Dear Officers, Directors and Vice Directors, The following announcement will be going out later today. Earlier this week an announcement was made that ARRL CEO Howard Michel, WB2ITX, was going to be on air at Maxim Memorial Station W1AW on Monday afternoon, May 13, with the intent of giving ARRL members a chance to chat with the CEO and get to know him better as a ham. However, an issue was raised about this being a potential violation of FCC rules, in particular, Section 97.113 which states that “A station is also not allowed to transmit communication in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer.” Given that the ARRL is Michel’s employer, and that there was an effort to publicize an event at which members of the organization could chat with the CEO, such an event could be perceived as a benefit to the organization. So out of an abundance of caution and to avoid any potential violation of FCC rules, or even an appearance of a violation, Michel has decided to suspend plans for the “Put Howard to Work” event that was scheduled for Monday, May 13. Michel stated “I’ve operated W1AW before and will continue to do so in the future. I hope to meet many of you on the air, but only as part of my regular ham radio activities and not as part of an ARRL-promoted event.” 73, Howard, WB2ITX -- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel@arrl.org<mailto:hmichel@arrl.org>