At its last meeting the Executive Committee decided to recommend a few changes to the ARRL Hamfest/Convention Rules and Regulations. The recommendation is based on a staff paper that I submitted at the time, and that the EC amended in the course of its discussion. The rationale for the recommended changes is as follows. In the course of preparing for the launch of the new Web site we have discovered that there are slightly different versions of the Hamfest/Convention Rules and Regulations extant. The differences are not substantive and it would be difficult to determine which is "correct" - and anyway, they are no longer entirely consistent with actual practice. Recommended amendments to the Hamfest/Convention Rules and Regulations are attached. Please note the following: 1. "Operating-Specialty" conventions have never been defined. We have made a modest attempt at providing a definition. 2. It has often been observed that it is anomalous to hold a both a state convention and a section convention in a state in which the state and the section are the same. Some Directors like to do it because it gives them a chance to approve more conventions. The Board has considered the question in the past and decided to make no change, but language is offered here in case the Board would like to consider it again. 3. While at one time Directors were involved in the financial planning of conventions, that is no longer a common practice. It seems unwise to say in our rules that conventions' financial plans are subject to approval by the Director (or in the case of a National Convention, the Executive Committee) if in fact we are not exercising oversight; it may create a liability if a convention encounters financial difficulty. The Executive Committee determined that the appropriate way to deal with this is to include "hold harmless" and "material adverse change" language in the application for sanction that the applicant signs. 4. The requirement for approval by both Directors in the case of a state convention in which two divisions are involved is moved from Paragraph 6 to paragraph 3. David Sumner, K1ZZ Secretary <<20100112 Convention Hamfest Rules.doc>>