It is almost getting to the point where we Amateurs are talking and writing about Spam to such an extent that those communications are themselves becoming Spam. By the way “today’s trivia” is that the name SPAM* was simply a trade name for spiced ham. SPAM* was created and produced just down the road in the hometown of the Austin Radio Club. That’s Austin, Minnesota not Texas. But I digress. As Barry noted there is an A&F Sub-Committee looking into the question of spam and arrl.net. The committee is comprised of one member of A&F and 3 other board members, all well versed in these issues and in asking the right questions. It seems to me the whole spam question exists on several levels. The first level deals with decisions by providers such as AOL and Earthlink about what constitutes spam. Some providers have stopped or filtered arrl.net messages as spam. With few exceptions the providers have after discussion with HQ folks and sometimes with customers that the restrictions on arrl.net messages should be lifted. Others, such as Earthlink, may take a hard nosed stance and continue to hold those messages for their customers. The bottom line is that this is a world of choices. If the Provider continues to stop arrl.net messages the customer/arrl.net user has a choice to make. He or she can choose to stay with the Provider and forego the arrl.net forwarding service, switch to one of the multitude of arrl.net “friendly providers” or put pressure on ARRL to impose a higher level of spam filtering as the messages pass through the forwarding service. By the way, in some instances the ISP’s are not saying that its all spam, in some instances they are also saying that there's too much of it (based on their own measures) coming through arrl.net. At the next level of the individual user each internet and email user makes a choice as to how to deal with spam as in it received. Some users choose to let it flow in every day and be a constant irritant. Others such as W7OZ enjoy zapping it with the “delete” key. Still others such as WØCP choose to use one of the freeware programs available on the net to automatically deal with the vast majority of spam flowing their way. I think Walt uses MAILWASHER. The point is each person has the ability to deal with spam that comes “knocking at the door.” Some will choose not to do anything and expect others (in our case ARRL) to make the choice for them. I also understand that some providers like Earthlink allow "personalization" of the spam filtering product they offer their customers. This is one of the real irritants in the Earthlink situation. They have a product to let their customers decide but yet their not allowing messages to get to the program by blocking at the front door. So the question comes down to what should we ARRL do about solving the problem for members who choose to continue with Providers that shut down or delay arrl.net messages and those members who chose not to employ free spam filter programs or free use of the “delete” key? We could choose to employ a high level of spam filtering prior to forwarding messages. If we do that we run the risk of establishing a set of criteria that will zap a message one of the members wants to receive. That would put us back in the same conflict we are currently having with Earthlink. The only difference would be that now we would be wearing the black hat. The next question is how do we pay for any higher level of filtering? This may be exceedingly difficult in light of strategy D6 which was adopted as part of the new Strategic plan i.e. “Develop a Board policy that states all new programs and services must have a business plan and minimally break-even financially.” As previously noted there is a committee of knowledgeable and dedicated board members currently working on this precise question. I am hopeful they can find a way to address this that we can afford. That may or may not be possible. If we give them a little time to work on this I am confidant have more information as to the available options and be in a much better position to decide how to deal with this ongoing problem. 73, Jay, KØQB