A couple of quick comments, then I have to get back to the October QST editorial: 1) To the best of my knowledge, none of the "parents" of the listed organizations are 501(c)(3). They may have related Foundations that are 501(c)(3). 2) I know of no doors that are closed to us that could not be opened by a constituent, contributor or not. $500 isn't going to change anybody's mind. That's not to say that it wouldn't be nice for somebody to be able to float some money toward a legislative friend of amateur radio, in the name of amateur radio, as a gesture of appreciation. 3) Chris can perhaps locate the report of the earlier investigation more quickly than I can. Certainly the degree of Board overlap has to be less than 50%. AS Chris reported earlier, John Chwat was involved in the research at the time. 4) If you gentlemen and ladies have some funds that you'd like to contribute to political candidates you are free to make those contributions as private individuals. You are also free to make it clear to those candidates that amateur radio is your principal interest. I know many of us have done so in the past and will continue to do so. 73, Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Frenaye, Tom (Dir, NE) Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 2:17 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9315] Re: Ham Radio PAC? At 12:21 PM 8/25/2003 -0400, K1ZZ wrote:
If anyone knows of a bona fide 501(c)(3) who has an affiliated 501(c)(4) with a PAC I'd be glad to research how they've done in practice; the membership associations I know of that have affiliated PACs are not 501(c)(3)s. I thought I had found one, the Keep Hope Alive PAC, but in their filings they claim no affiliation with the 501(c)(3) Keep Hope Alive, Ltd.
There are 7807 PACs listed on the Federal Election Commission web site for 2003-04. Of those, 927 are in the Trade/Membership/Health category (where an Amateur Radio PAC would be listed if there were one). Here are a few of the listings: (a couple of these must be related to 501c3 organizations) AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY VOTERS ALLIANCE AMERICAN PILOTS' ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES A-PAC NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE POWER PAC OF THE EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE SIERRA CLUB POLITICAL COMMITTEE BOAT OWNERS ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES (BOAT/US) POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE I'm not sure what you mean by "affiliated" PAC. From previous discussions it appears we can not have too close of a relationship with a PAC, so the question appears to be how much overlap (if any) can the organizations have? Could two or three or 50% of the Boards overlap?
That aside, rephrasing Jim's question slightly: Could enough money be raised (not could "we" raise it since we're prohibited from raising it) for a PAC to make any difference?
The examples given are useful to understand each end of the influence spectrum. As I understood Jim's input, the ability to give $500 to a Congressman would open some doors that are closed to us today. So, my thinking is that opening one more door would be a useful thing. If we can do it with 20 members of Congress ($10k overall) or 200 members ($100k) those would be even better steps... I'm willing to bet that the ARRL Board would find a way to contribute more than $10k itself... Perhaps one place we can get some good advice on this is from John Chwat? Or does ASAE (American Assoc of Association Executives) have any research that would be useful? -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444