Good questions that lead to the following questions that the Board may want to consider in preparation for reviewing in the 2013/2014 Budget/Plan: 1. What level of Web, eStore and LoTW capacity should ARRL provide? 2. Should that capacity and processing speed be geared to the seamless, immediate processing at the highest and most intensive usage? 2a. If yes, what level of excess capacity should the system add to meet occasions of extraordinary usage? 2b. How much will such excess capacity cost? 3. How would ARRL pay for the additional capacity? 3a. Raising Membership Dues: If dues are to be raised are there other member services that have equal or higher priority than increased additional capacity? How much would ARRL need to increase dues to meet these needs? Do we really want to raise dues now?? 3b. Reducing existing member benefits or services: If services must be reduced to provide for additional capacity which member services are of lesser priority than increased additional capacity? How many ARRL member services will we need to decrease or eliminate to provide for this additional capacity? Those are just a few questions that come to mind. ARRL isnt a perfect world and despite all our efforts it isnt ever likely to reach that level. That doesnt mean we shouldnt try. We expect and the members expect constant improvement. Expectations among ARRL members are high, very high. Why; because in large measure because the Board has authorized and to a much greater extent the ARRL Staff has implemented a ton of new benefits. We as ARRL members have had a free lunch for the past 10 or 11 years and now expect to keep getting more and more freebies. Ten or so years ago was the last time ARRL dues were raised. At that point there was no full color QST; QST was only a paper magazine; there was no ARRL web page we relied on bulletins and the ARRL News; there was no LoTW, remember when we waited for years for QSLs or had to shell out postage and a green stamp or two for the QSL? Those are just a few of the benefits added in the past 10 years and that doesnt even touch on the frequency defense and additional spectrum at home and around the world Yes we need to listen to members when things are slower than we have come to expect. And yes, I was as impatient as the next person because my uploaded LoTW logs took more than a few hours to proces, but it is equally important to provide some perspective. Perhaps ARRL is the victim of its success as the most successful, stable, innovative amateur radio society in the world. While we dont see that because it is our norm, I can assure you we are the envy of most every society in the world. Perfect we arent, but nobody gets better value for their amateur dollar. If we want more something has to give, either more dues or loss of some services. At least that is how I see it. Jay, KØQB -----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Jim Weaver K8JE Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 1:40 PM To: 'Shelley, Barry, N1VXY'; 'arrl-odv' Subject: [arrl-odv:21261] Re: Company Store Site Barry, Should "we" not have expected a very heavy response to our Cyber Monday promotion and anticipated the temporary need for added capacity . . . and at least monitored the situation closely? If one was to walk through a swamp known to be filled with water moccasins wouldn't they put on protective high-waders to avoid the possibility of being bitten before entering the water rather than to wait until seeing a bunch of snakes? Jim Weaver, K8JE Director, Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@arrl.org ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio Is Members: The reason ARRL is _____ From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Shelley, Barry, N1VXY Sent: 27 November, 2012 2:14 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:21260] Re: Company Store Site To follow up on Davids note, the increase in traffic was seemingly the result of our own Cyber Monday sales promotion. Were still looking into it. One of the design features with the Rackspace configuration was the ability to add server capacity relatively quickly, once identified, but not automatically. This was part of the reason that Jon Bloom created the configuration after the initial performance issues with the new web site several years ago. Might we have responded more quickly, possibly, and we will look into how best to do this short of running a 24/7 IT operation. 73, Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY Chief Financial Officer ARRL, Inc. The National Association for Amateur Radio (860) 594-0212 www.arrl.org From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 2:03 PM To: Weaver, James K8JE (Dir, GL); arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:21259] Re: Company Store Site Jim, the website at Rackspace was running slowly at times since yesterday afternoon. Additional server capacity has been added and it appears to be functioning normally now. Dave K1ZZ From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Jim Weaver K8JE Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 1:42 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:21256] Company Store Site All, I received a note from a rather irate friend who complained he was gave up trying to place an order through the ARRL online store because the system was running so very slowly. Being a good DXer, he tied this experience in with recent (as well as earlier) difficulty with LOTW. My Question: Was the store running slowly within the past 48 hours or so? If so, why? If there was a problem is it fixed permanently? This experience to me reminds me of an admonition my mother gave me many years ago -- i.e. "It takes a long time to develop a good reputation after a bad impression has been made. Between the bad impression made through the then-new web site and the repeated bad impressions made with LOTW, it seems imperative to me that we pull out all the stops to avoid putting the League in a bad light with the amateur radio public for at least many years to come. How many times must we shoot ourselves in the foot before we learn the lesson? Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE Director, Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@arrl.org ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio Is Members: The reason ARRL is