March 2020 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:29938] ARRL operational status, rumors and information
by rjairam＠gmail.com 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

This morning a section manager sent out this: “ Subject: ARRL officially shut down Good morning all, I had to call the ARRL this morning on another matter and was informed that today is the last day that the ARRL headquarters will be staffed. Because of the Corona virus there will only be one person holding down the fort, and the rest of the staff will be working from home. I was told that especially any orders for publications will be delayed. I do not know what or how any other services will be effected by this shut down. I have no further information at this time. 73 de” I don’t know how much of this is accurate but I would like for those sending out information about the operational status of HQ to have it from a central, authoritative source rather than just some random person at HQ. I do think that messages that say that “ARRL is shut down” are inconsistent with what Barry has been saying - that we have REDUCED operations with staff working remotely. What can be done to ensure that we all have one message that is accurate and consistent? Ria N2RJ

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[arrl-odv:29915] Zooming Into the Future
by hopengarten＠post.harvard.edu 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

Colleagues, The world has changed. In the next 10-15 weeks, we will hold a lot of video teleconferences, some/many replacing face-to-face meetings. For example, the Executive Committee meeting scheduled to follow the Dayton HamVention is not going to happen at the Dayton Marriott. I propose that: . We do what we must to permit Zoom/WebEx/Skype videoconference meetings under our bylaws. . In my life, Zoom seems to be winning these days. But I have no religious preference. Pick one and proceed. . We solicit from someone we trust information on a standardized package of camera, headset and backdrop that we can buy in bulk for $200. --The camera should self-focus and follow (K3RF has one and it is really nice to watch). --The headset should deliver decent audio through its microphone, and eliminate the hollow/echo sounds of some cameras with built-in microphones in some rooms. It might also quiet down the sounds of barking children and crying dogs (or vice versa). --The backdrops should be cheap, and easy to set up, but prevent the camera from being blinded by reflection off windows, and the like, as well as the distraction of trying to figure out what is going on behind the person then speaking . W e force the CFO to allow payment for each "studio" set up for these meetings to come out of each Division budget (i.e., no additional budget, but, as this is going to substitute for travel, it seems like a perfectly reasonable substitution) . I'm suggesting a standardized package to permit our IT and technical people to be better positioned to help out when problems arise. . It seems to me that this is a matter that should be routed through the A&F Committee. But, as described in the immediately preceding bullet, it should not change any Division budget. . If we buy in bulk, purchasing 30-35 of these packages, we should be get the price down below $200 per studio. I would remind all that the $6000-7000 cost is less than the cost of one in-person EC meeting. . When we are ready to implement, I suggest the technical team prepare a two page memo on how to set up the camera, headset and backdrop, as well as how to initiate and join (just a URL for a good YouTube video). As we are all now enjoying a new reality, and the greatest need is within the next 10 weeks, I urge fast action. Fred Hopengarten, Esq. K1VR hopengarten(a)post.harvard.edu Six Willarch Road Lincoln, MA 01773 antennazoning.com 781.259.0088 -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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[arrl-odv:29932] Fwd: FYI - Ham radio, Two very special events coming up this week, featuring Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID!
by Mickey Baker 23 Mar '20

23 Mar '20

All, Email from one of the ASM's in Georgia. Wednesday Ham Nation about remote club meetings and Thursday, Bob Heil is the guest speaker at the Fayetteville, GA, radio club - another remote meeting. Georgia is leading the way for remote meetings - with Google Hangouts! Mickey Baker, N4MB Palm Beach Gardens, FL *“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead." Robert K. Greenleaf* ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Joe Domaleski <jdomaleski(a)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 7:48 PM Subject: FYI - Ham radio, Two very special events coming up this week, featuring Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID! To: David Benoist <ag4zr(a)arrl.net>, Frank Dean <k4sjr(a)arrl.net>, Renee Conaway <reneecona(a)gmail.com>, n4mb(a)arrl.org <n4mb(a)arrl.org> Mickey, David, Frank, and Renee, I wanted to share the following with you that I just sent out to our local radio club. Pretty cool stuff. I’m going to share it with a larger audience tomorrow, but wanted you all to see it first. Feel free to tune into each event and share. Hope y’all are safe, healthy, and doing okay given the current national circumstances. 73, Joe Domaleski, KI4ASK ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Joe Domaleski via Groups.Io <jdomaleski=gmail.com(a)groups.io> Date: Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 7:10 PM Subject: [fayettegaares] FCARC - Two very special events coming up this week, featuring Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID! To: fayetteares(a)groups.io <fayetteares(a)groups.io>, kk4gq(a)groups.io < kk4gq(a)groups.io> Fayette County radio friends, I’m excited to tell you about two special events coming up this week... 1. Wednesday, 3/25 @ 9pm local - Mary Catherine (KI4HHI) and I will be featured guests on the Ham Nation videocast/podcast ( https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation) , hosted by Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID. Bob & I did the sound check this afternoon (see attached picture). What a great guy. The show streams live and is recorded on Wednesday night, then pushed out for syndication via podcast outlets. Bob saw our cover in CQ Magazine and reached out for us to be guests. In planning for the show our discussion turned to online ham club meetings and I told him about our club meeting pivoting to online. He asked me if he could be of service to our club by being a guest at our meeting!!! I talked to Bob Gibler, NF5F, and he’s fine speaking next month to make way for Dr. Heil this month. (Thanks Bob Gibler) And so...this is a real treat to announce the second exciting event... 2. Thursday, 3/26 @ 7pm local - FCARC online meeting with featured guest, Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID. Dr. Heil is an American sound and radio engineer most well known for creating the template for modern rock sound systems. He invented the *Heil* Talk Box in 1973, which was frequently used by musicians such as Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Richie Sambora, and is still in use today. He also started a company called Heil Sound that produces some of the finest amateur radio sound equipment in the world. Dr. Heil is an avid amateur (ham) radio operator and hosts the weekly Ham Nation podcast, the most watched & listened to ham radio podcast in the country. Connection information for the FCARC meeting: Google Hangouts Meet (preferred) - PC/Mac/iOS/Droid https://meet.google.com/wuf-fhaq-ffa Phone (backup) ‪+1 470-210-1162‬ PIN: ‪246 439 202‬# In order to have an orderly meeting, I’m going to start the online connection about 15 minutes early. Please try and connect before 7pm. This event will be promoted to surrounding radio clubs, so I want to make sure our own folks get in first. Please tell your ham radio friends about the meeting and encourage them to tune in. So, check us out on Bob Heil’s Ham Nation show this Wednesday night at 9pm (local), then come back the following night at 7pm (local) when he’ll be a guest at our online club meeting. Stay safe & healthy everyone. 73, Joe Domaleski, KI4ASK 1 attachment: -- _._,_._,_ ------------------------------ Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#807) <https://groups.io/g/fayetteares/message/807> | Reply To Group <fayetteares@groups.io?subject=Re:%20%5Bfayettegaares%5D%20FCARC%20-%20Two%20very%20special%20events%20coming%20up%20this%20week%2C%20featuring%20Dr.%20Bob%20Heil%2C%20K9EID%21> | Reply To Sender <jdomaleski@gmail.com?subject=Private:%20Re:%20%5Bfayettegaares%5D%20FCARC%20-%20Two%20very%20special%20events%20coming%20up%20this%20week%2C%20featuring%20Dr.%20Bob%20Heil%2C%20K9EID%21> | Mute This Topic <https://groups.io/mt/72479753/736131> | New Topic <https://groups.io/g/fayetteares/post> ------------------------------ Sent from the Fayette County ARES groups.io account ------------------------------ Your Subscription <https://groups.io/g/fayetteares/editsub/736131> | Contact Group Owner <fayetteares+owner(a)groups.io> | Unsubscribe <https://groups.io/g/fayetteares/leave/3080814/934980067/xyzzy> [ jdomaleski(a)gmail.com] _._,_._,_ -- Sent from Gmail Mobile

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[arrl-odv:29879] Remote VE testing
by rjairam＠gmail.com 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

Anchorage VEC is doing it. Why can't we? https://kl7aa.org/vec/remote-testing/ 73 Ria, N2RJ

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[arrl-odv:29924] ZOOM
by Carl Luetzelschwab 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

All, The HamSCI Workshop that was supposed to be held at the University of Scranton this weekend was done via ZOOM. We had almost 200 participants from all over the world, and it worked flawlessly. Carl K9LA Central Div Vice Dir

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[arrl-odv:29919] Zoom Equipment Recommendations/Requirements
by John Robert Stratton 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

All See the following link: https://uis.georgetown.edu/zoom/install/equipment/# _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office:512-445-6262 Cell:512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 *_______________________________________***

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[arrl-odv:29906] Staff Layoffs
by Lee Cooper 22 Mar '20

22 Mar '20

I am going to just toss this out to the group as it is something I think needs to be said. I think of ham radio, as I suspect many of you do as a kind of large extended family. We will go out of our way to help another ham whether that is assisting in doing a tower raising, trouble shooting antenna problems, giving them rides to club meetings and much more. Ham radio operators are known for our compassion and caring behavior. At minimum, we certainly have a “Band of Brothers” camaraderie in the way we make life long friendships with hams we have never even met because of our love of the hobby. And I would extend this mindset to our family at Newington that is going through a tough situation caused by the over-reaction of politicians’ hell bent on destroying their State’s economy. Staff is being impacted by choices outside our or their control. Having said that when I read Barry’s email regarding HQ staffing it brought up a range of emotions. I was both saddened, angered and frustrated by how we are treating our family. This is a time where folks are highly concerned about being able to get food and supplies, concerned for family members that may be susceptible to COVID19, not even sure what all this means, so our response is to yank the rug out from them and tell them that if the State requires them to shelter in place we should devastate their saved PTO time and lay them off without pay. I am sure this is all they needed on top of everything else. Barry mentions unemployment? Really?!! We all know with the number of applications that will likely be received it might be a couple of months for that to be processed, and for what, maybe 10% of their current income? ARRL is going to survive this fine. People will still renew their memberships, still buy books, still advertise in QST and even donate to various funds. We may take some hit but it will not be significant. In fact, with all the travel cancelled we are probably looking better than we expected. Members of this board will not be impacted by even a full shutdown of HQ as we all have other jobs and are not dependent on the league for our livelihood. The most compensated staff will be allowed to work from home and still get paid. So who are we “furloughing”? Likely the most vulnerable of our staff. The league approved a budget in January that paid everyone’s salary for the year. We can afford to cover the Staff salary for the next 4 to 8 weeks, maybe even longer without significant impacts. And even if there were some, it is still what we should do for our “family”. I am asking the board to consider meeting NOW Tomorrow or Monday at the latest and consider a resolution that states that ALL HQ staff will continue to get paid, will not lose their PTO for the duration of this shutdown. It is the moral thing to do, it is the compassionate thing to do and, dammit, it is the RIGHT thing to do. Regards, Lee, W5LHC Lee H. Cooper, PMP, CKM, CKF, ITILv3, LSSGB, W5LHC Vice Director, West Gulf Division ARRL - National Association of Amateur Radio w5lhc(a)arrl.org (512) 658-3910 *"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat" - N.B.* <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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[arrl-odv:29911] Re: Staff Layoffs
by k5ur＠aol.com 21 Mar '20

21 Mar '20

Hi all: First off, Barry, I want you and the Board to know that youhave my full support in your efforts. Thank you. You have been working closely with counsel and evaluatingthe situation which has been a moving target, and it still is. The regulationshaven’t even been written yet. EEOC and OSHA have issued new guidance in thepast 24 hours and the IRS just issued new guidance today which throws a number ofpay issues into the mix for people working at home that I know many employers havenot even considered, for example. So, your comment about the compensation plan andthe coordination of benefits being complicated is spot on. I’ve been dealing with business clients day and night. WhatBarry is doing is exactly what other businesses are doing, although Barry is goingabove and beyond what many are doing by trying to coordinate the plans to optimizethe situation for employees. I’ve got a number of clients that have already justshut down and laid everyone off. Many will be laying people off on Monday whenthe employees walk into work, others will furlough employees, and Barry iscorrect, there is a difference whether it is a lay off versus a furlough. I commendBarry for noticing so as to optimize the benefits of our employees. We need to let Barry continue to run operations, work withcounsel, and take action as needed. He will keep us informed along the way. 73, Rick – K5UR -----Original Message----- From: Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) <bshelley(a)arrl.org> To: Cooper, Lee, W5LHC (VD, GW) <w5lhc01(a)gmail.com>; arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)arrl.org> Sent: Sat, Mar 21, 2020 5:44 pm Subject: [arrl-odv:29910] Re: Staff Layoffs #yiv6908233223 #yiv6908233223 -- _filtered {} _filtered {} #yiv6908233223 #yiv6908233223 p.yiv6908233223MsoNormal, #yiv6908233223 li.yiv6908233223MsoNormal, #yiv6908233223 div.yiv6908233223MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;} #yiv6908233223 a:link, #yiv6908233223 span.yiv6908233223MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv6908233223 a:visited, #yiv6908233223 span.yiv6908233223MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv6908233223 p.yiv6908233223msonormal0, #yiv6908233223 li.yiv6908233223msonormal0, #yiv6908233223 div.yiv6908233223msonormal0 {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;} #yiv6908233223 span.yiv6908233223EmailStyle20 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;} #yiv6908233223 .yiv6908233223MsoChpDefault {font-family:sans-serif;} _filtered {} #yiv6908233223 div.yiv6908233223WordSection1 {} #yiv6908233223 Lee et al: Before you make blanket statements based on broad, incorrect assumptions, you should take some time and try to educate yourself on what is actually happening in Newington, CT. And this should include studying the provisions of the Extended Family and Medical Leave Act as passed by Congress just this week. Because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past two days, working with Diane and CT counsel to craft a plan that will get money in the hands of the staff, using the provisions of the new Extended FMLA in conjunction with an extension of our PTO policies to keep all staff fully paid for as long as possible. Some of these paid leave benefits will be reimbursed by the federal government, not just a willy nilly use of the membership resources that I and the Board have a fiduciary responsibility to protect and use wisely. The compensation plan is somewhat complicated because the new and existing Federal laws, including the ones just passed, were not fully thought out before they were enacted. What a surprise, huh? But that is the world we’re dealing with at the moment. Without going into all the details at this time, the Extended FMLA takes effect on April 2, 2020. For those who have no work, rather than furloughing them on Tuesday, we will fund their compensation from Tuesday, March 24th to the beginning of the Federal benefits. That’s less than $20,000. Then, for the next two weeks, we will pay them 100% of their compensation which will be reimbursed by the Federal government (eventually). After that, they will be compensated at a rate equaling 2/3 of their pay up to $200/day. Most of the 21 people will not exceed the cap. We will also allow them to use accrued PTO time to make up the difference between the benefits and 100% of their compensation, something we can’t do with unemployment. In addition, we will be temporarily modifying our PTO policy to allow staff to “borrow” against future accruals for the remainder of the year which will give then an additional 3 weeks of pay to supplement any shortfall from federal benefits. Notice I used the work “furlough”. While a legal distinction, if we used the word “laid off”, that would immediately require them to apply for unemployment benefits which is approximately 50% of their compensation. And they would lose any future PTO benefit. This plan has been discussed with Matt Curtin, CT HR counsel from Murtha Cullina and he supports it. Once we are past the crisis, we can evaluate the financial impact and always go back and revisit the issue of PTO time and restore it, if we feel it to be prudent. But at this time, as no one knows the exact length of the crisis, we have no clue of what the potential financial impact is for the League. And as such, no one can make the blanket statement that we have the resources to cover an amount of money that is unknown. In closing, I have to tell you that I’m personally insulted by your implication that I am insensitive to the needs of the staff and the organization. I (and the Board) are responsible for both and I can tell you that I certainly am, and I believe the Board to be as well. Its just that I don’t have the luxury of choosing one over the other. I have to balance the needs and responsibilities of both. I will keep the Board informed going forward about operations at HQ as information becomes available. As I said in my original message, patience and flexibility are required. I have no clue what the Governor of CT or the President of the United States is going to order next, but whatever it is, we will respond accordingly. I hope everyone is staying safe. 73, Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY Interim Chief Executive Officer From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces(a)reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Of Lee Cooper Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 5:06 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:29906] Staff Layoffs I am going to just toss this out to the group as it is something I think needs to be said. I think of ham radio, as I suspect many of you do as a kind of large extended family. We will go out of our way to help another ham whether that is assisting in doing a tower raising, trouble shooting antenna problems, giving them rides to club meetings and much more. Ham radio operators are known for our compassion and caring behavior. At minimum, we certainly have a “Band of Brothers” camaraderie in the way we make life long friendships with hams we have never even met because of our love of the hobby. And I would extend this mindset to our family at Newington that is going through a tough situation caused by the over-reaction of politicians’ hell bent on destroying their State’s economy. Staff is being impacted by choices outside our or their control. Having said that when I read Barry’s email regarding HQ staffing it brought up a range of emotions. I was both saddened, angered and frustrated by how we are treating our family. This is a time where folks are highly concerned about being able to get food and supplies, concerned for family members that may be susceptible to COVID19, not even sure what all this means, so our response is to yank the rug out from them and tell them that if the State requires them to shelter in place we should devastate their saved PTO time and lay them off without pay. I am sure this is all they needed on top of everything else. Barry mentions unemployment? Really?!! We all know with the number of applications that will likely be received it might be a couple of months for that to be processed, and for what, maybe 10% of their current income? ARRL is going to survive this fine. People will still renew their memberships, still buy books, still advertise in QST and even donate to various funds. We may take some hit but it will not be significant. In fact, with all the travel cancelled we are probably looking better than we expected. Members of this board will not be impacted by even a full shutdown of HQ as we all have other jobs and are not dependent on the league for our livelihood. The most compensated staff will be allowed to work from home and still get paid. So who are we “furloughing”? Likely the most vulnerable of our staff. The league approved a budget in January that paid everyone’s salary for the year. We can afford to cover the Staff salary for the next 4 to 8 weeks, maybe even longer without significant impacts. And even if there were some, it is still what we should do for our “family”. I am asking the board to consider meeting NOW Tomorrow or Monday at the latest and consider a resolution that states that ALL HQ staff will continue to get paid, will not lose their PTO for the duration of this shutdown. It is the moral thing to do, it is the compassionate thing to do and, dammit, it is the RIGHT thing to do. Regards, Lee, W5LHC Lee H. Cooper, PMP, CKM, CKF, ITILv3, LSSGB, W5LHC Vice Director, West Gulf Division ARRL - National Association of Amateur Radio w5lhc(a)arrl.org (512) 658-3910 "He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat" - N.B. | | Virus-free.www.avg.com | _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

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[arrl-odv:29904] FW: Re: Connecticut Response
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) 21 Mar '20

21 Mar '20

As I said....patience and flexibility. It's not being reported by some news outlets that the effective date/time for the Governor's order is 8 pm SUNDAY night. We will adjust our plans accordingly. 73, Barry, N1VXY From: Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 5:44 PM To: John Robert Stratton <N5AUS(a)n5aus.com> Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:29903] Re: Connecticut Response John: As I write this, it appears that the Governor's order takes effect at 8 pm on Monday night. While individuals will not be subject to fines, businesses which do not comply could face civil fines. We have been in the process of evaluating who has the appropriate technology at home and how they could be connected (primarily VPN). We have ramped up our VPN connections to support the number of people who we have identified can work remotely. As of this moment, of the 87 people working at HQ we have 58 people capable of working remotely, some already are doing so. Another 8 we're working on trying to get them connected. If they don't already have their own PCs or laptops, we will not be able to provide them. We've already used up our allotment of "company" assets and our suppliers don't have any remaining inventory except of very high end (e.g. high cost) computers. And even then, it's not clear if we could get them delivered in time. There are 21 people who's functions will not allow working remotely. This is either because of the functions they perform and/or the technology (software) with which they work. Those people will have to be furloughed beginning and will be eligible for unemployment compensation. Functions such as incoming mail processing, outgoing mailroom and warehouse are three of the obvious functions. The bad news is that these functions support revenues. Even if they could work, FedEx, depending on the area, is not delivering to non-essential businesses. To try and push as much work out the door as possible, we will have people in tomorrow to process all the business in house today and ship all orders via UPS before we are shut down. You would be amazed at how much of our membership still sends checks and orders through the mail. We will spend Monday trying to connect the remaining eligible people to be able to work remotely and work on getting the call center set up to forward to the customer service reps external phone numbers. As I've said before, in this situation, services will not be fully functioning and we will certainly lose some efficiency. We will keep as much operating as we can and it remains to be seen how long this will last. The only guidance from the Governor is that this order could "last for weeks". We've been dealing with operational issues and I've not made any attempt to quantify the financial impact to the organization, but my feeling is that it will be substantial. We've already seen advertisers cancelling print advertising in QST due to a drop off in their business and, without the ability to mail out new and renewal promotional material (emails will continue), membership and donation revenues will likely suffer as well. We have financial resources and these will come in handy for however long this situation lasts. Please understand that requests from the Board for information will also be limited in the coming weeks if we don't have access to our files, etc. but we will do the best we can to respond. 73, Barry, N1VXY From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org>> On Behalf Of John Robert Stratton Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 4:30 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>> Subject: [arrl-odv:29903] Re: Connecticut Response Barry What equipment are we missing/do we need to operate with a "full contingent?" Is it possible to source that equipment within a reasonable period of time and do we have an estimate of the cost to do so? Assuming we will go to war with the army we have, how much/what departments/services do you believe we can maintain with what and who we currently can field? _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office: 512-445-6262 Cell: 512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 _______________________________________ On 3/20/20 3:12 PM, Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) wrote: Just minutes ago, the governor of CT declared that all workers at non-essential businesses should stay home. It's not clear at this exact moment when this order will take effect but it's likely to be no later than close of business on Monday. We have been working over the past several days to try and equip as many people as possible to work from home but we certainly won't have a full contingent up and running that quickly. It will remain to be seen how much of HQ we can continue in operation. We will have to assess that and I will let you know. Please stand by for more information. There are few specific answers at this point, only broad orders. 73, Barry, N1VXY _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

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[arrl-odv:29905] FW: Re: Connecticut Response
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) 20 Mar '20

20 Mar '20

Sorry folks....I didn't hit "reply all" on the original response to John's questions. Barry From: Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 5:44 PM To: John Robert Stratton <N5AUS(a)n5aus.com> Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:29903] Re: Connecticut Response John: As I write this, it appears that the Governor's order takes effect at 8 pm on Monday night. While individuals will not be subject to fines, businesses which do not comply could face civil fines. We have been in the process of evaluating who has the appropriate technology at home and how they could be connected (primarily VPN). We have ramped up our VPN connections to support the number of people who we have identified can work remotely. As of this moment, of the 87 people working at HQ we have 58 people capable of working remotely, some already are doing so. Another 8 we're working on trying to get them connected. If they don't already have their own PCs or laptops, we will not be able to provide them. We've already used up our allotment of "company" assets and our suppliers don't have any remaining inventory except of very high end (e.g. high cost) computers. And even then, it's not clear if we could get them delivered in time. There are 21 people who's functions will not allow working remotely. This is either because of the functions they perform and/or the technology (software) with which they work. Those people will have to be furloughed beginning and will be eligible for unemployment compensation. Functions such as incoming mail processing, outgoing mailroom and warehouse are three of the obvious functions. The bad news is that these functions support revenues. Even if they could work, FedEx, depending on the area, is not delivering to non-essential businesses. To try and push as much work out the door as possible, we will have people in tomorrow to process all the business in house today and ship all orders via UPS before we are shut down. You would be amazed at how much of our membership still sends checks and orders through the mail. We will spend Monday trying to connect the remaining eligible people to be able to work remotely and work on getting the call center set up to forward to the customer service reps external phone numbers. As I've said before, in this situation, services will not be fully functioning and we will certainly lose some efficiency. We will keep as much operating as we can and it remains to be seen how long this will last. The only guidance from the Governor is that this order could "last for weeks". We've been dealing with operational issues and I've not made any attempt to quantify the financial impact to the organization, but my feeling is that it will be substantial. We've already seen advertisers cancelling print advertising in QST due to a drop off in their business and, without the ability to mail out new and renewal promotional material (emails will continue), membership and donation revenues will likely suffer as well. We have financial resources and these will come in handy for however long this situation lasts. Please understand that requests from the Board for information will also be limited in the coming weeks if we don't have access to our files, etc. but we will do the best we can to respond. 73, Barry, N1VXY From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org>> On Behalf Of John Robert Stratton Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 4:30 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>> Subject: [arrl-odv:29903] Re: Connecticut Response Barry What equipment are we missing/do we need to operate with a "full contingent?" Is it possible to source that equipment within a reasonable period of time and do we have an estimate of the cost to do so? Assuming we will go to war with the army we have, how much/what departments/services do you believe we can maintain with what and who we currently can field? _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office: 512-445-6262 Cell: 512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 _______________________________________ On 3/20/20 3:12 PM, Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) wrote: Just minutes ago, the governor of CT declared that all workers at non-essential businesses should stay home. It's not clear at this exact moment when this order will take effect but it's likely to be no later than close of business on Monday. We have been working over the past several days to try and equip as many people as possible to work from home but we certainly won't have a full contingent up and running that quickly. It will remain to be seen how much of HQ we can continue in operation. We will have to assess that and I will let you know. Please stand by for more information. There are few specific answers at this point, only broad orders. 73, Barry, N1VXY _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

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