FWIW, I spoke at a club meeting Friday evening. The discussion included the pecuniary interest situation. At the end of a fairly time I ended the discussion by asking the attendees to vote for "making it somewhat easier for employees to participate in on-air emergency training and operation" (but still maintaining the integrity of Amateur Radio) or for "making no change from the present rules." There were about 110 at the meeting. The results of this informal voting were that 1 person voted to make no change. Essentially everyone else voted for a slight easing in the rules. It appeared that everyone voted, but I didn't take an actual count to be certain of this. This result is consistent with the general tone of the relatively little input I've received from members throughout the Division. Again, FWIW - if anything. Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je@arrl.org, Tel.: 513-459-1661 ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio _____ From: Bruce Frahm [mailto:brucefrahmk0bj@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 10:37 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18405] Re: Options paper, Section 97.113 I'm essentially in agreement with Mickey and Dick Norton on this. There is NWS and hospital angst in the Midwest Division. Our population bases for the most part are such that A) it is difficult to find non-employee amateurs to man on-site stations and B) VHF channel loading and traffic are such that the general amateur population is not the least troubled operationally by such usage. Unlike Dick's experience, I DO have a couple hams that are conceptually concerned about these activities taking place in the Amateur Service. They aren't a significant portion but they serve as a reminder that we need to be judicious stewards of our spectrum. I like Option C. I don't mind Mickey's idea of time limits providing it's a fairly large number. This will be an interesting discussion. I hope we can facilitate the amateur emcomm role and also capitalize on the influx of operators we've been seeing as a result of the hospital and other agency utilization of Homeland Security funds to interface with the amateur emcomm community. 73 Bruce K0BJ