Interesting discussion this holiday weekend. And I would like to see it continue so that we can come to some consensus QUICKLY at the July meeting.....

Thanks to the pace of FCC rulemaking,despite the fact that the international regulations change tomorrow we still have time to make this part of our strategic planning.

Dave K1ZZ

Let's keep the discussion going, but realize that we will need to time limit it at the Board meeting. What I am worried about is a LENGHTY one issue session that will take us away from more important issues that we should be dealing with. Yes, the CW issue is important, but we should not let it distract us from the more important OVERALL Starategic Planning that Coy and others have set up for this meeting. Let's not forget that the last time we attempted strategic planning we let the restructuring issue distract us BIG time. I really do not think we want to let that happen once again. I don't want to see us waste time and money by allowing ourselves to get distracted by this emotional, or is it a religious issue. To avoid that I think we need to limit the time we will spend on this one issue either before the meeting or at the start of the session. We might, beacuse strategic planning is so important, want to wait, if we can, until January to determine exactly what our position will be as the FCC has been lately so slow in acting. We can do that by initiating a public process (a committee and perhaps including a survey process) that will culminate in January. I think much of the anger we feel is out there (I am not convinced there is) will disipate during the process piece. What will be the FCC time table here with a request? Dave and Chris will have an idea on that I am sure. (Bill Cross is too busy making up FCC policy for state issues. One of the good things about Cross/FCC slouth was that the "Restucturing" process too almost two years. By the time it was over and the FCC ignored our ARRL position on code speed (remember here they had told us before the RM process that they wanted 5 WPM, but we ignored that) most US Amateurs had worn themselves out with verbiage on the issue. We were also not overrun with weapons of mass distruction from CB type operators amoung our ranks. The world did not come to an end on April 16, 2000.) I want to see something very positive come from our strategic planning effort, so please let us be focused on that task at the coming Board meeting in a few days. Meanwhile let the discussion continue. from HOT Long Island...... de Frank....N2FF...... (PS My spell checker is not working.)