For the record, the status of the host of the non-ARRL reflector, which Director Norton has now clarified, does not affect the recommendations in my e-mail message of earlier this week. 73, Chris W3KD -----Original Message----- From: richardjnorton@gmail.com To: arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org Sent: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 1:28 PM Subject: [arrl-odv:15381] 3 Months or 3 Minutes, $$ or $0 ?? ODjr Reflector I hope that existence of the ODjr reflector at least raises some interest into what we are getting and what we are paying for it, with respect to ARRL E-mail reflectors. I set the ODjr reflector up in less than 3 minutes. The cost to the ARRL for the reflector is zero. The individual that hosted the ODjr reflector was mischaracterized here as being "a private individual not associated with or employed by ARRL." Actually he has been an unpaid consultant to the League for some time. The ARRL has reimbursed his airfare costs on trips to Newington. As an aside, the ARRL even shortchanged him by not paying for one of the trips apparently due to some foul up in the reimbursement process, which in spite of that, he continues to assist us. He provided the League with the system and all the software to receive contest logs electronically. He provides a computer, located in California, that stores copies, on each of two hard drives, of every contest log submitted to the League. ARRL's log-checkers use his computer to receive log information. The logs are also stored in Newington. He did receive $2000 last year, (with a accompanying 1099) which he used to buy a new computer for League contests. He is not "a private individual not associated with or employed by ARRL." ODV Reflector The ODV reflector started having difficulties with messages from users of Google's G-Mail in January. The problem made it impossible for 20% of the Board to communicate ideas without the content being overwhelmed by the framework in which they were received. It has taken almost 3 months for this to be fixed. And it was finally fixed two days after the announcement of ODjr. The ARRL is paying money to operate the ODV reflector, I suspect both in software costs, employee expenses, and it appears, to an outside vendor. Prior to sending my second test message last night, I received a message from Richard Pendelton of "Interbridge" telling me that he had apparently fixed the server. So, we now see that the ARRL-ODV reflector is also apparently hosted off-site. I guess that is acceptable, because we are paying money for it. Summary Case 1 - Unacceptable -Bad 3 minutes Zero cost Unpaid consultant Case 2 - Present Practice - Good 3 months Cost Outside vendor On SPAM blacklists (more about this later) In response to an E-mail sent to me, I guess I'm now supposed to apologize for doing something that "represents divisiveness and unwillingness to work within our establish (sic) way of doing business." 73, Dick Norton, N6AA For Vice directors: ODjr was a reflector that I set up with a three minute telephone call. It contains the officers and directors. It has not been used, and likely will not since the ODV reflector apparently now works. ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.