Section Manager’s Report July 2021

  Hello everyone. I hope your summer is going well so far. I will admit it was a bit toasty of late, day and night.

  July starts off elections in our area. The big one is for New England Director which is a 3-year term. Fred Hopengarten K1VR is seeking reelection and will be opposed by Fred Kemmerer AB1OC who is currently the Nashua club president. It is unconfirmed but Tom Freneye K1KI may be running as well. With the changes coming with the new CEO, I ask that you consider your choices carefully and choose who will be the best fit for New England and for the League.

   The other on is for WMA Section Manager. This is a 2-year term. Anyone interested in running for this go to the ARRL website and see the details and how to be nominated which is only a 5-signature petition. I will be seeking reelection as well.

   Last weekend was our regatta of sorts as it was Field Day. It started out with great weather although a little warm, but doable. I got to visit the 3 sites that had field day and was pleased to once again see the activity once again and also happy to see the people as well. NOBARC returned after a hiatus which was great. Not only did they have a field, but also altitude. Hope it paid dividends in QSO’s. 

   As I previously mentioned changes with the league. Our New CEO, Dave Minster NA2AA was hired as the new CEO for the league. What’s he been doing? Well, listening, sitting on MANY meetings nationwide, receiving input from the members,etc.

   On June 9 I sat on a Zoom meeting with other section managers and other officials and he briefed us on changes taking place. Here is the Readers Digest version:

  • Norm Fusaro W3IZ had retired and taking over as Director of Operations is Bob Naumann W5OV
  • Bart Jahnke has moved from Field services management to Radiosport and Regulatory and Advocacy replacing Dan Henderson N1ND who has also retired
  • Taking over as Field Services Manager will be Mike Walters W8ZY who was the Connecticut SEC. Mike has already hit the ground running doing “meet and greets”. He will be at the HamExposition in Marlboro.

   Dave has revealed his plan of focusing on Clubs, and its revitalization and growth, to attract new members and KEEP them, and getting them active on the air. He finds the new licenses are up and membership is flat. He has groups formed to assist and I’m sure you will hear more about it. Staff members, section managers, and directors are working as groups to come up with ideas to make this work for all. I am encouraged to see this happening as I have been preaching this since I became a SM.

   That’s it for now. There will be other announcements down the road so stay tuned. I will do my best to get the word out to you and I will press on to ask those who read this to encourage others to look at our website and also the http://nediv.arrl.org website as well to keep up to date.

Thanks so much and 73! Stay cool!

Ray KB1LRL