Attached are meeting notes from the New England Division cabinet meeting July 10, 2004. Thanks, K1TWF.ARRL New England Division
Cabinet Meeting
10 July 2004
I. Introduction
A. Round table introductions
B. HQ update – Tom
C. Amateur radio is not growing
1. 682,000 overall now, down 5,000
2. About 20,000 new hams per year – not enough
3. entry level license proposal is on the table
D. discussion of the ARRL board process
II. Open discussions
A. Some kudos
1. Thanks to the ARRL for QST articles on CW related things
2. Kudos to EM for the good Field Day site map
3. Big kudos to Bart and the ARRL VEC – turnaround is down to a week
4. standardization of license class testing would help – we could use more help from the League here
B. Working with new hams
1. discussion of encouraging new hams – Elmering/mentoring is key
2. note lots of GOTA stations this year in Field Day
3. training classes do well, but are a lot of work. How can the League help these? Materials, such as PowerPoint presentations, would be very useful
4. need a kids oriented entry level manual
5. Big Project addressing this to some degree – about 90 schools so far
6. Note that Maine (N1RY) has created a TV-based ham radio tutorial
C. What makes clubs successful
1. regular newsletter
2. classes
3. making money is tough – hams are cheap
4. costs to run repeaters (insurance, power) are very substantial
5. it’s important to run clubs as a business
6. there is some need for a for sharing ideas among clubs (ie., CEMARC)
7. it seems that in most clubs a few people do all the work. One club requires renewing members to sign up for at least one committee. Question, is this counterproductive by discouraging membership for some?
8. encourage on the air meetings, particularly for committees (ie., Field Day planning)
9. encourage bequests of equipment
10. some homeland security money is available, especially through states. Clubs should consider banding together to get access to this.
11. for grant related questions, start with Steve Ewald and Mary Hobart
12. note that Verizon gives grants for community related projects
III. Boxboro
A. note NE Spectrum management meeting
B. note NE volunteer meeting Saturday
IV. Scholarships, etc.
A. Tom announced some of the new scholarships from the Foundation
B. Jim/W1LLU announced the new YCCC scholarship program
C. YCCC DXpedition program – stipends to encourage youth to get into contesting by covering some of the expenses involved in sending them on DXpeditions – deadline for application is July 31
V. League Finances – suggestion – that QST have an article on how the League budgets and spends
VI. BPL
A. FCC NPRM comment period has run
B. Technical information provided to the FCC seems to be ignored
C. FCC has done some testing, but won’t make the results public
D. Clearly a disconnect between the technical realities and the political realities
E. League is working it’s way through the political channels
F. Where tests have been done, it is clear that the interference is real, not theoretical
G. Over 50 interference complaints pending with the FCC
H. The League should strengthen alliances with other affected radio services
VII. Book Auction – collected $210, even sold the box!
VIII. Big-E
A. runs until October 3 this year
B. N1JWF looking for volunteers
IX. Winlink
A. League board committee is working on close ties between NTS and emergency services (ARES)
B. Winlink (a digital store and forward using the Internet as a backbone) is being considered in this space. There are some issues in the details.
X. Bills in Congress
A. Spectrum protection – HR 713/SR 537 about 40 sponsors
B. ECOM Consistency Act – HR 1478
C. As always, write letters