Although I find the previously suggested talking points for lobbying legislators to be well put together, if I were involved, I would still like to be able to leave copies of a Report to America to those I would meet. I even wish I had such a report for distribution to local government officials that we are dealing with in Southern California on antenna issues. 1) Should there be difficulty with understanding the intended audience for the RTA, those involved might review the last sentence of the board motion. "ARRL Board of Directors directs staff and the Public Relations Committee to prepare a draft of an annual or biennial “Report to America” quantifying radio amateurs’ contributions to the public, said draft to be prepared for consideration by the next Board meeting. Such document should be *appropriate for presentation to legislators and other governmental officials*." 2) Regarding downplaying "emergency communications," and emphasizing "public service communications," we might still want to consider that the first item in Part 97 is the Basis and Purpose of the Amateur Radio Service. "(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing *emergency communications*." 73, Dick Norton, N6AA On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 8:34 AM, Doug Rehman <doug@k4ac.com> wrote:
One of my Assistant Directors serves on the PRC. In a conversation this morning we talked about the status of the Board’s direction to the PRC to produce a draft Report to America (RTA).
The Motion calls for a draft to be ready for our July meeting, but it doesn’t sound like it’s close to being ready.
There’s a couple of potential issues.
The PRC may not fully grasp the intended audience for RTA—federal, state, and local elected officials along with other government officials for the broad purpose of lobbying. My sense is that they are viewing RTA as a general document to inform the non-amateur community. Lacking the specific focus of lobbying is causing their work to be slowed.
A second issue comes from the recent HQ push to downplay emergency communications in favor of public service communications. While the percentage of real emergency communications is extremely small, their value to elected officials is very high. RTA needs to play up emergency communications, not gloss over them.
On a positive note, the committee is including economic impact information in RTA. There’s not a lot of data for them to work with, but they have come up with enough to make some educated assumptions.
Given the pressing need for RTA in efforts for HR.4969, it might be a good idea for the Board to give the PRC a friendly reminder of the intended audience/purpose and the pressing need for its completion.
Doug
K4AC
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