Pursuant to due notice, the Executive Committee of The American Radio Relay League, Inc. met at 8:30 AM CDT Saturday, October 7, 2006 at the Marriott Memphis East, Memphis, Tennessee. Present were the following committee members: President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; Chief Executive Officer and Secretary David Sumner K1ZZ; and Directors Coy Day, N5OK, Frank Fallon, N2FF, George R. Isely, W9GIG, and Warren G. "Rev" Morton, WS7W. Also present were Vice President Rick Roderick, K5UR, Directors Frank Butler, W4RH, and Henry Leggette, WD4Q, and General Counsel Christopher D. Imlay, W3KD. First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN was unable to attend owing to a family commitment.
1. On motion of Mr. Isely, the following agenda as previously circulated was agreed:
1. Consideration of agenda for the meeting
2. Moment of silence in honor of EC member Wade Walstrom, W0EJ
3. President's report
4. Strategic planning - review of results of July strategic planning session and adoption of recommendation for Board action
5. FCC and regulatory action items
6. Status of other pending FCC items
7. Consideration of legislative objectives for 110th Congress
8. Band planning committee update
9. Review of additional action items
10. International matters
11. Antenna and RFI cases and local legal matters
12. Other legal and regulatory matters
13. Approval of conventions
14. Affiliation of clubs
15. Recognition of new Life Members
16. Approval of minutes of March 11 meeting
17. Other business
2. The meeting attendees observed a moment of silence in memory of Midwest Division Director and Executive Committee member Robert W. "Wade" Walstrom, W0EJ, who died on August 31.
3. President Harrison highlighted two items in his report. First, FCC inaction on pending rulemaking of importance to the Amateur Radio Service is impeding progress. We have not been singled out in this regard; other services also are complaining about lack of FCC attention to their needs. Mr. Harrison has written to each FCC Commissioner requesting action on WT Docket No. 04-140. The Committee discussed additional steps that could be taken to spur the Commission into action. There is a similar dilemma with regard to WT Docket No. 05-235. Second, ARRL/IARU staff and volunteers are working hard in support of Amateur Radio's interests at the upcoming 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07). The WRC-07 agenda item concerning 4-10 MHz is very complex and involves a number of radio services. Our principal objective is to defend the gains made at WRC-03 and to prevent any loss of spectrum in Region 2, but there may be an opportunity to pursue some additional improvements.
4. The committee reviewed and revised the output of the Board's strategic planning session held on July 22. On motion of Mr. Isely, it was unanimously voted to recommend the adoption of this revised draft of the Strategic Plan by mail vote in accordance with Article 6 of the ARRL Articles of Association, with the voting to be completed by electronic mail no later than October 23. Also on motion of Mr. Isely, several strategies were selected for inclusion in the operational plan for 2007.
The committee was in recess for luncheon from 11:54 AM until 1:02 PM.
5. FCC and regulatory action items:
5.1. Prior to the meeting, Mr. Imlay had circulated a draft petition for rulemaking to implement changes in the amateur privileges in the vicinity of 5 MHz as previously negotiated with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Minor editorial corrections had been made in the draft. On motion of Mr. Fallon, the General Counsel was instructed immediately to file the petition as amended.
5.2. Following the release of the FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order in ET Docket No. 04-37, in which the FCC did not adequately limit the potential for interference to radiocommunication services from unintentional emissions by Broadband over Power Line (BPL) systems, the Executive Committee had asked the other ARRL Board members for their views with regard to pursuing a judicial appeal of some of the FCC's decisions. After consideration of this input, on motion of Mr. Isely, it was unanimously voted to proceed with an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to retain the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP for that purpose.
5.3. Mr. Imlay reviewed briefly the other strategies being pursued by the ARRL to combat harmful interference from BPL systems. These include legislative initiatives, education of state officials, participation in ITU and standards organizations, and aggressive pursuit of complaints in cases of ongoing interference among the few BPL systems that are now operational. For example, a trial BPL system in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was recently activated by PowerGrid Communications using Corinex hardware and reportedly is causing serious interference to HF reception.
5.4. Controversy has arisen with regard to the extent to which Part 15 equipment authorization requirements apply to equipment marketed for use under Part 97. After discussion, it was agreed that Mr. Imlay would pursue informal discussions with FCC staff with the objective of minimizing the negative impact on amateur licensees.
6. Mr. Imlay reviewed briefly the status of pending items on which FCC action is awaited.
7. Mr. Sumner referred to the legislative objectives adopted by the Board for the 109th Congress. He suggested that it was time for a "zero base" review of the ARRL's legislative objectives for the 110th Congress that will convene in January 2007, and that the objectives would be better understood if rendered in plain language rather than in the form of resolutions. The committee endorsed this approach and asked that a draft be prepared by the Washington Team for Board consideration at its January 2007 meeting.
8. Mr. Roderick, as Chairman, reported on the work of the MF/HF Band Planning Committee. The committee was appointed and began its work in June. It has met three times by telephone conference call and is reviewing the existing band plans, one at a time. Mr. Roderick noted that, unfortunately, a replacement must be appointed for Director Walstrom.
9. Mr. Sumner offered for committee review a chart listing the pending action items from past Board meetings. The chart was accepted.
10. International matters:
10.1. International Affairs Vice President Rod Stafford, W6ROD had submitted a written report describing activities since the July Board Meeting, including his attendance at the IARU Region 3 Conference on behalf of the ARRL, the IARU Administrative Council meeting on behalf of IARU Region 2 (which he serves as President), and the Region 2 Executive Committee meeting in Buenos Aires. Region 2 is preparing for its triennial conference to be held in Brasilia, September 10-14, 2007.
10.2. Following up on Mr. Harrison's report dealing with the same subject, Mr. Sumner reported briefly on preparations for WRC-07, particularly with regard to meetings he attended in Geneva during September.
11. Mr. Imlay reported briefly on the status of local legal and administrative cases involving Amateur Radio antennas.
12. Mr. Imlay reviewed briefly the conditions under which communications with encrypted content may be transmitted by an amateur station.
13. On motion of Mr. Fallon, the holding of the following ARRL conventions was approved:
2006
Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society (Operating Specialty), October 20-21, Wildwood Crest, NJ
2007
New York City-Long Island Section, January 7, Bethpage, NY
Southwest Ohio Digital & Technical Symposium (Operating
Specialty), January 13, Middletown, OH
Mississippi State, February 2-3, Jackson
Southeastern Division, February 9-11, Orlando, FL
Virginia State, February 18, Richmond
North Carolina State, April 1, Raleigh
EMCOMMWEST (Operating Specialty), May 4-6, Reno, NV
Atlantic Division, June 1-3, Rochester, NY
Northwestern Division, June 1-3, Seaside, OR
Tennessee State, June 9, Knoxville
Wyoming Section, August 3-5, Jackson Hole
Kansas State, August 19, Salina
Southwestern Division, September 7-9, Torrance, CA
W9DXCC (Operating Specialty), September 14-15, Elk Grove Village, IL
14. On motion of Mr. Morton, affiliation of the following clubs was approved (all in Category 1):
Ashland Amateur Radio Technical Society, New Castle, IN
Buffalo County ARES, Kearney, NE
Cholla Amateur Remote Base Association, Tucson, AZ
Estes Valley Amateur Radio Club, Estes Park, CO
Henry County ARES, New Castle, IN
Sequoia Amateur Radio Group, Lake Isabella, CA
Southern Peninsula Emergency Communications System, Los Altos, CA
Walton County Emergency Radio Club, Loganville, GA
The ARRL now has the following numbers of active affiliated clubs: Category 1, 1847; Category 2, 51; Category 3, 108; Category 4, 19; Total, 2025.
15. On motion of Mr. Isely, 110 recently elected life members were recognized and the Secretary was instructed to list their names in QST.
16. On motion of Mr. Isely, the minutes of the March 11, 2006 meeting were approved as distributed.
17. Other business.
17.1. The Secretary explained that the Public Relations Committee had made a timely recommendation in July for the bestowing of the 2006 Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award to recognize an individual for volunteer public relations work on behalf of Amateur Radio. Unfortunately, the recommendation was not communicated at the time to the Programs & Services Committee. As a result, no action was taken on the recommendation by the Board at its July meeting. The Secretary presented the recommendation. On motion of Mr. Isely, Devere "Dee" Logan, W1HEO, of Mentor, OH was designated as the recipient of the award in recognition of his creative and organizational achievements in the Mentor area as well as in prior locations.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:53 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
David Sumner, K1ZZ
Secretary