[Ground-station] AMSAT Director Election 2019: Time for Change

[Bruce Perens]

AMSAT Director Election 2019: It's Time For Change!

*Please pass this on to other AMSAT members, until September 15, 2019.* The
canonical version of this document is at
http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html
<https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html>

Hi, I'm Bruce Perens K6BP <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Perens>. You
might have seen me as the guy in the IBM commercial
<https://perens.com/2019/02/13/bruce-perens-featured-in-new-ibm-ad/> who
says *Let's Champion Data Rights as Human Rights!* I am one of the founders
of the Open Source movement in software, and an innovator and evangelist
for advanced Amateur Radio technology like FreeDV, <https://freedv.org/>
Codec2 <http://www.rowetel.com/?page_id=452>, and HT of the Future
<https://perens.com/2019/05/23/ht-of-the-future-new-design>. I founded *No-Code
International* to end code testing, and still work intensively on Amateur
Radio policy today. I'm an AMSAT member and AMSAT President's Club donor.

AMSAT is absolutely vital to continue the role of Amateur Radio in space,
one especially important when we're seeing the start of a challenge to our
2-meter band allocation internationally. But there are problems with AMSAT:
It's now 15 years since AO-40 went SK. We've not done anything *nearly* so
ambitious again in North America, while Europe and Africa now have a
*geostationary* 10 GHz transponder for Amateur use. AMSAT's current
management is hogtied and overly fearful of ITAR while the Open Source
community, provider of the cryptography in every web browser back when that
was under ITAR, has had that problem solved
<https://openresearch.institute/itar-and-ear-strategy/> for decades. And
AMSAT can't support itself with the current member dues.

I'd like you to consider these candidates for the AMSAT board:

   - Howie DeFelice AB2S
   <https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf> is
   Senior Principal Engineer with *Intelsat General Communications,* where
   he designs solutions for government. Howie was also one of the creators of
   50dollarsat <http://www.50dollarsat.info/>, the first PocketQube
   satellite, which validated the usefulness of that kind of 1/8U
   microsatellite.
   - Jeff Johns WE4B
   <https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html>
is
   a two-decade satellite operator, involved in elmering young people, and
   frequently made satellite contacts from his patrol car while he served the
   public as a deputy sheriff.
   - Brennan Price N4QX
   <https://n4qx.blogspot.com/2019/07/candidate-statement-for-amsat-na-board.html>
was
   CTO of ARRL, and thus our leader on many technical and regulatory issues.
   He is now Director of Regulatory Affairs in the Washington, DC, office of
   Inmarsat.
   - Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK <http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/> (and VA7EWK) is an
   AMSAT life member, has been an AMSAT area coordinator, ambassador, board
   alternate, and other positions in his two decades of service to the
   organization.
   - Michelle Thompson W5NYV
   <https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html>
is
   an AMSAT life member. She holds an MSEE in Information Theory and is a
   specialist in error correction, signal processing, and communications
   theory. She formerly worked for Qualcomm and is now a Distinguished Visitor
   for IEEE. Michelle is second violin in an orchestra, developer of an AI
   pipe organ called *Organ Donor*, and is recipient of the 2018 *Don
   Hilliard award* from Microwave Update, for service to and innovations in
   amateur satellite communications. Somehow she finds time to do that *and* be
   a mom of three beautiful children.

Four slots for directors are open this year, and I've recommended five
people. Please select your favorite four. You can read in the candidate's
statements why there is need for a new board. Most unsettling to me is that
there are *conduct issues* with the current board which make AMSAT no fun
to work for, and that's fatal for a volunteer organization. About 30 of the
smartest people I know in Amateur Radio, the names behind some of the
biggest projects AMSAT ever did, now either refuse to work for AMSAT or
have severely curtailed their activities. Active AMSAT members will be
aware of the missing faces. Patrick <http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/> and Jeff
<https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html>
both
go into behavior issues of the board in their candidate's statements.
Michelle
<https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/05/candidate-statement-amsat-na-board-of.html>
had
to move the Phase 4 Ground Station project out of AMSAT due to the ITAR
policy and board conduct issues. She discusses in detail
<https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html>
how
to solve the problem. Howie
<https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf> also
believes AMSAT's ITAR policy must change.

AMSAT has *severely limited* the candidate's statements on the ballot this
year. The ballot sent to you will only include a tiny 350 words from each
candidate, allowing no negative statements about anyone, no URLs, and only
one phone number and email. So, it's important to read the candidate's
unrestricted statements on the web.

Thanks for listening. You can reach me by email to bruce at perens dot com.
Please remember to vote as soon as you receive your AMSAT ballot. Ballots
will be counted on September 15. Again, my recommendations are:

   - Howie DeFelice AB2S
   <https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf>
   - Jeff Johns WE4B
   <https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html>
   - Brennan Price N4QX
   <https://n4qx.blogspot.com/2019/07/candidate-statement-for-amsat-na-board.html>
   - Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK (also VA7EWK) <http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/>
   - Michelle Thompson W5NYV
   <https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html>

<https://perens.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/07/BrucePerensInIBMCommercial.jpg>
Bruce Perens K6BP

-- 
Bruce Perens - Partner, OSS.Capital.
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