CONFIDENTIAL-Not to be put out to Newsline, Rain Report, QRZ, E-ham, AARA, AM window BBS, (as our July meeting was) or the web in general. In a message dated 10/09/2003 11:18:32 AM Central Daylight Time, frenaye@pcnet.com writes:
It also sounds to me like the decision has been made on which strategies have been selected for 2004 implementation. I think we ought to agree on them first before we just bull forward.
No, that is not the case at all. Speaking just for myself, I thought the board would decide that at the January meeting based on the results of the long range planning seminars put on by Bud Couch for which we paid good money. You have his summary, but I have heard nothing from any of you about "it was good, bad or indifferent." Dave Sumner and I have discussed Chwat & Company and we think they are doing a good job. If the board thinks we need to do more, no problem but is putting another $80,000 job in the mix should be considered carefully. I will be brutally honest, but when Steve Mansfield was our Washington representative, all Chwat & Company did was set his appointment calendar. Pretty expensive social secretary in my view. We have John and Derek doing a lot more these days. I want you to go back and look at some of Steve's reports. In the reports there was a lot of "fluff" such as: "Tried to see xxx, but they were not in, talked to zzz but they seemed disinterested." Making 50 calls per month without quality is make work, but no results. I had rather see Derek make 10 calls but with substance and just scatter shoot. My last trip to Washington was covered by a report from Chris Imlay and we discussed it and he agreed to write it for me. Why? Because of the attorney-client privilege clause in the e-mail. I do not like putting people's names in print over e-mail, for several reasons. If it involved inside information, that person could lose his/her job if the e-mail found it's way to some of the ham web sites. I was very uncomfortable in mentioning Bruce Franca in my earlier report, but Chris did under the above caveats. Chris, Dave and I have developed some good relations with key people over the years because they know that if they give us something in the way of a "heads up" we won't print it in QST. Having these contacts have served the League well over the years and it would be counter productive to operate otherwise. While I am rambling, don't you all think that it is strange that the membership has not asked us: "Why is there no hurry to comment on the CW petitions?" Well, you know the answer, we were at the FCC and ask, and pointed out our time line to them. That was in Chris' report. A lot of the amateurs would go ballistic if they knew that we used influence in the matter. BPL- We are presently working on our list of people to invite to a "BPL Coalition" to discuss our mutual interest and how all would be impacted in the 2 to 80 MHz spectrum. Paul, Chris and Dave are taking the lead, but so far the date has not been pinned down exactly nor has the list we have. Each of you should be aware, amateur radio cannot thwart BPL by ourselves. We will need partners. How much should we make public? You have seen (or should have by now) how the PLCA has started down playing Ed Hare's reports. We are working (Paul and Chris) with an outside company to certify our data. We continue to gather information and put out fires at the same time. Morse Code- 1st Vice President Harrison has submitted an excellent white paper to the EC. The members are studying it now. There has been a few questions as to the number of license classes but we should have a lively discussion at the EC meeting on November the 9th. After that, the results will be submitted to the full board for consideration. I assume that all of you are still taking input from the membership and have a "tally sheet" going to help the decision making process. Now, back to the subject line of this post. We have done a terrible job in getting grass root support for our two bills in Congress. I get e-mails all the time about why we have not thrown more support to the bills in the way of cash and work. Simply put and I quote myself: "We can get the bills introduced, but the amateurs have to write their representatives to get them passed." Unquote. I talked to John Chwat at length about this last month. It was our collective opinion that the members don't know what to do or how to do it. The majority do not have the experience or courage to call a district congressional office much less go in person. Each of you have made many talks before clubs and conventions. You are old hands at meeting people and public speaking. Our members are not, so we need to give them a little help. I put John's draft paper out to all you and I have had only two responses. I think it is a good piece and with a little polish we could put it up on our web site along with a story and hot link for down load. Enough for now, the phone is ringing. Jim Haynie