statement of Maricopa Volunteer Examiner Team / MVET. K7MAZ
Mission Statement Of Maricopa Volunteer Examiner Team / MVET.
the club call sign as granted by the FCC is K7MAZ. Club license trustee is Steve Miller, W6SDM
We charge no membership fees or have any dues for membership in MVET. We do not charge any fee for testing applicants. You do not have to be a member of any amateur radio club to join MVET, but it would be appreciated if you were to join the amateur radio club of your choice.
Volunteer Examiners (VEs) are licensed radio amateurs holding a General Class license or higher who offer their time to administer the FCC licensing tests.
A brief history of the VEC program:
Prior to 1984, all Amateur radio licensing examinations were administered directly or indirectly by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) acting under the regulations set out in the Communications Act of 1934, which governed all aspects of radio communications in the United States of America. Amateur Radio exams were available only at one of the 23 FCC district offices scattered around the country, although in some circumstances (primarily when the applicant resided at least 125 miles away from one of the 23 district offices) examinations for the first 3 levels of license (Novice, Technician, and General) were available by mail. The General class license, if issued as a result of a mail examination, was known as the "Conditional" class. Even with the situation where exams could be taken by mail, the actual grading of the exams was still performed by FCC personnel, at one of the district offices.
The volunteer examiner program came into being as a result of several factors. Primarily due to budget cutbacks, the federal government decided to remove itself from the administration of most categories of radio license examinations. On September 13, 1982, public law 97-259 was enacted which amended the Communications Act of 1934 to permit the FCC to accept the services of private individuals and organizations acting to prepare and administer examinations for applicants wishing to obtain (or upgrade) an Amateur Radio license. Approximately one month after this legislation became law, the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) filed a petition requesting that only non-profit educational organizations be allowed to participate in the program.
A series of intermediate steps followed, which were concerned with how the examinations were to be developed, who would prepare the questions to be used, how the country would be divided into different regions so that paperwork could be routed more efficiently, and so on. One of the questions that arose was the one of how to handle the expenses involved in preparing, distributing, and administering the various exams. Another was who would certify the necessary volunteer examiners.
Once these and other procedural questions were resolved, a two-tier arrangement was implemented. a relatively small number of VECs (Volunteer Examiner Coordinators) would be chosen, and each of these would interface between the FCC and individual examiners, who became known as VEs (Volunteer Examiners). Thus, the FCC only needed to deal with a few separate organizations, rather than hundreds (or thousands) of individual examiners. At this time, there are 14 active volunteer examiner coordinators (VECs) in the United States.
The VECs coordinate their activities via membership in the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) which meets from time to time to decide issues of importance to volunteer examiners nationwide. The Laurel VEC is a member in good standing of NCVEC.
The NEVEC mission statement:
In accordance with the laws and agreements that set up the VEC system, the VECs have been tasked with certain requirements. They are:
(1) To recruit, train and accredit a corps of VEs (Volunteer Examiners)
(2) To coordinate examination sessions as needed with accredited VEs.
(3) To inform VEs of additions, changes, and deletions to the VE program rules.
(4) To provide a source of license testing materials (exams) for all VEs accredited by their own group.
(5) To provide a source of requisite forms required to correctly document the entire examination process.
(6) To collect and archive successful applications, including all related documentation
(7) To prepare and maintain records of each testing session, including passes, failures, etc.
(8) To screen, approve, and forward successful applications to the FCC for further processing and issuance of licenses.
(9) To resolve errors or defects in applications or documentation before the information is forwarded to the FCC.
(10) To monitor the activities in all testing sessions, including having the authority to invalidate a testing session and decertify VEs should the need arise.
(11) To assist in the development and/or revision of a common pool of test questions.
(12) To evaluate test questions for clarity, accuracy, and completeness, and forward the results of their evaluations and their recommendations for any changes to the VEC question pool committee.
Maricopa Volunteer Examiner Team statement:
Every VEC group has somewhat different policies, depending on it's needs and philosophies. The following is a short summary of our program:
We employ a team concept. Any group of 3 or more MVET certified VEs who give an exam are considered a team. One of these persons will be designated the "lead" or "contact" VE, who will be responsible for obtaining and returning exam materials and who is also responsible for insuring that all of the testing materials remain confidential before, during and after the exam session. The contact VE assumes the primary responsibility for the correct handling of the exam, including making sure all the documentation is prepared properly and making sure none of the examinees is allowed to give/receive unfair advantage to/from another individual.
Applicants who fail an exam are permitted to retake the exam immediately, if a different exam than the one they just failed is available, and in the opinion of the VE team, retesting would be appropriate. The decision of the VE team is final. Immediate retesting is usually considered if the examinee has failed by only a small percentage.
Code testing: Code tests are no longer required for any class of amateur radio license. However, being able to communicate using Morse Code is a valuable skill and remains very popular with amateur radio operators world-wide.
To be a VE under our program, simply click here.
