[amsat-bb] Soaring Upward to HEO

[Joseph Armbruster]

Paul (et al),

Thank you and the BOD members for all your hard work.  Your professional
campaign speaks volumes and your dedication to *always making AMSAT a
success *is the way it ought to be for all board members.

I am not thanking those BOD members, candidates or supporters that thrive
off of constantly bashing AMSAT publically (the org, its members or
directors) and that appear to survive off of drama, complaints, stirring
the pot, promoting other organizations whose apparent aim is to compete
with AMSAT or that feel the need to post letters from a legal
wizard-of-smart to apparently intimidate and/or drain AMSAT of funds that
would otherwise be going to engineering activities.  All of these things
appear to be hurting morale and tainting the organization, unnecessarily.
(oh, wait... I mean, Changing!).

The only thing i'm really not happy about is that AMSAT does not brag
enough about its accomplishments.  Even during the ARISSat days, I remember
thinking to myself; all this is going on, so many people are working on all
this and most HAMs I know have no clue.  I remember it being a logistics
nightmare amplified by the fact that it's a volunteer organization, but I
remember everyone having fun regardless.  The first SSTV images I pulled
down from space were flipping amazing! That's something i'll never forget.
>From what i'm observing on the bb, it does not seem like most of the
membership is very informed on the technical level of effort involved or
the sheer number of hours it takes to accomplish many of the things that
you all do.  My hats off to you and the team.

May the bigger nerds win,
Joseph Armbruster
KJ4JIO

On Tue, Aug 4, 2020 at 7:04 PM Paul Stoetzer via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> The past five years rank with the best in AMSAT's history and we are
poised
> for much more success in the future. We have launched four satellites and
a
> fifth is complete and awaiting launch. We have partnered with university
> groups to place amateur transponders on their satellites. We are on a path
> back to HEO through our GOLF program with the first two satellites in this
> series, GOLF-TEE and GOLF-1, selected for launch opportunities. We
continue
> to support amateur radio on human spaceflight through ARISS and AREx. Our
> CubeSat Simulator project has been very successful in promoting AMSAT's
> mission of educational outreach. Due to these successes, membership
numbers
> and revenue continue to increase after a long period of decline from the
> late 1990s. After falling to around 3,000 members in the early part of
last
> decade, we are now up to about 4,000 members. Additionally, activity on
the
> amateur satellites has increased considerably over the past several years.
>
> In addition to satellite projects, we have launched a new, modern
> membership portal. Our members now have access to all issues of The AMSAT
> Journal from 2014 to the present and all of the AMSAT Symposium
Proceedings
> since 1986 through this portal. More publications are coming soon. We have
> also modernized and revitalized the field program with our new AMSAT
> Ambassador program.
>
> If you want us to continue on the journey Upward to HEO, vote for Dr. Mark
> Hammond, N8MH, Bruce Paige, KK5DO, and myself.
>
> 73,
>
> Paul, N8HM
> upwardtoheo.coom
> _______________________________________________
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> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
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