IN-Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 51 December 24, 2003 Upcoming Meetings January 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am A & F Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 9:00am Membership Services Committee January 16-17, 2004 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Production/Editorial The February 2004 issue of QST has been released to the printer. We reviewed printer's proofs of the January/February issue of NCJ, and we ordered a new printing of the ARRL Emergency Communications Course Level 2. Sales & Marketing The Warehouse has shipped out about 1,900 packages this past week. Last Wednesday's package count went over 500, close if not a new one-day record. My special thanks to the Warehouse staff that made that happen! The Holiday web special offering free shipping through December 16 brought in a tremendous number of orders in a short period. Fatima Lorusso, Danny Sayad, and Zoe Belliveau helped process over 1,400 orders last week. A typical week is about half that. This in addition to covering the busy holiday telephone lines! It was imperative these orders shipped in time for holiday delivery. Without their dedication and that of the warehouse staff shipping orders, customers would not receive orders in time for the holiday. Cathy Stepina, Janet Rocco, Lisa Tardette, and Kathy Capodicasa all pitched in to process orders as well. Beginning with the March 2004 issue of QST, ARRL will take advantage of a mailing service offered by our printer RR Donnelley. The service is called co-mailing. QST will be merged into the mailing stream with up to 13 other smaller publishers' periodicals. This combined mailing allows for about a million periodical copies to enter the postal stream at once. In essence, ARRL will enjoy the postal savings recognized by large publishers with over a million copies mailed per issue. We will simply pay our portion of the postage bill. QST will continue to be printed at the Glasgow, Kentucky Donnelley plant. Member copies will be trucked to the Donnelley co-mail plant in Danville, Kentucky. The Postal Service requires additional paperwork pending their approval for QST to enter the postal stream at the new location in Danville, Kentucky. Kathy Capodicasa completed this paperwork over the past several weeks. The Postal Service officially approved the additional entry point last week. Co-mailing will also allow ISD to run the monthly QST mailing labels later in the month than our usual deadline. Up to now, ARRL has needed to submit the member names and addresses to an outside company to prepare QST mailing labels in the required postal format. They then forward the names and address to RR Donnelley. This entire process adds about 7-10 days to label preparation. Now, the names and addresses will be formatted right in the Danville plant allowing us at least an additional week to process memberships and have them be included on that issues mailing labels. Kathy Capodicasa met with computer consultant Alan Cohen to work on further order entry issues in the Seibel computer system. Additional revisions to our department budgets were completed as we approach the end of 2004 planning. A final holiday-themed email solicitation was sent to members on Monday, sending some additional traffic to the e-store. One online order was received during this period for 85 copies of Now You're Talking! Bob Inderbitzen traveled to Barker Specialty Company on Tuesday to begin planning improvements to the popular ARRL sportswear and merchandise product line. Some older offerings will be discontinued to make way for new products, colors, and styles. Bob successfully negotiated pricing with a publisher of a popular non-ARRL book we stock, allowing us to continue carrying the title at current pricing for a few more months. Nineteen total membership applications have been received as a result of the recent ICOM/ARRL membership recruitment initiative. The program runs through January 31. Applications will be accepted through February 29. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSLs Checked 250 WAS End. (50 QSLs F/C) 1 WAS End. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 WAC QSLs Checked 126 OTC Certs. 32 LTMA Inquiries 2 50-Year Member Award 1 Awards Mailed 40 VUCC Initial Apps. 4 Grids 315 VUCC End. Apps. 3 Grids 67 VHF Awards Manager Appt.: Bill Barr, N4NX, Atlanta, GA. Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-U.S. WAC, Code Proficiency, and VUCC awards, mail out all awards processed this week, and complete filing chores of LTMAs issued earlier this year. DXCC Branch For the week of: December 21, 2003 Beginning Cards 120,887 Cards Received 3,222 Cards Processed 10,350 Ending Cards 113,749 Applications Pending 936 Processing Time 11.7 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 607,999 Cards Returned 708,103 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 30, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 30, 2003. Two card checkers were appointed this week bringing to 161 the total number of card checkers in the program. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: There is a delay of approximately 1 week. Cards mailed as of 12/21/03: 1,273,775. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of December. He worked the late afternoon shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Joe continued with the final processing of Frequency Measuring Test submissions. (To date, there are 198 submissions.) The post date for FMT submissions was December 19, 2003. Joe also processed regular W1AW and U.S. W1AW/3 (2003 IARU) QSL card requests. He also updated the web code practice files. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2003): $36,225. Field & Educational Services Rosalie worked with NASA to revise the ARISS evaluation form to match other NASA forms. The ISS crew used the new Kenwood radio to do Qs over the US, Europe and Australia, and one with Monroe (CA) El School. Rosalie monitored an ARISS ops telecon. She gave data to Citizen Corps about major conventions, as requested. She and Steve crafted notes for all the SMs on what makes a good SGL. She prepared notes about progress and future plans toward meeting recommendations for the Field Organization that were made by the VRC. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted an amateur radio op with a local government zoning problem in Marco Island, FL (K5MIF), and assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Lodi, WI (N9IPP) and Dunnellon, FL (KG4GST). He also discussed with an amateur, NM7H, a possible reciprocal agreement with Qatar; John consulted with the Technical Relations office. Field & Education Support Team Mary Lau worked with Linda Mullally, Steve Ewald and Leona Adams on a small research project about use of new ham labels. Mary contacted multimedia producers to let them know the status of their submissions and obtain releases for their productions. Jean Wolfgang compiled numbers and updated information pertaining to the youth page, awards, SCR, JOTA and Kid's Day for our department Board report. Jean assisted a Newington Girl Scout troop in preparing to participate in GOTA on Feb. 22. Linda Mullally updated 38 club records with 3 reactivations. She registered 9 Instructors and 1 Teacher. She also worked on club new ham labels and checked club rosters for 4 clubs. Gail Iannone sent 17 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval letter to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned. She also processed 16 door prize orders, 1 label request, and sent 18 handout packages for upcoming events. Tom Cote processed 3 new club affiliations, followed-up on 2 new SSC applications, plus re-did the SSC certificate so it can be generated on the desktop. Tom processed 3 new SSCs, and updated 2 vanity email forwarding requests. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams has prepared ballots and candidate statements for the San Diego SM election. The two candidates are: Steve Early, AD6VI, and Pat Bunsold, WA6MHZ. The ballots are scheduled to be mailed by January 2. Leona handled 15 Field Organization appointments and initial supply packages, and is receiving many SM expense reports. Chuck Skolaut worked on ARRL's monthly IARU Monitoring Report. OO observations of illegal 10-meter interference were prevalent, and included many reports from Michigan, and on a group of high-powered Citizen Band operators in New Jersey. Per a monitoring request from the FCC, Chuck is forwarding documentation that OOs gathered concerning a California repeater. Steve Ewald continues to be in touch with ARRL SMs and SECs who have not yet submitted a Section Emergency Plan. He has been sharing related information and ideas with those sections whose Field Organization needed some assistance in preparing a plan. Steve's name will be listed on the Citizen Corps Web site as the point of contact for ARRL. CCE Jerry Ellis is catching up on some backlogged work, plus handling students whose email bounced after informing them of their class enrollment. He worked with the Mailroom, who is handling some of our shipment of reimbursement checks, certificates and ID cards. Emcomm Grants Dan Miller reports that December class enrollments did not reflect the usual holiday slowdown. The Level I class filled up in less than 2 days, Level II and Level III in less than 10 hours each. Dan is making final adjustments to his upcoming 2-hour forum presentation at "Ham Radio University 2004" (ARRL NLI Section Convention), Jan. 18 in Oyster Bay, Long Island. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 12/25-12/26 Holiday All Staff 1/1 Holiday Dave Sumner 1/29-2/5 Vacation Mark Wilson 12/24-1/2 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 12/24 & 1/2 Vacation Lisa Kustosik 12/29-1/2 Vacation Mary Hobart 12/23-12/24 Vacation Steve Ford 12/24-1/5 Vacation Rick Lindquist 12/22-12/24 Vacation Zoe Belliveau 12/29-12/31 Vacation Lisa Tardette 12/24pm-1/2 Vacation Cathy Stepina 12/23-12/24 Vacation Scott Gee 12/29 Vacation Deb Jahnke 12/24-1/2 Vacation John Hennessee 12/19-12/29 Vacation Perry Williams 12/23-12/29 Vacation Wayne Mills 12/19-12/31 Vacation Dan Henderson 12/22-12/29 Vacation Martin Cook 12/29-12/30 Vacation 12/31pm-1/6 Vacation Sandy Lund 12/29-12/31 Vacation Kathy Allison 12/29-1/2 Vacation Mike Tracy 12/29-12/31 Vacation Monique Levesque 12/24pm-1/2 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 1/2 Vacation Dave Hassler 12/29-12/31 Vacation Bob Schetgen 12/22-1/5 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 12/22-12/24 Vacation Mark Spencer 12/15-12/24 Vacation Gail Iannone 12/22-1/2 Vacation Dan Miller 12/22-1/2 Vacation Leona Adams 12/23-12/24 Vacation Rosalie White 12/29-1/2 Vacation Sharon Taratula 12/24 Vacation `` 1/2 Vacation Diane Szlachetka 12/29-12/31 Vacation Mary Lau 12/24 Vacation Maty Weinberg 12/24 & 12/31 Vacation Shelly Bloom 12/24 & 12/31 Vacation Jodi Morin 12/29 Vacation Sue Fagan 12/29-12/31 Vacation Joe Carcia 1/2 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 12/24 Vacation