March 2010 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:18691] Re:RE: Legislative action
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

Marty, we'll get to that. We're still tweaking the letter. Dave From: Marty Woll [mailto:n6vi@socal.rr.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 2:49 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18690] Re: Legislative action Hi, Kay. Since our Section and Division e-mails cannot transmit attachments, will the sample letter and instructions for customizing and forwarding appear on the ARRL Web site so that we can direct our members there? 73, Marty N6VI ----- Original Message ----- From: Kay Craigie <mailto:n3kn@verizon.net> To: arrl-odv <mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:04 AM Subject: [arrl-odv:18689] Legislative action . . . John Chwat has recommended a full-court press . . . on S. 1755, which is now in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This would involve letters not only from ARRL members in Chairman Henry Waxman's own district in California urging him to move the legislation through his committee and out to the House floor, but also letters from all members everywhere to Chairman Waxman. He needs to know this legislation has nationwide support. For your convenience, I am attaching a copy of the sample letter on S. 1755. It should be addressed as shown to Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Barton, not to your own home district representative. As usual, please mail, e-mail, or fax your letter to Chwat's office. We hope to have a big pile of letters to be plopped on the desk at Chairman Waxman's office to make our point loud and clear. . . . 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:18690] Re: Legislative action
by Marty Woll 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

Hi, Kay. Since our Section and Division e-mails cannot transmit attachments, will the sample letter and instructions for customizing and forwarding appear on the ARRL Web site so that we can direct our members there? 73, Marty N6VI ----- Original Message ----- From: Kay Craigie To: arrl-odv Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 11:04 AM Subject: [arrl-odv:18689] Legislative action . . . John Chwat has recommended a full-court press . . . on S. 1755, which is now in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This would involve letters not only from ARRL members in Chairman Henry Waxman's own district in California urging him to move the legislation through his committee and out to the House floor, but also letters from all members everywhere to Chairman Waxman. He needs to know this legislation has nationwide support. For your convenience, I am attaching a copy of the sample letter on S. 1755. It should be addressed as shown to Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Barton, not to your own home district representative. As usual, please mail, e-mail, or fax your letter to Chwat's office. We hope to have a big pile of letters to be plopped on the desk at Chairman Waxman's office to make our point loud and clear. . . . 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:18689] Legislative action
by Kay Craigie 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

We now have a sample letter on the charitable mileage deduction issue. But wait, there's more. I'm asking Dan Henderson to hold off activating the grass-roots network on that issue for just a bit. This is because John Chwat has recommended a full-court press (hey, it is almost March Madness time) on S. 1755, which is now in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This would involve letters not only from ARRL members in Chairman Henry Waxman's own district in California urging him to move the legislation through his committee and out to the House floor, but also letters from all members everywhere to Chairman Waxman. He needs to know this legislation has nationwide support. For your convenience, I am attaching a copy of the sample letter on S. 1755. It should be addressed as shown to Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Barton, not to your own home district representative. As usual, please mail, e-mail, or fax your letter to Chwat's office. We hope to have a big pile of letters to be plopped on the desk at Chairman Waxman's office to make our point loud and clear. Dave, please ask Dan to get the DLACs going on S. 1755. 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:18688] Dayton Marriott Hotel Rooms
by dick＠pobox.com 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

8 MAR 2010 - 2041 CST This year, with the exception of one previous year I know about, the ARRL has not reserved a block of rooms at the Dayton Marriott Hotel for the Dayton Hamvention. There are several reasons for using hotel rooms in the Fairfield Inn division of the Marriott system: lower cost, closer to the Hamvention site, newer building, free breakfast, and free WIFI computer hook-ups. But there is no full-time restaurant and no hotel bar. However, there are a few people who like to have better accommodations including me. I have set up a block of eight rooms at the Dayton Marriott in my name. Four of them are taken. If any of you want to stay at the Marriott, please contact me ASAP. I plan to release the unused rooms back to the Dayton Marriott no later than the 9th of April. BTW, I expect to have room for two additional passengers to and from the ARRL Donor Reception Thursday evening, to and from the Hamvention on Friday and Saturday, and to the Hamvention on Sunday morning. As for driving time to the Hamvention site, the Fairfield Inn located on the west side of I-75 half-way between I-70 and Needmore Road is closer to the Hamvention than the Dayton Marriott Hotel. But it may not be the shortest driving time to and from the Hamvention. Needmore Road is usually clogged with Hamvention traffic from 7 to 9 AM and again from 4 to 6 PM. With the completion of a four lane traffic-way around the SW side of Dayton a few years ago, the driving time to and from the Marriott is often less than the Fairfield Inn driving time. As for the Marriott's facilities and amenities, I have stayed in Fairfield Inns and they are OK, but there is no comparison. - Dick Isely, W9GIG Dayton Hamvention participant 26 of the past 27 years

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RE: [arrl-odv:18680] RE: Legislative follow-up
by Bill Edgar 09 Mar '10

09 Mar '10

Dave, Could something like this be configured to also send a copy to Chwat so these letters could be hand carried in to the legislator's office? Would that lend greater impact? - Bill -----Original Message----- From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 9:08 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18680] RE: Legislative follow-up Jim, At present there is no way the IT Dept. could take on an additional project that is not already in the Plan. It is possible that once the new Web site is up, those of us who can use the content management system might be able to come up with something. However, this would be reinventing the wheel and would fall short of the state of the art. There are several companies that provide such services to organizations. The last time I priced one, the cost was on the order of $8k-$16k/year depending on the features. We have to be realistic as to our potential impact if we pursue a strategy based on numbers as opposed to one based on personal contact. Any numbers we could generate would be small compared to what they get on the hot-button public policy issues. Legislative offices are inundated with constituent mail and have had to adopt defensive techniques. For example, many of their Web sites require the entry of your Zip+4 or a password that is imbedded in an image in an effort to ward off the "click here to send a message to your Congressman" approaches used by some advocacy groups. Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: James F. Boehner MD [mailto:jboehner01@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 10:15 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: Legislative follow-up Thanks to Kay and Dave in regards to my questions regarding Chwat and Company-I must not have been listening in the past, as this is new information for me, and very useful. Across all organizations, taking the time to write a letter to Senators/Representatives can be time consuming, and this probably discourages many members from doing so. Having a sample letter definitely helps. The idea of bringing a laptop to a hamfest to generate letters is a great idea! I'm not sure if this idea is plausible or practical, or if it has been thought of before and decided against. Dave, I know you have an overworked IT staff at HQ. However, I was thinking of a political letter generator. One that for each bill would have about 5 different boiler-plate letter templates, soliciting user input to fill in the blanks, and even automatically choose what senator or representative would get the letter by the individual's Zip+4 zip code. Perhaps to have a box for each individual to personalize the letter with their own paragraph. After generation, the individual could proof the letter, and then have a final copy sent to them as a PDF file on ARRL letterhead to sign (perhaps options of different letterheads), and then send directly to Chwat & Company for delivery. The five different templates and the personalization paragraph would keep the letters looking individual, have the proper information with the proper wording so that each would be correct in form, with proper bill numbers and reasons for supporting or not supporting the bill. This could be a feature of the new website, with each ARRL news story dealing with political issues referencing this letter generator as an option for members to have a more direct role in the political process (with minimal time investment). I do realize that letters that appear to be form letters may be discounted by political officials (although that is what they send us!!). I do not know exactly what goes on in the Senator's offices, but I would guess that an aide counts letters that are for or against an issue, and that number is what is presented to the Senator. It is also possible that the names are cross referenced against a donor list, and those letters are treated differently. Perhaps someone else on this list with more political savvy can weigh in on this. As far as cost, the ARRL IT department could take this on, or perhaps it could be outsourced to an organization that would specialize in this activity. Hopefully, once the generator is produced and it is placed on the website, no further IT work would need to be done. With each bill, the five boiler-plate templates would have to be produced internally. I'm not certain of any further costs. Just a thought-I know I would definitely use it! '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division ARRL, the national association for Amateur RadioT -----Original Message----- From: Kay Craigie [mailto:n3kn@verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 8:36 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: RE: Legislative follow-up I've asked Dave to respond to Jim's question about how Chwat is paid. We ask all League members to send their letters via Chwat for in-person delivery, though not all members do so. E-mails sent directly to Senators and Congressmen can get lost among all the other stuff arriving in those offices' inboxes. Because of security screening to ensure that there's nothing nasty like anthrax in the envelope, postal mail letters may be significantly delayed in reaching their destinations. Chwat's people hand-carry the letters to the offices of the Senators and Congressmen, thereby getting somebody's attention and avoiding the security queue. Several Board people have already written their Senators, and thank you for that. It makes a stronger case for action on the part of League members when we can say we've already done our own bit. One Board person plans to set up a laptop computer at a hamfest he's attending this weekend so members can produce letters to their Senators about S. 2881 on the spot. 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:18686] RE: [arrl-odv:18683] Boilerplate letters for membership
by Grant Hopper 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

I use something similar in my law practice. I never purchased the option to 'web enable' the package, but I suspect that Chris Imlay may be familiar with this sort of tool as well. The package I use is called "Hot Docs", produced by Lexis-Nexis (though there are others out there) and works in conjunction with Microsoft Word, or Word Perfect for final editing. On the 'Bean-Counting', I have heard time and time again from State and Federal elected officials (and their staffs) that this is very much a part of their calculus (as is the # of calls, and whether or not they hear from 'the usual suspects' that frequently weigh in on various topics.) I've been amazed at what a little targeted letter writing can do for any sort of legislative agenda. I've been on both sides of that sort of influence, and being able to effectively mobilize our membership could have dramatic effect. I for one would support an effort to provide a tool like this to the members. Many desire to help, but have no idea how to go about it (or are embarrassed by their efforts when they do and don't want to sent a letter or email because of that embarrassment.) 73, Grant Hopper, KB7WSD ARRL Northwest Division, Vice Director -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Frahm [mailto:brucefrahmk0bj@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:28 AM To: arrl-odv Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18683] Boilerplate letters for membership Hi Jim, A year or so ago I was impressed with a fancy congress-lobbying letter generator available on a production agriculture website, and mentioned it here. It had some clever elements to use a boilerplate type approach, yet allow some ingenuity and flexibility. K1ZZ weighed in and in fact had some knowledge of that sort of tool. Without going back to research particulars, I recall that there was significant cost involved in hiring this type of thing out. I'm sure that doing it in-house would tie up resources which I know many members would like to see being turned to LoTW VUCC, or DXCC field entry, yada yada...... :-) While it takes a little effort to customize properly, the boilerplate letter provided for this project seems like a reasonable and effective compromise to me. I'm sure that a letter with at least a couple of original lines is better than a rubber stamp, but your suspicion about bean-counting the letters probably rings true often too. 73 Bruce K0BJ On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 9:14 PM, James F. Boehner MD <jboehner01(a)yahoo.com> wrote: ..... Across all organizations, taking the time to write a letter to Senators/Representatives can be time consuming, and this probably discourages many members from doing so. ....... Dave, I know you have an overworked IT staff at HQ. However, I was thinking of a political letter generator. ....

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[arrl-odv:18685] Re: W7EQI leaves Commerce Committee (temporarily)
by Chris Imlay 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Dave, while looking for a House cosponsor for S.2881 last week with the SBE guys, I met with Walden's Senior Policy Advisor, Valerie Henry (who is pretty sharp). She said that she was quite sure that Walden would be back on E&C/Telecom before too long, not to worry. Though it doesn't look as though he is going to sponsor a House companion for S.2881. It looks instead like McNerny is going to be willing to do it instead. 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: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ <dsumner(a)arrl.org> To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Mon, Mar 8, 2010 2:34 pm Subject: [arrl-odv:18684] W7EQI leaves Commerce Committee (temporarily) >From Radio Business Report earlier today. Dave Former radio station group owner Greg Walden (R-OR) has been named chairman of the Republican leadership, a party role that has been vacant since 2005. At the same time, he is at least temporarily leaving the place from which he does radio the most good – the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. According to an article in CQ Politics, Walden is a close friend of Pete Sessions (R-TX), a key member of the House Republican leadership team, and has often been used by Sessions as a resource. Other members, including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) were said to have been impressed with Walden’s intellect and his political instincts, and want him at the leadership table to work on matters of policy and campaigning. His willingness to work as a team player was also noted, particularly his willingness to step down from the Commerce Committee (something no other member was willing to do) to make room for Parker Griffith (R-AL), who just crossed over from the Democratic side of the aisle. For those in the broadcasting business who are already missing Walden’s voice on that critical committee, there is good news. Walden will retain his seniority there and expects to return to it next January. RBR-TVBR observation: We’ve noted that broadcast legislative issues often cut across party lines. Walden’s laid-back and thoughtful style makes him an excellent person to lay out a radio operator’s perspective in an environment where votes are available on and needed from both sides of the aisle.

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[arrl-odv:18684] W7EQI leaves Commerce Committee (temporarily)
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

>From Radio Business Report earlier today. Dave Former radio station group owner Greg Walden (R-OR) has been named chairman of the Republican leadership, a party role that has been vacant since 2005. At the same time, he is at least temporarily leaving the place from which he does radio the most good - the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. According to an article in CQ Politics, Walden is a close friend of Pete Sessions (R-TX), a key member of the House Republican leadership team, and has often been used by Sessions as a resource. Other members, including Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) were said to have been impressed with Walden's intellect and his political instincts, and want him at the leadership table to work on matters of policy and campaigning. His willingness to work as a team player was also noted, particularly his willingness to step down from the Commerce Committee (something no other member was willing to do) to make room for Parker Griffith (R-AL), who just crossed over from the Democratic side of the aisle. For those in the broadcasting business who are already missing Walden's voice on that critical committee, there is good news. Walden will retain his seniority there and expects to return to it next January. RBR-TVBR observation: We've noted that broadcast legislative issues often cut across party lines. Walden's laid-back and thoughtful style makes him an excellent person to lay out a radio operator's perspective in an environment where votes are available on and needed from both sides of the aisle.

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[arrl-odv:18683] Boilerplate letters for membership
by Bruce Frahm 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

Hi Jim, A year or so ago I was impressed with a fancy congress-lobbying letter generator available on a production agriculture website, and mentioned it here. It had some clever elements to use a boilerplate type approach, yet allow some ingenuity and flexibility. K1ZZ weighed in and in fact had some knowledge of that sort of tool. Without going back to research particulars, I recall that there was significant cost involved in hiring this type of thing out. I'm sure that doing it in-house would tie up resources which I know many members would like to see being turned to LoTW VUCC, or DXCC field entry, yada yada...... :-) While it takes a little effort to customize properly, the boilerplate letter provided for this project seems like a reasonable and effective compromise to me. I'm sure that a letter with at least a couple of original lines is better than a rubber stamp, but your suspicion about bean-counting the letters probably rings true often too. 73 Bruce K0BJ On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 9:14 PM, James F. Boehner MD <jboehner01(a)yahoo.com>wrote: > ..... > Across all organizations, taking the time to write a letter to > Senators/Representatives can be time consuming, and this probably > discourages many members from doing so. ....... > Dave, I know you have an overworked > IT staff at HQ. However, I was thinking of a political letter generator. > ....

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RE: [arrl-odv:18681] Joanne Palm, W1GUN, SK
by Kay Craigie 08 Mar '10

08 Mar '10

What terribly sad news. Even after leaving the staff, Rick has continued to contribute to the League not only via the ARES E-Letter but also as a member of the NERPC, so he's still very much one of the family. Carter and I will drop him a personal note right away. 73 - Kay N3KN

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