[Ground-station] Three Past and Present AMSAT Directors Call for Immediate Changes in AMSAT

[Bruce Perens]

The canonical version of this document is at
http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2020.html
<https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2020.html> . *Please distribute it
widely until September 15, 2020.* We need to get it in front of all AMSAT
members worldwide.
AMSAT: Urgent Issue, And The Future of North American Amateur Satellites
------------------------------
Last year, Bruce Perens K6BP wrote to you
<https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html> to recommend the
election of *new* directors to the AMSAT board, to remedy severe problems
with the organization. Two new directors were elected, but the
then-incumbent board *has never allowed them to function as directors.* The
main means used to disenfranchise the new directors were that *AMSAT
stopped having board meetings*, so that the new directors can not make any
motions or participate in any meaningful way. And information that would
usually be given to directors was withheld from the newly elected ones.
------------------------------

If AMSAT members send additional *new* directors to the board, they will
break this logjam, because there will be enough new directors to call a
board meeting. The candidates we recommend are:

   - Bob McGwier N4HY
   <http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/CandidateStatementAMSAT2020BobMcGwier.pdf>
   - Howie DeFelice AB2S <http://www.ab2s.freeservers.com/>
   - Jeff Johns WE4B <http://www.we4bravo.com/>

What's the problem?

Many volunteer non-profit directors never learn a critical skill of
democracy: *how to deal with opposition*. Opposition are not the enemy!
They are just people with different opinions about how to run the
organization. But an unskilled board will treat opposition as *evil* against
their own good.

The new directors, Michelle Thompson W5NYV <https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/>
 and Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK <http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/> were vocal critics
of the AMSAT leadership before they ran for office. Rather than work with
the opposition, the AMSAT board started an expensive legal process against
them <https://www.amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2020-July/078239.html>. The
membership then, to the incumbent's great distress, sent the same people to
the board as new directors! Which led to *more lawyers and more expense.* The
total got to $18,000 in legal fees that should have gone to Amateur
Satellites.

This was not a wise decision by the AMSAT board. They could have worked
with the opposition, rather than spending money on lawyers and
disenfranchising the directors whom the membership had elected to represent
them. They should have read the election of these people as a signal from
the membership.

So, this year AMSAT has the same problems reported a year ago
<https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html>. And this new one.

We are asking AMSAT members to fix this, by electing enough additional new
directors to call a board meeting. AMSAT ballots are going into the mail as
we write this.

Of course, besides fixing this administrative problem, the candidates have
an agenda for the advancement of AMSAT. Dr. Bob McGwier N4HY was chief
engineer of AMSAT and a board member during a better time for the
organization, and is one of the creators of Software Defined Radio. He was
one of the main architects of the *Phase 4* satellite development, which
would have provided a geostationary digital satellite for emergency
communication, and regular ham activities during non-emergency times. This
was a cooperative program with FEMA, part of the US Government, and FEMA's
vendor failed to build the satellite. Since then, space launch has become
much less expensive and paths are open to AMSAT that would previously have
taken government cooperation. Bob is the best choice to lead a new effort
to go back to high-earth orbit with satellites that mix simple and
accessable analog communications with innovative digital ones.

Howie DeFelice AB2S is a principal engineer for Intelsat General
Communications, one of the creators of 50 Dollar Sat
<http://50dollarsat.info/>, the first PocketQube satellite, and a major
contributor to the *Phase 4* effort. Jeff Johns WE4B is an industrial
quality expert and daily satellite operator. His expertise in *Kaizen*, a
process to increase quality by involving all employees from top management
to line assemblers, is essental to bringing AMSAT back to being a
functional organization.
The Candidates

Please review the web statements of each candidate, and please vote for
these candidates:

   - Bob McGwier N4HY
   <http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/CandidateStatementAMSAT2020BobMcGwier.pdf>
   - Howie DeFelice AB2S <http://www.ab2s.freeservers.com/>
   - Jeff Johns WE4B <http://www.we4bravo.com/>

Signed:

   - Dr. Robert W. McGwier, N4HY, past VP Engineering and board member,
   AMSAT.
   - Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK, Board member, AMSAT.
   - Michelle Thompson W5NYV, Board member, AMSAT.
   - George Badger, W3AB
   - John Brier, KG4AKV
   - Diane Bruce VA3DB
   - Matthew Chambers NR0Q
   - Bruce Perens K6BP
   - Fernando Ramírez-Ferrer KF7R (ex-NP4JV)
   - Michael Tondee W4HIJ

*Please write to bruce at perens dot com to add your signature.*

-- 
Bruce Perens - CEO at stealth startup. I'll tell you what it is eventually
:-)
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