Dick, You raise a valid numeric point concerning the number of "oppose" comments to RM-11306; however, it is a standard practice (albeit potentially flawed) to view the results of consumer attitude studies in ratios of the folks for vs. those against. I've not at all attempted to see the number of "for" votes, but I doubt if the ratio was 60:40 or greater. The 60:40 for:opposed (yes:no) is typically viewed as sufficient to support a product introduction in many consumer areas. Bill could tell us if this ratio is different for Zippo or if they in fact use a different method to achieve the results needed in their market areas. I'm not trying to stick up for Bill Cross, but if we can't achieve a much greater performance than 20:80 or 50:50 (in our favor) for example, we have not succeeded in our job. 73, Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je@arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is! -----Original Message----- From: dick@pobox.com [mailto:dick@pobox.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:47 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:15450] Re:RM11306 RM15416 17 APR 2007 - 2315 CDT During our long path to RM-11306, which started before I arrived on the board, I have had specific concerns, as have most of my fellow directors. Our pre-Exparte proposal now known as RM-11306 is the product of untold man hours in meetings, discussions and many draft proposals, and finally a board consensus. At the EC teleconference after the completion of Chris Imlay's review, I asked about the number of negative messages the FCC received first on the "full draft" RM-11306 and then on what I refer to as our truncated proposal. The estimate given was a total of about 1300 negative messages. This number can be adjusted one way or the other, but what struck me is that the FCC's position on RM-11306 is being driven by only 1300 negative messages from 600,000+ Amateur Radio Service Licensees! And because the commission is caving in to this very small minority, we are being forced to salvage the situation by using a legislative technicality in order to expunge this negative message record. We are being forced to keep the Wizard of Oz's secret of the man behind the curtain. In spite of my disgust with this situation, I authored the motion recommending to the board that it withdraw RM-11306 from consideration at this time. We will then tweak, re-draft, or otherwise re-configure this proposal and file it again. However, I expect we will have a major backlash from what up to now has been the so-called silent majority. I do not like the situation we are in on this proposal. Yes, we failed to sell it to the amateur radio community. But the FCC also shares some of this blame and we cannot express this fact outside of our board family, if we really want regulation by bandwidth to become the way our amateur bands are managed. Jim and Jay are correct. We must make sure we are all in total agreement on a revised proposal, a plan of action to sell it, and our enthusiastic individual willingness to then sell it. If we fail in any of these three steps, we are wasting our time and the ARRL's credibility. I vote to withdraw RM-11306 from consideration by the FCC. - Dick, W9GIG