<<072711.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 34, No. 30 July 27, 2011 -- Covers the period July 17-23. Upcoming Meetings and Events Executive Committee: October 1 @ 8:30am - Dulles, VA United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) October 3-7 - ARRL HQ Section Managers' Workshop October 21-23 - ARRL HQ Ballot Counting for Director/Vice Director Elections November 18 - ARRL HQ CEO Reported by Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ CEO staff is working on wrapping-up another successful and smooth-functioning Board meeting. A special thank you to Greg Kwasowski for driving the van; to Maryann Macdonald and Margie Bourgoin for helping with the Board books; to Penny Harts for helping with the goodie table in the lobby; to Sharon Taratula, Joe Carcia and Monique Levesque for setting and arranging things for the Committee meetings; to Steve Ford for taking pictures at the hotel and to those who made hotel runs during the day on Friday. Special acknowledgement and thanks to Andy Shefrin for working with the Marriott technicians in making all presentation and computer equipment run like a charm. Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND During the week of July 18, we looked into a new law passed by the state of NY that bans texting while driving. After reviewing the wording, the law does not appear to affect amateur radio operations. We also received a complaint about the lack of response from a Volunteer Counsel from the Southeastern Division, which was shared with Director Sarratt and General Counsel. Director Sarratt will look into the situation and respond accordingly. Queries on CC&Rs were addressed from Florida and West Virginia. Updated information on obtaining operating permission in Morocco was received and passed on to Veke, OH2MCN, who maintains detailed information on reciprocal licensing on his website. Veke's information meshes well with the information on the ARRL site. We have been working with him on this project over a decade. Several other queries on reciprocal licensing were handled during the week. We looked into a complaint about a new Chinese dual-band HT being marketed, primarily at this time on eBay. Based on the standards explained by General Counsel last year in QST, while this radio may be a problem for Part 90 sales, it does not appear to be in violation of FCC rules for amateur equipment. Several queries on RFI problems related to power lines were addressed and passed on to the ARRL Lab as appropriate. With the deadline for Field Day approaching, numerous queries have been received related to submitting or correcting entries. As of Friday July 22, over 1700 entries had been submitted using the www.b4h.net <http://www.b4h.net/> website - with several hundred also received via regular email or the US Postal Service. We will work with the Contest Manager and MVP staff as they start manual data entry on the non-web applet entries. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP Allen is taking partial weeks of vacation time, but meanwhile we are seeing a higher than usual amount of July media hits as reporters appear to be following up on invitations received during Field Day weekend. These are not major hits, but a lot of local newspapers. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH Development Revenue has reached 52% of the 2011 revenue goal. Response to the Education & Technology mailing is growing. To date, responses total 456 and revenue more than $23,000. The goal is to raise $65,000. The Diamond Club continues to do well, having reached 63% of its 2011 goal. Arrangements for the SCC Committee meeting are nearly complete. Research on the top prospects will be presented to the committee on August 11. Part of the estate of Alfred Friend Jr. has been received. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed the ARRL Letter and produced and voiced ARRL Audio News for July 21, 2011. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R A large summer publication solicitation featuring flagship items and new titles was mailed this week. A special email notification for the upcoming ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention was prepared for members in the region. A teleconference was held with the software developers of ARRL Exam Review to explore new projects supporting VEC and EmComm training. A handful of membership solicitations are in the planning and design stages, for mailing in September. One of these will include a newly designed postcard being tested. A series of e-mails were sent to lapsed members, online GUESTS and prospects bringing in 60 members. Worked with IT so that now a special message will be sprayed onto the first and second renewal notices for family members of life members. Notices are sent to the "child" member rather than the "parent" member and there was some confusion that the rate for the family member getting the 1st and 2nd renewal is not as clear as it could be ($8 vs. $39). Though fewer than 100 1st renewal notices go out to this group per month, there is now clear language that indicates the family member rate is $8. We are also testing a new format for the fourth renewal notices. The new format combines a letter with the premium offer, rather than 2 separate sheets of paper. This format is used for new hams, upgrades, licensee expirees, prospects and several smaller, targeted mailings throughout the year with great success. Working with the Mailroom on allocating mailings to the correct budgets and creating a working spreadsheet referencing; job, bill to code, quantity, postage and department. Presented a proposal on utilizing an alternate vendor for International publication and supplement delivery. This change would save 25% in costs plus warehouse staff time in processing. The warehouse crew fulfilled 774 packages for publication and product orders, 391 membership premiums, and QST mailing supplements. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Field Organization/Public Service Team One radio amateur from Nevada completed the certification exam to become an Official Observer this past week. An excellent response was received for a monitoring request to Official Observers to monitor and collect information regarding the continuous "dits" being heard on 17 meters. The FCC aided in the investigation and pinpointed the source as originating from northern California. It was discovered to be completely unintentional. Documentation has been received regarding an operation on 20 meters. The announcement of a new Official Observer e-mail list/reflector was made, and e-mail addresses are now being collected to be added to this list/reflector. Chuck Skolaut conducted the code qualifying run this past Friday and assisted visitors at W1AW. East Bay Section Manager Jim Latham, AF6AQ, has been nominated to run for a new term of office that starts on January 1, 2012. Nominating petitions for this particular SM election cycle are due at Headquarters by September 9. Leona Adams has been corresponding with all Section Managers regarding their updated Field Organization appointment data base reports. The 2011 Section Managers' Workshop (for new Section Managers) at ARRL Headquarters is scheduled for October 21-23. Steve Ewald sent invitations to the group of eligible Section Managers. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Education & Technology Program We prepared and mailed award and denial letters to the May round ETP grant applicants. Khrystyne Keane K1SFA published a news story <http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-executive-committee-approves-grants-for-s ix-schools> announcing the grant awards. We sent the list of equipment needed to fulfill these recent grant awards to bid to vendors. Three more sessions of the Teachers Institute were completed in July: Nathan McCray K9CPO was lead instructor at a TI hosted by Mohawk Community College in Utica, NY, and another at HQ; Matt Severin N8MS instructed a TI-2 on Satellite Communications hosted and sponsored by DARA in Dayton, OH. A total of 33 teachers participated in the 3 seminars. The online evaluation tool is proving to be very efficient and is offering us a better way to capture valuable feedback on the teachers' experience at the TI. We completed the wrap-up of the TIs, reviewing expense reimbursements for the participants and issuing certificates. An article on Teaching Amateur Radio with Cowboy Ethics submitted to us by an ETP school from teacher Devon Day at Wilson High School about the school's Amateur Radio Emergency Communications club in Long Beach, CA will be published in Sept. QST. We posted a short video and photos received from another ETP school, LBJ High School in Austin, TX reporting on their School Club Round-up <http://www.arrl.org/school-club-roundup-scr> activities. Continuing Education Program We implemented an online evaluation with the students who have just completed the first session of the new online Introduction to Emergency Communication course. We are working with Dennis Budd in IT on the class and exam listing interfaces and search tools. We have requested some additional features before we make this available and can fully promote field instruction and exams. Scouts I wrote an article about JOTA for September QST which features outreach to Girl Scouts during last year's event. ARISS The ARISS team has a new daily point of contact at the JSC Teaching from Space office. Debbie Biggs is moving to the ISS National Lab higher education team, and Trinesha Dixon will be the new daily POC for ARISS. The first window for submitting proposals to the ARISS program under the new process initiated May 15 closed July 15. A final tally done by JSC's Teaching from Space staff shows that they received 104 inquiries between May and July from educators wanting more information about the ARISS program. At deadline time, 25 educators had sent proposals! The ARISS Team and NASA are thoroughly pleased by these results. During the next 8 weeks, proposals will be reviewed and evaluated based on a specific set of standards. The plan is to choose 15 schools, and schedule five for contacts within 6 months. The ten alternates will be wait-listed for additional opportunities if they arise during the period. Mentors will be assigned to the five definite schools. Alternate schools can be notified 2 months prior to schedule openings. Alternates will be asked to submit a new proposal before the next deadline in the event they are not selected during the current cycle. Our Russian ARISS partner shared some information about the status of ARISSat. The ARISSat deployment may be August 3, with a test pass possibly on the evening of the 31st. Battery charging could be done on the 27th or 28th. The US Team is reviewing the Russian procedures for deployment of ARISSat, and will request some changes to be made. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 9/5 Holiday Margie Bourgoin 8/18-8/23 Vacation Hugh Brower 8/15-8/19 Vacation Joe Carcia 7/29 Vacation `` 8/5-8/12 Vacation `` 8/19 Vacation Steve Ford 8/8-8/12 Vacation `` 8/18-8/25 West Virginia State Convention, Weston, WV/Vacation Mike Gruber 8/20-8/27 Vacation Joel Hallas 8/8 Vacation `` 8/10pm-8/16 Vacation Ed Hare 8/5-8/7 Midwest Division Convention, Cedar Rapids, IA Dan Henderson 7/27-7/30 NCVEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA `` 8/5-8/7 Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Taos, NM `` 8/29-9/2 Vacation `` 9/15-9/26 Ten Tec Hamfest, TN/SEDCO/Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 7/25-7/29 Vacation `` 8/8-8/12 Vacation Debra Johnson 8/1-8/5 Vacation Joel Kleinman 8/2 Vacation `` 8/5 Vacation Bill Moore 8/20-8/21 Alabama State Convention, Huntsville, AL Dave Patton 8/25-8/28 JARL Ham Fair, Tokyo, Japan Diane Petrilli 7/29 Vacation `` 8/5-8/12 Vacation `` 8/26-9/2 Vacation Allen Pitts 7/28-7/29 Vacation Brennan Price 8/5-8/6 Texas State Convention, Austin, TX Becky Schoenfeld 8/15-8/20 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 8/20-8/22 Kansas State Convention, Salina, KS Dave Sumner 8/11pm-8/22 IARU Reg.1 Conference/AC Meeting, South Africa
