IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No. 2 January 14, 2004 Upcoming Meetings January 15th in Windsor, CT at 8:30am A & F Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 9:00am Membership Services Committee January 16-17, 2004 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Development The 2004 Spectrum Defense Fund has reached the $249,000 mark with contributions from more than 5,500 donors. The W1AW Endowment campaign will be in the mail the week of Jan 19. Materials will be posted in the Development section of the ARRL Web site as well. This is the first campaign that seeks multi-year pledges -- an important test of the pledge concept that could be used for other Development fund raising strategies. A new planned giving commitment has been received from a member in California. The Notice of Fund Availability for a new Learn & Service grant was posted last week. Grant applications for Homeland Security related education proposals are due March 9, 2004. ARRL will apply for one of the 6 - 10 grants awards that are each for $500,000 for two years. Media Relations ARRL's views on the BPL issue got more exposure recently, after Dave Sumner did an interview with IDG News Service, a worldwide publisher of technology-related magazines, newspapers and other publications. The finished piece appeared in Info World, IT World and PC World. The United Press International (UPI) wire also picked up the story, and it appeared in The Washington (DC) Times. Dave also spoke with a freelancer with Mobile Radio Technology magazine who is in the research phase for his story on BPL. Jennifer received a call from WILI, an AM radio station in Willimantic, Connecticut. The morning host is interested in doing a story on ham radio, including emergency communications and preparedness. Jen agreed to be an in-studio guest, and she'll be looking for one or two other hams in the station's listening area who would like to participate. The host is open to doing the story fairly soon, or waiting for an opportunity such as Field Day. It's up to us. ARRL Staff and Officer bios are complete, and will be posted to the PR Web pages within the next week. Some edits may be necessary after the Board meeting. Jen is extending the project, to include Directors and Vice Directors, and that call for information has been sent out. Production/Editorial We checked printer's proofs of a new printing of The ARRL Operating Manual. Maty Weinberg has been covering for Helen Dalton while Helen is out of the office. We wish Helen a speedy recovery from recent surgery. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter Vol 23, No 02 (Jan 9) distributed to 67,245 members. Rick wrote and/or edited news stories on the upcoming ARRL board meeting, BPL in Austria, In Brief (18 items), new Web-based Cabrillo program, ISS air leak, Ohio ARISS school group contact, and QRP Community column for January. Rick voiced/edited/produced ARRL Audio News with voiceover assistance from Brennan Price and Jennifer Hagy. Dave Hassler prepared the monthly CNCS Emergency Communications Course grant report, with the aid of Dan Miller. He also prepared several features for the ARRL Web site and edited several others. Joel Hallas has turned in the March 2004 installment of the Product Review column, as well as an item for Short Takes. The March/April issue of NCJ is coming together, thanks in part to an overflow of articles from the last issue. Sales & Marketing Prepare Initiative: More input from staff with their thoughts on changes to all areas of our business that could be affected by license restructuring rolled in. This input is being compiled into a working document that will be refined once the Board has established the ARRL's position on this key issue. The intent is to map out what needs to be done - short, intermediate and long term - to best prepare for changes in the license requirements. The Warehouse crew is catching its breath after the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season. The crew shipped close to 6000 publications packages in the month of December alone -- 60,083 year. In addition, more than 60,000 Supplemental issues of QST, each an individual package, were shipped from the Warehouse during 2003. The time has come to discontinue offering ARRL's Annual Automatic Membership Renewal program. We started offering this service in 1999 when we began offering individuals the opportunity to place a credit card number of file with us to use for an automatic renewal of their annual membership dues. Participation in the program grew to include 7500 members. Over the past few years, financial institutions have significantly increased their security systems to combat the growing volume of credit card fraud. Requirements and security checks are much more stringent than in the past, and we are now experiencing approximately 50% declined auto-renewal credit cards transactions each month. Each declined transaction requires special handling and administrative follow-up, and the net result is a renewal rate for these members that is actually lower than those who are in the normal renewal program and who hear from us annually. The auto-renewal program is no longer effective and is not meeting its goal of improved member retention, and we are phasing it out. Auto-renewal will be deleted as an option from the on-line membership application and printed renewal notices upon reprint. December 2003 preliminary publication sales reports, membership figures, a membership renewal rate analysis and the final analysis of September 2003 membership mailing were assembled and distributed. Author royalty payments were computed and sent, along with author reports, to Comptrollers for processing. Billings were also submitted to Comptrollers for February QST advertising including a new detail report for double-checking purposes. A follow-up color promotion advertising mailing for the ARRL New Ham Express (advertising booklet to be included with our new ham mailings) and Antenna Time! (Antenna theme tear-out for April QST inclusion) was sent to our list of current and potential advertisers and Dealer network. The color promotion was graphically created in record time and printed in-house by Di Szlachetka. Handling the promo in this manner allowed us to use the color we were looking for--and a very speedy turn-around--without the usual associated high costs. Joe Bottiglieri and Deb Jahnke are hard at work procuring ads for March 2004 QST, the ARRL New Ham Express and Antenna Time! Joe and Deb have sent e-mail solicitations as well as PDF files of our most recent promotions. Telephone follow-ups are in the works. Lisa Tardette is working with Bob Inderbitzen on a New Year's edition of the Dealer Newsline. The new edition of the ARRL Operating Manual will be featured along with a selection of other titles. We will also present a roster of new titles and their approximate debut dates throughout the entire year. Advertisers received this approach very positively with our January issue of Advertising Matters and we want to provide our dealers with as much long-range information as we can, as well. The mailing list and solicitation pieces have been sent to the printer for January's large membership campaign. New resources to assist Section Managers with membership recruitment have been posted to the SM web area. For some time, the site has included a download-to-print Membership Application. The application, for use by Section Managers, is uniquely coded for tracking purposes. New additions to the site include extensive "Tips on Recruiting" and a sign-up poster. Printed forms are also available from the Sales & Marketing Department. We are working with Steve Ewald to let SMs know of the new resources and remind them that we continue to offer them free copies of the ARRL Repeater Directory to use as new membership incentives. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 300 WAS Certs. (800 QSLs F/C) 16 WAS Certs. (200 QSLs ES/C) 4 LTMA Inquiries 19 50 Year Member Awards 2 Also, ordered the 50- and 60-year member plaques for the 42 recent qualifiers. Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-WAS Specialty awards, VUCC awards processing/mailing, mail out all awards processed the last two weeks, and filing chores associated with the most recent LTMAs issued. DXCC Branch For the week of: January 11, 2004 Beginning Cards 124,033 Cards Received 1,608 Cards Processed 21,032 Ending Cards 104,609 Applications Pending 811 Processing Time 11.2 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 2,232 Cards Returned 21,032 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on October 21, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on November 4, 2003. In the previous week, DXCC staff completed work and mailing of all September 2003 applications. Also, data entry of all October work was completed in the same week. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: There is a delay of three weeks. Cards mailed as of 01/04/2004: none. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Joe updated the web code practice files and created the texts for the January W1AW Qualifying Runs. He repaired the Harris 17-meter amplifier and processed some regular W1AW QSL card requests. He also began to compile the 2003 FMT results. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the month of January. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Field & Educational Services Pacific Section SM Bob Schneider, AH6J, the Pacific Section SM-elect Kevin Bogan, AH6QO, be allowed to begin his term early. In consultation with Bob Vallio, Rosalie approved this request. Rosalie also set the agenda for, and moderated, the ARISS education committee teleconference and drafted minutes. The ARISS packet equipment is working correctly now. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald and Dan Miller joined Connecticut ARES leaders at the State Office of Emergency Management on Wednesday for a statewide discussion and simulated exercise. Reps were there from state agencies and public service groups; reps of the Department of Homeland Security observed. It was a good opportunity to meet representatives from served agencies, leran more about their needs and expectations, and talk up Amateur Radio's capabilities. Steve was at Hq on Saturday, as CT SEC Allen Pitts hosted a meeting of ARES DECs. Steve took part in the teleconference on the Ad-Hoc Committee on ARES Communications, and prepared a paper requested by Citizen Corps. Leona Adams has been updating Field Organization appointments and sent over a dozen initial supply packages. A number of new appointments have been submitted from the new SMs in Alabama and Tennessee whose terms just began on January 1. Chuck Skolaut received two monitoring requests from the FCC's Riley Hollingsworth about two unrelated cases. Chuck is getting the word to the Official Observer Coordinators in the affected regions of the country. CCE Jerry Ellis set up classes to open for January, put out a Mentor call for the Level I course due to open next week, and processed mail registrations for various classes. He recruited Mentors for the new Antenna Design Course due to open January 13, and processed mentor placements and issued mentor rosters. He continued work on Field Exam kits, and prepped the current class graduate grant refund lists, including printing certificates and ID cards for same in preparation for mailing. Field & Education Support Team Gail Iannone kept the Dayton Marriott at bay. They wanted to raise the hotel room rate, but Gail negotiated a rate the same as last year. She sent 21 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to sponsoring committees confirming Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 2 label requests and continues to catch up on e-mails after returning from vacation. Tom Cote processed 2 SSC applications and 1 club vanity email request. He also processed one new club certificate and assisted Jerry in processing emcomm graduation certificates and mentor stipends. Jean Wolfgang received the final JOTA numbers from BSA HQ. According to them, JOTA participation in the USA increased again this year by almost 4,000 participants, bringing the number to 14,981! The number of US stations more than doubled bringing that total to 1,773. She began to handle award nominations sent in via email, and is working on changes to the letters to make it easier for the support information to come by email. Linda Mullally updated 48 affiliated club records with 2 reactivations. She registered 5 Instructors and 7 Teachers, and she worked on club new ham labels, entering new ones into the database. Linda checked the club roster of 1 affiliated club application. She totaled the December F&ES program fees at $2114. Mary Lau completed Board of Directors reports and transferred same to Lisa for inclusion in the Board Book. She also processed last-minute (2003 tax deduction) contributions for the Foundation. Balloting continues on the approval of 2003 Bill Orr, W6SAI, Technical Writing Award recipient. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project With holidays over, Mark Spencer saw significant rise in quantity and quality of correspondence. Questions and suggestions continue on the code practice oscillator project used by schools and groups -- they want more of this sort of thing. The first requests for Activity Boards have come in. Formal notification went to new Big Project schools; they are sending equipment wish lists. Progress grant requests for other schools for text materials are being processed. Mark met with the Connecticut State Board of Educational Services for the Blind who will distribute our information to their teachers. EmComm Grants Dan continues to update and improve his seminar. A two-hour version will be presented next week at Ham Radio University 2004 in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Participation in emcomm courses over the holidays was more brisk than in previous year-end holiday time. Perhaps the upgraded DHS alert status has played a part in this. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Stevensville, MD (WA3JGI) and assisted amateurs with covenant concerns in Kamuela, HI (AH6FC) and Helena, MT (W4SA). He saw an increase in regulatory questions about the 60-meter band. He proofread the changes for the next printing of The ARRL FCC Rule Book. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting `` 1/29-2/5 Vacation Mark Wilson 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Barry Shelley 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Mary Hobart 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/15-1/17 BOD Meeting Dennis Motschenbacher 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Rosalie White 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Wayne Mills 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Dave Patton 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Dan Miller 1/16-1/18 ARRL NLI Section Convention