IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.7 February 18, 2004 Development The W1AW Endowment campaign is full swing. So far 811 donors have contributed more than $55,000, including three multi-year pledges. Follow-up letters will be mailed at the end of February to major donors and to prior donors to past W1AW and other ARRL campaigns. While response has dwindled, the 2004 Spectrum Defense Fund has received more than $45,000 from 713 donors since January 1, 2004. The first full-file 2004 Defense mailing is planned for the end of March. The first Diamond Club solicitation of 2004 will be mailed the week of Feb 23 to approximately 8,000 prospects. Development is pleased to welcome Maryann Macdonald who has joined the Development team part-time to assist with data entry and administrative support. Maryann will be dividing her time between Development and the Comptrollers Office. Development is in the process of assuming the administrative reins of the ARRL Foundation. Long time Secretary Mary Lau has spent many years nurturing the donors and programs of the ARRL Foundation and is generously spending the next couple of weeks sharing her knowledge and experience with Development. Our hope is to build on Mary's successful efforts to manage the scholarship and grants programs of the Foundation under the leadership of President Tom Frenaye and the ARRL Foundation Board. We have big shoes to fill and appreciate Mary's generosity in sharing information and systems to effect a smooth transition by March 5. Media Relations Jennifer participated in the Public Relations Committee's first conference call of the year. Several 2004 agenda items were discussed, including directives put forth by the Programs & Services Committee. Plans to help ARRL PICs develop their own section-wide speakers bureaus is a top priority for the group, and work on this project is being split up between the committee members. PRC member Rich Moseson, W2VU, is developing talking points and a sample letter to the editor for PR volunteers who may be faced with the BPL issue in their communities. The next conference call is scheduled for March 9. The Courier News, out of Elgin, Illinois, interviewed Director Isely for a brief feature article, as a direct result of the hometown news release Jen distributed on his Board reelection. While the hometowners usually garner a few lines in print (if we're lucky), the releases sometimes generate a more substantial news piece. A writer from Technology Daily, a Washington D.C.-based publication put out by the National Journal, contacted Jen after the FCC voted to go forward with the NPRM concerning BPL. Jim Haynie did the interview. Access to articles is limited to subscribers only, but we'll get a copy. Jim also did a BPL-related interview with C-Net, a technology news Web site. The new "@" Morse code addition has stirred up some media interest. Jen got a call from The Baltimore Sun, and the reporter interviewed Dave Patton and Paul Rinaldo. The Associated Press picked up the Sun's story, and after seeing that, we got a call from National Public Radio. Rick Lindquist agreed to do the interview for NPR's "All Things Considered" program. The piece ran on the 17th, and its archived here: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1680529 Door prizes were shipped to our contact with the National Association of Broadcasters for the annual Amateur Radio Operators' Reception, held during the NAB convention in Las Vegas in April. ARRL will again have a presence at the convention, with booth space donated by NAB. Bill Cornelius, K8XC, is heading up the volunteer effort at the ARRL booth. Production/Editorial We checked printer's proofs for the March/April issue of NCJ. The April 2004 issue of QST will be released to the printer Thursday. Stu Cohen is wrapping up work on April QST technical articles and columns, and is editing material for the May issue. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 07 (Feb 13), distributed to 66,877 members. In addition to preparing the "Happenings" column for April QST, Rick covered the FCC meeting segment dealing with broadband over power line (BPL) via the Internet and developed a story--with reaction from ARRL officials--on the FCC's decision to issue an NPRM. He also prepared/edited news stories on the death of well-known contester and former HQ staff member Jim White, K4OJ; an ARISS contact with a Texas school; new cosponsors for the two ham radio bills in Congress, HR 713 and HR 1478; "In Brief" (17 items); FCC enforcement actions and several Web site news briefs (including items on ARRL HQ closed on Presidents' Day and Pres Bush thanks SC ham for his volunteerism). Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Feb 13 with voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy. Dave Hassler prepared his "ARRL in Action" column for April QST, and edited three pieces for the ARRL Web Extra. Bob Schetgen is wrapping up work on the April QST columns he is responsible for, and is editing material for the May/June issue of QEX. Sales and Marketing A publication solicitation closely tied to the long Presidents' Holiday weekend helped boost online ordering throughout the period. Gross sales of over $17,700 were taken during the first 5 days of this campaign. The solicitation featured a couple of sale items and a special promotion for customers to earn a $10 reward for every $75 spent. The reward coupons are delivered with customer orders. They can be redeemed for orders placed in April. The impact of this promotion was realized in larger orders--up $5 to $10 per order. Components to support the second large membership mailing in 2004 were assembled this week. The mailing includes 82,000 leads, and should mail before the end of the month. Through the investigative efforts of John Proctor and Kathy Capodicasa, we recently discovered UPS and Fedex have been charging fuel surcharges for their expedited services (overnight, 2- and 3-day shipments). We are now able to pass the surcharge along to our customers. Fuel surcharges vary from week to week and depending on fuel prices, can apply to Ground services. We will regularly check on-line what the surcharges are and adjust our shipping software rates accordingly. Currently, the surcharge is 5%. The 2003 ARRL Periodicals CD-ROM arrived into stock. Zoe Belliveau and the warehouse crew fulfilled almost 100 back orders. Steve Capodicasa and the warehouse crew shipped 703 CDs to our International CD-ROM members who prefer to receive the yearly CD instead of monthly QST. Deb Jahnke provided staff with preliminary publication sales and membership reports. Royalty payment calculations were also submitted to Comptroller's for payment. A substantial amount of time was spent assisting a major advertiser who plans to debut a major new product with an 8-page insert in April QST. Based on two test mailings (using a higher end premium choice) that increased our return percentage from 5% to 12%, the letter in our New Ham mailing package has been revised. The package has already been sent to the latest group of new hams as well as a small test group (500) of hams who had received the package prior to the change. If this latest test is successful, we will look at mailing to a larger group. The Advertising Staff continues to round up stragglers for April QST insertions. Advertisers were particularly difficult to reach this month as many traveled directly from Miami to Orlando. Several staffers worked on Monday in an attempt to catch up with returning travelers. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSLs Checked 350 OTC Awards 12 Extra Class Certs. 13 RCC Awards 4 Code Prof. Certs. 3 A-1 Op. Noms. 5 A-Op. Certs. 3 VUCC QSLs Checked 35 VUCC Backfill App. 1 Grids 150 VUCC End. App. 1 Grids 35 Awards Mailed 30 HF/VHF Awards Manager Appt.: Lewis Steingold, W4BLO, Virginia Beach, VA. Also completed filing the LTMA file card records and the VUCC applications from 2003. Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week - WAC QSL card checking, foreign WAC and VUCC award processing, mail out this week's processed awards, file the WAS applications from 2002 and 2003, and work with JPC to provide orientation as W1AW will be handling the Code Proficiency Program. Contest Branch The 2004 Field Day packet was finalized and posted to the Web. The 2004 Straight Key Night article was written and sent to Production and the Web. The finalized changes of the 2004 IARU HF World Championship Rules were approved and the announcement for QST and the full rules for the web were prepared. A letter advising IARU member societies of the rules changes was proofed and mailed. June VHF plaques were shipped. Data entry for the 2003 10-Meter Contest was completed and the combined list posted to the Web. Results article for the 2003 EME contest was received from the author, was formatted, and sent to Production. Solicitation letters for 2004 International DX Contest plaques were prepared and mailed. We are waiting delivery of an order of the basic DX Contest plaques in order to finish shipping the 2003 back orders. DXCC Branch For the week of: February 15, 2004 Beginning Cards 78,608 Cards Received 12,766 Cards Processed 11,754 Ending Cards 79,620 Applications Pending 618 Processing Time 8.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 43,104 Cards Returned 88,348 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on December 17, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on January 8, 2004. QSL Bureau There is a delay of 2 weeks. This week, 120 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 220 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 02/15/04: 147,700. Cards mailed on 02/13/04: 75,950. Field & Educational Services Steve and Rosalie coordinated with SM Doane about a March 2nd ARES talk by her staff at Connecticut's VOAD meeting. Steve and Rosalie worked on local MOUs and an SM election issue. Mark and Rosalie teleconned with NASA Hq to plan our presence at three national teacher conferences. Mark and Rosalie discussed SCR certificate issuance, and fielded Restructuring calls. Rosalie met with three interviewees for the club/Elmer position. She prepared Power Point pages and gathered handouts for a state teacher's conference. She worked with Rick and Dave on awards PR, and queried clubs about co-sponsoring our plaques. Linda Mullally updated 93 club records, handled 2 club reactivations, and checked member rosters for 2 clubs. She entered data on new hams into the database, and entered email changes for new ham labels into the database. She registered 6 Instructors and 4 Club Vanity emails. She renewed 6 Special Service Clubs and entered OO Reports into the database and sent OO supply requests. She completed the Monthly Statistic Reports for April QST (PSHR-BPL-STM-SEC). Mary Lau processed 304 scholarship applications to date. The main photocopying effort gets underway today--thanks to Lisa Kustosik for the kick-off assistance. Congratulations to Mary Hobart, K1MMH, elected as new secretary of the ARRL Foundation. Jim McCobb comes aboard as treasurer, also. Gail Iannone concentrated on her QST deadline for her column, "Coming Conventions and Hamfests." She handled other correspondence and requests concerning upcoming events. CCE Jerry Ellis continues to teach Jean various CCE tasks. He also handled requests for upcoming emcomm field exam sessions and fielded the usual phone calls and email. Jean Wolfgang wrote and sent the ARRL Web announcement for the week's update on classes, sent certificates for CCE field exams, and printed certificates and checks. She contacted mentors for the upcoming Level II class and Antenna Modeling class, and posted 4 classes that will open Feb.16. She ordered reimbursements checks and mentor stipends. Education & Technology Program We executed the purchase of equipment for the latest round of 13 approved schools. The OPTAScope portion of the Activity Board kits are still on back order and the new expected delivery date is in about 3 weeks. Mark sent out 18 kits to schools that have asked for them, and the scopes will be mailed once they are received. The total number of schools currently on the roll that have received Program grants is 68. Field Organization/Public Service Team In response to monthly Field Appointment Reports that went out earlier, SMs have been updating their appointment rosters. Leona Adams handled these updates along with about two dozen new appointments and their associated supplies. Chuck Skolaut sent an FCC monitoring request to Florida and Georgia Sections' SMs and OOCs concerning an issue on 3945 kHz. Chuck received an updated progress report on the investigation of the source of slow dashes on 14.318 MHz near Cincinnati. He is keeping track of reports of possible non-licensed 2-meter operations in the Los Angeles area and a bootlegger of an Amateur Radio station in Alaska. Steve Ewald edited the Public Service column for April QST and corresponded with Section Leaders about their monthly reports and Section Web and Section News pages. Some news items were shared with readers of the ARRL Web's News Page. Over a 150 ARRL ECs and DECs have replied, the first week, to the survey that Steve sent about potential new ARES-related product items. Regulatory Information John Hennessee continues to receive hams' comments concerning ARRL's restructuring proposal. Most hams think the proposal is okay, but that certain points should be fine-tuned. Non-hams and Novices/Technicians who haven't been active in some time are overjoyed. He forwards all comments to Directors for their information. He assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Carmel, IN (N7ID); Elizabeth, PA (WA3IOU); Fall River, MA (KA1RSF) and covenant problems in Palm Beach, FL (N2TYF) and Santee, CA (KC6SDK). EmComm Dan Miller prepared for and presented his four-hour seminar at the Orlando Hamcation, along with visiting a local club to give a talk while in Florida. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Mark Wilson 2/27 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 2/19-2/26 Vacation Rose-Anne Lawrence 2/9-2/20 Vacation Rosalie White 2/20 Hoosier Science Teachers Conference `` 2/23-2/27 Vacation Karen Isakson 2/16-2/23 Vacation Leona Adams 2/17-2/18 Vacation Joe Carcia 2/23 Vacation Scott Gee 2/25-2/27 Vacation Rick Lindquist 2/23-2/24 Vacation