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{ "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/BZDUTGGOPNHBFKUX5SAN4QHRUCJHPXBX/", "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/", "message_id": "[email protected]", "message_id_hash": "BZDUTGGOPNHBFKUX5SAN4QHRUCJHPXBX", "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/BEQN7GC34FJK7AREMRC3YADFD6C3AGP2/", "sender": { "address": "lee-fl (a) cfl.rr.com", "mailman_id": "058d6603bc94484b843398f618b9b704", "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/058d6603bc94484b843398f618b9b704/emails/" }, "sender_name": "Lee McLamb", "subject": "[amsat-bb] Re: Questions for the 2007 BoD Candidates", "date": "2007-07-30T00:56:26Z", "parent": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/BEQN7GC34FJK7AREMRC3YADFD6C3AGP2/", "children": [ "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/7G4CZEARX3FRQIZBWU46OZA74HP76YMS/" ], "votes": { "likes": 0, "dislikes": 0, "status": "neutral" }, "content": "Dave,\n\nThank you for the thoughtful questions.\n\n> Questions:\n>\n> * How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization in\n> terms of management, membership service and transparency?\nOne of the challenges we face is that we need to involve more people in \nAMSAT's efforts. Too often when a job is identified we turn time and again \nto a single small handfull of people. Those people, while hard working and \ndedicated, may not have the best set of skills for that particular job. We \nneed to be better at asking for help. Many members have significant \nexperience and skills outside the technical field. We need to let people who \nmay have writing, marketing and other skills know that they are needed. For \nexample, the VP of Marketing and User Services position has been empty since \nOctober of last year. This is a non-technical position for which we should \nbe requesting interested people step forward. \n\nRegarding transparency, I am a big supporter of the 'open source' model that \nthe Eagle team is implementing with frequent Journal reports and Eaglepedia. \nI think the AMSAT News Service (ANS) is greatly underutilized as a channel \nfor keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest activities within AMSAT. \nImproving timely communication has always been a key point for me. That is \none reason I continue to work as an ANS editor each month.\n\n\n> * How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51) in the\n> last year.\nTruthfully not nearly as often as I would like. I do most of my operating at \ndemonstrations and special event stations. The result is I keep \ndisassembling my satellite station to take it to Boy Scout camps, Jamboree On \nThe Air, Field Day and other events that our local club hosts. I also tend \nto listen much more than I talk so while you may not hear me on the \nsatellites I typically try to at least listen to a few passes each week.\n\n\n> * What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?\nAMSAT has a great reputation among those in the industry who know about us. \nUnfortunately that isn't as widespread as it should be. I'll address that \nmore below. AMSAT's other great strength is the vast base of technical \nexpertise available for our projects. We have some world-class expertise \nworking on our projects with an amazing amount of dedication.\n\n\n> * What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you\n> address it?\nAMSAT's greatest weakness in my view is communication, both within the \norganization and the larger amateur community as well as with industry and \ngovernment agencies. If we are not being effective in letting people know \nwhat we are doing and sharing our progress, then how can we expect to have \ntheir support? The Journal is certainly a viable way to communicate with the \nmembership and Jim Sanford has been doing an excellent job with his \ncontinuing series of updates on Eagle. We need to have someone associated \nwith each project who can act as a field reporter so that everything gets \non-going coverage. These reporters would also help by providing information \nto the writers of the satellite columns in other magazines like QST and \nothers to ensure they have the latest and correct information. As for those \noutside the amateur community, for the last four years I've been travelling \nto conferences such as the NASA Small Payload Rideshare and AIAA Smallsat as \nwell as Cubesat workshops to represent AMSAT. As a result we've turned \naround several negative perspectives of AMSAT and greatly improved the \nawareness of amateur radio's history and on-going role in space. We are also \ngaining insight into how and when launch opportunities might arise or even \nperhaps be created. \n\n\n> * What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for AMSAT?\nMembership growth is key to the survival of AMSAT and our ability to carry out \nsatellite projects in the future. From my review of membership statistics it \nseems clear that long-access, high orbit satellites is what results in \nmembership growth. That is why I'm fully committed to AMSAT's vision of \nhaving multiple high-orbit satellites in orbit. Our previous approach of \ngetting a single satellite up then waiting until it was showing signs of age \nor failed to start on the next next one results in unacceptably long periods \nwith no high-orbit access. The reality is these projects take a significant \ninvestment of time and money to make happen. We must be actively working on \nEagle even as we support the completion of P3E.\n\n As a result of my attending the last RIdeshare conference we now know of two \ndifferent satellite programs that will each be launching multiple satellites \nto GTO in the next several years. Each of these launches has an excess \ncapacity of over 1000 lbs. Having identified these programs I'm now working \non how to get AMSAT considered as a potential secondary satellite on those \nlaunches. There are also other launch possibilities coming along that could \nresult in similar or better coverage and access times but would not be GTO \nlaunches. \n\nEducational outreach is also vitally important to AMSAT's future. Many \nschools are now involved in developing satellites which intend to utilize \namateur spectrum for their command and telemetry links. By engaging with \nthem early we can help them see themselves as part of a larger community. My \nwork mentoring several of the University Nanosat teams has shown a great \nwillingness to include a communications mission for their satellite as long \nas we get with them early in the design phase of their project. The Nanosat \nprogram has the potential to launch a satellite to LEO every two years and \npossible every year. Don't let the term \"nanosat\" put you off. These are \ncylindrical satellites 45cm in diameter and 45 cm in height which makes them \nconsiderably larger than what AMSAT has traditionally called a microsat.\n\nOne of the things I think I would bring to the Board is an ability to think \noutside the box and willingness to try something new. We must start reaching \nout and engaging others in our vision if we are to succeed and thrive in the \nfuture.\n\n\n73,\nLee McLamb - KU4OS\n", "attachments": [] }