Steve,

I'm located in North Pole, Alaska and to be honest I have no idea what a SM does or am not sure if I've ever met one. I congratulate you on your effort's sir and hope that someday we can meet or at least have a QSO.

For now, we're beginning to emerge from winter into what we call breakup (spring to you) and shed the mountains of snow accumulated up here since last September. I do see emails and read them when they come in. I am currently in a battle with stage 4 cancer and my ham activities have been hampered by this effort. I am planning a new antenna this summer (June, July, and half of August) and do like to work all modes including CW.

In my professional life I am the lead engineer for a flight simulator division of a major airline and so electronics is my money maker .... ham radio activities helps me keep my sanity ...

Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I may help you with sir.

73

Mike AD7VV

Lt. Michael Heit (Ret)

North Pole, Alaska 99705

AD7VV

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, ‘just men who will rule in the fear of God.’ The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws.” – Noah Webster

"'Democracy,' where a handful of extremely wealthy and powerful insiders 'change rules and laws,' and 'control the flow of information,' this may not resemble the democracy that you learned about in civics class but is a term of art reflecting uniparty control from above.

www.survivalblog.com

Sent with ProtonMail secure email.

------- Original Message -------
On Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 at 5:01 AM, Steven Lott Smith KG5VK ARRL NTX SM <lottsphoto@...> wrote:

Mark,

Thanks again !

I guess there really is no one magic bullet so to speak

my goal has always been to be visible and in reach of my our members

I attend as many club meetings and hamfest as possible

I have a very understanding and supportive wife

we are almost always at functions together

She is a licensed amateur radio op as well.

Newsletters from myself as the SM are sent by way of the ARRL SM Email toolset

which we are hoping to see a drastic improvement of

once the arrl site is back online.

I have only made it to New Mexico once and that was a very short trip through the North corner of the state

However it is a small world for us Amateur Radio ops as you know, and I look forward to

meeting you.

73

Steve

KG5VK

Steven Lott Smith

Tele 318-470-9806
ARRL NTX Section Manager

Please note: My Out Going Email address is LottsPhoto@...

KG5VK@... is forwarded to my Gmail address

On Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 7:24 AM <k5lxp@...> wrote:

W5PDY's activities were well covered in the ARRL Letter, which I'd do a search for but as you mention, the site is down for the upgrade. I would say what was most notable about him is he was just a plain nice guy, and he would stop and talk to everyone. As I mentioned above, he was as much an ambassador as a manager. Given what you describe of your activities you are already far and away more than many SM's I've known over the years. Often the only time you saw or heard of them was the perfunctory "ARRL forum" at a hamfest, blathering about League business. It's hard to beat up on any of those in the field organization as it's volunteer, and a huge commitment if you take it seriously. From my perspective it's more about serving League members for their interests and needs, promoting the hobby, and lastly promoting the League. In these days of competing hobbies and interests it is an uphill battle to gain attention but it's possible. I don't think it takes any special activities or methods, once you've licked visibility and accessibility the rest is by the numbers. Assign your PIO to keep your section website fresh so it becomes a focal point of current events and not a static directory page. My SM sends out periodic mass emails but I don't think often enough, I'd like to know more about what's going on in the section so maybe you can look at that.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM