July 2020 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

My qualifications to a member of AMSAT board of directors
by Robert McGwier 17 Jul '20

17 Jul '20

I have been a director before. Many might remember I wrote Quiktrak. There are a few other things I have done. Please take the time to read this. I believe you will find I am a qualified candidate for the board and I hope you support me. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySCgJn_gLRPHkqUjoHTKWgKzPNVOKBSI/view?usp=… -- Bob McGwier Founder, Federated Wireless, Inc Founder and Technical Advisor, HawkEye 360, Inc Adjunct Professor Virginia Tech Former Chief Scientist: The Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology Senior Member IEEE, Facebook: N4HYBob, ARS: N4HY

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Re: [amsat-bb] Candidte WE4B Inquiry
by Clint Bradford 17 Jul '20

17 Jul '20

Geeze, dude - no reason to get all snarky … YOU asked the question. You just didn’t like the answer … Clint Bradford K6LCS > On Jul 17, 2020, at 5:40 AM, R W <rwyrwas48(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Yeah that’s great Clint, you would get my vote, yeah right > > Rick > WA9JBQ

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AMSAT Board of Directors Candidate Statement
by Jeff Johns 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Hello. My name is Jeff Johns WE4B and, as you probably know by now, I am a candidate for a BoD position with AMSAT. I am not going to try to blind you with promises of HEO satellites in an attempt to gain your vote. We all want HEO but we need to get our house in order so that we can begin to reach higher in the sky. Until AMSAT can have regular, functional Board meetings we will never be able to have HEO spacecraft in orbit. Professionally, I have been successful in operations management and most specifically, operations management with a concentration in Continuous Improvement. I am a Six Sigma Black Belt and am highly skilled in running Kaizen events. The last Black Belt project I completed will save a Fortune 500 company approximately $1.7mm annually through an improved inbound logistics program. This project involved a cross functional team consisting of everyone from warehouse associates to C-level executives. To be successful in continuous improvement, one must be able to work with and influence all types of people. For me, that means that sometimes I am wearing steel toed boots and on the floor of an operation while later in the day wearing a coat and tie and sitting in a board room. I know that the skills of someone involved in operations management and continuous improvement would be a great benefit for AMSAT. I am well educated having most recently attended Louisiana State University’s MBA program. I am currently rearing two daughters. One is 8 years-old and one is 13 years-old. One is licensed and active in amateur radio and satellites and the other is active operating under my call with me as a control operator. She is only eight but will soon be taking her Technician exam. Amateur radio and satellites have meant a lot to me and my family. There is rarely a day, weather permitting, that either myself, my daughter or both of us are not active on amateur satellites. Odds are, if you are active on FM, SSB or digital satellites that you have had a QSO with one or all of us. Board of Director members oversee Directors and volunteers and set the direction for the organization. Board of Director members need to have a good understanding of how business and business relationships work. We need business minded people, such as myself, on the Board of Directors to help provide crucial guidance for the organization. The incumbents and the Director, that lost his Board seat last year, are appealing to members through a campaign of launching an HEO satellite. That’s a wonderful thought. Let’s be honest. Why did it take an election cycle for them to do so? What have they done before this election cycle? If they couldn’t make it occur while they were in office, what makes someone think they can do it now? Please don’t vote for someone thinking they will provide you an HEO satellite. I will not promise you that but will promise you that I will assist in making it possible if the opportunity presents itself. Until then, AMSAT needs to be honest with members about opportunities and failures. There must be transparency within the organization. If nothing else, this campaign cycle has proven that there is a severe lack of transparency. I would appreciate your vote for a position on the AMSAT Board of Directors and look forward to serving you, the members, in that position. You can view my campaign website at the following URL: http://www.WE4Bravo.com Thank you for your consideration and please also cast a vote for Bob McGwier N4HY and for Howard DeFelice AB2S. Jeff Johns WE4B

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Re: [amsat-bb] Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and transmitting
by Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-717-1197 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Cool. If you want to get an even more remote deployment, get in touch with the Sea Education Association, based in Woods Hole, but the SSV Robert C. Seamans is in San Diego, last I heard, after a transit from NZ. The boat travels through almost deserted parts of the Pacific, doing various science projects with college students on board, as well as professional crew. I sailed as mate on her a couple of years ago, NZ to Tahiti. pbrandon(a)sea.edu is president- tell her I suggested this. 73, doug

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-17 02:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-17 02:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: GAGARIN FROM SPACE Performing an amateur radio session with the 9th International Aerospace School. Ufa, U.N. Sultanova Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, direct via RZ9WWB (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Ivan Vagner Contact is go for Fri 2020-07-17 19:08 UTC (***) ######################################################################################################################################## A multi-point telebridge contact means that each student will be on the telebridge from their own home. ************************************************* ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. The following schools have now been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19: Postponed: No new schools Cancelled: No new schools The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Watch for future COVID-19 related announcements here also. Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2020-07-17 02:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-07-10 16:30 UTC. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. Message to US Educators ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The Proposal Window of February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020 has now closed. For future proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, go to: https://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) https://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 133 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1391. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1324. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 62 now on orbit Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner SpaceX-Demo2 now on orbit Bob Behnken KE5GGX Doug Hurley **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Call-to-action about the election
by Bruce Perens 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

I have published this call-to-action about the election. So far Michelle and I are signatories, please tell me if you would like to add your name. http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2020.html Thanks Bruce -- Bruce Perens - CEO at stealth startup. I'll tell you what it is eventually :-)

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Working together
by Burns Fisher 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Hi, I am Burns Fisher, WB1FJ. I'm a retired software engineer who is currently writing software as a volunteer for AMSAT. In my career, I have written software that is not open source, as well as that which is--I don't have an ax to grind in that fight. I am not going to endorse or recommend against any candidates in this mail, but I do want to bring to light a few items that I don't believe have been discussed and to make a suggestion. One thing that I have not heard in the discussion is that "not fully open-source" is different from "proprietary". I am NOT and never have been an AMSAT director nor a policy decision maker in any form, but in my 10 years writing software for AMSAT satellites, I have had to deal with ITAR. I have been told to talk about things with non-US persons only after they are published, for example. However, I have NEVER seen or been told that it was the intent of anyone in AMSAT to keep any information private forever. We are encouraged to publish work that we are doing in the AMSAT Journal and to talk and write about it for the Symposium (and I have done so). In addition, if you look in the back of your AMSAT Symposium Proceedings for the past 8 or more years, you will find what we called "The ITAR Dump". That is publishing specs and most everything that we could about the satellites we were working on to be openly available in order to take it out from under ITAR. Another point worth making, and that I have personally seen, is that sometimes secrets are necessary. For example: We might be asked by a university partner not to talk about some part of the experiment they want to fly with us, so we do not talk; otherwise we could not fly the experiment (and lose the launch opportunity this experiment afforded us). We are told by our launch provider not to talk about dates and other things regarding the launch, so we don't (or we don't get the launch--or perhaps we find it harder to get the next one). Some contacts that we make may be willing to do really good things for AMSAT, but not if we talk about it before they are ready for us to do so. No one I know (and people I know include all the directors, the officers, and all but one of the candidates) would be unhappy to reduce secretiveness and especially to avoid ITAR, but nearly every choice we make is a tradeoff that requires discussion. Perhaps AMSAT is working under internal procedures relating to ITAR that are outdated, especially given the law change and the many resulting rule changes in the past 5 years. If there is a path to fewer onerous restrictions, that would be great. Working together might lead us to that path. What we CAN NOT do is to ignore our previously-undertaken obligations. NDAs are still in force. Some previous work may still fall under ITAR/EAR. ITAR penalties are sufficiently draconian that we must step carefully. Slow and careful is frustrating. However, no matter who gets elected, infighing only slows things down. I beg the newer directors to back off a bit. I beg the longer term directors to look for a way to work with the newer ones. And above all, I beg ALL of you to calm down, look within yourselves for mistakes you have made in dealing with each other (surely no one is perfect), take ownership for your mistakes, apologize for what you need to and vow TO YOURSELF AND EACH OTHER that you will do better. That is a difficult ask, I understand. Trust has been badly battered. Perhaps you need a professional mediator (and, while no expert myself, I know who to ask for recommendations if you need them). What I *know* is that fighting will not help. Working together does not mean agreeing on everything. It only means finding SOME things you agree on (satellites in HEO?) and agreeing to listen to each other. Maybe calling each other by your first names is a start? I look forward to more light and less heat. Thanks for reading... 73, Burns WB1FJ

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ISS and AMSAT?
by Bob Hammond 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

Recently, there was mention of AMSAT no longer being welcome in the ISS program. Is that true? Or do I need more coffee this morning? Bob W7OTJ

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Lost IP
by Jerry Buxton 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

While the rash of accusations, misinformation, and spin that is the hallmark of AMSAT election time the past two years carries on at a dizzying pace, I feel the need to speak up as (to borrow on a famous quote) "the reports of my complete stupidity are an exaggeration". A background as quoted from historical emails regarding one false claim follows. Names of non-AMSAT Engineering volunteers have been removed and volunteer names are used only when needed for context. 1/26/2016 > Not sure if I closed the loop at the end of last week or not. After > talking with AHA (nice intro from [REDACTED]), and talking with > Notorious [REDACTED], and the space team, everyone is excited about > DVB-S2X for both Phase 4 and Ascent (and HEO). > > AHA is going to come back with some sort of offer/deal/marketing magic > in a couple-three weeks. This would be for the payloads. Ground team > designs an open source receiver from the standard up. > > I think if we want to go for it, we should buy an implementation of > DVB-S2X for ascent, use format 0 for the very low SNR stuff, and start > designing! 7/29/2016 > Attached is an archive with documents for the AHA DVB-S2X IP cores. > Note that there is a folder titled “Confidential – Protected under > NDA”. These documents should not be posted on a public forum (anyone > can get to the github site right?) and should be distributed on an “as > needed” basis to those that understand / have been briefed on the > conditions of the NDA. 8/12/2016 > M , > > Please review the AHA NDA, sign the affirmation, and return it to me. > > If there are others we need to include you may pass these along to them > with the same instructions. Please be sure that we have an affirmation > signed by the others who will be attending the meeting at AHA, before > they have access to the materials. > > I will talk to the Texas contingent after we determine whether we can > have a webinar or not, they can't travel to the meetings in person due > to the length of time involved. > > I will keep the documents secured on an AMSAT server and we can pull > them out to distribute as we determine who needs to see them and have > their affirmation. > > Thanks! > > -- > Jerry Buxton, NØJY > Vice President - Engineering > Here you go! :+) > [in response, with completed NDA attached] ------------------- As stated, the documents are secured on an AMSAT server. There are only two NDA affirmations on file with the documents, on the server. > \P4B\AHA NDA\Affirmations > Buxton NDA Affirmation-signed.pdf > T NDA Affirmation Signed MDT.pdf It should be noted that the same property mentioned in the 7/29/2016 was sent to Virginia Tech partners in the same email as to AMSAT. I do not have any insight to their NDA (if any) with the owner of the IP. With no other NDA affirmations on file to date much less those as requested for the meeting or use of the property, it would appear that neither the team that went to the meeting nor any other person in AMSAT Engineering needed access to the IP? Absent any acquisition of the files from the server by someone who had signed the NDA affirmation for distribution without my knowledge (affirmation is required in order for me to provide them with the passwords for the archives) it would appear that the need for the IP was not realized. This may have been due to the termination of the Heimdallr "CQC" project, or the departure of many CQC ASCENT Engineers to ORI, or both. And there may certainly have been other reasons that our engineers chose not to pursue use of DVB-S2X for a period of time. The IP and NDA still exists and to the best of my understanding of it, the agreement for use and non-disclosure is still effective. There will no doubt be opportunities for use in HEO as was first mentioned in the negotiation and enthusiasm for use of the IP with P4B, CQC, and future HEO, despite the termination of CQC and the hold (at least at this time) on any VT need of help for P4B. When AMSAT Engineers are working an idea as ASCENT or P4B, a design idea as was GOLF, or a project as is GOLF now, if there is technology that is shown to be useful with a proper need to justify the cost of the technology and resulting implementation of new satellites, I have historically supported the Engineering Team by doing what bosses do by providing them with the tools they need to do great work. The AHA is such an example and shows the trust I have had with all of the engineers under my supervision including those who I may not have or do not now, necessarily agree with or see eye to eye. To me it makes no sense to derail AMSAT progress over personal feelings. That's just the me that was elected VPE. Ask any engineer, and we may have disagreed or argued over things along the way but we continue to work together and things turn out happy for everyone. It is unfortunate but part of life that some just cannot put aside differences to reach that common goal. In the recent situation I believe it has something to do with the fact that I am not considered of the caliber of the upper class who knows all things about space and technology and it is probably easily shown that I am in many regards, in their point of view, stupid. I can take that, but as I said these reports of my COMPLETE stupidity are an exaggeration. I could research and respond to other statements that exaggerate my best asset as well, honestly the time spent is better spent doing what we do to keep satellites going up. This email did not happen in two minutes, it was in excess of two hours. I think that is part of the election time disruption plan, distracting everyone and causing extra work and FUD, but despite the high noise floor your dedicated Engineering Team volunteers haven't looked up from their work. And I do not intend to take any more of my AMSAT time to address any other concocted statements, I say that with the hope and belief that you can all realize that these statements only come from one source and no one, ever, has asked the other party (i.e. me in this case) for their statement on the subject before the stuff gets flung to the masses as truth. Even a rocket scientist would realize that you can't accomplish anything of value working with only one half, one "all knowing" engineer's view, of the needed information. And that right there is all that need be said regarding the source of the stuff flying my way. As I said I hope that this gives you some thought to the truth of this instance but I must raise one more important consideration before I close; All or many of your fellow hams in AMSAT Engineering are implicated by this and other not-true, broad claims - I will not tolerate that and I think it is fair to ask that you do not engage in or tolerate that either. Thank you. -- Jerry Buxton, NØJY

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Reading is fundamental
by Peter 16 Jul '20

16 Jul '20

So, I have spent nearly four hours READING all that is publicly available including the blogs and myriad emails available here or referenced with linksfrom here. I'll go to the end of the story then back up. After reading all that is cited above, its clear to me that the two new board members have exaggerated greatly the degree of wrong doingon the part of the board. It also seems clear that the board agreed to spend 10k to defend themselves against potential legal action from these two board members who then turn around and claim thesemonies were spent irresponsibly (see the initial email regarding Leadership). These funds were spent, in the main, to seek advice on how to proceed, and to create new, formerly nonexistent AMSAT polices to guidefuture administrative conduct. This latter goal was apparently long over due and proprietous. However, its also clear the legal fees exceeded the initially authorized amount of 10k This overage is understandable, dealing with issues like this you tendto get tunnel vision trying to sort this all out and within a few days you run over the limit. I'm not even sure this overage is in any way improper Had it been 50k well, yes, but 4 or 5k is really not a major issue.Additionally, it seems, again from all the emails that no formal vote was held to authorize these additional monies. We're leftto conclude that casual conversations were had that authorized these funds. No one has said this that I could find, perhaps some clarity on that point would help? When the treasurer says no dues were used, I think that is misleading, the point of concern wasn't what pot the monies came from but instead thattheir were resources used that could have been used productively elsewhere had their been tighter supervision of the legal activity. Again, its easyto run over with lawyers and not realize it, this overage doesn't rise to the level or even close to it, of criminal behavior. Describing this overage inthose terms is disgraceful and reckless So, the board was initially off put by the blogs I read. That is not an unreasonable response. Could/should more dialogue have been engaged in? Why yes it should have. This absence of reported deep dive dialogue is troubling, but may or may not havelead to a different outcome. Regardless, more dialogue should have happened, the board's credibility would have been enhanced by trying to sort out what the new directors wanted. I fault the board for not doing this, or if they did, I didn't see it in these writings. I am left with the impression that the two board members are folks who thrive on confrontation while spinning, in these emailsup here, that they are really interested in "transparency" I am convinced this is not the case. I draw all my conclusions on the postings here and thelinks to other cites contained within, and the blogs found by the same means. I feel that Stoddard and Thomspson should resign immediately, for in reading all this, I feel they have exaggerated the degree of misconduct and caused considerableharm to the reputation of AMSAT in the process, as is evident from the emails and posting on this BBS. To the credit of Stoddard and Thompson, it appears that AMSAT has not been run, from an administrative side of things, in a professional manner. Missing HR policiesand no evidence I can find of consultation with business leaders on how to operate a complex organization, is deeply bothersome. Further, an outside review is totally appropriate here. Consider, that had their been policies in place before all of this happened, lawyers would not have been needed.What OTHER policies are missing? What procedures are in place to audit the organization? Are the books reviewed by an outside CPA for instance?The credibility of AMSAT needs to be bolstered and having an expert consultant come in and review all of these potential areas is apparently way over due. That AMSAT lacks proper HR policies after this many years in business is deeply troubling and suggests a more professional operating standard is desperately needed here. Before you pontificate or provide character references for the current board you have an obligation to READ all this stuff, its wearisome, tedious and takes a long time.I read it, YOU should read it BEFORE you go off and make draconian statements. . PeterW2PPLife Member

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