SB SAT @ AMSAT  $ANS-295.01
AMSAT-NA BOARD MEETS

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 295.01 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, OCTOBER 22,1997
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-295.01

AMSAT-NA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETS--ELECTS OFFICERS

During the recently completed 1997 AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting and
Space Symposium, held this year at the Airport Delta Hotel in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors also
met to elect officers for 1998 as well as to discuss and resolve
a wide range of issues currently facing the Corporation.

Newly elected BOD Members Joe Holman, AD7D, and Stan Wood,
WA4NFY joined their current Board counterparts Dr. Tom Clark,
W3IWI; Bill Tynan, W3XO; Dick Daniels, W4PUJ;  Andy MacAllister,
W5ACM; and Keith Baker, KB1SF during the meetings held on
October 19th and 20th.  The first order of business after the
meeting opened was to elect AMSAT-NA Officers for the coming
year.  The results of those elections were as follows:

President:     Bill Tynan, W3XO
Executive Vice President:     Keith Baker, KB1SF
Vice President, Operations:     Keith Pugh, W5IU
Vice President, Engineering:     Stan Wood, WA4NFY
Secretary:      Martha Saragovitz

Thus, Stan Wood will now succeed Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, as
AMSAT-NA Vice President, Engineering.  Dick had previously
informed the board of his plans to step down from that position.
However, Dick also indicated his strong desire (and the Board
gratefully accepted) his generous offer to complete all those
engineering tasks still remaining "on his plate" up through
and including the launch of Phase 3-D.

In addition, the Board named Perry Klein, W3PK, to the
honorable position of "Founding President Emeritus" during
the recent proceedings.  Thus, Perry now joins Dr. Tom Clark
as an AMSAT-NA President Emeritus.

Among the more important issues that were brought before the
Board included a complete rundown of the status of the Phase 3-D
spacecraft as presented by Lou McFadin, W5DID, the Phase 3-D
Integration Laboratory Manager, and Stan Wood, newly elected VP
Engineering.  Significant progress has been made on upgrading
the spacecraft structure since last Summer, and those structural
modifications are now nearing completion.  A module-by-module
status review of each spacecraft system was also offered, and,
while some work on a number of different systems remains, the
spacecraft is becoming "flight ready".

The BOD also agreed (in cooperation with the Tucson Amateur
Packet Radio (TAPR) organization) to help an ongoing effort
aimed at minimizing the impact of moving a large number of
current Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) users off of
145.79 MHz.  The Board agreed to donate up to $500 to a fund to
help defray needed expenses of various fixed frequency APRS node
operators in finding another "home" for their APRS operations
in the USA.  If the shift to another frequency eventually proves
acceptable to the APRS community, it would help resolve one of
the last remaining issues in clearing 145.80 MHz for worldwide
use by MIR, SAREX and ISS.

Acting in his role as President, Bill Tynan re-appointed the
remainder of AMSAT-NA's current Officers.  In a related action,
he also welcomed former ARRL New England Director Bill Burden,
WB1BRE, who will now serve as AMSAT-NA's Vice President for
Strategic Planning.  Bill brings a wealth of experience in
both engineering project management as well as in planning
corporate strategic initiatives to the AMSAT team.  His skill
and experience will prove invaluable as AMSAT contemplates
future projects beyond Phase 3-D.

Lastly, the BOD selected a team headed by Russ Tillman,
KC5JVB (AMSAT's Journal Editor) to host next year's AMSAT Annual
Meeting and Space Symposium at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  As yet,
no firm date for the meeting has been set.

A complete text of the recently completed BOD Meeting's Minutes
will appear in an upcoming edition of the AMSAT Journal.

[ANS thanks Keith Baker, KB1SF, for the information that went 
into this bulletin item.]

/EX