Frank, I know you are trying to be helpful and constructive. I do need to correct some misapprehensions. It is not true that John Larson "has never heard from us." Post-Katrina we worked with him and his staff to introduce a $500,000 earmark for ARRL for emergency communications training. He took a personal interest and did introduce it in March 2006, but earmarks fell out of favor that year and it died (along with many others). I agree that it is time for a followup with his staff about a possible visit, and will do so. Obviously, with his new responsibilities he has had a lot on his plate in the opening months of the new Congress and new administration and it would be inappropriate (not to mention counterproductive) for us to take umbrage at the lack of an immediate response to our invitation. It is important for us to have his support (and even more important for us not to stimulate his opposition). However, Congressman Larson's interests and committee assignments do not point toward his becoming another Barry Goldwater for us. If you or anyone else on ODV wants to discuss a PAC you must do it offline. ARRL resources, including the email reflector, cannot be used. 73, Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Frank Fallon [mailto:n2ff@optonline.net] Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 8:43 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: Congressman John Larson's Visit to Newington........ Dave, To focus on John Larson's eventual visit to Newington HQ, and how we might bring that about, a bit closer --- Larson is, as you know, the number four legislator in the House, and not the caucus as I said in my last e-mail. He is chairman of the Democratic Caucus and a very good friend of Rahm Emmanuel. This is an important guy in Washington who has the potential to become the Speaker of the House. The bottom line is that he could become a second Barry Goldwater for ham radio in Washington. Yes, he would be in the congress and he has no ham ticket. It would be nice to have him visit our Newington HQ and have him on our side before you are both retired. What's really important here with respect to John Larsen is to not simply ask him to support our bill. That would be an _insult to him_ considering that a "low level" not too well liked representative from Texas has introduced this bill. I am not worried about what a few Texas voters think of our sponsor. I am more concerned about how her colleagues in other states feel about her; can she get support for her bill. I think it is important that board members be aware that our sponsor has some baggage which we are going to have to deal with. going forward. Full disclosure and transparency are the new watchwords in DC these days. At this point as we have.a potential prime backer from Newington and he has never heard from us before this bill was introduced. Now it starts to get tacky in working with Larsen. We should have had a relationship with him in place and working "before" the bill was introduced. It's a bit sad that after four months we have not heard back from Larson's office. Perhaps the letter went astray or was received by a total incompetent volunteer in his office and wound up in the bit bin. It is obviously time for a few additional moves. Might I suggest a three pronged effort - fax, phone and letter - to his local and DC office From my experience the DC offices are run much more professionally. That may be where his scheduler resides. Now that Larson is a new Washington star he may have new gatekeepers who are keeping our message from him. The movie "Turk 182" comes to mind here as it deals with getting the attention of a local politician. The movie shows some over the top ideas but it is out of the box. But that may be what is needed in this case. Perhaps what we need here is some "negative" persuasion. Some of us might form a state PAC such as "CT Ham PAC" and run our own candidate in the next district Democrat primary election. While K1KI is not in Larson's district, Mary Hobart is. That would certainly get Larson's attention and he might be more willing to view our "mom and pop operation" in his home area. As Dayton is only a few days away I am willing to help out there by alerting hams nationwide of our inability to get Larson to visit HQ. I still have time to develop a model letter which I can slip under the door of any room at the Crowne Plaza that has a QSL card on the door. The letter would begin, "ARRL CEO, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ needs your help in getting Congressman John Larson to visit Newington HQ......" I'll let the guys in YCCC, the Antenna Forum, the RTTY Forum and in the Contest Suite and NJDXA suite know what a terrible time we are having getting Larson to visit. I am also willing on my own dime to help organize information picketing of Larson's district office in CT. I am sure that you and Harold can work out a schedule so that we can have between three and five staff show up outside his office during prime commute time with placards that say things like, "Congressman Larson Ignores Homeland Security." In less than four months we would have some local TV coverage and a number of videos up on You Tube drawing attention to our plight. I am sure his office would return your calls very quickly. But perhaps we will not have to go this "negative" strident route. 73 de Frank....N2FF......