The meeting minutes for the March 25, 2017 meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors Executive Committee were just published. Two items caught my eye:
In the CEO report, there was this little gem:
The membership working group (that presented in January during the Board meeting) continues to work toward identifying ways to grow membership, especially among former members or never members.
I love the fact that they are addressing this issue. I still think that they should set a goal, and in the past, I’ve suggested a goal of 25% of licensed radio amateurs.
The CEO report goes on to say, “They are developing a ‘life-long learning’ plan to encourage activity and development among all age groups.” While that’s a worthy goal, I don’t think that’s what is going to get more hams to join the ARRL.
ARRL and FCC
The other item that was interesting to me was the report of the General Counsel, Chris Imlay, W3KD:
Mr. Imlay presented the report of the General Counsel. He was complimentary of new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and thinks enforcement efforts might be more successful due to Mr. Pai’s interest in the issue. The new Enforcement Bureau chief is also reported to be more “amateur friendly.” New opportunities seem to be emerging for cooperative efforts with the FCC in what Mr. Imlay described as a potential window of opportunity for better spectrum enforcement work, as well as building a better working relationship with the Commission on all issues.
Personally, all that I’ve heard about Mr. Pai so far has been negative. He opposes net neutrality rules, while I don’t know his personal opinion on the recent Senate action to unravel the Net privacy rules, I’d assume that if he had been opposed to it, the Senate wouldn’t have rushed to pass this legislation.
What is interesting is that work continues on a new memorandum of understanding between the ARRL and FCC. This could bring new responsibilities for the ARRL’s Official Observers. ARRL Second Vice President Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT, is heading up this effort and says that his committee plans to present final recommendations later this year on revamping the Amateur Auxiliary, for ultimate consideration by the full Board.
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
I wonder if we could benchmark against other organizations? Start with ARRL history, of course. We should have 100 years of “percentage of licensed” figures.
Then look at amateur radio organizations in other countries. Some countries are not directly comparable, like the lifetime licenses in Japan, but places like UK, Australia, Canada, pretty much any CEPT country, could be useful.
There must be other national hobby clubs with a licensing angle. Boat owners? Pilots?
The AOPA is reaching out to drone pilots. The ARRL should see what we can learn from them. Give them a call.
https://www.aopa.org/membership#droneMembershipOptions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Owners_and_Pilots_Association
Organizations that sanction competitions are not directly comparable, if you need to be a member to participate. This might be the case for the AHMRA (https://www.ahrma.org/).
Dan KB6NU says
I suggested that at one point, too. The first organization that popped into my mind was the NRA. There might be a more appropriate group, though.