Harold, No one is raising an issue with the excellent work that you and the staff have done is procuring additional revenue sources, particularly in this area. The concern is over what we're actually saying, that Yaesu is the Principal Sponsor of LoTW, which isn't the case. If I read your very detailed comments correctly, Yaesu is actually sponsoring the LoTW web site, not LoTW, and while that may seem like hair splitting to some it doesn't to me. I can accept Yaesu as the Principal Sponsor of the LoTW web site, but I have a problem with them being identified as the Principal Sponsor of LoTW. Something to consider. 73 Joel W5ZN _____ From: Kramer, Harold, WJ1B [mailto:wj1b@arrl.org] Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 5:28 PM To: arrl-odv Cc: Jahnke, Deb, K1DAJ Subject: [arrl-odv:16736] Logbook of the World Sponsorship To:ODV From: Harold Kramer Re: Yaesu and Logbook of the World/ Jay Bellow's email It would be next to impossible for any organization to pay for half the development costs and operation of LoTW that, to date, ARRL has fully funded by itself. I was not here for the original development efforts and costs, but I know that they were considerable. Today, Kathy Allison provides full time Logbook support along with help from Jon Bloom, Dave Patton, Norm Fusaro and others. In the past year, we have also spent money to upgrade the Logbook hardware and software to meet the increasing number of QSOs and users. . Board Members have also directed me to pursue advertising/sponsorship opportunities for LoTW. I accepted this as my charge. This lack of revenue for LoTW was discussed extensively at previous A & F Committee meetings. In the 2008 budget, LoTW revenue from award credits for this year is budgeted at $15,735. We were pleasantly surprised that first quarter revenues were $11,678 about 74% of the total annual goal, so credit revenue is definitely increasing. However, it is no where near what is required to support the service. That's why we were seeking additional revenue. Yaesu has committed to a non-exclusive commitment of $6,000 for one year. Their sponsorship only commits us to displaying a banner ad on the LoTW pages on our web site and lets them hang a banner at Dayton. The Board approved the plan that budgets $50,000 worth of electronic advertising revenue for 2008. This revenue achieves about 12% of that total goal. This advertising/sponsorship purchase is a conduit to, hopefully, some larger advertising support in the future. In addition, we were careful to use similar language, i.e. Principal Sponsor, that we currently use for the Icom sponsorship of Sweepstakes and West Mountain Radio's sponsorship of the RTTY Contest. The term "Principal Awards Sponsor" cannot be easily applied to LoTW. We also used the operational guidelines for sponsorship that we developed for the Icom Sponsorship. If I recall correctly, members of the previous P and S Committee prompted me to draft these guidelines and the Committee consequently reviewed them. There have been other precedents for this type of arrangement. We placed logos, banners and even created unique pages on our web site for United Technologies, Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) and CNCS (Corporation for National and Community Service.) for the grant programs that they funded. Yaesu's commitment of $6,000 for one year is the prevailing market rate. By today's standards, a banner ad is a very low impact, ineffective Web ad. There is no interactivity, motion, audio or video. It is not "served" or customized to an individual user like more sophisticated Web ads. The traffic to the site is about 35,000 page views a day. This includes a count of each individual page that is viewed by a user. In terms of advertising numbers, this is a low traffic site with a very targeted audience The trigger for this relationship was the fact that LoTW finally hit 20,000 users. I certainly would have brought this up at the A &F Committee, but we had not begun discussions with Yaesu at that time. Sometimes these opportunities arise quickly and we need to act on them. There is also the continuing issue of confidentiality. Yaesu was adamant that we keep these business negotiations confidential. In addition, there is benefit to us in having a company like Yaesu advertise/sponsor the Logbook site. First, Yaesu will also publicize the LoTW service for us. This is a type of relationship that will benefit ARRL. Yaesu's sponsorship will create more interest in the amateur radio community about LoTW. Yaesu sponsored IOTA in the past, so they have some experience in this area. Given the stiff competition in the amateur radio industry, our having a major manufacturer like Yaesu support LoTW invites other, more risk adverse advertisers to participate. It sets a good precedent for future support from advertisers, individuals and foundations. It says that "Logbook of the World has arrived." All previous funding attempts for LoTW including grants, sponsorships, and advertising have been unsuccessful to this point. The ARRL/Yaesu relationships will l hopefully be a real ice-breaker that will lead us to additional support and recognition. With regard to LoTW updates, according to our Operational goals for 2008, as approved by the Board, we still anticipate that we will add another LoTW award in the third quarter of this year. This plan is in place and moving forward. Finally, I would like to note that Deb Jahnke and her staff in Business Services worked hard to make this happen. For the reasons above, this was not an easy "sell." That have met or exceeded their budget every month this year often "pitching" the same accounts over and over and using creative print advertising techniques (check out the June QST) and a sophisticated, consultative approach to advertising to achieve their goal. As all of you know, the advertising revenue of $2.66 million this year that they generate from Yaesu and other advertisers help us pay for many other programs in ARRL that are not funded by member dues. I hope that this information is helpful. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer@arrl.org web: <http://www.arrl.org/> www.arrl.org/