IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 1 January 7, 2015 - Covers the period December 28-Janaury 3. Upcoming Meetings and Events Vice Director Orientation January 14 in Newington, CT LoTW Study Committee January 14 @ 10:00am in Newington, CT Administration & Finance Committee January 15 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee Janauary 15 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Annual Board Meeting January 16-17, 2015 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Diane Petrilli reported that by yearend, ARRL membership had climbed for the eighth consecutive year, achieving the highest total in 17 years. There were 165,664 members by the end of December; gains of 3,449 members over 2013 and exceeding the year-end goal by 1,287 members. 72.63% of December 2014 membership expirees paid on time (vs. 69.74% last December). Membership grew 2.13% in 2014 (1.21% in 2013, 1.56% in 2012). We attribute some of this gain to excitement surrounding the Centennial year and a correspondingly higher number of new licensees to solicit. The largest sources of new member acquisition came from membership campaigns conducted by mail and email. The average monthly rate of members renewing on-time in 2014 was 72.5% (same as 2013). Jackie Ferreira reported that December product sales were at $299,347, falling short of this month's sales forecast of $315,350. Direct sales were $199,374; dealer sales were $99,973. Two recent mailings contributed sales of nearly $43K during the month. Total sales in 2014 were $3,374,443 -- $203,992 ahead of the forecast goal of 3,170,451 . Direct sales were 59% of total sales. Even with removing the high cost-of-goods associated with sales of the commemorative ARRL Centennial Vibroplex key, gross sales still nudged past the 2014 forecast goal by $23,487. Sluggish sales across many of our publication categories in 2014 were offset by better than predicted sales for The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual and membership merchandise including Centennial-themed products. A representative sample of Amateur Radio licensees, including ARRL members and non-members, were sent online and mail surveys on January 6 supporting the national-level study being conducted for ARRL by Readex Research. Readex has conducted many previous studies for ARRL. In just the first days after launching the survey, there has been an exceptional response level . If you speak with individuals who happen to receive the survey, please assure them that the survey is legitimate. And, please urge them to complete the questionnaire. The results will be used for future ARRL planning. Inquiries about the survey may be directed to Margie Bourgoin for acknowledgement. Yvette Vinci introduced a follow-up email with December QST, reminding members to visit the digital edition. The email highlights "What's trending"-taking advantage of some early analytics for each issue. We are pleased to report that the reminder has significantly increased the number of readers and page views. Members of the warehouse and fulfillment teams worked with the accounting staff to complete the annual physical inventory at yearend. The auditor gave the warehouse a thumbs-up for perfect counts. In December, we completed a comprehensive review of Amazon's guidelines and requirements regarding fulfilling, preparing and transporting orders to Amazon's Fulfillment Centers. The exercise resulted in making some reasonable modifications to our procedures for fulfilling orders to this major business partner. The IT Department supported the need for an additional computer and printer installation at the warehouse to help support Amazon's very specific packaging and labeling requirements. This equipment is installed and already in-use. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 12/31/2014 (short week/inventory) 919 487 12/24/2014 (short week) 1,024 608 12/19/2014 1,192 350 12/12/2014 856 716 12/5/2014 1,924 448 Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams received and handled Section budget expense reports just prior to turning these into our Accounting office. She also received and processed many Field Organization appointments and updates. In addition, Leona and Steve Ewald continued to work with the five new Section Managers who began their terms of office on January 1 to help them get up to speed on administrative details and other duties related to the position. Recently, radio amateurs from Michigan, Southern Florida, New Hampshire and three from Oregon successfully completed requirements to become Official Observers. Chuck Skolaut compiled and forwarded the ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report to the IARU Region 2 Monitoring Coordinator. A carrier was reported by many on 21.003 MHz, and this is being investigated. The Connecticut OOC was alerted to reported interference from a mobile high power CB operation. Word was also received of a possible bootlegger using the call sign W4NEO. The Eastern Pennsylvania OOC was alerted to a report of a radio amateur who is causing much interference to a neighbor, and he is checking on this. A reported "grow light" case was referred to the ARRL Lab. Chuck received questions about operating overseas, the 219-220 MHz allocation, nets on the WARC bands, and the issue of continuing to operate while a license renewal is pending. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations Steve Capodicasa 1/16 PTO `` 1/26 PTO `` 2/9 PTO `` 2/17 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 2/12-2/17 Orlando Hamcation, Orlando, FL/PTO Harold Kramer 1/15-1/17 Board Meeting/Committee Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/15-1/17 Board Meeting Diane Petrilli 1/9 PTO `` 1/26-1/30 PTO Barry Shelley 1/15-17 Board Meeting/Committee Meeting `` 2/4-2/6 PTO Dave Sumner 1/15-17 Board Meeting/Committee Meeting
