Joel, I thought competency tests were against the law for voting or running for office in the US. ;-) Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: <mailto:k8je@arrl.org> k8je@arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is! _____ From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:55 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:16518] silly season starts early First thing he needs to do is look at an ARRL Division map. If he sent that to the Georgia SM he's campaigning in the Southeast Division where votes don't count for Delta Division Director! _____ From: w4ru@bellsouth.net [mailto:w4ru@bellsouth.net] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:06 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:16518] silly season starts early This was forwarded to me by the Georgia SM 73 Sandy, W4RU --------------------------------------------------------------------- I believe the ARRL needs new leadership if we truly want it to be the "National Association of Amateur Radio" in the future. In recent years the ARRL Board of Directors has shown poor judgment in a number of ways. Perhaps the most obvious example is the "regulation by bandwidth" proposal (RM-11306) submitted by the League to the FCC. A large majority of the comments submitted by hams to the FCC on RM-11306 were negative; the League then tried to salvage part of RM-11306 by submitting an ex-parte revision which included an "erratum" that supposedly conveyed the ARRL's true desires. Finally, in the face of massive opposition, the ARRL asked the FCC to withdraw RM-11306 from further consideration. I have decided to run for Delta Division Director this year. Fred AA7BQ has given me permission to post my campaign platform on QRZ.COM. Although the election ballots will not be mailed to the ARRL members in the Del ta Division (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) until late September, I would like to hear now from both Delta Division members and any other amateur radio operators who have constructive ideas on how we can improve the ARRL. Depending upon the suggestions I receive here and by other means (emails, discussions at hamfests, etc.), I will "fine tune" my platform in the coming months. Among the changes I plan to pursue if I'm elected the new Delta Division Director are the following: 1. ARRL members should have the choice of receiving QST, QEX, or NCJ. A number of League members have complained in recent years about the lack of technical content, contest reporting, etc., in QST. If the content in QST cannot be improved, then the members should have the choice of receiving QST, QEX, or NCJ. Other organizations (e.g., the National Rifle Association) offer similar options to their members and the A RRL should do likewise. 2. The ARRL Board meetings should be open to a limited number of members, including those who write for non-League publications such as CQ Magazine and WorldRadio, as long as personnel issues are not under discussion. The ARRL Board needs to be more "open" in making League policy; one way to do that is to permit a limited number of League members to attend Board meetings (at their own expense) unless personnel matters are under discussion. These "guests" would be observers only. It is particularly important that members who write news articles for non-ARRL publications (e.g., CQ Magazine, WorldRadio) be permitted to attend Board meetings. 3. An independent committee of technically qualified hams should carefully determine the advantages and disadvantages of "regulation by bandwidth" through spectrum efficiency studies, etc., to determine if a new proposal should be subm itted to the FCC. The recent ARRL petition included essentially no documentation (engineering studies, band plans, or other data) that justified changing from the current scheme of regulation by mode to regulation by bandwidth. Before we ask the FCC to make such a dramatic change in the Part 97 rules, the ham community needs to be reasonably sure that such a change is warranted and that the Amateur Radio Service will be improved. 4. The ARRL Board should achieve a reasonable degree of consensus within the ham community before submitting any future proposals to the FCC. The ARRL Board should post drafts of its proposals on the ARRL Web site for comments by hams, both members and non-members. All of the posted comments should be available for everyone to review. Some proposals may have to be revised several times over many months before a consensus is achieved. If a reasonable consensus cannot be achieved, th en that proposal should not be submitted to the FCC. This policy will prevent future fiascoes similar to RM-11306. 5. All petitions released by the FCC for comment that concern the Amateur Radio Service should be made known to the ham community in a timely manner by the ARRL. In late 2007 the FCC invited comments on RM-11392, a proposal asking the FCC to limit the maximum bandwidth of data transmissions to 1.5 kHz on all HF bands except 10 meters. In addition to not filing any comments itself, the ARRL apparently never even mentioned the existence of this particular petition on the ARRL Web site. There is no excuse for the ARRL not to inform the ham community of the existence of such petitions. In addition, if the ARRL chooses not to comment officially to the FCC, the League should at least discuss within the ham community the various advantages and disadvantages of any submitted petitions. The ARRL once again showed a serious lack of leadership in its failure to do anything regarding RM-11392. 6. The ARRL should increase its support of the National Traffic System and should quickly move on the recommendations of the National Emergency Response Planning Committee. The current national leadership undervalues the training opportunities in emergency communications offered by the League's own National Traffic System (including NTSD, the digital "arm" of NTS) in such fundamental skills as formal message handling and operating in directed nets. The ARRL Board should support the use of all appropriate modes and networks in providing backup communications to the public during emergencies. In addition, since Hurricane Katrina there has been little apparent progress by the ARRL regarding the recommendations of its own National Emergency Response Planning Committee (NERPC). For example, little or no action appears to have be en taken by the ARRL Board so far on such issues as credentialing, establishing a national emcomm database of responders, or identifying Major Disaster Emergency Coordinators (MDECs). I want the ARRL to once again be a membership organization that we all can be proud of, newcomers and old timers alike. If elected, I will work diligently to have the Board adopt the changes described above. Thank you for your support. 73, Mickey Cox K5MC k5mc@arrl.net