play flash widgets, audio and video streams and podcasts. Still in its infancy, it's used to display everything from weather information to EDIS alerts. It can format an RSS feed to display ARRL headlines, pictures, etc. in ways limited only by your imagination and ability to write code. Content alliances: Survey your membership to see which web applications are their favorites. My two current faves are the awesome Google Earth MUF display and the DX Summit website. How could we develop hooks into these two resources to display the MUF information graphically in a Java app on the league website, on a Chumby, or on a cell phone? Why not include a flash application on the League home page that refreshes every three minutes with the latest DX Cluster Information from DX Summit? Incorporate links to ham content on YouTube and podcasts, too. Think about what is most valuable to your members and find a way to include it, enhance it, or re-invent it. Instant Messaging: Part of the Division and Section contact information should be an Instant Messaging address. With universal communicators like. www.meebo.com, it's not critical to choose a single platform like AOL Instant Messenger or Google Talk, but sharing that information is another way that members can have meaningful dialog with leadership. A natural initial reaction to all of this is, "how much will it cost and who will do it?" My friend Rob Curley faced the same challenge as he set about transforming the website of newspaper where he worked. He was able to do it with most of his current staff, without major incremental expense. It turned out that new revenue streams more than paid for the enhancements. All it requires is creative thinking and open minds. One of the things that makes our hobby at once both wonderful and excruciating is that we often have a split personality:. We are at the forefront of innovation but also resist change. Where member communication is concerned, the reality is that the young are moving away from the printed page and won't wait for the next month's issue. If we can make our content portable, relevant, up to the minute and easy to find and use, that can help grow membership and take us several steps closer to a more intimate relationship with those we serve. Hope these thoughts are helpful! W9WSW

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[arrl-odv:16874] AC news release
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

International Amateur Radio Union P.O. Box 310905 Newington, CT 06131-0905 USA FAX: +1 860 594 0259 E-Mail: iaru(a)iaru.org 26 June 2008 For immediate release IARU Officer Nominations Agreed for 2009-2014 Term The Administrative Council (AC) of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) held its annual meeting on 24-25 June 2008 in Konstanz, Germany and took the following actions. 1. The consultative process leading to nominations for IARU President and Vice President for the five-year term beginning on 9 May 2009 was completed between the AC and the American Radio Relay League, the IARU member-society that serves as the International Secretariat. IARU President Larry Price, W4RA had announced in 2007 that he was not available to serve an additional term. The AC agreed that Vice President Tim Ellam, VE6SH and Region 1 President Ole Garpestad, LA2RR are suitably qualified to serve as IARU President and Vice President, respectively. Their nominations will be offered to the member-societies for ratification. 2. A comprehensive review and update of the working document that defines the additional spectrum requirements of the amateur and amateur-satellite services was conducted. Requests from the amateur satellite community for support of additional allocations were considered and referred to the IARU Satellite Adviser for additional information. 3. The IARU International Coordinator for Emergency Communications, Hans Zimmermann, HB9AQS/F5VKP, presented his report in person. He noted the outstanding performance of radio amateurs in China who responded to the recent tragic earthquake emergency. 4. Reports of the other IARU international coordinators and advisers were received. They are International Beacon Project Coordinator Peter Jennings, AB6WM/VE3SUN; Satellite Adviser Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV; EMC Adviser Christian Verholt, OZ8CY; and Interim Monitoring System International Coordinator Chuck Skolaut, K0BOG. 5. An additional progress report was received from an ad hoc committee that is investigating the future role and structure of the IARU. Work since the previous AC meeting has refined the structure and identified the remaining issues to be resolved. 6. A resolution offered by Region 1 that seeks to improve the operating standards of radio amateurs was adopted. The AC endorses and recommends the principles set out in the booklet "Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur" by John Devoldere, ON4UN and Marc Demeuleneere , ON4WW, and encourages each IARU Region to consider this booklet, with a view to adopting it, including any Regional variations that might be felt appropriate. 7. A study of the international QSL bureau system was commissioned. The study will seek input from member-societies on the problems they face in light of escalating postage and other expenses, and the anticipated impact of electronic confirmation systems such as the ARRL's Logbook of the World. 8. The three-year strategic plan for the development of support for amateur radio frequency allocations was reviewed and renewed for the period 2008-2011. The principal focus is on preparations for the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-11), especially the attainment of an amateur allocation in the vicinity of 500 kHz. 9. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meetings at which IARU representation will be required for the coming year were identified, and plans for representation were reviewed. 10. The plans of Region 3 for the IARU presence at Telecom Asia 2008 (Bangkok, 2-5 September) and of the International Secretariat for Telecom World 2009 (Geneva, 5-9 October) were reviewed. 11. The budget for 2009-2011 as presented by the International Secretariat (ARRL) was reviewed. The budget includes provision for financial contributions from the three regional organizations to defray a portion of the expenses, in accordance with previously adopted policy. 12. The 29 March 2009 implementation of the worldwide exclusive allocation of 7100-7200 kHz adopted at the 2003 WRC was noted and the many contributors to this achievement were recognized. 13. "Amateur Radio: Your Resource in Disaster and Emergency Communication" was selected as the theme for the next World Amateur Radio Day, April 18, 2009. 14. Status reports from each of the three IARU regional organizations were received and discussed. The next regional conference will be that of Region 1, to be held in Cavtat, Croatia in mid-November. Attending the Konstanz meeting were IARU President Larry Price, W4RA; Vice President Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA; Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ; regional representatives Ole Garpestad, LA2RR, Don Beattie, G3BJ, Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T, Reinaldo Leandro, YV5AMH, Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK, Rod Stafford, W6ROD, Michael Owen, VK3KI, Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, on behalf of the International Secretariat, and recording secretary Paul Rinaldo, W4RI. IARU International Coordinator for Emergency Communications Hans Zimmermann, HB9AQS/F5VKP attended a portion of the meeting. The next scheduled meeting of the AC will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand in October 2009. -end-

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ARRL Website redesign thoughts, ideas
by Brian Mileshosky 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

All - A great friend of mine, and loyal ARRL member, Scott Westerman W9WSW (VP of Comcast for New Mexico and Arizona and a reporter for This Week in Amateur Radio) and I chatted about the upcoming ARRL website redesign project. Scott wades in this kind of stuff every day as part of his career and for fun, so I trust his views. Rather than being just a casual web user, he actually DOES this and knows about it from a year-2008 marketing and promotional standpoint. I offer his unedited words of advice as food-for-thought for the ODV or the upcoming board meeting, and for the benefit of ARRL's soon to be improved presence on the web (see below). Perhaps this can be a part of future conversations with our chosen web design company. 73, Brian N5ZGT Director, ARRL Rocky Mountain Division ============================================================= Email from Scott W9WSW: To follow up on our dinner conversation this week, here are a few humble thoughts about leveraging the Internet at the League. An able web design house can create an appealing and usable portal for the League and deploy search engine optimization techniques to get it noticed on Google and Yahoo. These days that's website 101. Extending ARRL.org's reach beyond the base site should be part of any proposal you receive. Here are some ideas: The new reality of the Web: "People want to consume their content, at their convenience the device of their choice." It's important to keep this in mind as you consider a communication strategy. Think beyond traditional websites, to cell phones and social networks, to Chumbys and Twitter. You should make your content available to every possible medium. The key is RSS, alternately defined as "really simple syndication" or "rich site summary". Deploying content in this format makes it easily assimilated into just about any display engine. Learn more about how RSS works here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) A key take-away - Each of the important sections of your website should have an RSS feed. Use ARRL.org to enhance the QST experience: Printing costs limit the amount of information we can share in the magazine. Use your web presence to allow members read expand versions of QST's content, with more data, more words and more pictures and graphics. An example: In QST equipment reviews, allow the user to take a 360 degree visual tour of the rig, spinning it around with the mouse. Open the top of the radio and let the viewer zoom in to the circuit boards. Put MP3 files of the rig audio outputs on the site and flash video of the wave forms as they cross the scope. Rendering the website on multiple devices: You're off to a good start with the mobile edition. Think of enhancing it in a version for the IPhone. It's also possible to put some code on the main page that reads the browser type and renders the content specifically for the browser automatically. This is typically done to identify the dozen different cell phone browsers to maximize the quality of the experience on that device. Blogging: Part of your web presence should be a blog that one or many of the league staff contributes to. "It seems to us", Sean's contest news, interpretations of FCC actions, even "the doctor is in", translate well to this approach. With categories and RSS feeds for each author, readers can do their own filtering and the blogs can be updated as developments warrant. The blog differs from the front page news on the site in that it allows the League to put a human face on amateur radio's most important advocates. Social Networks: Once a bastion of primarily the young, networks like MySpace and the more ubiquitous Facebook are garnering followers of all age. Facebook has a group feature that is tailor-made for the League. If you explore the groups, you'll see that some folks have taken it upon themselves to reach out. There's a Field Day group and an interesting Young Assistant Section Manager group. Having an officially sanctioned presence is another way to reach out to both current and potential hams. Recruit volunteers who know this space lead the charge. Twitter and Friend Feed: The hottest new - new things are the microblogs. At www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com/> , you have 140 characters to speak your piece.. Sounds a lot like packet radio. It's a phenomenon that, like a DX Cluster, has become a popular way for friends to exchange hot news in real time. At Comcast, we've discovered that it's a great way to seek out customer issues and provide instant response. Think of a twitter feed specifically tracking 20 meter DX, as a way for section managers to communicate, an augmentation for weather spotters or perhaps something integrated with APRS or Packet, where your over the air message weather message can be relayed to on-line followers. Friend Feed is an aggregation engine where you can read RSS feeds, share links and write comments. The League should have an ARRL room on FriendFeed where hams can share information and opinion. Chumby and beyond: As new devices are born, the League should encourage developers to help place key ARRL information there. One example is the Chumby (www.chumby.com <http://www.chumby.com/> ). Ostensibly a wifi video device, Chumby can play flash widgets, audio and video streams and podcasts. Still in its infancy, it's used to display everything from weather information to EDIS alerts. It can format an RSS feed to display ARRL headlines, pictures, etc. in ways limited only by your imagination and ability to write code. Content alliances: Survey your membership to see which web applications are their favorites. My two current faves are the awesome Google Earth MUF display and the DX Summit website. How could we develop hooks into these two resources to display the MUF information graphically in a Java app on the league website, on a Chumby, or on a cell phone? Why not include a flash application on the League home page that refreshes every three minutes with the latest DX Cluster Information from DX Summit? Incorporate links to ham content on YouTube and podcasts, too. Think about what is most valuable to your members and find a way to include it, enhance it, or re-invent it. Instant Messaging: Part of the Division and Section contact information should be an Instant Messaging address. With universal communicators like. www.meebo.com <http://www.meebo.com/> , it's not critical to choose a single platform like AOL Instant Messenger or Google Talk, but sharing that information is another way that members can have meaningful dialog with leadership. A natural initial reaction to all of this is, "how much will it cost and who will do it?" My friend Rob Curley faced the same challenge as he set about transforming the website of newspaper where he worked. He was able to do it with most of his current staff, without major incremental expense. It turned out that new revenue streams more than paid for the enhancements. All it requires is creative thinking and open minds. One of the things that makes our hobby at once both wonderful and excruciating is that we often have a split personality:. We are at the forefront of innovation but also resist change. Where member communication is concerned, the reality is that the young are moving away from the printed page and won't wait for the next month's issue. If we can make our content portable, relevant, up to the minute and easy to find and use, that can help grow membership and take us several steps closer to a more intimate relationship with those we serve. Hope these thoughts are helpful! W9WSW

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[arrl-odv:16872] Re:Life Memberships
by dick＠pobox.com 26 Jun '08

26 Jun '08

25 JUN 2008 - Hello Greg... I'm sure there are a lot of ARRL members who have rationalized the purchase a life membership along similar lines and hope this will continue. I was first licensed in 1977 when I was 38. I joined the ARRL late that same year. In my second year in amateur radio, I decided to buy an ARRL life membership in 8 quarterly installments. I think I completed payment well before the deadline. I never paid attention to the 25 x annual dues ratio. I come from a long-lived family on both sides and I just did not want to be bothered with paying annual dues. ;-) I used this same rationale when I bought a life membership in the Grey Eagles (the American Airlines retired pilots' organization) and also AMSAT. 73 - Dick, W9GIG

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