IN-Newsletter Vol. 29, No. 2 January 11, 2006 -- Covers the period January 1-7. Upcoming Meetings and Events Annual Board Meeting January 20-21, 2006 in Windsor, CT Administration &Finance Committee January 19 in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee January 19 in Newington, CT Development In the first week of the new year Development continues to receive contributions to important campaigns. The 2006 Spectrum Defense fund has received more than $9000 from 113 donors with a robust average contribution of $80. The Year End campaign has received more than $5900 from 152 donors with a healthy average contribution of $39. The Diamond Club continues to attract new donors from the monthly member renewal process. The 2006 application for the Combined Federal Campaign has been completed. ARRL has achieved the CFC target level of 25% in administrative and fund raising expenses. Draft letters for the new W1AW Endowment and Ham Aid test campaigns are in preparation. Media & Public Relations During the past week the PR department did an interview about BPL status with Amy Schatz, a technology and regulatory reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Later she was provided copy of the Briarcliff Manor complaint renewal. I did the audio news for Rick Lindquist. I spoke about the PR function and plans for the Hello! campaign in Springfield, MA at the New England Division cabinet meeting (distributing 30 copies of the beta test version of the 2006 Swiss Army Knife for PIOs) and also spoke about the ARRL role in Katrina events at the Ham Radio University in Bellmore, Long Island. I published the January issue of Contact, published a release and information for Kids' Day, provided hometown releases for Board members and visited Anderson Productions Co. to check on their special effects video capabilities which may be used in a PSA. And I wrote an article for QST to summarize the Toy Drive. Production/Editorial Rick Lindquist spent last week in New Orleans working with a group of fellow New Englanders to help restore the homes of those whose homes were damaged by Katrina. In Rick's absence, Joel Kleinman handled Web news and The ARRL Letter, (Vol. 25, No. 01 distributed to 66, 462 members on January 6), while Allen Pitts pitched in to record ARRL Audio News. Thanks, Allen! Sales and Marketing The Business Services team has started working on March QST and March/April NCJ and QEX advertising. Also, a reminder has been sent to advertisers regarding the 2006-2007 Repeater Directory. March QST will feature an 8 page Icom advertising tear-out. Approximately 35 advertisers (large and small) have taken advantage of our offer to charge them 2005 advertising rates for the first 6 months of 2006. In order to do so, they have had to place their insertion orders with us for 2006. New advertising rate cards for QST, NCJ, and QEX have been posted to the web. ARRL ended 2005 with 2,850 fewer members: 148,877 total. On an encouraging note, the result was ahead of plan which predicted a loss of 3,498. Our planning for 2006 encompasses new efforts and new opportunities that hold promise in turning around this disconcerting trend that has seen mostly membership decreases in the last 10 years. We coordinated implementation of the Board's new ARRL policy for deployed members of the US military. Members in active US military deployment outside the US and its territories may request to temporarily suspend dues payments and/or delivery of QST for the duration of their deployments. The objective is to ensure that members in active duty and deployed overseas can maintain their League memberships in the midst of being away from their homes or permanent duty stations. Some experience difficulties with, or interruptions in, mail delivery or other disruptions. On Friday, Bob Inderbitzen gathered a group of key personnel involved in various aspects of our product fulfillment process: order placement, order processing, warehouse, accounting, etc. The session was facilitated by a third-party growth strategy advisor who helped managed the all-day session. The process involved documenting the time and effort of each step in the process, and value stream mapping the steps and the relationships to create a visual map. A summary report is being prepared, which will include a high level action plan. Thanks go to everyone who participated: Zoe Belliveau, Jon Bloom, Kathy Capodicasa, Steve Capodicasa, Ann-Marie Pinto, John Proctor, and Barry Shelley. New ham information packages were mailed to 14 prospects this week. Online Courses Jean has sent course completion certificates and IDs to EmComm students who graduated between 9/1 and 12/31 who where not covered under the UTC grant (over 200). Included with the mailing was a $10 graduation reward, for use towards the registration fee in a future course. ON-LINE COURSES Registrations During this week Graduations Antenna Modeling (EC-004) 5 0 HF Digital (EC-005) 0 0 RFI (EC-006) 0 0 VHF/UHF (EC-008) 0 1 Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009) 1 0 Technician Licensing (EC-010) 5 1 Propagation (EC-011) 2 0 Analog Electronics (EC-012) 0 1 Digital Electronics (EC-013) 0 0 Emergency Comm. Level 1 (EC-001) 9 39 Emergency Comm. Level 2 (EC-002) 19 11 Emergency Comm. Level 3 (EC-003) 7 5 Membership Services Awards / DXCC Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 250 Extra Class Certificates 10 Replacement Award 1 A-1 Operator Nominations 8 Proofed the VUCC data entry completed by DXCC staff. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS and WAC QSL card checking, VUCC, A-1 Operator, and Basic WAS awards for December, and do the orders for the latest batch of various DXCC plaques. For the Week of: January 8 2006 Beginning Credits 60,186 Credits Received 2,148 Credits Processed 12,087 Ending Credits 50,247 Applications Pending 377 Processing time 5.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2005) Credits Received 620,392 Credits Returned 643,629 DXCC is currently entering credits received on December 8, 2005. DXCC is currently mailing applications received on November 30, 2005. Contest Branch We spent significant time responding to accumulated email from when N1ND was on vacation. We prepared the QST versions of the 2005 September VHF QSO Party and 2005 10 GHz and Up articles received from the authors for production. Data entry for November Sweepstakes Cups and Pins orders was done, as well as beginning data entry for the 2005 160-Meter contest. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 88,323,884 QSL records have resulted 4,526,849 Logs Processed 175,431 Active Certificates 17,055 Users registered in the system 11,314 Hybrids Pending Mail 110 QSL Branch There is a 5 day processing time delay. This week, 131 pounds of cards were received from members. The next scheduled mailing is Friday, January 20th. Field & Educational Services Field Organization/Public Service Team With the deadline for receipt of 2005 expenses upon us, Leona Adams received and handled 55 section-related expense forms from Section Managers. Section Leaders also sent in 25 new Field Appointments and the same number of cancellations. A number of these new appointments came from the three new Section Managers who have just started their new terms of office. Joe Phillips, K8QOE, has been nominated to run for another term as SM of Ohio. Chuck Skolaut collected and organized the nominations for the International Humanitarian Award, and he forwarded them to members of the Programs and Services Committee for their consideration. The Nebraska OOC provided an good follow-up on an interference report and possible intruder on 30 meters. Other intruder reports included two on 40 meters and one on 75 meters, including Deutsche Welle, the digital German shortwave station. One report received indicates that radio dog collars in North Carolina are using 2 meters. This past year, 42 radio amateurs joined the ranks as Official Observers. Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX, and Louisiana Section Manager Mickey Cox, K5MC, visited with the HQ staff on Friday, January 6, to discuss their experiences during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Steve Ewald served as HQ their tour guide in the morning prior to the afternoon meetings. Steve also kept in touch with Section Leaders in Texas and Oklahoma whose sections had experienced wildfires. ARES has been helping in some of these situations. ARISS PR: The Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree QSO hosted reporters from 3 newspapers, 3 TV networks and 1 radio station. The audio was fed to the Echolink, AMSAT, and EDU_Net conference room servers; 64 connections were made including with 5 repeater nodes. ARISS News Update: Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, made random QSOs during the holiday week. US hams reported working the cosmonauts in the Space Patrol Russian holiday operating event. For 2006, US schools will have two windows of opportunity to submit ARISS applications - the first window runs from now until April 1, and this will be announced soon in QST and a Web story. Member Aid: Rosalie answered a member's question about using the ARISS logo on his QSL card. She shared news updates with Rick Lindquist Allen Pitts. At NVOAD's request, she shared updated ARRL F&ES contact information. ARISS' Effect on Schools: Astronaut Bill McArthur was asked to operate during ARRL Kid's Day if his schedule allows it. ARISS-International: Rosalie submitted agenda items for the upcoming monthly ARISS-International teleconference meeting. The ARISS Team networked with the Brazilians about astronaut Marcos Pontes' soon being on the ISS; they hope to get him licensed, the US will give him radio training, and the Russians will schedule his school QSO. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program-Mark Spencer Now that the schools are back from their winter break, the tempo of activities has increased. A number of the pending grant recipients have made inquires about the latest grant awards and are anxious for word back from the Executive Committee so that they can continue their program efforts. There were a number of local news press releases about their anticipated programs. I am working with two teachers from last summer's institutes on developing a space related curriculum for their school with the goal of their becoming an NASA explorer school. This school is in a remote and economically depressed area and the program they are developing will be a great boost to their school's offerings. The teacher's participation in the TI is directly related to their taking on the initiative for this school improvement program. There has been a flurry of e-mail traffic asking about the Sunday Kid's Day operating event. The bulk of the questions involve clarification of control operator responsibilities. I believe the theme of my next Kid's Day announcement article in QST should address this issue (I frankly am surprised that this question is coming up in this volume considering that control operator responsibilities are covered in excruciating detail in license preparation and testing materials). I will be operating Kid's Day. I also will be working this Saturday with a Reno school that is scheduled for an ARISS contact later this month. They have antenna tracking system problems that I hope I can cure so that they can continue with the preparations for the contact. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Barry Shelley 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Harold Kramer 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Mary Hobart 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Ed Hare 1/9-1/13 IEEE Committee Meeting, LasVegas, NV `` 3/12-3/17 ANSI Committee Meeting, Piscataway, NJ Kathy Capodicasa 2/8-2/17 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 2/6-2/10 Vacation Eileen Sapko 1/13 Vacation Sharon Taratula 1/13 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 2/13 Vacation `` 3/3 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 1/20-1/23 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 2/14-2/21 Vacation Dave Patton 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Wayne Mills 1/19-1/21 Committee/Board Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/19-1/21 Board Meeting