September 2010 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:19389] RE: [arrl-odv:19388] Travel plans
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

Like Kay and Jay Bellows, I will be attending the IARU Region 2 Conference next week. I am also attending the IARU Administrative Council meeting which is Friday and Saturday this week, before the conference, so I'm flying to El Salvador on Thursday morning (tomorrow). The return flight is Saturday, October 9. I hope to be able to check email between on-site obligations. Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:19388] Travel plans
by Kay Craigie 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

The IARU Region 2 conference in El Salvador is next week, so I will be outside the USA from October 2 through 9. I will have access to the Internet, if you need to contact me by e-mail. Phone calls to my landline home number will not be forwarded to my cell phone on this trip, because international roaming rates are high for El Salvador. I don't want to pay a dollar ninety-nine a minute for the privilege of telling political poll-takers to go away. First Vice President Roderick is on deck while I'm out of the country. 73 - Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:19387] RE: [arrl-odv:19385] RE: [arrl-odv:19360] Mail vote of the Board on strategic plan
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 27 Sep '10

27 Sep '10

To complete the record: Director Fenstermaker voted yes. David Sumner, K1ZZ Secretary From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 10:48 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:19385] RE: [arrl-odv:19360] Mail vote of the Board on strategic plan On the resolution offered by the Executive Committee to the Board for a mail vote there were 12 votes in favor, two opposed, and one non-voting. All Directors voted in favor except Directors Fallon and Norton, who voted opposed, and Director Fenstermaker, who did not vote. (Jim, if I overlooked your vote please let me know and I will correct the record.) David Sumner, K1ZZ Secretary

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[arrl-odv:19386] Response to Bill Edgar Inquiry
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 27 Sep '10

27 Sep '10

Bill, Here are the answers to your questions. 1. Why are we giving more money to Fathom to add the same features we had under the old web site and should have been part of their original work? The general principle, agreed on by us and Fathom, is that features on the old site will be carried over the new site. They have never disputed that. However, this can sometimes be a gray area because the new site works differently than the old site because of the local content control system. Transitioning from one technology to another is not always a one to one correlation. 2. How much extra are we now being asked to pay for the data downloads that SMs and ODV used to get under the old web site? There would be no charge to simply add the previous report functionality. We want to implement an improved report generator and we have been working with Fathom to determine exactly how to implement this. An expanded and improved report generator would provide a more uniform interface to the users and simplify site maintenance. The expanded version of the Report Generator will cost between $10K and $15K depending on the features that we want to add such as users having the ability to choose the fields they want and the format of the report. 3. Why wasn't this done under the original proposal agreement? See above. We probably should have specified the report function more precisely, but we did not. 4. What other features did we have on the old site that we need and used, and are not available on the new site? The features that are still missing are detailed in the report that I sent the Board on Saturday. The previous site evolved over 15 years and contained many functions. Because of the size of the site, there may still be some features that may not be working correctly, but I believe that we have captured them and we are correcting the majority of the problems. 5. We're over budget, way past the completion dates, still having problems with the new site AND still being asked to send more money to Fathom. We are not over budget with payments to Fathom with regard to payments due them on the original agreement. In fact, we still are withholding a small amount of money (approx $4200) from the original project budget from them. Barry did an analysis of the time and effort Web project for you previously. Some new questions that come to mind: 6. Your items 5 and 15 report generator and expanded RSS audio feeds is dependent upon a new agreement/contract with Fathom for additional work. Has A&F or the EC approved the expenditure of additional funds to Fathom, if not, under whose authority would those funds be released? I discussed this with Jim Fenstermaker and the A & F Committee that we anticipated some follow on work with Fathom. We will need to have some continuing relationship with Fathom until our IT Department has the time and expertise to do all the work on the Site ourselves. The new agreement, that Chris Imlay is helping me with, will specify the terms and conditions of our overall business relationship with Fathom. Individual projects will be added to the master agreement as required and approved. Because of the sensitivity of our relationship with Fathom, I discuss any expenditure with Dave and for any large expenditure, I would let Jim Fenstermaker know about it. Additional work to date beyond the original contract has been less than $500. This was for two additions to the Contact Form : http://www.arrl.org/contact-arrl 1. A Subject field 2. A Broken Links category. These were not in the original specs for the contact form. 7. Several weeks ago, I found I no longer had access to download files within ODV. I sent a note to Dave K1ZZ and access was restored the following day. Early last week, I tried to get a list of clubs within the WPA Section on the Search for ARRL Affiliated Clubs in public side of the website and was presented with a list of the first 8 clubs within WPA. Upon selecting "next" for the next 8 clubs, the search was lost and I was given page 2 for 2196 clubs. I passed that information to Katie who acknowledged the search list was not operating properly and she would see about getting it fixed. To date, it still isn't fixed and I haven't been told when it might be fixed. It would be nice to know what bugs or problems we are still seeing with the website. Perhaps a listing from Bugzilla posted on ODV? I am sorry about the Club query form. The second page worked previously but Fathom has been working on the Club data along with Jon's staff so something must have broken while they were working on it. We have put in a priority request with Fathom this morning again to get it fixed. I don't think that Bugzilla would be the best way to do this since it is really a browser based IT tool. I will continue to provide regular updates and other updates of importance as they occur. 8. Item 11 - Make Interactive Forums Operational. I'd rather see features/functions of the old website put in place before we do any additional work on making new features work and I know my members and volunteers within the Atlantic Division feel the same way. Our highest priorities are restoring the functionality of the Web Site and revenue related improvements. Among the lower priority items, some are easier and less time consuming than others. The Forum capability has been a part of the Content Management System since launch and will take relatively little time to implement this feature after the higher priority items are resolved. 9. Item 15 - Expanded RSS Audio Feeds. Same is my item 8. This is the same situation as the Report generator. We are trying to develop a feature that can be used across all content pages, not just a hard code on a single page. We never anticipated the demand for RSS feeds across the site when we started two years ago, but it is now a more common Web feature and we want to make it available across all content pages. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL -the national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 (860) 594 -0220

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[arrl-odv:19385] RE: [arrl-odv:19360] Mail vote of the Board on strategic plan
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 27 Sep '10

27 Sep '10

On the resolution offered by the Executive Committee to the Board for a mail vote there were 12 votes in favor, two opposed, and one non-voting. All Directors voted in favor except Directors Fallon and Norton, who voted opposed, and Director Fenstermaker, who did not vote. (Jim, if I overlooked your vote please let me know and I will correct the record.) David Sumner, K1ZZ Secretary

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RE: [arrl-odv:19379] Web Udate and Priorities
by Bill Edgar 26 Sep '10

26 Sep '10

Harold, Thank you for the information. Thursday afternoon, I sent you questions/comments regarding the web site and what I believe to be a new contract/agreement with Fathom for features to be worked on for the website. I'd like answers to those questions. Some of the features being proposed under this new contract/agreement appear to be functionality that we had under the old website. Those questions/comments were: 1. Why are we giving more money to Fathom to add the same features we had under the old web site and should have been part of their original work? 2. How much extra are we now being asked to pay for the data downloads that SMs and ODV used to get under the old web site? 3. Why wasn't this done under the original proposal agreement? 4. What other features did we have on the old site that we need and used, and are not available on the new site? 5. We're over budget, way past the completion dates, still having problems with the new site AND still being asked to send more money to Fathom. Some new questions that come to mind: 6. Your items 5 and 15 - report generator and expanded RSS audio feeds is dependent upon a new agreement/contract with Fathom for additional work. Has A&F or the EC approved the expenditure of additional funds to Fathom, if not, under whose authority would those funds be released? 7. Several weeks ago, I found I no longer had access to download files within ODV. I sent a note to Dave K1ZZ and access was restored the following day. Early last week, I tried to get a list of clubs within the WPA Section on the Search for ARRL Affiliated Clubs in public side of the website and was presented with a list of the first 8 clubs within WPA. Upon selecting "next" for the next 8 clubs, the search was lost and I was given page 2 for 2196 clubs. I passed that information to Katie who acknowledged the search list was not operating properly and she would see about getting it fixed. To date, it still isn't fixed and I haven't been told when it might be fixed. It would be nice to know what bugs or problems we are still seeing with the website. Perhaps a listing from Bugzilla posted on ODV? 8. Item 11 - Make Interactive Forums Operational. I'd rather see features/functions of the old website put in place before we do any additional work on making new features work and I know my members and volunteers within the Atlantic Division feel the same way. 9. Item 15 - Expanded RSS Audio Feeds. Same is my item 8. Thank you. - Bill N3LLR From: Kramer, Harold, WJ1B [mailto:wj1b@arrl.org] Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 9:05 AM To: arrl-odv Cc: Patton, David NN1N; Kramer, Harold, WJ1B; Johnson, Debra, K1DMJ; Hare, Ed W1RFI; Glass, Katie, KB1ULQ; Somma, Maria, AB1FM; Ford, Steve, WB8IMY; Bloom, Jon, KE3Z; Inderbitzen, Bob, NQ1R; Pitts, Allen W1AGP; Jahnke, Deb, K1DAJ Subject: [arrl-odv:19379] Web Udate and Priorities To: ODV and Department Heads To bring everyone up to date, I have attached a Word 2003 (to assure compatiblity) document that outlines the status of the current Web updates along with assigned prioirities. Please let me know if you have any questons. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The National Association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington , CT 06111 860 594 0220 www.arrl.org

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RE: [arrl-odv:19382] RE: ARRL Mission Statement
by Jim Weaver K8JE 26 Sep '10

26 Sep '10

Dave, Excellent. Yes, I believe it is worth displaying rather conspicuously. I believe it says a great deal in so few words. Tnx, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040; Tel. 513-459-1661 ARRL, The national organization for Amateur Radio _____ From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ [mailto:dsumner@arrl.org] Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 9:58 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:19382] RE: ARRL Mission Statement Jim, the closest thing that we have to a Mission Statement is the statement of the ARRL's core purpose that is in the current Strategic Plan, which is on the Web site. That statement is: To promote and advance the art, science and enjoyment of Amateur Radio. This replaced the somewhat shorter statement that was in the 2006 Strategic Plan. If you think it should be given greater visibility this is easy enough to do -- in fact, just to see how it would look I just inserted it on the page http://www.arrl.org/about-arrl under the heading "More About the ARRL." 73, Dave K1ZZ _____ From: Jim Weaver K8JE [mailto:K8JE@ARRL.org] Sent: Sun 9/26/2010 1:43 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: ARRL Mission Statement Can anyone point me to the ARRL Mission Statement on the new website? I've been unable to find it there through a variety of searches or by going over the information at the About ARRL link I'm sure it is somewhere in the many pages that are found through search, but these seem mostly to relate to donating to ARRL, the ARRL Newsletter, etc. Tnx, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040; Tel. 513-459-1661 ARRL, The national organization for Amateur Radio No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.856 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3158 - Release Date: 09/25/10 02:34:00

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[arrl-odv:19382] RE: ARRL Mission Statement
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 26 Sep '10

26 Sep '10

Jim, the closest thing that we have to a Mission Statement is the statement of the ARRL's core purpose that is in the current Strategic Plan, which is on the Web site. That statement is: To promote and advance the art, science and enjoyment of Amateur Radio. This replaced the somewhat shorter statement that was in the 2006 Strategic Plan. If you think it should be given greater visibility this is easy enough to do -- in fact, just to see how it would look I just inserted it on the page http://www.arrl.org/about-arrl under the heading "More About the ARRL." 73, Dave K1ZZ ________________________________ From: Jim Weaver K8JE [mailto:K8JE@ARRL.org] Sent: Sun 9/26/2010 1:43 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: ARRL Mission Statement Can anyone point me to the ARRL Mission Statement on the new website? I've been unable to find it there through a variety of searches or by going over the information at the About ARRL link I'm sure it is somewhere in the many pages that are found through search, but these seem mostly to relate to donating to ARRL, the ARRL Newsletter, etc. Tnx, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040; Tel. 513-459-1661 ARRL, The national organization for Amateur Radio

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ARRL Mission Statement
by Jim Weaver K8JE 26 Sep '10

26 Sep '10

Can anyone point me to the ARRL Mission Statement on the new website? I've been unable to find it there through a variety of searches or by going over the information at the About ARRL link I'm sure it is somewhere in the many pages that are found through search, but these seem mostly to relate to donating to ARRL, the ARRL Newsletter, etc. Tnx, Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040; Tel. 513-459-1661 ARRL, The national organization for Amateur Radio

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RE: [arrl-odv:19379] Web Udate and Priorities
by Jim Weaver K8JE 25 Sep '10

25 Sep '10

Harold, Regarding Item #4 -- Report Generation; To the extent that we had the ability to generate a number of reports with the old website, I do not understand why these were not automatically included in the initial agreement with Fathom. I understand it is planned to expand the report-generating capabilities. From my non-IT background it would seem that we now plan to execute an additional agreement through which we will pay, in part, to have capabilities available on the old site available on the new site as well as for expansion of these capabilities. I can understand paying extra to expand capabilities, but not to restore capabilities we previously enjoyed. Wasn't the restoration of existing report-generating capabilities included in the original agreement? Had we not intended to make then-existing report generating capabilities available on the new site when we contracted for it? Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040; Tel. 513-459-1661 ARRL, The national organization for Amateur Radio _____ From: Kramer, Harold, WJ1B [mailto:wj1b@arrl.org] Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 9:05 AM To: arrl-odv Cc: Patton, David NN1N; Kramer, Harold, WJ1B; Johnson, Debra, K1DMJ; Hare, Ed W1RFI; Glass, Katie, KB1ULQ; Somma, Maria, AB1FM; Ford, Steve, WB8IMY; Bloom, Jon, KE3Z; Inderbitzen, Bob, NQ1R; Pitts, Allen W1AGP; Jahnke, Deb, K1DAJ Subject: [arrl-odv:19379] Web Udate and Priorities To: ODV and Department Heads To bring everyone up to date, I have attached a Word 2003 (to assure compatiblity) document that outlines the status of the current Web updates along with assigned prioirities. Please let me know if you have any questons. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The National Association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington , CT 06111 860 594 0220 www.arrl.org No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.856 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3157 - Release Date: 09/24/10 13:16:00

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