IN-Newsletter
Vol. 26, No. 21
May 28, 2003
Development
The Spectrum Defense special campaign for WRC-03 has raised $30,309 from 1400 donors so far. This total brings the 2003 Spectrum Defense Fund total to $330,244 from 7191 donors. The average contribution for 2003 is $45.92, an increase of $2.61 over the 2002 Defense campaign.
Plans are being made for an additional special campaign around the Broadcast over Power Line issue. A promotional ad will appear in July QST. Once the letter is final a campaign will be launched which will include a web component. The plan is to mail this appeal to the entire active ARRL member file, to a portion of the lapsed member file and segment of the never member file in CT, VA and CA.
The 2003 Education & Technology Fund received a boost from two generous contributions on the heels of the Dayton Hamvention. Those combined gifts of $6500 bring the campaign total to $73,975 so far from 1401 donors. The average contribution is down from 2002 by about $7.
Two special Diamond Club solicitations are being mailed this week to 18,000 Life Members and to about 600 key prospects. This mail appeal is supported by a new ad in July QST.
The test campaign for Historic Preservation is in production and will be mailed to 10,000 randomly selected donors.
Development has been notified of a cash bequest from the New England Division from a long-time member.
An interim report on the UTC national grant is due June 20. The renewal application for the second year of the CNCS grant is due in early July.
Production/Editorial
The July issue of QST has been released to the printer.
Brennan Price put the finishing touches on the July Product Review column and sent page proofs to the manufacturers for feedback. He was briefed on Hamvention product releases and the National Frequency Coordinators’ Council forum by Hamvention attendees.
Rick Lindquist edited Happenings for July QST and wrote (with assistance from Ed Hare, Paul Rinaldo and Dave Sumner) a follow-up story that outlined some 60-meter operating concerns. He also compiled "In Brief," edited the Web "Space & Beyond" and "The Amateur Amateur" columns from contributing editors, compiled and edited The ARRL Letter, and produced ARRL Audio News with voiceover help from Jennifer Hagy and Brennan Price.
Sales & Marketing
Our most recent email solicitation boosted ARRLWeb sales over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. 454 orders were received, yielding sales of $24,632. The effect of a free shipping offer for orders totaling $50 or more increased the average order size to $54.26 (compare with the Easter holiday solicitation which generated 507 orders with sales of $17,792--an average order amount of $35.09).
The Advertising Staff continued to round up advertisements for the July issue from those "hard to reach customers" still shaking off Hamvention fatigue. Speaking of Dayton, Janet Rocco is going through the 2003 Hamvention vendor list to determine those attendees who are not QST advertisers. Advertising rate information will be sent to those individuals with a personalized letter.
Deb Jahnke spent considerable time untangling advertising insertion orders. There were some minor glitches, but horror of horrors, we received CQ’s ICOM ads and CQ received ours. All has been straightened out.
Bob Inderbitzen, Deb Jahnke, and Dennis Motschenbacher met to finish a draft proposal for paid/volunteer membership recruiters. This initiative is under discussion by the Ad Hoc Membership Recruitment and Retention Committee.
Although we have not heard much from Radio Shack since their Amateur Division reorganization, we continue to try to pursue them for advertising and a purchase of Now You’re Talking!.
Rose-Ann Lawrence reports slow lobby traffic at the moment. We anticipate a pick-up once schools are out and summer officially starts. Rose-Ann participated in a simulated communications drill at New Britain General Hospital on May 15. She will also be acting as one of several liaisons between NARL and the Wethersfield Fire Department for the Wethersfield Firemen's 200th Anniversary Parade this September, which is going to be a big event. Trucks will be arriving from all over the Northeast, and Amateur assistance has been requested to assist with communications.
July QST advertising includes a new house ad introducing YASME--The Danny Weil and Colvin Radio Expeditions. The following items are now available for ordering via the ARRLWeb catalog:
TravelPlus for Repeaters CD-ROM -- 2003/2004 Edition, Version 7.0 <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8985>
Amateur Radio Today -- DVD version <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9027>
The ARRL DXCC List -- May 2003 Edition <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8942>
Radio Amateur Callbook CD-ROM -- Summer 2003 Edition <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8794>
Understanding, Building and Using Baluns and Ununs (published by CQ) <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8982>
25,000 publications catalog were mailed to customers this week.
Membership Services
Awards Branch
WAS Certs. (250 QSLs F/C) 5
WAS Certs. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1
5BWAS Certs. (500 QSLs F/C) 2
5BWAS Cert. (250 QSLs ES/C) 1
L/T Member Inquiries 4
A-1 Operator Certs. 7
Code Prof. Certs. 3
Code Prof. Ends. 3
Code Prof. Return 1
VUCC Initial Apps. 5
Grids 685
VUCC End. App. 1
Grids 23
Awards Mailed 39
Also, completed filing chores from LTMA correspondence from the year 2001. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week—WAS and WAC QSL card checking, foreign WAC, RCC, and Friendship awards, mail out awards processed this week, filing chores associated with all LTMA correspondence from the year 2002, and on-going VUCC awards processing/mailing.
Contest Branch
Editing of the QST versions RTTY Roundup and 10-Meter contest results continued. The 2002 10-Meter results for the ARRL Web were prepared and sent to WSDD, edited and opened to the Members’ Only pages. Problems with 2003 ARRL DX contest entries were handled with the Log Checkers and we are waiting final results for that event. Queries for Field Day continued to come in and are being handled daily. The line scores for the 2002 November Sweepstakes (CW and Phone) and the 2002 160-Meter contest were prepared, sent to Production, proofed, and added to the PDF files available online.
DXCC Branch
Weekly Report
May 25, 2003
Beginning Cards 106,150
Cards Received 18,650
Cards Processed 7,051
Ending Cards 117,749
Applications Pending 933
Processing Time 7.9 Weeks
Year-to-date (2003)
Cards Received 216,726
Cards Returned 308,902
QRPs Issued this week 0
QRP’s Issued total 294
DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 31, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on April 14, 2003.
QSL Branch
QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 05/25/003: 623,125. No cards were mailed this week. Heather Dzamba spent 6 hours conducting tours around HQ.
Field & Education Services
Rosalie is handling Jerry Hill's correspondence until our new Big Project coordinator, Mark Spencer, WA8SME, arrives from California in mid-June. Johnson Space Center's Nick Lance, KC5KBO, did a great job licensing (ham licenses) three of the four Aerospace Education Specialists at the Center; so NASA Hq's Education Office asked Nick to train the rest of the 40 nationwide Specialists at an upcoming conference at the NASA Glenn Research Center.
EmComm Grants
Dan Miller represented ARRL at the NVOAD National Conference in Bismark, ND, and networked with CNCS leaders (our emcomm course grantor). That was followed by the Hamvention where 60 people heard his talk during the ARES Forum, and 12 attended an emcomm dinner. CNCS graduates now total 1,348 for the Level I course. UTC graduates for Level II now total 121, and for Level III the total is 51.
Field & Education Support Team
Mary Lau made changes to Goldfarb scholarship information on ARRLWeb, so that it integrates with the overall scholarship program information. Mary circulated a request to select staff for ideas on improvements to our prospective ham Web pages.
Linda Mullally updated 70 club records and made 1 reactivation. She registered 9 Volunteer Instructors and 2 schoolteachers, and sent out 8 Exhibit kits and 2 JOTA Kits.
Jean Wolfgang has been compiling ideas that may be used for the coming ARRL youth web pages. She sent a message via the ScoutRadio Yahoo mail group asking hams who will participate in JOTA 2003 to register the event on the youth skeds web page. She noticed an increase in emails pertaining to JOTA. Last Saturday Jean, Larry Wolfgang, Perry Green and other CARS members attended the Boy Scout Mohegan District Camporee. They invited scouts and adults to make contacts through WA1BSA.
Margie Bourgoin reports that the number of SSC applications are slowing down, but she processed several renewals. She also entered 2 reactivations into the system this week. She and Linda Mullally are proofreading the text of new Active Club Online Primer, destined for ARRLWeb this summer.
Gail Iannone sent a room reservation list with everyone’s specifications to the Arlington Wyndham Hotel for the ARRL’s block for the National Convention. She also sent 6 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Directors’ approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned and sent 8 packages of handouts for upcoming events.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Leona Adams and Steve Ewald led the counting of SM ballots in three races, with thanks to Chuck and Margie for their help. The incumbents were elected: MD SM Tom Abernethy, W3TOM; SJV SM Charles McConnell, W6DPD; NH SM Al Shuman, N1FIK. Leona handled correspondence with candidates and a news item announcing results for the Web. The following SMs were unopposed: NV SM Dick Flanagan, W6OLD; NNJ SM Bill Hudzik, W2UDT; RI SM Bob Beaudet, W1YRC; UT SM Mel Parkes, AC7CP; and WTX SM John Dyer, AE5B. New terms of office begin July 1. WV SM Hal Turley, KC8FS, has been nominated to run again for the next term beginning in October. The SM petitions deadline is June 6. In addition to other electronic communication over the past couple of weeks, 16 different SMs sent out 25 e-mail messages to members via the ARRL e-mail relay service.
Chuck Skolaut received updated information on California hang glider pilots using 2-meter ham radio; some are unlicensed. He also learned that an Ohio OO helped in an investigation leading to recent FCC enforcement action against WE8E who allegedly caused interference to a Canadian 40-M net; a story about it was on the ARRL Web.
CCE
Howard Robins reports 9 registrants for the new online course, VHF/UHF - Life Beyond the Local Repeater. Howard revamped our web pages related to CCE field class and examination processes in an attempt to reduce telephone time spent explaining the information. He extracted data for, and updated, reports for all classes.
Jerry Ellis has processed results from field exam sessions received recently. CNCS, UTC, and field exam graduates were mailed their printed certificates, ID cards and refund checks (where appropriate). He shipped a field exam kit.
Regulatory Information
John Hennessee was part of the Dayton legal forum which sported well over 100 attendees. He worked the member-contact side of the ARRL booth. This week he answered a number of questions on the 60 meter channels, and worked on final preparations for the new edition of The FCC Rule Book. He assisted an amateur with a local government zoning problem in Columbus, OH (KC8FPU) and assisted an amateur with a covenant restriction in Indianapolis, IN (N1MRR).
73,
Sincerely,
Mark Wilson, K1RO
Chief Operating Officer
MW: lk
Staff Absentee List
Name Date(s) Reason
All Staff 7/4 Holiday
Dave Sumner 6/3-7/6 WRC 2003, Geneva
Jennifer Hagy 7/7-7/11 Vacation
Dave Hassler 5/30-6/2 Vacation
Joe Carcia 5/27-5/30 Vacation
Mary Lau 5/27-6/2 Vacation
Chuck Skolaut 5/27-6/6 Vacation
Dan Miller 5/30-6/1 Rocky Mt. Division Convention
Rosalie White 5/29-5/30 Rocky Mt. Division Convention
Wayne Mills 5/29-6/2 Rocky Mt. Division Convention
Bart Jahnke 5/29-6/5am Vacation
Stu Cohen 5/30 Vacation
Dennis Motschenbacher 5/30 Atlantic Division Convention
Rick Lindquist 6/28 Vacation