IN-Newsletter


Vol. 27, No.28

July 14, 2004


Upcoming Meetings

July 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am

Programs & Services Committee

July 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am

A & F Committee

July 16-17, 2004 in Windsor, CT

Board Meeting


Development

Campaign results to date are as follows:

Spring Spectrum Defense

4240 responses 

$227,184 in revenue

$53.58 average gift

Education & Technology Fund    

183 responses

$8,152 in revenue (plus a $25,000 grant)

$44.55 average gift

W1AW Endowment

1965 responses

$152,700 in revenue (plus $67,000 in pledges)

$81.88 average gift

The CNCS application for year three funding is nearing completion.  The application includes a request for additional funding of $92,000 for a pilot project of Amateur Radio Community Education Project (CEP) to present the fundamentals of Amateur Radio to community emergency councils with goals 1) to change attitudes about Amateur Radio; and 2) to have Amateur Radio included in community emergency plans. Decision on year three funding is expected September 7, 2004.

At the Foundation for September QST will include a listing of 2004 Scholarship winners and their photographs. 

Work continues on the expansion of the Diamond Club monthly solicitation as part of the membership renewal process.  Thanks to Di Szlachetka, Debra Johnson, and Bob Inderbitzen for their work to develop an expanded form to test early in the fall.  Monthly solicitations will increase to 2000 a month, from the current 1000 per month for September.  Once analysis of the results to date is complete, the decision will be made how to best expand the Diamond Club program without jeopardizing member renewals.

Thanks to Debra Johnson who is working on the production of the 10,000 piece followup to the Education & Technology Fund campaign.

The next full campaign will be the Fall 2005 Spectrum Defense mailing to the full membership file which will mail in September.


Media Relations

Members of the Public Relations Committee have selected a winner for the 2004 Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award.  Jennifer will present the group's recommendation during the upcoming Programs & Services Committee, along with a PRC report and other PRC committee-related items.

Reports of the Media Relations Manager and the PRC have been submitted to Lisa Kustosik for the Board meeting.

Jennifer is working on a response to a New York Times column on BPL technology.


Sales and Marketing

We had a busy week compiling last minute reports and statistics for the upcoming Board of Directors meeting.  This is always a challenging week for us because the normal workload must continue to insure that QST gets out the door on time with plenty of ads filling the pages.

While product sales continue to flow, we did note the usual July “summer time buying blues” setting in.  On the bright side, 2005 Handbook advertising insertion orders are being gathered by the sales staff at a rate that guarantees this specialty advertising tool will sell over forecast.  September QST and September/October NCJ and QEX advertising reservations are currently being collected.

Our team has been working with Steve Ford to enrich the lineup of possible new publications and products for 2005.  This week saw some particularly creative thinking coming together on a number of new titles.  We are excited about possibly seeing books about emergency power, another new Hints and Kinks with a little secret “spice” added, and a number of other titles covering popular topics in the works.  The team also put their heads together and came up with some very unique to ARRL products and titles to quickly evaluate as 2005 or 2006 revenue sources.

We also met with Norm Fusaro about a special offer we are considering to boost enrollments in the Technician License On-line course.  A number of other cooperative topics were covered in our meeting.  We enjoy having the vibrant energy Norm carries to the table on our building-wide creative wisdom team.


Membership Services

Awards Branch

WAS QSLs Checked        50     
50-Year Member Awards   36     
60-Year Member Awards   6      
LTMA Records to Siebel  45     
A-1 Op. Noms.   6      
A-1 Op. Certs.  10     
Awards Mailed   47     

Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks.  For the coming week—Package/mail the LTMAs, WAS in the 90th awards, Extra Class certificates, and VUCC awards processing/mailing.

Contest Branch

Twice daily we are manually updating the Field Day List of Logs Received via the web applet at www.b4h.net/cabforms.  As of Friday afternoon, July 9th, 461 submissions had been received via the web-applet (about 20% of the total Field Day submissions received in 2003).  Final editing of the 2004 DX CW article was done and the results should be opened to the membership the week of July 12.  SS Plaques arrived and we will begin shipping during the week of July 12.

DXCC Branch

For the week of:

July 11, 2004          
Beginning Cards 74,726 
Cards Received  11,076 
Cards Processed 8,320  
Ending Cards    77,482 

Applications Pending    577    
Processing Time 3.4 Weeks      

Year-to-date (2004)

Cards Received  265,423
Cards Returned  334,947

DXCC is currently mailing applications received on June 17, 2004.  DXCC is currently entering cards received on June 25, 2004.

Logbook of the World

QSO records entered into the system     46,495,973     
QSL records have resulted       1,539,942      
Logs Processed  58,252 
Active Certificates     10,419 
Users registered in the system  7,366  
Current Applications    111    
Ready Applications      55     
Applications Awaiting Mail      56     

LoTW credits sold:      50,578 
LoTW credits used*:     19,252 
LoTW credits not yet used:      31,326 
LoTW credit transactions**:     359    
Average credits/transaction:    141    
LoTW credit fees:        $8902 
Average per-credit fee:         17.6 cents     
               
Applications submitted:         242 (83 hybrid)

* “LoTW credits used” means credits applied to DXCC application QSO records.

** “LoTW credit transaction” means a purchase of payment credits either directly or as part of a DXCC application.

Note: Not all of the LoTW transactions have been sent to DXCC since some are part of hybrid applications (applications that include cards sent in the mail as well as LoTW credits) for which the mail component has not yet been received so DXCC hasn't retrieved the application from LoTW.



QSL Bureau

Processing time is approximately 8 days from receipt.  This week 114 pounds of cards were received from members.  Approximately 150 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed.  Cards mailed as of 07/11/04:  600,075.  No cards were mailed this week.


Field & Educational Services

Rosalie worked further with Mary and Dan on Year 3 of the CNCS budget.  Johnson Space Center's education office will present talks about ARISS at an upcoming conference for rural and urban teachers.  Rosalie set up and led a telecon of the ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee, and took minutes.  She finished updates to the ARISS Board Report.  She wrote a Web story about Mike Fincke's QSOs of the July 4th holiday, and a story about astronaut Tony England, W0ORE, winning an IEEE award.  She worked with Chuck and Steve to answer a member's lengthy questions about AmAux.

Linda Mullally helped two clubs that merged with their affiliation status.  She shipped items to hams doing a demo station at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Ohio for the anniversary of Armstrong's steps on the moon.  She also sent 4-1/2 Exhibit kits, 2 Scout kits, 196 assorted brochures and requisitioned printing of recruitment handouts.  Linda updated records of 44 clubs and did 4 reactivations.  She registered 5 Volunteer Instructors and 2 Schoolteachers, and handled 1 label request.  She completed the F&ES Monthly Inventory (paper goods), Monthly Video Inventory and Monthly Revenue Report.  As usual, revenue was high in the first months when new license classes began, and decreased as summer nears.

EmComm Grants

Dan Miller gathered data, especially the expected expenses revolving around travel and volunteer recognition, for Mary Hobart to write the application for the third and final year of our CNCS grant.  The third year brings some requirement changes -- 75% of all new volunteers should be seniors, 55+ years old.  Also submitted was a request for added funds to education community groups about emcomm; we hope the extra money gets approved.  Dan updated old text about ham radio for the Grolier Scholastic encyclopedia. 

Certification Program

Jean Wolfgang produced a database of SMs, SECs, DECs and ECs who haven't taken our EmComm courses; Dan will nudge these folks.  She began the June mentor stipend process for 87 mentors.  She processed 48 grant-sponsored graduates, 14 technical online course graduates, and 10 field test graduates.  She reviewed CCE Mentors, and put 9 whose membership had expired, on hold.  She processed and sent 2 class rosters to our Web host.  Jean solicited mentors for Level 1 courses and handled responses from 57.  She saw an increase in bounced email from students who signed up for courses; it appears spam filters are blocking our automatic responses for students who register.  Since those email addresses are used by mentors to contact students and also by our Web host, Jean searched for and used alternate email addresses for each one.

Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program

Mark Spencer worked while on vacation, visiting Parallax, supporters of our teacher's institute, to firm up a discount for curriculum materials to be used.  Our first-ever institute is August 9-13, and we'll host at Hq, up to 10 teachers from across the country.  Planning has begun for teaching wireless technology and robotics.  Boards and production parts for the latest project kits (L/C/Resonance and DSP Fundamentals Board) arrived, and Mark test-constructed a board.  He is developing the construction manual and lesson activities, and hopes kits will be ready for schools in mid-September.  Mary Hobart's letter to potential Project donors generated numerous inquires for additional information, and at least one resulted in a modest donation.

Club/Mentor Program

Norm Fusaro's ARRL Affiliated Clubs Presidents Reflector went live on Field Day weekend, and is active with 120 presidents participating.  Discussions are positive; a common thread is trying to increase club membership.  Norm is developing some of the postings into stories and aids that we share on the Web crawl.  The Web page listing new hams is getting over 300 hits per month; clubs solicit members from this list.  Norm did yeoman duty getting up at 4 am on a holiday to monitor the ARISS Space Camp Turkey QSO; he wrote a story for our Web pages.  He met with Bart Jahnke about coordination between VE Teams and club mentors on working with new hams.  Norm met with the marketing group to discuss promoting the online Technician courses through clubs, possibly with some special benefits.

Regulatory Information

John Hennessee reports an increase in questions on the timetable of the FCC restructuring order.  He has heard from a number of people, including non-hams, who are very anxious for restructuring to take place, particularly on the code issue.  He has also received concerns about a statute in the District of Columbia that may restrict amateurs.  He assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Lincoln, MN (WB5VUK); Cortlandville, NY (WA1GZY); Zachary, LA (WB5UOA) and Blue Brass, IA (KB0BA).  He assisted an amateur with concerns on covenants in Marina Del Rey, CA (K6ZMN).

Field Organization/Public Service Team

Chuck Skolaut reports the "bubbling water" intruder on the 17-meter band has likely been identified as the over-the-horizon radar signal known as the "Havana Gurgle."  Chuck listened to taped documentation regarding unlicensed 10-meter operation (this one occurring in Tennessee).  He prepared for his trip to the San Francisco Section Convention.

Leona Adams handled section expense reports and sent each Section Manager a copy of his or her current section budget report.  She generated the monthly Field Organization Appointment reports and is sending these to SMs.  A steady flow of Field appointments, cancellations, and data updates continue. 

Steve Ewald wrote the September QST promotional article on the ARRL's Simulated Emergency Test.  This year's main SET weekend is October 2-3.  He prepared the Public Service column.  North Dakota SM Kent Olson, KA0LDG, and Louisiana SM Mickey Cox, K5MC, reported recent contact with their respective US Congressmen and staffs with regard to BPL.  Dan Miller, Rosalie and Steve met two members of the Manchester (CT) Office of Emergency Management who are active trainers in the Community Emergency Response Team program of Citizen Corps.  The visit included a Winlink demo from W1AW.


73,

        Sincerely,


        Mark Wilson, K1RO

        Chief Operating Officer


MW:lk


Staff Absentee List

Dave Sumner                     7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Mary Hobart                     7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Mark Wilson                     7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Barry Shelley                   7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Monique Levesque                7/23-8/3                Vacation

Lisa Kustosik                   7/15pm-7/17     Board Meeting

Dave Patton                     7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Perry Williams                  7/16-9/7                Vacation

Dennis Motschenbacher           7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

          ``                            7/23-7/25       Central States VHF, Toronto, Canada-personal

         ``                             8/20-8/21       Convention, Albuquerque, NM

          ``                            8/27-8/29       SW Division Convention, Phoenix, AZ-personal

Robert Inderbitzen              7/19-7/30       Vacation

Janet Rocco                     7/15            Vacation

      ``                                7/26-7/30       Vacation

       ``                               8/9-8/13                Vacation

Debra Jahnke                    8/9-8/13                Vacation

Mark Dzamba                     8/23-8/27       Vacation

Pam Dzamba                      8/23-8/27       Vacation

Chuck Skolaut                   7/8-7/14                Convention, San Francisco, CA/Vacation

Bill Moore                      7/16            Pacific NW Convention

Steve Ford                      7/31-8/8                Vacation

Rosalie White                   7/15-7/17       PS-C Meeting/Board Meeting

Wayne Mills                     7/16-7/17       Board Meeting

Gail Iannone                    7/19-7/23       Vacation

Dan Miller                      7/23-7/25       SATERN Seminar, Kansas City, MO

Zoe Belliveau                   8/9-8/13                Vacation

LouAnn Campanello               7/12-7/16       Vacation

MaryAnn Macdonald               7/19-7/23       Vacation

Steve Ewald                     7/26pm-7/29     National Citizen Corps Conference (Denver)