IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. June 24, 2002 Upcoming Meetings July 18th in Newington, CT at 9:00am Volunteer Resources Committee July 18th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Membership Services Committee July 19-20 in Windsor, CT: Board Meeting Development On June 18 ARRL hosted a press conference to announce a $33,000 grant from United Technologies Corporation to fund the expansion of Level 1 ARECC training for Connecticut hams. Connecticut Lt. Gov M. Jodi Rell, Jacqueline Strayer, UTC's Director of Contribution and Communication Services, John Wiltse from the Connecticut OEM and Section Manger Betsey Doane joined CEO Dave Sumner to announce the grant that will provide funding for 250 CT hams to become certified. This grant enables CT to create a model for a national program. This fall UTC will review a proposal for a three-year $243,000 grant to expand ARECC training nationwide. The press conference was covered by the Hartford area Fox affiliate and Metro Radio Network. The Education and Technology Program campaign is closing in on $200,000 in contributions from more than 3100 hams. The Fund has attracted enough funding to support the program in 2003. The latest Planned Giving mailing has attracted 3 new commitments bringing the total to 10 since January 2002. More information was requested from 61 prospects, mainly on wills and bequests. The W1AW Endowment campaign is in the final planning stages. Media Relations The ARRL / UTC press conference was a success, and while we didn't get as much media coverage as we would have liked, we did get a few good "hits." The event was covered by Connecticut's Fox affiliate, channel 61. The finished piece ran that evening, early on in the broadcast, and it was very well done. Metro Networks (similar to an AP wire, but for radio) also covered the event. We've had confirmation that the feed was picked up by at least one CT radio station. Jennifer also did an interview with WTIC radio after the event. We're waiting on word of further media hits from the PR folks at UTC. The 2002 Field Day release was distributed via PR Newswire, and Jennifer has been hearing from a lot of ARRL members who have been sharing news of their Field Day media coverage. The newspaper clips from the Bacon's clip service should start pouring in over the next couple of weeks. Prior to Field Day, Jennifer was interviewed by The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald, Bee Publications (publishes nine weekly newspapers in Buffalo, New York) and The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois). Word of Field Day media hits from members included a note from Mike Wendland, K8ZRH, the technology columnist for The Detroit Free Press. Mike readily agreed to be added to our media database. The 2002 McGan nominations (five total) are being duplicated and will be sent out to the PR committee members this week. PRC Chairman Diane Ortiz, K2DO, is working on her report for the July Board meeting. A package of CC&R related letters from members and other requests for information were forwarded to Chwat and Company for Derek Riker's review. Jennifer and Derek have been keeping in touch on a regular basis. The 2001 Annual Report should be back from the printer during the week of July 8. Copies to Board members will promptly go out in the mail. Sales & Marketing Marketing An ad is being prepared for August QST, announcing The ARRL Image Communications Handbook, by Ralph Taggart, WB8DQT. Bob Inderbitzen worked with Jon Bloom and Sue Fagan to create a pop-up window on the main ARRLWeb page to solicit new members. The campaign was tied closely to Field Day (offering a free Field Day pin for membership sign-ups). Significant thought went into managing the pop-up window so that most browsers would only see the window once. Thus far, 42 memberships have been attributed to the campaign. These memberships are largely new or previous-member sign-ups. Bob met with Mary Lau to discuss plans to update the F&ES youth recruitment brochure. The collaborative discussion yielded many good ideas. Deb Jahnke and Bob assisted Dave Patton with shipping arrangements and other details for the upcoming ARRL exhibit at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Bob worked with Sue Fagan and Dave Pingree (Graphics Dept) to produce an ARRLWeb banner ad for an advertiser Hanan is working with. Bob assembled files for a CD-ROM that includes images and descriptions of our entire product line. The material will assist ARRL dealers that are building their own online stores (to include ARRL products). Joe Bottiglieri and Lisa Tardette are both working with clients who have immediate interest in putting the material to work. Jon Bloom assisted with extracting files containing product descriptions, using a source database that drives our own online store. An announcement will be circulated to all ARRL dealers offering the material to them. An email solicitation was conducted during the week, as a last call for Field Day T-shirts. The mailing instantly yielded sales that will help exhaust our stock. T-shirt sales have significantly exceeded last year's figures. The new ARRL Life Membership plaque, touting a fresh design, will be available for sale in about one month. The plaques are regularly sent to new Life Members, and they will be offered to existing Life Members seeking replacement plaques. Pricing will be announced soon. A solicitation was mailed to help increase the number of ARRL dealers that carry QST in their stores. Dealers will enjoy a more exclusive arrangement with the recent elimination of general newsstand distribution. Sales Deb and Hanan drafted a follow-up card to be sent to advertisers who have decided to suspend advertising. Plans are also in the works to send a survey to advertisers who have dropped out of the magazine during the past two years. Based on input from the Sales & Marketing team and others, Deb finalized a business plan for increasing advertising in QEX and increasing subscriber numbers. Doug Smith (QEX Editor) has already drafted a letter to be sent to a pre-determined list of potential advertisers along with an issue of QEX. Our experimental mailing to a group of new hams, using a full issue of QST rather than the QST Special Edition, is in the mail. In a joint effort with Comptroller's we decided that now (prior to our computer conversion) would be the opportune time to contact all ARRL Dealers and Advertisers to accomplish several goals. We will encourage them to send us updated contact information for both Sales and Accounts Payable use. In addition, we will create a generic document that will clearly state our business terms, delivery expectations, options, as well as ad deadlines, etc. Deb Jahnke is working on a draft of this. Comptroller staff is working on a revised credit application and Advertising staff is working on an updated insertion order form. Anticipate advertising billing for the month appears to be very close to target while products sales may be off some this month. Membership numbers are still somewhat disappointing and we are looking at short term and long term programs to work on this. Production/Editorial The August issue of QST will be released to the printer June 25. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 600 WAS Endorsements 6 WAC Certificates 16 WAC Endorsements 2 Long Term Member Inquiries 18 Extra Class Certificates 19 RCC Awards 5 OTC Awards 3 VUCC Endorsement Applications 1 Grids (Data Entry) 126 Also, additional research done and letters sent to 8 members with problematic pre-computer membership records (unable to find on the first pass). Processing Status Code Prof. Awards 2 weeks VUCC Awards 2 weeks Friendship Awards 3 weeks Specialty WAS Awards 3 weeks For the coming week-Specialty WAS, Code Proficiency, Friendship, and VUCC awards. DXCC Branch Weekly Report June 23, 2002 Beginning Cards 43,205 Cards Received 9,319 Cards Processed 11,553 Ending Cards 40,971 Applications Pending 276 Processing Time 1 Week Year-to-date Cards Received 281,147 Cards Returned 346,297 QRP Issued this week 4 QRP YTD 211 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on June 11, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on June 18, 2002. 1 DXCC card checker was nominated this week bringing the total to number of checkers to 149. Contest Branch The automated Logs Received process working with the log-processing robot was tested and went "live" on Friday June 14. We are still working with it, tweaking in a few features that will be used for the IARU HF Championships in July. The draft of the January VHF SS was received from the team doing the write-up, matched with the line scores and sent to production. Mailing of IARU certificates was completed. Numerous email and phone queries have been coming in for this weekend's Field Day event. The on-line web article, boxes, etc for 2001 160 Meter Contest and 2002 January VHF Sweepstakes were prepared and sent to the Web Services Department for layout and posting for preview. Final drafts of the 160 Meter and January VHF SS for QST were proofed and sent back to production. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 06/23/2002 - 1,016,100. No cards were mailed this week. Janet Rocco spent 5 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Field Day 2002 went quite well at W1AW! Thanks to the following staff for operating and visiting during the event: Jerry Hill, KH6HU; Rosalie White, K1STO; Mary Hobart, K1MMH (plus 5 guests); Steve Ewald, WV1X; John Hennessee, N1KB; Mary Lau, N1VH; Joel Kleinman, N1BKE; Brennan Price, N4QX; Helen Dalton, KB1HLF; Danny Sayad, KB1IIP; and Dave Mello, W1DGM. Special thanks to Dan Henderson, N1ND, for his operating during most of the event. 526 CW and 623 SSB QSOs (including 5 RTTY QSOs) were made on 80 to 10 meters, including 6 and 2 meters, for a claimed score of 1463. Joe Carcia spent time preparing the station for Field Day. He built stubs to reduce interference between the stations. He also upgraded the logging software on all the PCs and worked on the networking as well. Scott Gee worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the latter part of the month of June. He also handled some evening phone sales in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $4,802. Field & Educational Services Cosmonaut Valery Korzun was heard operating Field Day from the International Space Station on at least two passes! Last week Astronaut Jim Voss (not a ham) spoke before the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space about education in space (including quite a lot about Amateur Radio) -- NASA Hq provided numbers on ARISS schools for him to cite. Rosalie took part in an ARISS telecon with ARISS international officers. Steve and Rosalie provided assistance to an editor of NARTE's (National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers) magazine who wanted to re-work Rick's story about amateurs and Colorado fires. Field Organization/Public Service Team The entire department hosted Betsey Doane, K1EIC, and her sister, Barbara, K1EIR, Tuesday as we prepared to take part in the ARRL/UTC grant announcement. This news was also sent to the SM Reflector as was the news about President Bush's greeting to Amateur Radio operators. Leona has been preparing material for the Puerto Rico Section Manager election; candidate statements were formatted and proofread. Section Manager Workbooks for the new SMs starting in July are nearly ready for shipping, and Leona entered expense reports for various SMs. Thirteen appointment supply packages were sent, including 6 OO test packages. Steve Ewald prepared and proofread the August QST public service and field organization columns. "Section News" from Nevada, Virginia and Northern Florida reminded readers to contribute ideas to the ARRL Section Web sites. Steve contacted eight SMs about their use of the ARRL Section Web sites. The South Texas SM has a good prospect in mind to serve as a designated person to update their Section's Web site. The North Texas Field Organization hopes to upload news and photos about Field Day in their Section. Steve's contacts also included the newly-elected SMs who will begin their terms in July. Field & Educational Support Team Mary Lau relayed SM e-newsletters for the following Sections this week: KY = 6; MS =3; AR, NH, SDG, = 2, and GA, CT, MN, RI, NLI = 1. Mary was able to expedite check and contribution acknowledgments signing when Tom Frenaye stopped by following Tuesday's ARRL/UTC press conference. Jean Wolfgang has been working on short blurbs (to be used in the newsletters and the web) for the 2002 Ham Radio...Planning for the Future. While reviewing the past few Kid's Day survey results, Jean found the most popular participation age is 8-12. She is also assisting Jerry with creating The Big Project display board for the BOD meeting. Margie Bourgoin reports adding 13 new affiliated clubs; this represents increased club affiliation activity. She also reports one new SSC renewal. Responses to the Instructor survey have now reached 257. She sent the W1AW bulletin about The White House proclamation to affiliated clubs. Jo-Ann Arel registered 4 Instructors and 1 teacher, updated 20 affiliated clubs, and shipped 6 graduations kits, 5 videos, 8 exhibit kits, 275 Archies, and 445 brochures. Gail Iannone co-ordinated travel for HQ staff for the following conventions: Brennan Price, N4QX, EWA Section Convention to be held October 12th in Spokane; Rick Lindquist, N1RL, New Mexico State Convention to be held August 23rd-24th in Albuquerque; Dan Henderson, N1ND, Alabama Section Convention to be held August 17th-18th in Huntsville; and Bill Moore, NC1L, Roanoke Division Convention to be held September 28th-29th in Virginia Beach, VA. She also sent 5 hamfest and 3 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 21 door prize orders and sent 24 handout packages for upcoming events. C-CE Jerry Ellis has been processing the backlog of in-person classes and exams as well as processing many certificate requests. He opened the very first UTC-funded Level I course for CT residents, and the first class for our brand new course -- Satellite Communications. He is handling more CCE e-mail. Dan Miller says the interest from CT hams to participate in the new UTC-funded training exceeds his best expectations. Already 37 people have enrolled and the word is only beginning to spread. At least one ham employed by the CT Office of Emergency Management and one at Sikorsky have asked how they can participate. Thanks to UTC, CT hams are really getting involved in emergency communications! Regulatory Information John updated covenant information on the regulatory Web page that points amateurs to the information on HR 4720. He also prepared information for the page announcing the upcoming CLE course, taught by Chris Imlay and Fred Hopengarten on Friday, August 23 at the New England Division Convention at Boxboro, MA. He also processed the Volunteer Counsel application of Travis Wise, KB8FOU, of San Jose, and corresponded with Ohio SM Phillips on a possible attempt to codify PRB-1 as a state statute. The Big Project Jerry Hill has another teacher who will be participating in the curriculum review this summer. Jerry compiled all the lessons from when his teacher group was here a week ago, and gave them new assignments while he edits the lesson plans for consistency and content flow, and looks for "holes" to be addressed. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 7/4-7/5 Holiday Mark Wilson 7/1-7/3 Vacation Dave Patton 6/25-7/1 Friedrichshafen `` 7/8-7/16 Vacation Wayne Mills 6/25-7/1 Friedrichshafen `` 7/2-7/16 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 7/1-7/8 Vacation Monique Levesque 6/27pm-7/8 Vacation Rosalie White 6/28 Vacation Dan Miller 7/1-7/8 Vacation Margie Bourgoin 7/8 Vacation Joe Carcia 6/28pm-7/3 Vacation Judy Miller 7/1-7/8 Vacation Joel Kleinman 7/2 Vacation `` 7/8-7/12 Vacation Rick Lindquist 7/1-7/8 Vacation Jan Carman 7/1-7/3 Vacation Mary Lau 6/25-7/8 San Francisco Section Convention/Vacation Zack Lau 6/25-7/8 San Francisco Section Convention/Vacation Zoe Belliveau 6/24-7/3 Vacation Lisa Tardette 7/8-7/19 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 7/8-7/12 Vacation Debbie Jahnke 7/1-7/3 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 7/2-7/16 Vacation