NW Division Bulletin Insurance Vanity Fees Change !!

[K7MT]

ARRL to Change Administrator for Insurance Plans:

Effective May 26, 2015, the ARRL will be changing the program administrator for its sponsored Equipment and Club Liability insurance plans. Beginning on that date, all program administration including policy application, issuance and claims administration will be handled by Risk Strategies, a privately held, national insurance brokerage firm. The ARRL programs will be administered from their offices in Chicago, Illinois.
This move is being made based on the results of numerous comments from the ARRL membership relative to the former administrator, Hays Affinity Group which is based out of Minneapolis, MN.

The transaction, unlike previous changes, will involve a transfer of the total program business from Hays Affinity to Risk Strategies.
Participants in the programs will retain their current insurance policies and the details of the coverage and the cost of coverage will remain unchanged, as will the insurance company, Hanover Insurance Company. An e-mail will be sent to all the current participants in the programs describing the changes and what, if anything, they need to do to access their on-line information .
The web address for the programs will be the same, www.arrlinsurance.com, but will take on a new look with improved functionality. The 800 numbers will also remain unchanged for contacting the new administrator. There will be a short delay in bringing up the new site once the programs have been transferred and we appreciate your patience while Risk Strategies makes the programs operational.

As a leading U.S. insurance broker, Risk Strategies offers sophisticated risk management advice and insurance placement for property & casualty and employee benefits risks. Risk Strategies serves middle market commercial companies, non-profits, public entities, and individuals, and has access to all major insurance markets. Ranked in the top 30 insurance brokers in the country, the company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

FCC to Eliminate fees for Vanity Callsigns:

The FCC is eliminating the regulatory fee to apply for an Amateur Radio vanity call sign. The change will not go into effect, however, until required congressional notice has been given. This will take at least 90 days. As the Commission explained in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Report and Order, and Order (MD Docket 14-92 and others), released May 21, it’s a matter of simple economics.

“The Commission spends more resources on processing the regulatory fees and issuing refunds than the amount of the regulatory fee payment,” the FCC said. “As our costs now exceed the regulatory fee, we are eliminating this regulatory fee category.” The current vanity call sign regulatory fee is $21.40, the highest in several years. The FCC reported there were 11,500 “payment units” in FY
2014 and estimated that it would collect nearly $246,100.

For more information go to:
http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-eliminates ... latory-fee

HB 1301:

If you are going to the SeaPac Convention on June 5, 6 & 7, don’t forget to stop by the ARRL booth and sign a letter to your Congressman/woman, asking them to co-sponsor this Bill that would direct the FCC to extend the reach of PRB-1, to allow for ‘reasonable’ accommodations for Radio Amateur antennas in HOA and CC&R restricted areas.

73 and Good Hamming

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ARRL Northwestern Division
Director: James D Pace, K7CEX
k7cex@arrl.org
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