If we are considering taking a stand on this legislation we ought to do so in a manner that reflects ARRL is committed to public service and non-partisan. In this instance that may not be difficult. According to the cited Infoweek article" "Everyone seems to agree with the ostensible goal of the bill, which is 'to make all data and information that the public has already paid for available in real time' ... (b)ut there's disagreement about whether the text of the proposed legislation will function as advertised." Most critics and even some proponents agree " ambiguities in the bill could leave room for new restrictions to be placed on National Weather Service data." David Moran, assistant professor of law at Wayne State University said "(t)he bill is poorly drafted because, after reading it several times, I'm not at all clear as to exactly what information the [National Weather Service] would be prohibited from releasing to the public." If the Board feels the need to take a stand on Senate Bill 786, we should frame our position as support for the stated purpose of the Bill, namely that the National Weather Service ought to be free to make all data and information that the public has already paid for available in real time, but that in its' present form Senate Bill 786 is so ambiguous and contradictory to its' stated purpose the we are compelled to oppose it. Of course before opposing any pending legislation we need Counsel Imlay to advise us whether this action would negatively affect our status as a 501(c) (3) organization. -----Original Message----- From: w5jbp@aol.com [mailto:w5jbp@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 4:59 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:12820] Re: NWS - Senate Bill 786 I agree. This bill is totally self-serving and we should come out against it. Jim -----Original Message----- From: Tom Frenaye <frenaye@pcnet.com> To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:34:34 -0400 Subject: [arrl-odv:12802] NWS - Senate Bill 786 I thought we spent a little time at the recent Board meeting talking about Senate Bill 786 (regarding weather information), introduced by Senator Santorum. Couldn't find any reference to it in the minutes so I guess it was a brief mention - perhaps in John Chwat's presentation. I guess the bottom line was that we (John, Chris, etc) didn't think there was a real chance if it becoming law, so we didn't take any action. I'm second-guessing that now after reading an article about it in Information World: http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle. <http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165702845> jhtml?articleID=165702845 I also believe we have a lot of members who find our association with the NWS to be very positive (and vice versa). I think it'd be a good move for us to publicly state that we do not support S.786. -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org <mailto:k1ki%40arrl.org> ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444