ARLA/CLUSTER: Mensagem do Presidente da AMSAT, Barry Baines(WD4ASW)

[João Gonçalves Costa]

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Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and Rick Hambly, W2GPS. AMSAT's Dayton forum
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AMSAT President's Message

I just arrived home from my trip to the Southeast to attend the the AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting and the 26th Space Symposium, along with some personal travel.

As you probably know by now, AMSAT has undergone a change in leadership as a result of Rick Hambly's decision not to serve another one-year term as President.

At the meeting in Atlanta, the Board voted to appoint me as President. I am honored that the Board has placed their trust in my leadership and I look forward to working with the Board, the Senior Team, and our membership as we move forward into 2009.

First, many thanks to Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC and his team of volunteers for putting together and hosting an excellent AMSAT Symposium in Atlanta. Attendance was lower this year than in past years, probably due to the impacts of the slowing economy, relatively high transportation costs, and lack of news concerning Eagle.

Those that did attend the Symposium, however, benefited from an excellent weekend of presentations, discussions, interaction with fellow AMSAT members, and an opportunity to meet with the AMSAT leadership.

The efforts of Robin's team, coupled with the contributions of Gould Smith, WA4SXM and Martha Saragovitz, resulted in a Symposium that ran very smoothly, with attendees enjoying the presentations, a Friday night President's Club social that was open to all Symposium attendees, the Saturday night banquet, and the Field Ops Breakfast on Sunday Morning.

Dan Schultz, N8FGV was a masterful banquet speaker who through excellent slides and dry wit explained the upcoming Hubble Repair Mission.

Dan also was our editor for the "Proceedings of of the 26th Space Symposium" which is an excellent compilation of papers, most of which were presented at the Symposium.
(I encourage you to order a copy of the Proceedings if you weren't able to attend.)

In addition, for the first time that I can recall, there were TWO major prizes given away at the Dinner (Icom IC-910H and a Kenwood TS-2000), both of which were won by women who attended the banquet. Judy Perkins, KE7ERI of Lilburn, GA won the IC-910 and Flo Bower of Pinson, AL won the TS-2000 (she is working on earning her ham license). Many thanks to both Icom and Kenwood for their support of AMSAT.

The Symposium closed on Sunday following an excellent two hour "Introduction to Digital Signal Processing" workshop conducted by Phil Harman, VK6APH that was well attended. Overall, AMSAT enjoyed an excellent weekend in Atlanta.

During the Board meeting on Thursday, Oct 23rd and the Annual Meeting on Saturday morning, Oct 25, we took time to thank Rick Hambly, W2GPS for his four years of faithful and extensive service to AMSAT as President.

Rick tackled many difficult issues and sought to move AMSAT forward in a number of areas. These included dealing with changes in the regulatory environment (Orbital Debris), establishing a relationship with University of Maryland-Eastern Shore that resulted in relocation of the AMSAT Integration Lab to Pocomoke, MD, working on the difficult issue of ITAR (International Traffic of Arms Regulations), revamping the AMSAT senior leadership team organizational structure, initial discussions with Intelsat on a possible 'rideshare' opportunity, and 'filling in' as our webmaster when we lost the volunteer who handled that function.

Much of what Rick did was 'behind the scenes' activities that took many hours, required dedicated followup, and received little fanfare. Many thanks to Rick for his significant efforts to make AMSAT better. During the past four years, no one dedicated such a significant portion of their life to AMSAT as Rick.

At the Annual Meeting on Oct 25, I gave a presentation that briefly reviewed where things stood within AMSAT, discussed some of organizational issues that effect our ability to get projects completed, and mentioned some of the 'outside factors' that have impacted AMSAT. I also outlined some goals for 2009.

You can download the presentation (in PDF format) off the AMSAT website<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php>. There is a link on the main page. While the 'bullet points' provide key comments, the presentation doesn't have the 'talking points' that I made during each slide, so please be aware of this limitation when reviewing the material. We made the Annual Meeting available via EchoLink, and we did have members listening 'live' and submitting questions during the meeting. Thank you to those individuals who participated in the Annual Meeting.

In upcoming 'Apogee View' columns of the AMSAT Journal, I will discuss some of the challenges facing AMSAT and what is happening in a number of areas. Some of these issues were discussed at the Annual Meeting.

Please don't forget that we need volunteers in a number of technical and non-technical areas. The July/August issue of the AMSAT JOURNAL had a brief 'We Want YOU' ad that highlighted some of the areas where AMSAT needs assistance. Please review that list and if you're interested in helping AMSAT, contact Gould Smith, WA4SXM as noted in
the ad.

Finally, please don't hesitate to contact me directly if you have suggestions, comments, or concerns that you would like to share. I will make every effort to respond to e-mails that I receive, but please keep in mind that I travel extensively which may limit my ability to respond quickly.

Please know that I read every e-mail that I receive from AMSAT members and that I appreciate every person's
willingness and time spent to share their thoughts and
suggestions.

73,
Barry Baines, WD4ASW
AMSAT President
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