[44net] Say hello to Rosy Wolfe, ARDC's new Executive Director

Hello 44net, I'd like to announce that ARDC now has an Executive Director: Rosy Wolfe. She becomes ARDC's second paid employee. We initially looked for people near San Diego where fellow board member KC Claffy and I reside. Rosy, who lives in Portland, OR, came highly recommended by Board Member John Gilmore, and we discovered his instincts were good. She has hit the ground running, providing not just considerable help and support to the Board and Grant Advisory committees, but also some very useful insights from her own experiences as we figure out how to attract a new and more diverse generation not just to ham radio, but to (digital) communications and to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields more broadly. This bears some emphasis: we see ARDC as not being just about ham radio, or even just about ham radio and the Internet. Ham radio is fun, but it's also a powerful tool for public service and above all, education. And we define "education" very broadly. It goes far beyond formal classroom instruction to group projects to the kind of self-motivated, individual hands-on tinkering and learning-by-doing that is the essence of ham radio. We want to bring that to as many people as possible. We know this isn't going to be easy, so we're going to need a lot of new ideas to fund. We expect many will fail, but that's OK as long as a few really succeed. Rosy definitely understands what we're trying to do. After getting her MS in Digital Media in 2011 at Georgia Tech, Rosy worked at the intersection of technology, activism, art, and design for nearly a decade. In that time (and under her birth name, Beth Schechter), she co-founded and ran an international open source map making community and worked with John Gilmore at an organization supporting open scientific data exchange in cannabis research. Through this work, Rosy has written curricula on basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and open source map making, drafted diagrams and educational content on design, science and regulations, the patent system, and more. She has also managed many projects, from data visualizations to installations at Burning Man. She doesn't have her ham license yet, but hey, nobody's perfect... Nevertheless, we are happy to have Rosy's experience in nonprofit administration, project management, and technical education as we move from being a small charity to a large grant-making foundation. Her email address is rosy(a)ampr.org Please join us in welcoming Rosy! And I'll let her introduce herself. 73, Phil Hello 44net! And many thanks to Phil for the kind introduction. I'm thrilled to be here and to finally e-meet all of you. I'm also incredibly excited to be working with ARDC - the organization has an opportunity to do tremendous good in the world, and it's an honor to be selected to help shepherd the process. In addition to supporting grant making for the many innovative initiatives listed on our Grant making Goals page, I'm particularly excited to support emergency communications preparedness, remote deployments, STEM, and generally expanding the demographics of amateur radio and digital communications. Speaking of communications, a key part of my role is to help increase communication and transparency between the Board and this list. To that end, and particularly as we get into administrative flow, please expect updates and reports from me. On the flip side, if you have any questions that I can answer, please don't hesitate to reach out, either on this list or by email: rosy(a)ampr.org. Like Phil mentioned, I don't have my ham license yet, but I'm happy to report that I'm studying for it. In addition to learning more about the radio spectrum, antennae, and repeaters in the coming months, I'm also looking forward to learning about this international community and the many people who are a part of it. If there are community resources or organizations you think I need to know about, I invite you to share them with me. In the meantime, thank you, again, for the warm welcome. Here's to the future of amateur radio and digital communications. Sincerely, Rosy