Nice work, Jim. I had the pleasure of attending the SM Workshop with John Meyers back when I had the East Bay SM position, and I completely agree with your assessment. We have to take care of the folks out on the front line with the membership. Your experience with explaining the "why" of the decision matches mine. Many members actually blame the ARRL for the reduction of the code speed requirement to 5 WPM. There is very little understanding of why the FCC changed the requirement or that it's simply not an option that is on the table when we deal with them. We have a LOT of educating to do. Very few continue to argue points when I tell them that the FCC is not about to embark on anything that will cost them money, which includes having to change ULS or re-instituting the "special accommodation" process that goes along with higher code speed tests. Once members hear and understand the political and economic realities, most calm down and begin to see our position. -- Andy Oppel, N6AJO Pacific Division Vice Director At 12:41 PM 1/26/2004, you wrote:
It looks as though we arent going to be recalled after all! Darn!
I just talked with Tony DiPrato on the telephone for about 45 minutes during which I explained why we did what we did. It turns out he hadnt seen any of the newsletters Id sent out on the restructuring proposal. He had set his arrl.net address to forward to a secondary E-mail address and had somehow missed seeing these. Anyway, after we talk and commiserated he came to understand what we are trying to do and the constraints with which we were operating i.e. forget asking for things FCC will definitely not accept (ex 20 wpm code).
I guess yalll have to put up with me for another couple of years after all. I withdraw my offer of a vacation in the Bahamas for all of us (after being recalled).
Incidentally, we all know how valuable good SMs are. It turns out that SM John Meyers, NB4K talked with Tony before me and took most of the tank traps and barriers out of the field for me. Hes a good man.
73, GL,
Jim W.
AMATEUR RADIO: The only fail-safe communications system in the world.
ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio is!
Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division ARRL
5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040-9660, Tel. 513-459-0142, E-mail <mailto:k8je@arrl.org>k8je@arrl.org
Andy Oppel andy@andyoppel.com