[AMSAT-BB] Re: By-Laws

22 Apr 2021

      Link to minutes here:
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AMSAT_BOD_Minutes...
On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 4:01 PM Paul Stoetzer n8hm@arrl.net wrote:
...
Minute 3 of the Minutes of the March 17, 2020 Teleconference:
"3. Mr. Coleman presented his report, stressing his goals of
modernizing the corporation, reducing of operating expenses, and
promoting self-service, reliance on teams, and the eventual closure of
the physical office. He described Mr. Kutzko’s new role as Volunteer
Coordinator, focused on identifying, engaging, and assigning volunteer
resources. Mr. Coleman discussed the potential impact of the public
health situation on planned events, including Hamvention and
Symposium, and possible alternative events to replace the outreach and
development activities associated with these events. Finally, Mr.
Coleman suggested that it was timely to review the bylaws, last
modified in 1989, to ensure continued relevance.
On motion of Ms. Thompson, seconded by Dr. Clark, it was voted to form
a bylaws committee to review the bylaws and make suggestions for
changes with all seven directors voting aye."
The Committee's report was sent to members in this morning's email.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 3:54 PM Steve Rish steverish@inbox.com wrote:
...
Paul, could you supply minutes of the meeting that appointed the, thus far, nameless committee to review the by-laws. I would assume the minutes will reference the board's discussion of the need as well as names of those who were "appointed".  Hard to imagine the Board engaged in such discussion considering the  lack of board meetings and minutes in the last 12-18 months
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: n8hm@arrl.net
Sent: Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:01:54 -0400
To: va3mw@portcredit.net
Subject: [AMSAT-BB] Re: By-Laws
The Bylaw revisions adopted by the Board were necessary for saving
money, primarily by allowing electronic communications. For example,
under the current bylaws, we were required to spend a few thousand
dollars to notify the membership of these bylaw changes by mail rather
than simply emailing the membership. That will no longer be necessary
when they go into effect. The adopted amendments are a culmination of
a year-long process of reviewing the existing bylaws by a committee
appointed for that purpose. The amendments included a few other
changes and clarifications to remove some ambiguities that had arisen
over the past several years. I'm not quite sure why a few have latched
on to a simple provision designed to protect the organization and all
of its members in the rare circumstance that someone applies for
membership that would be unsuitable as a member. Hopefully it will
never have to be used.
As far as satellite development, perhaps you missed the lead story in
last week's ANS (reproduced below). Our engineering team is doing a
lot of exciting work.
73,
Paul, N8HM
AMSAT’s GOLF-TEE CubeSat Manifested for Launch on ELaNa-46
AMSAT’s GOLF-TEE CubeSat has been manifested for launch on NASA’s
ELaNa-46 mission.
GOLF-TEE is the first satellite in AMSAT’s “Greater Orbit, Larger
Footprint” or GOLF program. The goal of the GOLF program is to work by
steps through a series of increasingly capable spacecraft to learn to
develop systems and skills needed to achieve successful high orbit
missions. Among these are active attitude control and the ability to
command attitude changes, deployable/steerable solar panels, radiation
tolerance for commercial off the shelf (COTS) components in higher
orbits, and propulsion. The eventual goal of the GOLF program is a
satellite in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) similar to AO-10, AO-13,
and AO-40, but at a currently affordable cost combined with
significantly enhanced capabilities, which in turn will allow the use
of much less complex ground stations.
The -TEE designation in GOLF-TEE stands for “Technology Exploration
Environment” reflecting GOLF-TEE’s mission testing two primary systems
needed for higher orbits. First, an Attitude Determination and Control
(ADAC) system will be tested to allow active pointing of the
satellites antennas, which will have significant gain. The other
primary goal of GOLF-TEE is to gain initial orbit and space radiation
exposure for radiation event-induced fault tolerant systems designed
using COTS components. GOLF-TEE will carry an Integrated Housekeeping
Unit (IHU) / command transceiver designed using the Hercules line of
ARM architecture-based microcontrollers.
GOLF-TEE will also evaluate a low-cost, deployable, fixed attitude,
solar panel array design as part of AMSAT Engineering’s exploration of
fixed panel arrays that allow for outfitting a variable number of
“wings” in order to best match the power requirements of various
CubeSat missions.
Additionally, GOLF-TEE will carry a modified commercial
software-defined radio (SDR), the Ettus E310, as an experimental
package to test high speed data downlink in the 10 GHz band.
GOLF-TEE will also be a fully-functional LEO VHF/UHF amateur satellite
carrying conventional backup systems, including a linear transponder,
similar to those flown on AO-109.
A significant amount of funding is necessary to complete the
development and construction of the GOLF series of CubeSats. Please
consider a donation today. Donations designated for the AMSAT GOLF
program may be made at
https://www.amsat.org/donations/amsat-golf-program-donations/
[ANS thanks AMSAT Engineering for the above information]
On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 12:50 PM Michael Walker va3mw@portcredit.net wrote:
...
It would be nice if AMSAT stopped wasting my money playing internal politics and used it for something truly productive for actually making QSO's in the Sky.
Mike va3mw
On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 12:17 PM Ray Soifer via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
...
I agree with Bob McGwier. It fails the smell test.
In addition, as a co-author of the 1989 By-laws, I need to emphasize that the proposed amendment would not be consistent with the
Articles of Incorporation.
73 Ray W2RS

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