As reported in the ARRL Letter yesterday, the ARRL Board met on July 17-18 in Windsor, Connecticut. They had quite a full agenda, including:
- ARRL HF Band Plan
The Board adopted amendments to the ARRL HF Band Plan that were recommended by the HF Band Planning Committee, with one major change from the proposals as outlined in the April 2015 issue of QST and summarized on the ARRL website. That change was to set the upper RTTY/data limit for 20 meters at 14.125 MHz, consistent with the IARU Region 1 band plan.I’d love to hear comments from anyone who knows more about this than I do….Dan
- Rule Making Petition to FCC
The Board authorized the preparation of a rule making petition to the FCC, seeking changes in the 80 and 75 meter bands that are consistent with majority opinion among more than 1000 responses to an online membership survey. The petition would seek to shift the boundary between the 80 meter RTTY/data subband and the 75 meter phone/image subband from 3600 to 3650 kHz. It also would restore privileges in the 3600-3650 kHz segment to Advanced, General, Technician, and Novice licensees.In addition, the League will ask the FCC to shift the automatically controlled digital station (ACDS) band segment from 3585-3600 kHz to 3600-3615 kHz, consistent with the IARU Region 1 and Region 2 band plans, and authorize Technician and Novice licensees to use RTTY/data emissions in their 15 and 80 meter band segments, the latter change contingent on expansion of the 80 meter band.
I don’t operate 80m much, but I never did like the latest rule changes to the 80m frequency allocations. I’m glad that the ARRL realized that the previous rule change was a mistake…Dan
- CEO Successor Search
Additional details are forthcoming, but the Board set into motion its search for a successor to ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, who has set a target retirement date of May 1, 2016. By then, Sumner will be 67 and will have been on the Headquarters full-time staff for 44 years. He was named Secretary and General Manager in 1982, with a change in title to Executive Vice President in 1985, and the additional title of Chief Executive Officer in 2001 (the title of Executive Vice President was phased out in 2011).It will be interesting to see how the ARRL changes once K1ZZ has retired….Dan
- Dues to Rise in 2016
The Board approved a $10 increase in the League’s annual dues rate, effective January 1, 2016. In so doing, the Board adopted a recommendation of the Administration & Finance Committee. ARRL basic dues have been held at $39 a year since 2001. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, said the League has done as much as it can to hold off a dues increase for more than a decade, but now it’s a necessity, not an option.Enhanced membership services since 2001 include inauguration of Logbook of The World® (LoTW); a digital edition of QST at no additional cost; expanded QST and video product reviews; upgraded public service support including the Ham Aid program, Emergency Communications Training, and the ARES® E-Letter; the Education & Technology program and Teachers Institutes on Wireless Technology, and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. Sumner aid that advocacy on behalf of Amateur Radio has included relentless defense of Amateur Radio spectrum, the Amateur Radio Parity Act, and an increased awareness of the value of Amateur Radio on Capitol Hill.
Details of ARRL’s revenues and expenditures are available in its Annual Report archive for the years 2002 to 2014. The cost of a basic ARRL membership will rise to $49 on January 1, 2016. An ARRL Life Membership, now $975, will increase to $1225.
The dues increase was inevitable, I guess, but I still think the ARRL should do more to increase the percentage of licensed radio amateurs that are ARRL members…..Dan
- Strategic Plan
The Board approved preliminary recommendations of the ARRL Strategic Planning Working Group and authorized the continuation of the group’s activities with final recommendations due at the Board’s 2016 Annual Meeting.What little information there is on this strategic plan can be found at http://www.arrl.org/strategic-planning-2015. I’ve requested that they post this report to this page. I plan to keep an eye on this, and would love to hear your comments….Dan
Dave, N8SBE says
The dues increase was way overdue, since they ended up having to increase them a whopping 25%. That’s a big jump, and could have been prevented if they hadn’t sat on their hands for so long. This kind of jump is liable to result in loss of membership. It would have been far better to increase the dues a few percent per year (3% or less), rather than all at once.
Organizations make this mistake all the time with their dues structure.
Marketers know this basic principle, and know that raising prices in large jumps will kill sales and lose customers.
I delayed getting a life membership because it was so pricey. Of course, I’m glad I did proceed last year before the price jump.
I wish ARRL had a life option for QEX, though. I’ll still have to pay yearly for that in retirement even though I’ll be through with QST payments.
My aim is to have life memberships in the organizations I wish to be active in in my upcoming retirement years, to help with budgeting on a limited income.
Dan KB6NU says
I agree about the big jump in dues. They would have been much better off in terms of customer satisfaction if they would have raised the dues $5 five years ago and then another $5 this year. Maybe that’s the real problem here. The ARRL doesn’t think in terms of satisfying customers.