The ARRL recently published the minutes of the January 2017 Board meeting. As always, there were items of interest:
- “11. Mr. Shelley presented the report of the Chief Financial Officer. The ARRL’s balance sheet is strong. While advertising revenues are down, but the cash flow continues to be good. A break even budget does not leave room for significant organizational growth.”
- “13. The Board moved to consider items lifted from the Consent Agenda. Ms. Petrilli presented the report of the Membership Department. The report presented a detailed analysis of data affecting membership recruitment and retention from the recent READEX survey.”
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any information about what was acutally in the Membership Department report. I’ve asked my division director if I could get a copy of it.
I think these two items are related. The more members that the ARRL can recruit, the better our financial condition will be. As I’ve said before, I don’t think that the ARRL spends enough time finding out what non-members want and figuring out what it would take to get them to join.
- 17. Mr. Roderick presented the report of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee has proposed a Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the Board of Directors and Vice-Directors. After discussion, Mr. Bellows moved, seconded by Mr. Carlson, that the Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of Board of Directors and Vice-Directors be adopted. After discussion, Mr. Pace moved to call the question, seconded by Mr. Lisenco. The motion to call the question passed by a vote of 10 AYE and 5 NAY. A roll call vote on the motion was request by Mr. Norris. The motion was ADOPTED by a vote of 12 to 3 with Mr. Carlson, Mr. Olson, Mr. Norris, Mr. Williams, Mr. Lisenco, Mr. Blocksome, Mr. Frenaye, Mr. Pace, Mr. Vallio, Dr. Boehner, Mr. Allen and Mr. Sarratt voting AYE and Mr. Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Norton and Dr. Woolweaver voting NAY.
I found this item interesting because on the voice vote there were ten ayes and five nays, but when a roll call vote was taken that changed to 12-3 in favor.
- 22. Mr. Frenaye presented the report of the Entry Level Licensing Committee and entertained questions. It has been over ten years since the ARRL asked the FCC to consider a proposal for restructuring licensing requirements and creating a more appropriate entry-level license. After a comprehensive study, the committee is still discussing possible recommendations to bring forward to the Board for consideration.
I’ve asked for a copy of this report, and I’ll certainly be reporting more on this in the future. In the meantime, see my two latest blog posts on this topic: New “Novice” license being considered and Why are there so many Techs?
- 28. I’ve decided not to include the entire text of this item because it’s quite long. Basically, what the board decided to do is to eliminate the positions of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Development Officer, and Chief Technology Officer, and re-structure the duties of the Chief Financial Officer. I suppose that I can see the elimination of the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Development Officer, but I’m not so sure of the rationale behind elimination of the Chief Technical Officer position. It seems like now, more than ever, we’d want someone to “advise the Chief Executive Officer and the Board on matters relating to the encouragement and use of new technologies in the amateur services,” as the old bylaws defined the position.
- 39. A number of committee assignments were made for the following committees:
- Administration and Finance
- Programs and Services
- Amateur Radio Direction Finding
- Electromagnetic Compatibility
- Ethics and Elections
- HF Band Planning
- Historical Committee
- Legal Defense and Assistance
- Legislative Advocacy Committee
- Logbook of the World Study Committee
- Public Relations
- RF Safety
- Entry Level License Committee
If you have any interest in any of these topics, I’d encourage you to read the minutes and contact the chair to see if you can be of any help to the committee.
If you do decide to read all 27 pages of the minutes, let me know if there’s anything else in there that I should have included in this blog post.
Frank Howell says
Why are all of these paid-for READEX surveys kept secret? I’ve been told by the previous COO that they’re “proprietary” but paid for by ARRL funds. Why can’t their results be released to League membership?
73,
Frank
K4FMH
Dan KB6NU says
The old ARRL regime played everything close to the vest. I’m hoping that the new management won’t be so secretive and that they’ll involve us
peons, errrr paying members, in more of what goes on. That’s really the only way the ARRL is going to prevent its slide into irrelevance. In any case, I’m not going to let our division director, who I know fairly well, off the hook on this one.JD Schultz W8JIMP says
I was first licensed as WN8FKZ in 1962 and for one year worked 40M as guest op at WN/A8DXC (my buddy Cliff) and Field Day with the Cooley HS ARC, K8HLR/8 Rouge Park, Detroit. The next 40 years, Navy service, college, nursing school, raising a child and other pursuits took precedence to radio, even though I never lost interest in SWL activities and was KQS8947/6 (the “Bombardier” mobile ONLY) on Ch.19 , which I still monitor whenever I am long haul traveling. I again obtained a Novice ticket in 1984, joined ARRL, QCWA es FISTS, checked into the Mich Traffic Net & daily rag chewed on 80 es 40M, in 36 states.
I was quite happy HFCW ragchewing and would have remained a Novice until I witnessed the aftermath of a tornado (nearly unheard of in the city) in Highland Park (a city like Hamtramck, totally surrounded by Detroit). When I saw a city block, completely leveled, with dazed residents milling through the wreckage, smoking amidst the odor of gas, it occurred to me that 2M privileges would provide a useful adjumt to public service communication before cell phone proliferation, so I upgraded to General. The written exam was quite different than the General exam that I took back in the day. Rather than asking about technical aspects of radio (HB, station construction and operation) it was mostly memorizing frequencies and modes, most of which I never intended to use. The 20 WPM CW test was extremely easy, since I had 821 QSOs (all logged, but not counting SSs and FDs) over the past 2 years.
As soon as I had privileges I thought I would give SSB a try, and made a few contacts, but after I head a few political and dirty jokes on the late night potty mouth net on 75, I put the mic back in the closet. I realized where the nasty ratchet jaws from Ch.19 had gone. After 6 yrs. of my “2nd ham career”, I fell on economic hard times, so I could no longer pay dues. When the ARRL championed membership, lowered the licensing requirements, so much emphasis on the competition of DX, contesting & QSLs, expanding the SSB access (at the expense of CW bands) I was given excuse to relinquish my membership.
Since 1962 (when I was first licensed) to the present day, the ARRL has done a decent job of taking responsibility for testing and defending ham frequencies from assault by
government and big business. Rather than gagging board members, they should be publishing their minutes AND buttressing net neutrality against the new FCC Chairman who has vowed to eliminate high speed access to all but wealthy corporate donors. If the ARRL board cannot equitably represent their dues-paying members without doing so behind closed doors, I will never again consider being among those members.
What I think about the power-play assaults on radio and internet access, I have to ask myself, “What would Hiram Percy Maxim do?”
73, JD Schultz, W8IMP
Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA