[amsat-bb] Foolishness

[Michelle Thompson]

I can speak to this. Thank you for the opportunity.

It's the other way around. ORI provides all engineering to the general
public, free of charge.

We've pledged our successful fundraising to directly benefit AMSAT in every
way we know how. We've done significant legal and regulatory work to reduce
ITAR/EAR burden, produced a wide variety of software and firmware, and now
have the funds to prototype the hardware required for microwave broadband
communications payloads.

We've published open source implementations of the best forward error
correction codes that exist. We just bought a full Vivado floating license
that anyone in the community can use.

The board and associate members (we have no paid members, so we don't even
compete there) have been completely transparent about the intent and
purpose of the engineering done by ORI.

ORI is a Member Society of AMSAT.

It's odd how ORI is portrayed here, yet Directors current and previous that
have dual roles - such as working for NASA, working at Universities with
commercial satellite projects, and working for commercial satellite
companies - simply never get any criticism for using AMSAT to help their
career or projects. In many cases, AMSAT has been used to further outside
or commercial careers. Many of these people are unquestionably celebrated.

When someone (like myself) that starts a successful 501(c)(3) that works in
the opposite direction - freely giving to the organization and supporting
it whenever possible - one would hope it would be perceived as a positive.

All of this engineering and fundraising was the exact sort of thing I was
doing within AMSAT engineering. When Joe Spier shut down the entire
project, the dozens of people on the team asked if we could keep going.
Bruce Perens was instrumental here in helping set up a 501(c)(3) that could
operate as a research institute. And the rest is documented on our website.

While people like me shouldn't have to set up an entirely independent
formal structure to volunteer for the AMSAT community, it has turned out to
be fun, successful, and quite complementary to AMSAT's aims and purposes.

ORI is not a membership organization. It's not in competition for members.
We sign up AMSAT members at every event we hold. We promote AMSAT publicly.

If the leadership of AMSAT really wants to view organizations like ORI as
some sort of threat or crisis, then they are deliberately choosing to be
anti-collaborative.

If you have to have Directors that don't have any other interests outside
AMSAT, then you will end up with people that don't bring things like a
strong network, experiences, or other organizational assets to the job.

Should Tom Clark have been thrown off the AMSAT board because he was also
on the Virginia Tech Space Advisory Board? Should Brennan Price not be
Secretary because he works for Inmarsat?

The opposite is also true. Ordinary people with ordinary common sense
should also be in leadership. Diversity on the board can only improve it.

-Michelle W5NYV




On Sat, Jul 11, 2020 at 1:43 PM Rich Gopstein via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> I'm guessing it's more complex than that.  I suspect this is really about
> ORI and trying to get AMSAT to outsource their satellite engineering to
> ORI.  MIchelle Thompson is the CEO of ORI...
>
> https://openresearch.institute/board-of-directors/
>
> Rich, KD2CQ
> AMSAT life member
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 11, 2020 at 8:34 AM John Spasojevich via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> > All reads to me like a couple people broke into the old boys club and
> > weren’t welcomed to the playground. AMSAT has been run by the same people
> > for years and years and years. Then again not many run for office so our
> > choices are limited.
> >
> > John AG9D
> >
> > On Saturday, July 11, 2020, Nick Pugh via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > This is a hobby
> > >
> > > Spending money on lawyer instead of satellite is dumb
> > >
> > > My hope is you get on a Zoom call and put the fire out and take us to
> HEO
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Nickk k5qxj
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Cell      337 258 2527
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Helping UL become a world Class Engineering  and Educational School
> > >
> > > Disagree I Learn
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> > Opinions
> > > expressed
> > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views
> of
> > > AMSAT-NA.
> > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> > program!
> > > Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions
> > expressed
> > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> > AMSAT-NA.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> program!
> > Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>