New England Dvision Cabinet Meeting, 01/10/09




New England Division Cabinet Meeting

Springfield MA

1/10/2009

Introductions

Names and callsigns

Discussion of the mechanics of the ARRL board meeting

Purpose of the cabinet meeting – information gathering

Getting on the air

More emphasis this year on state QSO parties and other “low pressure” Get on the air (GOTA) activities

Triple play award is a success

Could some GOTA type program be set up to encourage ARES membership?

What motivates people to get licensed

Disconcerting number of people getting licenses with no intention of using them (W1YRC)

Many served agency professional getting licensed, but not getting on the year

Note apparent decline of manners and behavior

People don’t seem to be interested in learning

Dxing is very concentrated with the low sunspot numbers, so tempers flaring ??

Emergency operations

With more served agency professionals getting licensed, interesting questions arising about appropriate use of ham radio

In general, good faith and sensible activities are fine

League should engage with the broader question of the position of ham radio within the emergency services

Denis Dura, K2DCD, ARRL Emerg Coord, is trying to work us into things more at the Federal level

League is doing more coordination where events build up from local to regional scope

Coursework

Cost of the EMCOMM course ($45) – can it be reduced/eliminated? – base cost to the League is around $25

FEMA Emcomm courses cover some, and are free. IS-700 is one. http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp

Should League fund these ?

FEMA Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG’s) were set up by law in 2008 – the League needs to engage them.

Consider strengthening the League’s hand in dealing with section emergency management groups

ARES database – complete version not needed, but something tracking appointees and leadership would be good

New hams

Licensing served agency people (police, fire, hospital, etc.) is producing some number of new hams

New hams licensed in New England

2007 – 866 new hams

2008 – 1059 new hams

Despite the significant increase, NE is running behind most other ARRL divisions

28000 new hams nationally, a net of about 8000 over attrition

What are League membership retention stats?

VE sessions a very good contact point for new hams !

We should consider trying to attract technical innovators to the League, regardless of license status

Contesting

EME contest – proposed changes to digital rules

VHF contests – proposed changes to rover rules to limit grid circling, add club competition

Remote station discussions still underway

Status of Kosovo still under discussion – at the moment, it doesn’t meet DXCC criteria

CW skimmer creating controversy over assisted vs.unassisted

FCC

Riley Hollingsworth has retired, and not replaced – rumor is that it will happen in a few weeks

FCC not functioning well at the moment – bottleneck in the Chairman’s office

Digital TV is sucking up large FCC resources

Note increase in issuance of experimental licenses

Pave Paws

New England is in compliance now

Problems continue in California

Ethics and elected officials

Could we use a more formal code of conduct

The SM recall mechanism should be reviewed

Risk management in general

MRaisbeck