My new gig…..and an invitation

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is the nonprofit corporation that administers the 44.*.*.* IP address space, and that, two years ago, sold a quarter of that address space for a lot of money. There was some controversy about the sale at the time, as it wasn’t clear how that money was going to be used.

Well, now I’m happy to say that ARDC has formed a foundation and geared up their grant-making machine, and have started making some very cool grants with that money. I won’t go into those here, but I will say that I’m now happy to be working for ARDC, and it’s my job to help them tell everyone about the cool things we’re doing and how to get in on the action. I am employee #3.

My title is Content Manager and my job is to:

• Help develop ARDC’s communications strategy.
• Create digital content, such as newsletters, blog posts, presentations, and other public relations stuff.
• Develop documentation for ARDC tools, including the grants management system and the 44net Portal.
• Represent ARDC at hamfests, such as the Huntsville Hamfest (ARDC will have a booth there this year), Orlando Hamcation, and, of course, the Dayton Hamvention.

As you can see, this is a pretty awesome job, even moreso because ARDC is a pretty awesome organization. In the first half of this year, we’ve awarded more than $3 million, and our goal for the year is $6 million. These grants are really going to change the face of amateur radio.

An invitation

One of the ways that ARDC spreads the word about the cool things we’re doing is by holding “community meetings.” These meetings give us the chance to talk about the grants that we’ve already made, and to encourage those interested in applying for grants to do so.

This is your invitation to attend the next community meeting, which will take place on Saturday, 24 July 2021 at 1700 UTC (10am PT / 1pm ET / 7pm CET). In this meeting, we’ll cover:

• Grants made to date in 2021, including our first grant made outside the U.S. to DARC,
• Introductions of two new staff members:
  • Grants Manager – Chelsea Parraga, KF0FVJ
  • Content Manager – Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
• Questions from our attendees.

The meeting will take place on Zoom, and you’re invited. For Zoom info, go to https://www.ampr.org/community-meeting-saturday-july-24-2021/.

I also want to invite you to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, which I’m feverishly in the process of putting together, and to follow us on Twitter. I really want to make sure that you know about ARDC and all the great things we’re doing.