Marty - As to your question about costs, since your Director is a member of the A&F Committee might I suggest that you reach out to him directly to answer your questions regarding the cost of legislative advocacy, which many of us consider priceless. By the way, we’ve now raised almost $80,000, through a very limited effort, to help offset the costs of the program. The A&F Committee was made aware of this at their last meeting. It’s been a pleasure working with you these past few years. I wish you well. Best wishes for the Season, Mike N2YBB From: Marty Woll Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 1:55 PM To: 'Mike Raisbeck' ; n2ybb@arrl.org ; arrl-odv@arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:26001] Re: Meeting with Senator Nelson's staff While I detest the deceit and delaying tactics employed by Sen. Nelson and his staff, let us please caution our members not to descend into profanity – or, worse yet, threats – in any correspondence or contact they may choose to initiate with the Senator. We all have some hotheads in our respective Divisions, and we don’t want them to poison the well or tarnish our “brand”. Separately, what was the total out-of-pocket cost of this two-year effort, including any incremental billings for professional services? 73, Marty N6VI From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Mike Raisbeck Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2016 10:21 AM To: n2ybb@arrl.org; arrl-odv@arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:25999] Re: Meeting with Senator Nelson's staff Mike, I would suggest that your report below be "leaked" to the ham community in some form. A little bit of grassroots wrath directed at Senator Nelson can't hurt at this point, and might help in the longer term. Mike K1TWF On 12/08/16, Mike Lisenco N2YBB<n2ybb@arrl.org> wrote: Hello ODV Chris Imlay, Frank McCarthy and I met on Tuesday morning with Senator Nelson's Chief of Staff along with two Commerce Committee senior attorneys who work for Nelson as he is the ranking minority member of the Committee) We have met with both of the two staff attorneys repeatedly before). We were attempting to persuade Nelson to release the hold he (and apparently he alone) has placed on H.R. 1301 or the composite Senate Bill that includes a number of minor telecom bills that passed the House. I am sorry to have to report that the Amateur Radio Parity Act will not pass this Session. Nelson's Chief of Staff claims in effect that Nelson has heard from an unspecified number of HOAs in Florida who are opposed to the Bill. They can't tell us why there is this alleged opposition to the modified Bill; whether the opposition is based on a reasonable argument; and we have never been told before Tuesday that this alleged opposition exists. Nelson's Chief of Staff could articulate no reason why the current Bill does not accommodate HOAs, protect "contracts" or requires further modification. Quite frankly, it is apparent to both Chris and myself that Senator Nelson had no intention whatsoever of changing his position. We believe that we were sandbagged from the start of the meeting. This despite the fact that Nelson has sent responses to the hams who have contacted him that he appreciates the value of ham radio and the services we provide and that he is open to a reasonable compromise that takes into account the concerns of hams and HOAs. Instead of coming out and saying to our face at the get-go that they wouldn’t let the bill move forward, they first implied that since we’ve only had this bill moving through one Congressional term, that we essentially haven’t been around long enough -- we haven’t paid our dues so to speak. They broached the subject of The Villages, the largest HOA in Florida. We were ready for that. When we informed them that The Villages has a large and very active Amateur Radio club that provides much service to the community, they changed tactics and instead asked if we had contacted any local Florida HOAs, as they were receiving some letters from local Homeowners' Associations. We asked if they had also received the thousands of emails, letters, and phone calls from our members. They said yes and then they quickly changed tactics. They asked if we had contacted all the Florida HOAs and the "Association of Florida Homeowners' Associations" Of course we hadn't; we negotiated a compromise with the only national organization representing HOAs nationwide. We also noted that we had never heard of a Florida Assocation of HOAs. As it turns out, there is no such organization. We asked for contacts for all of the opponents of the current bill. That evening, one of the Commerce Committee attorneys referred us to a lobbyist for the local Florida CAI chapter. This is ludicrous, since we already have an agreement with CAI and a letter from the organization supporting the modified Bill. The bottom line is that they delayed agreeing to meet with us until a time in which we were boxed in with nowhere to go for this year. We are so very close. There are options for us for next year, which the Keelen Group will brief the Board about in January, and we need to continue on our pursuit of this bill, as well as maintain a presence on Capitol Hill as we have developed a brand in Congress. I ask that the Board continue its support of our legislative advocacy for the upcoming year. 73 de Mike - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Lisenco, N2YBB Director, Hudson Division Chairman, ad hoc Legislative Advocacy Committee ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio™ 917-865-3538 n2ybb@arrl.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv