In-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 17 April 29, 2002 Sales & Marketing Dennis Motschenbacher is happy to announce that Bob Inderbitzen is now our Marketing Manager. This promotion is made in recognition of Bob's proven success working with various departments developing marketing strategies that are both effective and project a continuity of effort within the League. Bob will begin to work with Dennis to develop both short term and long term marketing plans that will draw together the total talent resource of the ARRL staff. Circulation and Pub Sales Lisa Tardette moved into a new role that allows her to devote 100% of her time to Dealer Sales. She has relocated into the area occupied by the advertising staff so that both groups can learn from each other as well as back each other up. Zoe Belliveau is our new Products Fulfillment Supervisor taking full responsibility for getting the orders entered and out the door, lifting that load away from Lisa. The arrival of the new edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory has been delayed until the first week of May because of a problem at the printer. All drop-shipment orders will be fulfilled as soon as the books come off press, and all other orders will be fulfilled upon the arrival of the books in Newington. Although we have extensively used electronic methods to promote membership and publications, we tried an experiment using the same medium to encourage lapsed members to rejoin ARRL. Bob drafted an email solicitation to expired members, seeking renewals. With the assistance of Jon Bloom we were able to gather a small group of expirees whose memberships had been expired for at least six months but less than one year-and had an e-mail address on record. Bob Inderbitzen put an eye-catching piece together, which included graphics along with suitable text. Generally, our e-mailed publication mailings have gleaned a 0.5 percent return. This mailing has pulled just a little over that mark at 0.8 percent. In addition to exploring this method of solicitation further, we are using Bob's piece (with appropriate text changes) as the first electronic reminder to upcoming expirees before their first mailed renewal notice. Advertising Dennis Motschenbacher is pleased to announce that Hanan Rayyashi is our new Advertising Supervisor. Joe Bottigleri will be joining the Advertising Sales Staff Monday April 29. Hanan and Joe will be preparing an aggressive sales plan that includes closer contact with our current advertisers and clearer targets for obtaining new advertisers. New advertisers booked this month include ACE-HF, Tom's Tubes, and Terry Software. We lost a couple of ads due to advertiser seasonal adjustment. The Advertising staff will be working with the Production staff to plan the transition to computer-to-plate ad processing and to further refine the flow of information between the groups. Marketing Bob Inderbitzen conducted a publication solicitation that was emailed to members on April 18. Within 5 days, it had yielded nearly $31,000 (excluding shipping and sales tax). One third of the sales volume came from Handbook and Antenna Book orders. Some of Bob's other activities for the week: drafted posters featuring ARRL publications for Dayton Hamvention; sought engraved samples of a proposed new Life Membership plaque; finalized artwork for TravelPlus CD-ROM product; compiled product pricing and details for proposed ARES emergency apparel; closed a small publication order with RSGB; arranged delivery of the new International Microwave Handbook, published by RSGB (with contributed material from ARRL). Publications The June issue of QST has been released to the printer. We checked page proofs for The ARRL Extra Class License Manual. We wish Joe Bottiglieri, AA1GW, well in his new position on the Advertising sales staff. Joe has been Product Review editor since 1998 and the Managing Editor of NCJ since 1999. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 600 WAS Certificates 12 5BWAS Certificates 3 WAC QSL Cards Checked 180 Extra Class Certificates 20 A-1 Operator Nominations 2 Long Term Member Inquiries 3 Long Term Member Awards Mailed 39 25-Year Member Award 1 VUCC QSL Cards Checked 235 VUCC Endorsements 2 Grids (Data Entry) 125 VUCC Awards Mailed 8 Also ordered the 5BWAS engraved plates for the plaques. Backlog Status A-1 Operator Awards 4 weeks Basic WAS 4 weeks Specialty WAS 1 week WAS QSLs 1week WAC QSLs 1 week CP Awards 3 weeks RCC Awards 3 weeks OTC Awards 3 weeks Friendship Awards 3 weeks Extra Class Awards 1 week VUCC Awards 2 weeks 25-Year LTM Awards 2 weeks 40-Year LTM Awards 2 weeks 50-Year LTM Awards 19 weeks 60-Year LTM Awards 19 weeks 70-Year LTM Awards 2 weeks For the coming week-U.S. WAC, A-1 Operator, VUCC, RCC, OTC, Friendship awards, and 5BWAS plaques. DXCC Branch Weekly Report April 28, 2002 Beginning Cards 38,254 Cards Received 11,410 Cards Processed 10,734 Ending Cards 38,930 Applications Pending 273 Backlog Time 10 Days Year-to-date Cards Received 177,229 Cards Returned 247,744 QRP Issued this week 3 QRP YTD 191 Card Return: DXCC is currently mailing applications received on April 18, 2002. Card Processing: We are entering cards received on April 24, 2002. Kathy Kostek's last day was Friday, April 26. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 04/28/2002-730,500. No cards were mailed this week. Janet Rocco spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. Contests Response to the online Sweepstakes CW results have been very positive. In addition to the detailed writeup, we have received lots of nice comments on the searchable database. Work is underway on the Phone Sweepstakes results, and Dan has been hard at work recruiting authors for the DX Contest and other results articles. The ARRL Contest Rate Sheet subscriber base now stands at over 2200. W1AW What started out as a simple repair on a Harris amplifier turned into a minor overhaul. At least three (3) components in the low-pass filter assembly in the Harris 17-meter amplifier had shorted. This short in turn took out transorbs (transient voltage protection devices) on the power MOSFETs in one of the amplifier modules. Thankfully, the "semi-cannibalized" spare Harris amplifier on hand had a good low-pass board. Joe Carcia swapped out the boards, replaced the faulty transorbs, and performed some quick tests on the amplifier module. The repairs corrected the problem, and the amplifier is back up and running. Joe Carcia also repaired one of the ground lines on the Rohn 65 (125' tower) guy wires. These grounds shunt (to ground) any static charges that may build up on the guy wire itself. He also replaced a coaxial "pigtail" on one of the antennas using by visiting operators. Joe Carcia also updated the web code practice files and prepared the W1AW Qualifying Run texts for the month of May. Scott Gee worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the latter part of the month of April and the first part of May. He handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $3,593. Field & Educational Services Regulatory Team Brennan Price is following up on re-testing of candidates for the OO position, verifying they are working on the tests. Brennan completed frequency coordinator reimbursements for the Repeater Directory; $15,437 will go to 44 coordinators or coordinating bodies in the US and Canada. For regulatory inquiries, Brennan briefed the rules applicable to the retransmission of an ARISS contact in Australia and to the use of IRLP and similar audio transmission protocols in the US. John Hennessee received no more complaints about Marsh Affinity Group Services, ARRL's insurance administrator. Marsh assigned Gail Ferrett as new account executive and Peggy Keane as new assistant. They are John's primary contacts when helping resolve insurance concerns. He assisted amateurs with covenant-related antenna restrictions in St. Louis County, MO (N0VUB); Cudady, WI (KA9FZI) and Cocoa, FL (W2KTG). John signed up a new Volunteer Counsel: Jeff Scherzer, N2BRQ. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams has seen and handled a big increase in appointments, particularly emergency-related ones (23 EC and DEC appointments, with 52 in all). She sent Section Managers their monthly e-mail list of current and expired appointees. On his return from the EMCOMM 2002 conference, Steve Ewald reported an enthusiastic turnout of around 150 persons for the ARRL Sacramento Valley Section event. He worked on his trip report and a news story. ARRL HQ has been receiving reports of Amateur Radio emergency responses to a large wildfire in Colorado and a train wreck in the ARRL Orange Section. He joined Dan, Mary, Mark, Rosalie and Mary Hobart for a meeting about the UTC-sponsored grant and how the project will be organized. Field & Education Support Team Gail Iannone packed handouts for the Dayton Hamvention and distributed room confirmation numbers to those staying in ARRL's block of rooms at the Dayton Marriott. She also sent 16 handout packages for upcoming events, 13 hamfest approval letters, and processed 14 door prize orders. Jean Wolfgang has been reviewing several youth pages on the Internet to help with her ideas for an outline on a future Amateur Radio Youth Page. She also reports that many of the supporting documents that will be sent with the award nominee packages to the various committees are now complete. Jean is representing ARRL and giving a talk at the ARRL Delaware State Convention. Margie Bourgoin processed three new affiliated clubs whose paperwork will be headed to the Executive Committee. She wishes to thank everyone at HQ for their "welcome back" wishes for son Sean, and reports that he is home safe and sound for the time being! Mary Lau wants to remind staff that scholarship awards will be announced within the next two weeks and callers who are inquiring about same should be sent her way (extension #230). Rosalie took part in the VRC teleconference meeting, took notes and wrote the Minutes. She networked with the ARISS team about third party issues for Italian school kids belonging to a school club with a ham license. C-CE Steve Blair formatted the first lesson and introduction for a new C-CE course. He made revisions to one of the online courses, and also tallied results coming in from the questionnaire on why some folks drop out of the emcomm course. Dan Miller states beta-testing is going well on the satellite course; two AMSAT officials are participating in this -- Keith Baker, KB1SF, and Steve Bible, N7HPR. Sixteen students enrolled in the Antenna Modeling course last week; all C-CE courses are running smoothly. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 5/27 Holiday Dave Sumner 5/7-5/15 Geneva `` 5/17-5/19 Dayton Hamvention Mark Wilson 5/3 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 5/1-5/2 MFJ visit Jennifer Hagy 5/17-5/19 Dayton Hamvention `` 5/20 Vacation Lisa Kustosik 5/17-5/19 Dayton Hamvention Joel Kleinman 4/30 Vacation Maty Weinberg 4/29 Vacation Kristy Perillo 5/2-5/13 Vacation Dan Miller 5/3 Vacation Brennan Price 5/8-5/15 Vacation Wayne Mills 4/25-4/30 Visalia Convention `` 5/3 Lebanon, MO Convention Scott Gee 5/2-5/3 Vacation Bill Moore 5/3 Birmingham, AL Convention Beverly Fernandez 4/29-5/1 Vacation `` 5/2-5/3 Sick Jan Carman 5/3 Vacation