First of all, the ARRL has no practical choice but to remain a 501(c)(3). If we don't, the first thing we have to do is to turn all of our assets over to a 501(c)(3), since they were accumulated under the favorable rules that apply to 501(c)(3)s and cannot be used for other purposes. The second thing we have to do is to stop accepting contributions to the Fund for the Defense of Amateur Radio Frequencies, the Big Project, and so on -- which finance an increasing percentage of our activity. That aside, rephrasing Jim's question slightly: Could enough money be raised (not could "we" raise it since we're prohibited from raising it) for a PAC to make any difference? One way of looking at this is to consider how much PAC money is already floating around. According to one of the best sources for such information, www.opensecrets.org, in the 2002 election cycle the electric utilities alone contributed $21 million, 50% of it from related PACs. This is relevant in view of the current BPL issue. One of the key figures for us is Billy Tauzin. So far, for the 2003-2004 cycle he has received $55,783 from electric utilities PACs. You can see the list at http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00005372&cycle=2004&e.... This compares to $136,376 from electric utilities PACs for the 2001-2002 cycle (an election for which, in all, PACs contributed $1,462,005 to Tauzin -- and in which he was unopposed by a major party candidate). Communications/electronics PACs contributed nearly $16 million to federal candidates in the 2001-2002 cycle. Not all of the big names are big contributors; Nokia's PAC, for example, appears to have contributed just $1,500 split between two candidates. But the National Association of Broadcasters PAC contributed more than $500k and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association PAC contributed more than $800k. The only listing for a PAC contributor that I could find under "Non-Profit Institutions" for 2001-2002 was for the American Arts Alliance Political Action Committee, which contributed $35,000. In the time available I haven't found out much more about the organization than that. If anyone knows of a bona fide 501(c)(3) who has an affiliated 501(c)(4) with a PAC I'd be glad to research how they've done in practice; the membership associations I know of that have affiliated PACs are not 501(c)(3)s. I thought I had found one, the Keep Hope Alive PAC, but in their filings they claim no affiliation with the 501(c)(3) Keep Hope Alive, Ltd. You can come to your own conclusion about how much it would take for a ham radio PAC to contribute in order to make a noticeable difference in what is achieved on the Hill for ham radio, and whether it would be possible to raise that much. If you want to get an idea of the reporting requirements that must be met by PACs you can get it by poking around the Open Secrets Web site. 73, Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Weaver, Jim K8JE (DIR, GL) Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 7:31 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9302] Re: Ham Radio PAC? I agree we could in one way or another perform lobbying in the typical sense -- including forming a PAC and backing up our pleas with a few bucks. Does anyone have an estimate of the amount we would need to spend to become a greater force than we are now or than we could be given the current approximate "advocacy" budget? Stated otherwise: Would we be able to raise enough money so that a PAC would be meaningfully more effective than we COULD be as a 501(c)(3)? By the way I've stated this last question it should be obvious that I do not believe we are as effective as possible by staying within our current tax status. 73 Jim W. Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division k8je@arrl.org - Tel. 513-459-0142 ARRL -- The reason Amateur Radio is! GREAT LAKES DIVISION CONVENTION, September 6, 2003: See http://greatlakes.arrl.org