IN-Newsletter Vol 26, No. 16 April 23, 2003 Upcoming Meetings April 26th in Kansas City, MO at 8:30am A&F Committee Development The list of major donors and estate gift donors has been completed to be included in the ARRL Annual Report, in QST and in the Development section of the ARRL website. The second quarterly progress report for the federal CNCS grant is being prepared to meet the April 30, 2003 deadline. Our Program Officer and a financial representative will be at headquarters on May 7-8 to review our progress and assist in preparations for a renewal application for year two of the grant. The test campaign for Historic Preservation will be supported in June QST with a 1/2 page ad. The direct mail campaign is scheduled to mail in mid-May and a presence will be in the Development section of the website. With a gloomy mood in the market and uncertain conditions around the world, contributions continue to fall below targets. The 2003 Education & Technology campaign has attracted more than $61,000 in contributions from 1200 donors. The special campaign for WRC-03 is seeing its first returns totaling $3200 from 48 donors. The Spectrum Defense Fund has reached $289,000 from 6500 donors. An anonymous $10,000 contribution to that fund was received on 4/22/2003. The Combined Federal Campaign attracted pledges totaling more than $8500. Cash for these pledges will come in over the course of the year. The new planned giving newsletter, The Legacy Circle Letter, has been mailed to 5000 targeted ARRL members including the ARRL Board Family. 4,500 newsletters were mailed to active members born between 1936 and 1950. This is the first of four issues a year that tell donors stories and highlight estate planning topics. The newsletter was designed and printed by ARRL with expertise from Robert F. Sharpe Co. of Tennessee, one of the country's premiere planned giving consultants. Recognition materials for the 6 Maxim Society donors ($10,000 or more in lifetime giving) and the 25 Legacy Circle (estate gift) donors have been mailed. Eleven prospects for Maxim Society whose lifetime giving falls between $5000 and $10,000 were mailed the new Maxim Society brochure and encouraged to review their giving plans with an eye to qualifying for Maxim Society recognition. Legacy Circle prospects who have expressed interest in including ARRL in their estate plans were mailed new Legacy Circle brochures and copies of the planned giving newsletter. Copies of The Legacy Circle Letter and the three new annual giving brochures were mailed to the Board family. Diamond Club members donating $1000 or more were mailed copies of the newsletter and a Legacy Circle brochure. New display boards for the Diamond Club, Maxim Society and Legacy Circle are being prepared for display at the Dayton and Dallas conventions. A presentation of the Development website is also being created for the conventions. Production/Editorial Stu Cohen, N1SC, reviewed and corrected technical article page proofs for June QST, and is preparing July technical articles for publication in that issue. Stu also corresponded with readers and members on technical matters. Rick Lindquist, N1RL, reports that The ARRL Letter attained a new circulation peak of 66,215 on April 11. (This does not include copies distributed via third parties, such as the Boston Amateur Radio Club.) Rick wrote/edited Vol 22, No. 16 of The ARRL Letter, an especially fat edition, and--with help from Brennan Price and Jennifer Hagy--ARRL Audio News, both of which went out a day early, April 17, because of the holiday. Rick continues to hear from clubs and repeater owners airing ARRL Audio News on a regular (ie, weekly) basis. That list is now up to 125 and grows at the rate of one or two per week. Dave Hassler, K7CCC, edited three features and a number of brief news items for the ARRL Web site, and prepared the "ARRL in Action" column for June QST. Brennan Price, N4QX, prepared the Product Review column for the June issue of QST. Production staff checked printer's proofs for the May/June issue of NCJ and the 2003 DXCC Yearbook. Sales & Marketing The Sales and Marketing group conducted an email solicitation for the recent holiday weekend covering many new ARRL products. Our last tally indicates nearly 500 orders have been received, a number that exceeds traditional revenue take for this solicitation. Planning for the ARRL exhibit at Dayton Hamvention is in full swing. Bob Inderbitzen reports that a new commemorative button and shopping bag have been designed. Gail Iannone has started gathering the free handout material that will be shipped. Deb Jahnke confirmed Dayton Booth spaces, arranged for furniture and Exhibitor badges and handled the Hamvention prize request. Now You're Talking! readers will soon be able to browse pages on the ARRLWeb that have been prepared to support these newcomers. Among the features included on these pages will be quick links to clubs, testing sites, and other common questions. A "bonus" chapter will be available to browse. And, special membership promotions will be offered. Bob expects that by building a relationship with readers (beyond the book), we'll increase the effectiveness of communicating with these (mostly) prospective members about ARRL products and services. Bob is coordinating the design and content of these pages with Tom Hogerty. Bob Inderbitzen is prepared a handful of house ads for June QST, including a new attention-getting ARRL membership ad that features QST. Bob was also busy working with Sue Fagan producing artwork for the cover of the upcoming version of TravelPlus for Repeaters (version 7.0). The product will debut at Hamvention and in June QST The author of Ham University will be supplying ARRL with a Technician exam-preparation version of the popular software. This product spin-off was conceived by Bob Inderbitzen and is now in stock and available for delivery: Ham University--Technician Edition, ARRL Order No. 8956, retail $24.95. Janet Rocco, who continues to take on more responsibilities in our group, distributed a survey to over 400 Handbook buyers under the watchful eye of Bob Inderbitzen. The information will be used for sales, marketing, and production planning as work begins on the 2005 edition. Deb and Joe Bottiglieri continue to work on insertions for June QST. With an assist from Carol Patton, who found the perfect placement, RF Parts has decided to expand their advertising space for the next eight months. Advertising staff are seeing an increasing number of existing and prospective advertiser receptive to allowing ARRL prepare proposal packages packed with professional recommendations and opportunities. We have also once more kicked up the number of calls we make to clients designed to ensure that the service we provide meets or exceeds their expectations. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS Certs. (450 QSLs F/C) 9 WAS Certs. (100 QSLs ES/C) 2 WAS Ends. (200 QSLs F/C) 4 WAC Certs. (144 QSLs ES/C) 24 Code Prof. Certs. 5 Code Prof. Ends. 5 L/T Member Inquiries 9 50-Year Member Award 1 A-1 Operator Certs. 4 VUCC Initial Apps. 2 Grids 362 Awards Mailed 27 HF Awards Mgr. Appt.: David Duskin, NE5S, Oklahoma City, OK Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, ship out the 5BWAS plaques, foreign WAC awards, mail out any awards processed this week that were not mailed out yet, and on-going VUCC awards processing/mailing. DXCC Branch Weekly Report April 20, 2003 Beginning Cards 111,243 Cards Received 7,926 Cards Processed 6,004 Ending Cards 113,165 Applications Pending 1,020 Processing Time 7.4 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 149,382 Cards Returned 243,856 QRPs Issued this week 1 QRP's Issued total 292 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on February 27, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on March 3, 2003. DXCC welcomes KARL (South Korea) DXCC card checker nominee Jeon Sung-Tae, HL1XP, to the list of DXCC card checkers Contest Branch Data entry for DX Contest paper logs continued. The 160-meter and Phone Sweepstakes web articles were reviewed and some changes are being made. The Phone SS article for QST was finalized with the author and sent to Production. Plaque solicitation letters for the DX contest were prepared and mailed. The DX Contest pins were finalized with Graphics and ordered. Numerous Field Day questions continue to come in and are being handled. Gavels for several Affiliated Club Competitions were ordered. QSL Branch QSL Service Status: There is a delay of one week due to staff absence. Cards mailed as of 04/20/2003: 474,550. Cards mailed on 04/17/2003: 62,650. Thanks to HQ Staffers who continue to fill in as Tour Guide in Heather Dzamba's absence. Heather has returned to work on light duties only. W1AW Joe performed some antenna "clean-up work" within the center tower's antenna box. After the antenna work from the week before, he needed to replace and weatherproof some antenna connectors. He also installed another printer and scanner for a workstation located in the station's upstairs conference room. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of April. He continues with assembly of the donated Elecraft K2 QRP transceiver. Scott also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2003): $5,101 Field & Educational Services More successful ARISS QSOs were held, one for Lounsberry Hollow Middle School in NJ, and two in Russia, in the cities of Tver and Kursk. Rosalie reviewed proposed wording for ARRL to possibly become a Citizen Corps affiliate. She worked with the FO/PS Team on revising FSD-191. EmComm Grants Dan Miller reports that 76 people signed up for the Level II class this week, filling up in just under 18 hours. The Level III course opens next Monday. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Jerry Hill reports the ham radio booth attracted a lot of teachers' attention at the national conference of the National Council of Math Teachers. He is finalizing graphics for making the curriculum more kid friendly. Field & Education Support Team Jean Wolfgang notes that the deadline has now passed for submission of education annual award support information. Jean is now compiling, reading, and sorting submissions received to date. She also received one ARISS application. Margie Bourgoin reports that a mailing has gone out to all clubs as a reminder to update their club records and SSC status as needed. She is working with Mary Lau on a special web version of an updated and combined SSC Manual and Club President Workbook, now to be called The Active Club Online Primer. Gail Iannone wrote 22 hamfest and 7 convention announcements for June QST. She processed 16 door prize orders and sent 7 handout packages for upcoming conventions. She also co-ordinated travel for Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, to be the HQ rep at the Western Pennsylvania Section Convention on September 7, 2003 in Butler, PA. Linda Mullally made revisions to the 2003 Video library sheet that we provide to members, updated 26 club records, and shipped 444 brochures, 18 Grad kits, and 10 Exhibit kits. Mary Lau is looking for ideas/concepts and ways to improve our new ham recruitment information on ARRLWeb. Contact her with your suggestions. Mary also thanks Margie Bourgoin for her rapid response to a last-minute request for youth-oriented AR materials to augment the NTIA-Commerce Dept. Kids Day event slated for April 24th. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams reports that SM nominating petitions have been received for Ray Taylor, N5NAV (South Texas); Jettie Hill, W6RFF (Sacramento Valley) and Mark Tharp, KB7HDX (Eastern Washington) for the next term beginning in October. Members have until June 6 to nominate SM candidates. Steve Ewald attended and spoke at the successful Amateur Radio Training Session at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans. Around 45 persons attended. Louisiana SM Mickey Cox, K5MC and Mississippi SM Malcolm Keown, W5XX participated with several ARES Emergency Coordinators and Mike Pilgrim, K5MP, and Jerry Herman, N3BDW, of the Hurricane Watch Net. Mike Carter, N3PDK, organized and moderated the session. Chuck Skolaut and Rosalie handled a number of Field Organization-related issues while Steve was away on travel. Chuck assisted Steve by reviewing and releasing Monthly Section News Summaries from SMs by e-mail. He recruited OO assistance at the request of the FCC for an interference case on 75 meters. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs in Broward County, FL (AB4ET) with a local government zoning problem San Jose, CA; and with a covenant problem in San Jose, CA (AD6SL). He also sent to Derek Riker copies of Congressional letters we have received. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW: lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Dave Sumner 4/22-4/23 Washington Dave Sumner 5/1pm-5/6 Vacation Dan Miller 5/1-5/4 ARRL Midwest Convention, Lebanon, MO John Proctor 5/1-5/12 Vacation Rick Lindquist 5/16-5/19 Vacation Jon Bloom 4/21-4/25 Vacation Shelly Bloom 4/21-4/25 Vacation Leona Adams 4/24-4/25 Vacation Mahjabeen Kabir 4/21-4/22 Vacation Wayne Mills 5/1-5/7 Visalia Convention Bill Moore 5/2 Birmingham Convention