OK, I am prepared to give the latest of the subject.

I have sent a letter (copy below) to Bill Izabal, head of the People Organization, and copies to Paster and Medlin. He quickly replied with a very positive note about taking the comments forward, that there is no current buyer, and that he will issue updates and will accept comments/suggestions at anytime.

To bring everyone up to speed: A letter dated January 31 from Bob Paster noted the agreement of the company and the Rec Center Board of Directors to sell the property. It is planned that some of the money will be used to build a new center (with tennis, basketball, volleyball, jogging) on the existing company property and that it was planned to not close the old until the new is built. The lack of mention of the clubs in the letter concerned me greatly along with the prospects of losing what we have built up over the years.

Joe Selikov is working the company emergency capability and where the rec center fits in to that in addition to the AVERT activities.

At this time I am going to ask the following of all of our members:

- Keep the positive attitude about the club and keep talking up the need of the club(s). We have members everywhere in the company along with the retirees, and positive word of mouth can do wonders.

- We have still been undecided about where and with whom to do Field Day this year. But with this, I think we need to set up at the rec center and get as much company support we can (such as cranes, generators, etc., the commercial locations get these). Also generate Boeing News type articles and pictures of our activity. Please keep Field Day open with the Autonetics Radio Club.

- I may ask for additional help and I hope many of you will respond.

I have tried to keep this to facts, ignoring what may or may not be rumors. Thank you.

Dan Violette, KI6X

******

Bill,

I did not see any mention of the recreation center clubs or of a meeting room in Mr. Paster's letter. I am President of the Radio Club and have discussed with various persons a few times over the years about the moving of the club in case the land is sold. The last time (2 or 3 years ago) was with a Facilities person that requested information and a tour of the existing facility. I left that meeting with a good feeling that the clubs would not be forgotten in case of sale. I expect that there has been consideration in the current decision in regard to the Radio Club and the other clubs that have a significant presence at the current facility. Lots of time, effort, and with the cutbacks the last few years, personal finances have been invested in the existing clubs that use the facility. In addition, many employees and retirees consider relaxation as part of physical fitness, not just physical exercise. It is a pleasure to get away to the club facilities during lunch and off-hours.

Here is a brief description of the "Autonetics Radio Club". Our membership at this time is right around 90 members. The club is licensed by the FCC and maintains a nice capability for worldwide communications. The club also supports a "repeater" that is used to extend local communication for mobile or hand held equipment. The club equipment and members are instrumental in communication assistance for the company and the city in case of emergency or disaster. We maintain a team called the Autonetics Volunteer Emergency Response Team (AVERT), which has been authorized by Industrial Security to assist in evacuations, hazardous spills, and other events that may need communication assistance. The AVERT Team provided full communications in the latest evacuation drill and the members received PRIDE awards. Our club station has been used in drills linking with out-of-state facilities to be used in case of a localized emergency and interstate contact is needed. This would be needed if we had, say a major earthquake, and phone lines out of the area were down, we could pass information via radio out of state.

Our club also is licensed and supported by the Air Force as a Military Affiliate Radio Service (MARS) Station. The MARS station is set-up to handle phone calls from servicemen oversees to their families, mainly from Guam, Korea and other Pacific areas. Since the time our club's MARS station was first set-up during the Vietnam War, they have COMPLETED nearly 515,000 phone patches in the 25 or so years. The boxes of thank you notes and plaques attest to the service and goodwill that has been generated for the club and the company. In addition, we can be called upon by FEMA to support a disaster situation.

Many other features of the Radio Club exist. We help other radio amateurs by sorting cards that are sent in bulk by foreign operators, repair equipment for ourselves and the club (and the recreation center), and have a very extensive reference library. Since our club has many retirees as members, access via the recreation center works out nicely for the clubroom access and for monthly meetings.

I am willing to discuss any issues, ideas or questions you may have. The Autonetics Radio Club and MARS station is well known around the company (local and distant) and worldwide for all that it is and has done.

Dan Violette

President, Autonetics Radio Club

Chief of MARS Station

phone: 762-2958

Other Key Members (in addition to the regular Officers):

Joe Selikov, AVERT Leader

Don Cowher, Repeater Coordinator

Art Goddard, Vice-Director Southwest Division ARRL (The National Organization)