Frank and others, I certainly do not (in spite of my parabolic) reference to a brothel, believe there is anything immoral or illegal about the belt buckle. I think this is a nice item for folks who "do" belt buckles. What I question is the appropriateness of HQ giving the OK to the makers of these buckles to promote them through our SMs or other appointee groups. The wording of the letter from the makers that says there is a business deal between them and ARRL suggests to me (admittedly it does not confirm) this is the case. Dave, was sending the ad to our SMs part of this marketing arrangement? Finally, I certainly applaud our people at HQ for continuing to test the waters for new ways to make money for the League. Doing this is important. However, based upon the discussion of who it is that actually sponsors ARRL operating events (at the last Board meeting) and the fairly knee-jerk reaction I had to this belt buckle promotion, I certainly feel that zeal in tapping new sources of income needs to be managed consistent with long-established Board attitudes and practices. Jim Weaver, K8JE Director, ARRL Great Lakes Division Chairman, ARRL Legislative Action Committee 5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je@arrl.org; Tel: 513-459-0142 ARRL, the Reason Amateur Radio is! Members, the Reason ARRL is! -----Original Message----- From: Frank Fallon [mailto:n2ff@optonline.net] Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 1:31 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:13774] Re: USING OUR FIELD ORGANIZATION TO ADVERTISE? Jim, I don't see a problem here. No one is forcing ARES participants to make a purchase of this item. Obviously these two SM are probably not going to pass the word on in their section. But at this point no one is forcing them to. But it's a bit like the ARRL credit card. Or it's very much like offering clothing itmes, which we have been doing for years. I am sure we may ahve had some complaints to staff about that too at some point. If some of our members are inclined to make a purchase we get a percentage. It 's simply good old American business in action. Many hams, and in this case your two SMs, have a problem with their being any business aspect of ham radio or ARRL. I don't see that any line has to be redrawn here. But then I'm not a big belt buckle guy. Frank...N2FF..... Jim Weaver, K8JE wrote:

I've already heard from two of my SMs who think the following message is way out of line. The product being advertised and promoted in a manner supposedly fully compliant with League policy may be nice and represent good value and all this, but . . .

Isn't this going a bit far to ask our SMs to become proponents of goods? Would we approve of this advertising strategy if it was any number of other non-essential-but-nice items related to Amateur Radio?

Would we approve of this strategy if it was in support of a new Ten Tec or Icon or Vertex or whatever rig?

I have my opinions, but I really am asking where the heck everyone thinks the line ought to be drawn. We need revenue, but I wouldn't set

up a brothel to get it.

Greetings ARRL Section Manager,

We have entered into a business agreement with ARRL and we request your help and support.