IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 36 September 9, 2002 Development Development Associate Debra Johnson has hit the ground running since she joined the staff on August 19. She is a very quick study and is already assisting with preparations for the Diamond Club and the Defense Fund, and is supporting planned giving and prior campaigns with acknowledgements. Plus she is getting the Development Office organized! The ARRL Diamond Club is just about ready for a full launch. Materials have been written and are in design. An article for the November QST is being prepared and the prospect lists are ready. An estimated 55,000 pieces of mail should be out the last week in September. Meetings will be held with departments who will be supporting the benefits of the program. For a variety of reasons, the description of the program is that of a "donor recognition program". The W1AW test campaign for endowment has reached $31,459 from 660 donors for an average contribution of $47.66. We received 8 gifts of $500 or more and 83% of the gifts came from prior donors to W1AW. The response rate to this small test campaign is 6%...better than Defense Fund or the Education and Technology Fun in pure numbers. It is a good indication that with broader cultivation work with major prospects to identify additional major donors, we will be in a better position to launch a full-blown endowment campaign. The 2002 Defense Fund topped off at $438,000. The 2003 fund will mail in October to the full membership file with follow up letters to prior donors, Life Members, and prospects as we did last year. A web presence and QST ads will complete the marketing package. New gifts at the $1000, $500 and $250 level have been chosen and will be offered on the Web. The goal of the campaign is $500,000 from 12,000 donors. The Education and Technology Fund has grossed $205,654 from 3,436 donors for an average contribution of $59.85. That average gift is a statement of how important the next generation is to our members. We will include a repeat of this campaign with updated information and results in 2003. The world of grants has been focused on Emergency communications this summer. * The UTC grant is rolling along with 283 enrollees, thanks to the direct mail postcard mailed in August. We must graduate 250 hams by December 31. * Our request for an additional $225,000 over three years from UTC for a national program is still under review. We have been working hard to support our relationship with UTC in media interviews. A decision is expected this fall after UTC's October Board meeting. The UTC national grant would begin in January 2003 and would provide key resources to meet the demand for emergency communications training. * The CNCS grant went live September 1. We have received financial paperwork on procedures for drawing down funds. LouAnn Campanello, Dan Miller and Mary Hobart will attend a three-day CNCS meeting in Washington in October. The third quarterly Planned Giving mailing has yielded 3 additional commitments and several prospects. The final informational mailing of 2002 will go out in October 2002. Development had a preliminary meeting with a Connecticut law firm to request a proposal for legal services related to planned giving. Production/Editorial The 2003 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications has been released to the printer. Sales & Marketing Deb Jahnke prepared end of the month membership progress and renewal retention analysis reports. Preliminary sales reports were also prepared for August Publication Sales and Advertising. Preliminary reports show that revenue goals were slightly over projections in Advertising, Publications and Membership. We noted with pleasure that we lost fewer memberships than was forecast for the month of August. Membership totaled 157,038, a drop of 397 from July. The plan had anticipated a drop of 683. Member Continuity Break listings (for July expirees) have been sent electronically to Directors, as requested. Dealer sales telemarketing totaled $4711 for the week. KJI Electronics in Cedar Grove NJ, was added as a new QST dealer. We have also received an email from SARL (South African Radio League) letting us know that they have a complete new staff and will again start placing book orders starting with the new 2003 Handbook. Also back as an ARRL Dealer is Tech Publications in Singapore with a new order totaling over $4000. Sales and Marketing team efforts to expand both QST dealer sales and foreign pub sales are targeted for the rest of this year on into 2003. Extensive planning continues on sales and marketing projects that will overlap into or start in 2003/2004 budgets. Membership Services Awards Branch WAC QSL Cards Checked 90 WAC Certificates 23 WAC Endorsements 3 5B WAC Certificates 1 Long Term Member Inquiries 11 A-1 Operator Nominations 5 A-1 Operator Certificates 3 VUCC Backfill Applications 2 Grids (Data Entry) 279 VUCC Endorsement Applications 2 Grids (Data Entry) 128 VUCC Initial Applications 2 Grids (Data Entry) 173 VUCC Awards Mailed 15 Processing Status: Current or within three weeks. For the coming week - Basic WAS awards for August (foreign), WAC awards, Extra Class certificates, VUCC awards processing and mailing, and continued work on budget matters. DXCC Branch Weekly Report September 8, 2002 Beginning Cards 99,333 Cards Received 15,773 Cards Processed 2,804 Ending Cards 112,302 Applications Pending 1,273 Processing Time 5 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 471,399 Cards Returned 446,045 QRP Issued this week 0 QRP YTD 231 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 5, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on August 9, 2002. The noticeable increase in the workload is part of the normal volume of applications submitted each year at this time for the DXCC Annual List. This buildup should continue until the end of September. Kathy Kostek has begun working part-time in DXCC starting Monday, September 9th for a period of 8 weeks. Contest Branch Changes, corrections and problems for entries to the 2002 ARRL Field Day were handled. A total of 2108 logs have been received which sets a new total number of entries received. Seven logs have been received from non W-VE participants in six Central and South American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Panama and Venezuela. A total of 423 entries have been received from groups that included a GOTA station as part of their operation. This is more than double the number of Novice/Tech stations reported for the 2001 Field Day (208) and almost equals the number of Novice/Tech stations reported in 1999, before restructuring (432). A small scoring anomaly that affected a total of eight logs in the 2002 DX CW results was detected. The log checking team addressed the issue, updated the necessary scores, and the Web results were updated. DX CW Web Results are to be opened to the Members' Only pages on Monday, September 9. The correction affected only one Top Ten placement across all of the categories. A corrected PDF will be posted later. Trey Garlough, N5KO, spent most of the week at ARRL Headquarters working with the Contest Branch staff as we discussed and planned the improvements to the contest robot. We also began discussions on automating several other parts of the contest reporting system. Trey will begin implementing these improvements back in California in the coming weeks. The newly designed certificates for all ARRL contests were finalized and the designs sent to the Purchasing Department to be released to the printer. QSL Service Branch QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 09/08/2002: 1,402,175. No cards were mailed this week. Janet Rocco spent 8 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Thanks to Bill Moore, NC1L for handling the morning code practice transmissions for a vacationing Joe Carcia. On Saturday, Scott Gee hosted 13 attendees of the new Section Manager workshop. After the workshop, they wanted to operate W1AW. Quite a few CW and SSB contacts were made during the operations. By all accounts, the SMs had quite a good time operating! Scott also worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the month of September. All week he worked the early afternoon shift for a vacationing Joe Carcia. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2002): $8,058 Field & Educational Services Rosalie prepared budget items and finalized plans for the upcoming Little Rock convention. She, Howard and Steve answered Dan's calls while he was on vacation. She and Howard attended a meeting to think about ideas for future CCE courses. Astronaut Peggy Whitson completed a successful QSO with the Stanley Clark School in South Bend, Indiana. Field & Education Support Team Mary Lau worked with Tom Frenaye to make improvements to the online Foundation scholarship application. Mary talked to a contributor who had won a scholarship from an industry source, but wished to pass it along as a contribution to our General Fund Scholarships program; she also processed contribution acknowledgements, plus relayed messages for the following Sections/Divisions: 2 = SDG, PAC; 1 = CT, WPA, SCV, GA, MN, and LA. Jean Wolfgang has been updating the handouts that will be sent to the Girl Scout National Convention in CA. She has also received and responded to several JOTA and ARISS emails. Gail Iannone sent 1 initial convention application packet to a club requesting ARRL-sanctioning for their event, 5 hamfest approval letters, processed 12 door prize orders, 2 label requests, and sent 16 handout packages for upcoming events. Jo-Ann Arel completed the monthly inventory, and updated 32 clubs, 7 instructors, and 2 teachers. She mailed out 2 videos, one JOTA ½ kit, and 700 brochures. Margie Bourgoin updated Instructor and Teacher records on TASS as a result of our recent renewal postcards. She also forwarded supporting documents for 8 new clubs to the EC for their affiliation approval email vote. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald did all final preparations this week for the Section Manager Workshop at HQ; thirteen participants arrived. Leona Adams notes that a SM Nomination Petition from EMass SM Phil Temples arrived. As of now, elections will be in WPA, WCF, and SC. One petition arrived from NE, NLI, NNY, and SNJ, with Friday being the deadline. Appointments, cancellations and changes were entered after the computer conversion did not occur. Chuck Skolaut helped answer regulatory questions while John's was on vacation. Chuck received several intruder reports. He also got correspondence from a disabled ham living in HUD housing, and needing assistance. This is an ongoing case; staff has worked with Chris Imlay. Chuck will assist with the SM Workshop, and he received and graded three OO tests. The Big Project Jerry Hill sent a welcome back email to all the Big Project Schools wishing them good luck on the start of a new school year. He asked them for comments on the impact the program has had thus far on their students. Eleven of the eighteen schools will not report much progress because they received their equipment at the end of the school year. Jerry began work on an article on the status of The Big Project for December QST. Regulatory Information John assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Muncey, PA (N2ZWU); East Rockaway, NY (K3XYZ); Clinton, TN (KD4MEX) and the Village of East Aurora, NY (N2HP). He also is working to update the ARRL Club Liability Insurance Web page, and continues work on the next printing of The FCC Rule Book. CCE Jerry Ellis caught up with work after being out on travel, began prep to open registration for ARECC Level II and Antenna Modeling on Monday, and has been fielding numerous emails and telephone calls for Dan while he was on vacation. Howard Robins and Rosalie met with Mark Wilson, Steve Ford and Ed Hare to discuss potential CCE courses for introduction next year. The next steps will include Internet polling of our members to determine interest levels for proposed courses, and identifying appropriate course authors. Proofreading of the RFI course is in progress. Emergency Communications Grant Dan Miller represented ARRL at the ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Convention. He spoke on the grants, and updated attendees on the latest news. 73, Sincerely Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Dave Sumner 9/1-9/24 Geneva & Vacation Lisa Kustosik 9/11 Vacation Dan Miller 9/9 WPA Convention Steve Ford 9/12-9/15 Digital Communications Conference Judy Miller 9/3-9/9 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 9/26-9/27 Ten-Tec Show / Sales Presentation Mary Lau 9/16 Vacation Rosalie White 9/16-9/19 Vacation `` 9/20-9/21 Arkansas State Convention Ed Hare 9/9 Medical Mike Tracy 9/13 Jury Duty `` 9/20 Medical Howard Robins 9/16 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 9/16-9/17 Vacation Margie Bourgoin 9/18-20 & 25 Vacation Rick Lindquist 9/12 Vacation Joel Kleinman 9/16 Vacation Martin Cook 09/12-09/16 Convention - Alaska 09/17 Vacation