[amsat-bb] Re: Questions for the 2007 BoD Candidates

[Andrew Glasbrenner]

Hi Dave! Sorry for the delay in answering, here's my 2 cents.

>
> * How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51) in 
> the
> last year.

Just about every day I at least listen, with occasional lapses due to work 
commitments. I have Satellite VUCC #123 with endorsements up to 500 grids, 
and another 80 or so ready to be checked. Between the LEOs and AO-40 I also 
have about 90 countries confirmed for DXCC. Lately my interests have trended 
towards the digital satellites and university missions, but in general I 
work them all.

>
> * What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?

Our history of innovation is impressive to both those inside and outside of 
ham radio. We must continue to innovate to maintain that impression by doing 
new and exciting things like Suitsat 1 and 2, and the ACP, SDX, and other 
unique aspects of the EAGLE project.

>
> * What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you 
> address it?

AND

>
> * How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization in
> terms of management, membership service and transparency?

We don't do a good enough job recruiting new talent for our projects. Needs 
are often filled from the inside and that can lead to overworked volunteers, 
and a "us vs. them" mentality. We often also find that there are single 
"points of failure" when only one person knows the specifics of a task or 
project, and I'd like to improve on this. One of the things I have proposed 
in the last few months is an AMSAT "job board" where we can advertise what 
the org and project leadership are looking for in a volunteer, either on the 
webpage or in the Journal. The entire EAGLE team has made giant strides in 
this direction with the new project philosphy of open design, and I remain 
very impressed with what is happening over on Eaglepedia.

>
> * What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for 
> AMSAT?

See the above response ;-). We should spread the workload around some, 
involve new blood, recruit harder from both the tradtional ham population 
and from the newer non-traditional hams like those working on cubesat 
projects. We must also finish and launch one or more HEOs to get back on 
track, and keep building them!

>
> Thanks and 73!
>
> Dave N0TGD

Thanks for your interest, and hopefully your vote Dave!

73, Drew KO4MA