Greetings — For your awareness, the following message was just emailed directly to every Section Manager and Official Observer Coordinator to provide information and an update about the OO Program study that is underway. 73, Brian N5ZGT ========================= Fellow Section Manager and Official Observer Coordinator -- My name is Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT, and I serve as ARRL’s Second Vice President. I have been tasked by ARRL’s Executive Committee (EC) to oversee ARRL’s Official Observer Program Revitalization Study. The purpose of my email to you is to provide some background on the study, what’s happening at present, and what you can expect going forward. I ask that you please share this note with the Official Observers in your Section. The study group is composed of Steve Ewald (ARRL Field Organization Supervisor), Dan Henderson (ARRL Regulatory Information Manager), Chris Imlay (ARRL General Counsel), Dave Patton (ARRL Field Services Manager), and myself. Serving in an advisory role is amateur radio’s great friend Riley Hollingsworth (Former FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement). Atlantic Division Director Tom Abernethy W3TOM and Central Division Director Kermit Carlson W9XA are also on hand as liaisons to ARRL’s Programs & Services and Administration & Finance, respectively. The Official Observer Program Revitalization Study came about for a couple of reasons: First, because it has been at least two decades since the OO program has undergone any considerable review for opportunities to modernize or become more efficient – both at the ARRL Headquarters level where the program is administered by staff, and in the field where the program is executed by you and your team. My very first voluntary role within ARRL, some 20 years ago, was as an Official Observer. I look back and don’t see much difference between today’s program and that of two decades ago. Both ARRL staff and the Board agreed a review was long overdue. The second motivation for the study is that FCC has changed over the years, for better or for worse. Ever increasing budget pressures have changed the way FCC has been able to monitor, investigate, and pursue offenders across all radio spectrum, not just amateur radio’s. Field offices across the nation have closed, many staff who manned those offices have left FCC, FCC personnel in general have been expected to do more with less resources, enforcement priorities have changed, and more. How does an Official Observer program that’s remained largely unchanged for 20 years provide the most efficient and effective support to an FCC that has changed tremendously over the same timeframe? As FCC is the primary customer and end-user of the Official Observer program, it is of vital importance that the "impedance match" between the OO program and FCC be as optimal as possible. Otherwise the valuable time and energy expended by volunteer OOs across the nation is largely for naught. With the two aforementioned motivations in mind, the team that I am leading has taken on a thorough review of the OO program — starting with its interface and relationship with FCC, then focusing on the program’s administration at ARRL HQ, then ultimately the volunteer/field aspects. We are reviewing everything, with an eye on improvement, efficiency, and optimizing that impedance match with today’s FCC. Here is a small sampling of the type of the questions we are asking and then studying: What’s working? What can be improved? What does today’s FCC, given its evolved landscape, need from the OO program to get maximum value from the work of its volunteers? What technologies are out there to help better administer the OO program? How can ARRL better collect, catalog, review, and forward observer field reports to FCC? Should observers' accreditation be perpetual or limited to a number of years to ensure an active and trained volunteer community? What periodic ‘continuing education’ activities could be offered to observers to build community and grow knowledge? Our charge is to develop ideas and recommendations that may contribute to a more efficient and modern program. Our ideas will be delivered in the next few months to ARRL’s Executive Committee (the committee that commissioned this study), which will then engage ARRL’s standing committees (Programs & Services, which looks at the programmatic aspects of ARRL, and Administration & Finance, which focuses on the staffing and financial aspects of ARRL). What is approved by these committees will ultimately appear before ARRL’s board of directors for its consideration. Only after the Board’s buy-in and approval will any major changes to the Official Observer program be implemented. Thoughtful ideas and feedback from within the Official Observer community will be solicited between now and, through your elected Director, prior to the full Board’s consideration. In the meantime, the current Official Observer program continues to operate as it always has. Continue to keep an eye on the bands. Document blatant rule violations and report them up the chain. Recognize good amateurs who are leading by example with ‘Good Operator notices’. Provide friendly heads up and assistance to those who make unwitting mistakes. The only change in operations at ARRL HQ is a temporary pause to the appointment of brand-new Official Observers that HQ staff has imposed upon itself. This was done to largely to allow staff to focus on the study that’s underway, and also to ensure that new volunteers aren’t trained and processed into the existing program, only to turn around and be potentially burdened with different training and processing under a potentially new program. I hope this note provides an idea of what’s underway, the important factors that motivated the study, and the steps to come. I welcome your questions and thoughtful input, and thank you for the time and energy you and your team devote to serving the amateur radio community. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL Second Vice President