To be absolutely clear, my concerns do not in any way reflect on the fine work of Deb Jahnke and her staff in Business Services who no doubt did not make the policy decision to pursue this arrangement. Nor do I believe it is in the purview of individual Board Members to direct the COO to pursue an advertising/sponsorship opportunities for LoTW. My understanding is that if there is such direction it would come from the Board as an entity or from the Administration and Finance Committee. Perhaps some further expansion of the specifics of this Board Member “direction” would be valuable. Addressing the specifics of this decision it appears that first quarter revenues have already reached $11,678. Apparently that amount is already about 74% of the total annual goal. Moreover, LoTW credit revenue is rapidly increasing. Assuming credit revenues continue at the same pace for the balance of the year, it would appear annual credit revenue would be on the order of $47,000. Even given those encouraging resultso, according to Harold’s note that amount “it is no where near what is required to support the service.” In light of those facts it is perplexing why senior staff would approve a commitment to“ a non-exclusive commitment of $6,000 for one year” to characterize Yaesu as “Principal Sponsor” of a service with development costs of several hundreds of thousands of dollars and an annual expense in excess of $50,000. Even the most cursory glance at these numbers give lie to the contention Yaesu is “Principal Sponsor” of LoTW. It is barely a significant contributor to annual operating costs. As a point of reference, if my recollection is correct $6,000 is less than we charge for two full page ads in a single issue of QST. One more thing puzzles me. How can an agreement to name an entity as “Principal Sponsor” be non-exclusive? Is it possible to have more than one “Principal Sponsor”? If anyone is surprised by my reaction to this development I should point out that we had a nearly identical discussion a couple of years ago when Icom was initially named “Principal Sponsor” of ARRL Sweepstakes. In that instance Icom underwrote a substantial portion of the cost of SS Plaques. After some “animated” Board discussion it was determined that the term “Principal Sponsor” was not an appropriate term and Icom was identified as “Principal Awards Sponsor. I would have thought that consideration for concern expressed at that time would have warranted some discussion with the Board or at least A&F prior committing the organization to use of the term ”Principal Sponsor.” It has been said that “(s)ometimes these opportunities arise quickly and we need to act on them.” Maybe so, but that doesn’t make it a good idea, particularly when there is a history of Board concern on a similar issue. It has also been said there was a “continuing issue of confidentiality” and “Yaesu was adamant that we keep these business negotiations confidential.” No doubt this was important to Yaesu. Why would we think the “sale” or “rental” of the name and goodwill ARRL has built up over nearly 100 years is any less important or any less valuable? Let’s face facts, the only reason Yaesu had any interest in this arrangement is because of the value of the name, reputation and goodwill in the Amateur community that ARRL has built over generations of Amateurs.. We proudly declare ARRL as “the national association of Amateur Radio” and proclaim ARRL as the leading voice of Amateur Radio in Public Service, Advocacy, Education, Technology. We say we are the voice of our members. How do square that with bartering the name of ARRL for a paltry $6,000? This can’t be equated with advertising in QST. It is much more than simply providing a space to promote their products. Identifying Yaesu or anyone else as a “Principal Sponsor” of an ARRL activity suggests that entity has a relationship with ARRL and prominent role in the creation or operation of the activity. No matter how you view the facts of this action that simply isn’t true in the case of Yaesu and LoTW. I believe this is flat out wrong, but even if you feel differently, I can’t imagine anyone on this Board believes $6,000 per year is “Principal Sponsorship” of LoTW. Jay, KØQB -----Original Message----- From: Kramer, Harold, WJ1B [mailto:wj1b@arrl.org] Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 5:28 PM To: arrl-odv Cc: Jahnke, Deb, K1DAJ Subject: [arrl-odv:16736] Logbook of the World Sponsorship To:ODV From: Harold Kramer Re: Yaesu and Logbook of the World/ Jay Bellow’s email It would be next to impossible for any organization to pay for half the development costs and operation of LoTW that, to date, ARRL has fully funded by itself. I was not here for the original development efforts and costs, but I know that they were considerable. Today, Kathy Allison provides full time Logbook support along with help from Jon Bloom, Dave Patton, Norm Fusaro and others. In the past year, we have also spent money to upgrade the Logbook hardware and software to meet the increasing number of QSOs and users. . Board Members have also directed me to pursue advertising/sponsorship opportunities for LoTW. I accepted this as my charge. This lack of revenue for LoTW was discussed extensively at previous A & F Committee meetings. In the 2008 budget, LoTW revenue from award credits for this year is budgeted at $15,735. We were pleasantly surprised that first quarter revenues were $11,678 about 74% of the total annual goal, so credit revenue is definitely increasing. However, it is no where near what is required to support the service. That’s why we were seeking additional revenue. Yaesu has committed to a non-exclusive commitment of $6,000 for one year. Their sponsorship only commits us to displaying a banner ad on the LoTW pages on our web site and lets them hang a banner at Dayton. The Board approved the plan that budgets $50,000 worth of electronic advertising revenue for 2008. This revenue achieves about 12% of that total goal. This advertising/sponsorship purchase is a conduit to, hopefully, some larger advertising support in the future. In addition, we were careful to use similar language, i.e. Principal Sponsor, that we currently use for the Icom sponsorship of Sweepstakes and West Mountain Radio’s sponsorship of the RTTY Contest. The term “Principal Awards Sponsor” cannot be easily applied to LoTW. We also used the operational guidelines for sponsorship that we developed for the Icom Sponsorship. If I recall correctly, members of the previous P and S Committee prompted me to draft these guidelines and the Committee consequently reviewed them. There have been other precedents for this type of arrangement. We placed logos, banners and even created unique pages on our web site for United Technologies, Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) and CNCS (Corporation for National and Community Service.) for the grant programs that they funded. Yaesu’s commitment of $6,000 for one year is the prevailing market rate. By today’s standards, a banner ad is a very low impact, ineffective Web ad. There is no interactivity, motion, audio or video. It is not “served” or customized to an individual user like more sophisticated Web ads. The traffic to the site is about 35,000 page views a day. This includes a count of each individual page that is viewed by a user. In terms of advertising numbers, this is a low traffic site with a very targeted audience The trigger for this relationship was the fact that LoTW finally hit 20,000 users. I certainly would have brought this up at the A &F Committee, but we had not begun discussions with Yaesu at that time. Sometimes these opportunities arise quickly and we need to act on them. There is also the continuing issue of confidentiality. Yaesu was adamant that we keep these business negotiations confidential. In addition, there is benefit to us in having a company like Yaesu advertise/sponsor the Logbook site. First, Yaesu will also publicize the LoTW service for us. This is a type of relationship that will benefit ARRL. Yaesu’s sponsorship will create more interest in the amateur radio community about LoTW. Yaesu sponsored IOTA in the past, so they have some experience in this area. Given the stiff competition in the amateur radio industry, our having a major manufacturer like Yaesu support LoTW invites other, more risk adverse advertisers to participate. It sets a good precedent for future support from advertisers, individuals and foundations. It says that “Logbook of the World has arrived.” All previous funding attempts for LoTW including grants, sponsorships, and advertising have been unsuccessful to this point. The ARRL/Yaesu relationships will l hopefully be a real ice-breaker that will lead us to additional support and recognition. With regard to LoTW updates, according to our Operational goals for 2008, as approved by the Board, we still anticipate that we will add another LoTW award in the third quarter of this year. This plan is in place and moving forward. Finally, I would like to note that Deb Jahnke and her staff in Business Services worked hard to make this happen. For the reasons above, this was not an easy “sell.” That have met or exceeded their budget every month this year often “pitching” the same accounts over and over and using creative print advertising techniques (check out the June QST) and a sophisticated, consultative approach to advertising to achieve their goal. As all of you know, the advertising revenue of $2.66 million this year that they generate from Yaesu and other advertisers help us pay for many other programs in ARRL that are not funded by member dues. I hope that this information is helpful. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer@arrl.org web: <http://www.arrl.org/> www.arrl.org/