The ARRL’s 2018 annual report has recently been published, and, of course, I have a few comments on it:
- In his message from the president, Rick Roderick, K5UR, describes what he calls a “new generation” of hams and contrasts them to “classic hams.” I don’t think in those terms, and I think it’s a mistake to do so. Plenty of “veteran hams” are using amateur radio to “aid their communities, and for enhancing the fun they’re already having while camping, hiking, or doing other outdoor activities.”
- The CEO’s report is much more on point. Instead of separating us into “new hams” and “classic hams,” Howard Michel, WB2ITX, says, “Everyone’s pursuit of Amateur Radio falls somewhere along the spectrum between developing new technology and using existing technology to communicate, and along the spectrum between Amateur Radio as a hobby and Amateur Radio as a service.” That’s a much more realistic way to view the amateur radio population. He goes on to say, “ARRL needs to develop products and services for all these segments. One size no longer fits all. Today we can customize our engagement with members, and members expect this.”
- The Year in Review section as usual emphasized emergency communications. It does note, however, that the number of ARES members is down, the number of volunteer hours is down, and the total volunteer value is down.
- The Year in Review section also talks about the proposal for expanded Technician class privileges and the new Lifelong Learning program. I’ve already commented on the Tech proposal, so I won’t go into it here. I’ve also commented on the Lifelong Learning program. It’s been talked about for so long now, that you’d think there would be more concrete information available. Instead, all we’re getting is a vague description of what it will do.
- Membership continues to fall. The number of ARRL members at the end of 2018 was 156,899. In a separate item, it was noted that the number of licenses has grown to 755,430, meaning that the percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are ARRL members has fallen to less than 21%. The report touts these figures as “beating the forecast,” but gives no indication of when membership is expected to rise. I still say that the ARRL should set a membership goal of 25% and start working towards it.
- I’m certainly not a financial genius, but the ARRL seems to be in good financial shape. That’s good news, but I can only imagine how much better off we’d be if we had more members.
Overall, it’s a good report. I’m optimistic about the League, even though membership is still dropping. If I was CEO, that would be my biggest concern. The Leagues seems to be hoping that the new Tech privileges and the Lifelong Learning program will boost membership. I’m doubtful that the rules changes will do much in this respect, but the Lifelong Learning program could help. They just need to get it going quicker.
I agree with your thoughts on declining membership and setting a goal of 25%. So, I’m not really adding much to the conversation here. I would simply add that I’d like to see Howard Michel make that one of his top three objectives, articulate a plan to achieve it over a particular timeframe, and then report on its progress annually. I don’t know what a realistic timeframe is, but I would think two or three years, but not beyond three years. At today’s number of license holders, that would mean adding about 32,000 members over the next two or three years. Howard talks about adding value and developing products and services. He likely has a membership goal in mind, but I’d like to see the board put a numerical target on him and report against it.
The Boy Scouts of America is another organization with declining membership. Nearly all organizations have this challenge, churches, Rotary, whatever. It is worth a quick look at the BSA’s 2011-2015 strategic objectives. There are five. All of them target membership growth or impact on youth.
http://marketing.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Final_Strategic_Plan.pdf
ARRL declining membership, I am a 72 year old ARRL dropout. The small type everyday problem with the ARRL is it sells books and sells access to QST. The computer world has Linux, Wikipedia and the WWW.
To talk about the big problem with the ARRL, we should remember with respect that the concept of Amateur Radio was hammered out after World War I. The deal is the Federal government owns all the domestic airwaves and the amateur radio community is allowed access to a few slivers and it is allowed to transmit on those slivers only between licensed amateurs. The ARRL agrees with this limitation on amateur permissions. I would like to see ARRL support amateur licensed local cell service and local wireless networks with without amateur to amateur restriction of connection privileges. ARRL should help the creation of radio communications much better than this commercial cell phone activity where people are having their attention sold to advertisers, and the wireless bandwidth is a thoughtlessly wasted resource.
I’m not licensed anymore I don’t know but even though I’m mentally ill, this is spot on. Thanks
I was a member of the League back when QST was more than 90 pages of advertisements, product reviews, and feature stories of well-healed amateurs with megabucks contest statrions, but instead had ‘dig your teeth into’ tech articles (which gave me a good background when it was time to sit for my 1st Phone while in college) and stories that made you think ‘hey, maybe *I* can build that’.
Add to that it actually *seemed* to be directed to preserving the amateur spirit, not just parody what the big 3 were saying was the future.
They’re still selling books about Echolink and IRLP. That technology is over 15 years old and is WAY outdated (both in terms of technical merit AND voice quality) being supplanted by (and you can argue whether it’s Real Amateur Radio) grass-roots efforts such as Allstar, Brandmeister, YSF, P25 migration into ham radio, hotspots, reflectors, cross-band reflectors…not to mention the influx of the SBC controllers into every phase of the hobby.
ARRL needs to either shake off its reliance of ‘this is what we’ve always done’; that it counts as members 21% of the ham license population is an indication that its relevance to the hobby is just as small as its percentage.
Just my $.01.
The Arrl has become a Publishing Firm .So many Books and guides very pricey , With shipping, the cost is more than I want to spend , as I’m retired . I have been a Ham almost 50 years and a Arrl Life Member most of that , I always take my read QST, issues to my local Barber Shop , hoping a perspective Ham may Pick it up.
We must work to increase our numbers .