[amsat-bb] AMSAT Member Mailing list

Mon Jul 13 14:23:51 UTC 2020

No database went anywhere except to candidates. This is allowed in the
bylaws.

Then, an automated bulk mail printing server was used. I recommended the
company to Brennan Price for this year's mailing. Good service,
inexpensive.

Return addresses don't magically transfer information.

-Michelle W5NYV

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 04:32 David Swanson <dave at druidnetworks.com> wrote:

> Spin Spin Spin. The simple truth here is Director Thompson took the AMSAT
> member database, and handed it over to a 3rd party competing entity for the
> purpose of solicitation. I know I did not give ORI my home address, yet ORI
> sent me a letter. This was a violation of my privacy, and for AMSAT
> members living in the EU, this was a violation of the law. Any attempt to
> explain this away is just more lies and deceit from Director Thompson about
> the shady practices they have engaged in over the past few years. As I keep
> saying, this isn't a one time thing, this is a pattern of
> reprehensible behavior that is unbecoming of an elected position and this
> community. Director Thompson and Director Stoddard should resign.
>
> -Dave, KG5CCI
>
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 5:33 AM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> Yes, I can.
>>
>> That part of Clayton's letter is wrong and has been repeatedly clarified
>> before. Including at the 2019 annual board meeting, where Tom Clark asked
>> me about it, as part of the record.
>>
>> Clayton Coleman was secretary in 2019.
>>
>> He ran the election.
>>
>> He decided that candidate statements were limited in length to 350 words,
>> would be subject to editorial control by AMSAT, and could not include
>> links. These new rules were given to us right before the 4th of July
>> holiday with a deadline of the 7th.
>>
>> This is different than any election before, where statements went directly
>> to the printer from the candidate, were not limited in length, and no one
>> from AMSAT leadership (who might be running for reelection themselves) had
>> any control over the content of their challengers' statements.
>>
>> We got these rules right before ballots went out. We (four challengers)
>> already had normal-sized statements on the web and they had been up six
>> weeks at that point. Those were the ones we wanted to use, and link to.
>>
>> We knew that as candidates, we had the right to request the mailing list,
>> and send our own statements, independent of the ballot.
>>
>> I requested the address list and got the DBASE4 export.
>>
>> Bruce Perens had already written a letter of support and distributed it
>> widely on the web. It introduced us and included our four full bios and
>> statements.
>>
>> I asked Bruce if we could use his letter in the mailing. He said yes.
>> Since
>> he was President of Open Research Institute at the time, he wanted the
>> return address to not be his private home address, but a business address.
>> That was ORI's address. He was the author of the endorsement, so I used
>> his
>> preferred return address.
>>
>> I converted the DBASE4 to a more useful format, fixed the 50 or so
>> undeliverable addresses, and found an inexpensive printer. Then I sent the
>> letter from Bruce to the printer, with the bios and statements.
>>
>> That turned out to be a good thing. Bios and statements were not included
>> with the ballots mailed out, at all.
>>
>> If we had not sent the letter, then name recognition would be the primary
>> factor. We were running against well-known people.
>>
>> We complained about this. It was unusual departure from the past and
>> seemed
>> set up to let leadership benefit from being incumbents.
>>
>> The original proposal from Clayton was for an electronic only ballot.
>> Patrick said that the bylaws were a bit clunky here and it did need to be
>> mailed out on paper. Paper was required.
>>
>> This is a big reason why I made a motion at our one  board meeting, in
>> March, for a bylaws committee.
>>
>> This bylaw isn't hard to fix. There's lots of examples out there of
>> organizations doing electronic voting with working published bylaws.
>>
>> Bruce made it very clear, when the incumbents stirred up the pot about the
>> return address, that it was an endorsement from him, this was commonly
>> done
>> in political campaigns, and it would be grossly improper for me to use
>> AMSATs return address because that would make it look like Bruce was
>> speaking for or was from AMSAT. That was not going to happen. *That* would
>> be improper.
>>
>> No one candidate wanted their personal address used as a return address.
>> We
>> were mailing this as a slate and splitting the cost. We didn't have time
>> or
>> funds to make an organization or rent a box for one letter on short
>> notice.
>> The printer required a real return address.
>>
>> No one had the address list except the candidates. Namely me because I
>> contracted the printer and handled the DBASE4 address conversion. That is
>> a
>> neat story in and of itself,, for another time.
>>
>> Bruce only sent the text to me and chipped in some money for postage.
>>
>> The printing was automated in Van Nuys, CA.
>>
>> All of this is known to Clayton Coleman and his friends on the board that
>> signed the statement from this week. It has been explained by Bruce
>> publicly, and by me several times on social media. Tom Clark brought it up
>> at the 2019 annual board meeting because of the return address
>> pot-stirring. I explained it there too. Like I said, it's on the record.
>>
>> I think insinuating the addresses were mishandled is a deliberate twisting
>> of honest efforts to scramble to get uncensored candidate statements out
>> to
>> voters on short notice. We just didn't have a lot of time, and Bruce was
>> very generous in writing a cover letter.
>>
>> Again, candidates are allowed the use of the mailing lists for election
>> purposes.
>>
>> So, no, there was no breach. Clayton knows all this.
>>
>> Saying it the way he did is a cheap shot at me, Patrick, Bruce Perens, and
>> ORI.
>>
>>  -Michelle W5NYV
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 19:11 Kevin via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >   Hello All,
>> >
>> >    In a previous email to the BB I posted the link to the letter we all
>> > received as members.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200710_AMSAT_Leadership_Explains_Legal_Expenses.pdf
>> >
>> > I was re-reading it and something caught my eye that I had missed
>> before.
>> >
>> > "AMSAT did not provide a copy of its membership mailing addresses to
>> > Open Research Institute."
>> >
>> >     Just how was our mailing list compromised? This seems like a serious
>> > breech of security, was this a hack? was any other information lost?
>> > was it ever found out how it happened? is our mailing list as they say
>> > "out in the wind"?
>> >
>> > Michelle could you possibly check from the ORI side and backtrack how
>> > ORI came into possession of the AMSAT mailing list, was it something
>> > that was procured online?
>> >
>> > AMSAT needs to follow up on this privacy issue and report back what it
>> > found and any steps that were taken to prevent this from happening in
>> > the future.
>> >
>> >
>> > I look forward to an answer
>> >
>> > 73 Kevin WA7FWF #19623
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > 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.
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>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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
>>
>