Kevin,
No, I never saw the mailing list . I didn't do the mailing . I only wrote the content .
So, why was I involved at all ?
I won't say I'm the best tech evangelist you know, because that is for other people to judge. However, if you count the Open Source movement in software; the campaign for the elimination of the Morse code requirement for Amateur Radio licenses, which among other things I got on the front page of the New York Times, above the fold; My work to help elect a new ARRL board to end the confidentiality versus transparency debacle; And my global appearance for IBM's "Dear Tech", campaign, which got at least 50000 television and Internet airplays;
If you count all those things, I am probably the person you want introducing you as a candidate, and I might be a good person to tell you how to run a campaign.
As it happens I wrote my own campaign, which I was going to put out under my own name, endorsing those candidates. And then the candidates chose to use it as their main campaign statement. This was very flattering and entirely their own choice.
As an ARRL member, it was my right to participate in their election, and it is my right to participate in AMSAT's.
Thanks
Bruce K6BP
On Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 9:29 PM Kevin wa7fwf@gmail.com wrote:
Bruce, So hang on a moment, you're telling me that the candidates are allowed to use the mailing list for their campaign (fine), but rather than them doing it themselves they turned the task over to you? So you were in possession of the mailing list and then you turned it over to the bulk mailing center when you authored the mailer?
Kevin WA7FWF #19623
On 7/12/2020 9:08 PM, Bruce Perens wrote:
The candidates are allowed the use of the mailing list for their campaign. If you read the bylaws, they make it very clear. One of the candidates did all of the handling of the mailing list.
Incidentally, the board was not aware that they had to give the mailing list to the candidates. This was something the candidates had to tell them, after I read the bylaws. Had the board run things the way they desired, only a board controlled 200 word statement would have reached you from the candidates, except for the incumbents, who have had free use of AMSAT's official publications to carry their opinions.
In a more perfect world, the board would have known their own bylaws, or at least the secretary who was running the election would have read them.
But in a more perfect world, two people were trying to reform the organization with not face quite this uphill a battle.
Thanks
Bruce
On Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 9:00 PM Kevin wa7fwf@gmail.com wrote:
Well how did the bulk mailing company get the AMSAT member mailing list if AMSAT did not provide it?
Kevin
On 7/12/2020 8:32 PM, Bruce Perens wrote:
The mailing list was never compromised. But my HOME address, under "Open Research Institute" was used as the return address. This was a mistake and I didn't ask for it. I was, however, the author of the mailer, in which I introduced the candidates. The mailing was done by a bulk Mail company and did not involve me. I got one returned letter, informed someone responsible who had a right to see that address, and promptly forgot it.
Thanks
Bruce
On Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 7:11 PM Kevin via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Hello All,
In a previous email to the BB I posted the link to the letter we all received as members.
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200710_AMSAT_Le...
I was re-reading it and something caught my eye that I had missed before.
"AMSAT did not provide a copy of its membership mailing addresses to Open Research Institute."
Just how was our mailing list compromised? This seems like a seriousbreech of security, was this a hack? was any other information lost? was it ever found out how it happened? is our mailing list as they say "out in the wind"?
Michelle could you possibly check from the ORI side and backtrack how ORI came into possession of the AMSAT mailing list, was it something that was procured online?
AMSAT needs to follow up on this privacy issue and report back what it found and any steps that were taken to prevent this from happening in the future.
I look forward to an answer
73 Kevin WA7FWF #19623
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