The meeting minutes for the ARRL Board’s 2018 Annual Meetiing were finally published a couple of days ago. The big news, of course, is that the board has taken steps to improve transparency and decided not to consider proposals that were considered to be un-democratic, such as giving a board vote to the president and vice presidents. In addition, several of the more draconian provisions in the “Code of Conduct” were rolled back immediately, and and the board plans to .
According to Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, in his missive to Great Lakes Division members:
The ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the Board of Directors and Vice Directors was referred for complete review and certain clauses in that were unclear in their meaning were immediately removed. Those removals included the sentence in Section 6C regarding the non-disclosure of the votes of individual members and the entirety of Section 8 covering support of Board Decisions.
In a separate action, the Board removed a limitation on the Ethics and Elections Committee regarding the public release of information relating to an individual’s eligibility for election. In future elections, this information will be released unless the candidate specifically requests otherwise.
That doesn’t mean that these proposals are going away, however. As noted in the minutes:
We believe that due to the significance of the changes addressed and the well-intentioned concern expressed by a portion of our Membership, that it would be in the best interest of the League we love, and the Members we proudly serve, that we take more time to consider the needed changes.
We chose to take this extra time both to address the belief amongst some that the Motions were not well intentioned AND to provide an opportunity to seek further input and participation from the responsible Members of the League to assist us in ensuring the future of the League and Amateur Radio.
We request the staff and the Executive Committee to place the Motions, EC-1 through EC-11 on the ARRL website with a white paper explaining each Motion. The white paper should show the changes from the original Articles of Association and Bylaws in an easily readable manner. Headquarters should also be directed to release an appropriate announcement to Members on these matters when this information becomes available.
So, keep an eye out for this. I know a bunch of us will also be looking out for it, and I will blog about the white paper when I see it.
In other news, Rick Roderick, K5UR, was re-elected president. A number of hams were calling for his resignation in light of the Code of Conduct debacle. I don’t think, however that his re-election is such a big deal.
One thing that the board did was to fund the “discovery and strategy phase of the Lifelong Learning Initiative Project.” A report on this effort is supposed to be submitted to the Board of Directors on or before the July Board meeting. Not much else was reported on this effort. I really would encourage whoever is in charge of this effort to get some ARRL members to help out with this. If they don’t, I fear we’ll get the usual HQ effort that just doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Membership….again
Something else that’s of interest to me is a bit in the Administrative and Finance Committee report. It reads:
Membership acquisition was discussed. Statistics from the Membership Department show that around 15 percent of new and renewed memberships come from the field. (hamfests and conventions) The balance come through clubs and online. Much work needs to be done for future membership increases.
The committee certainly has a talent for stating the obvious, doesn’t it? How about setting a membership goal of 25% of licensed radio amateurs, as I’ve suggested many times. I don’t see how the ARRL expects to increase membership unless they get serious about it. By the way, committee reports are available on line at http://www.arrl.org/committee-reports.
Entry-level licensing
#49 of the minutes read:
Subject to final edits and approval by the Executive Committee, the Chief Executive Officer and the General Counsel are authorized and instructed to file with the FCC a Petition for Rule Making seeking enhancements to the operating privileges to be afforded to Technician Class licensees in the 80, 40 and 15-meter bands, prepared pursuant to the first and second reports to the Board by the Entry Level License Committee in January and July of 2017.
It is further requested that a dialog be commenced with the National Council of Volunteer Exam Coordinators concerning the appropriate scope and comprehensiveness of the Technician Class exam relative to the operating privileges conveyed by that license class.
I got a chuckle out of this because the ARRL is way late in requesting a dialogue with the NCVEC on the Technician Class question pool. The 2018 pool has already been published and won’t be re-visited for another four years.
That’s it! Let me know what you think.
John Poindexter says
I, and I am sure others, do not agree with this advance privileges for Technicians. This is why there are different license classes. Advance and get awarded with more privileges has always been the way in Amateur Radio.
If they think that will increase membership, they are wrong.
Go back to 30 dollars per year. When the increase came in last time is when members stopped renewing. QST used to be the big draw, but it is no where as good as it used to be.
Membership fees is what I always used to hear as to why they would not be joining again.
Just my thoughts.
Steve C - KE8HXM says
It seems they have gotten the message, sort of. Speaking for myself, membership dues are a bit high, but with that old proposed agenda they were going after it seemed to me that they had little or no interest in promoting membership of new operators. I am glad to see that set of proposals abandoned, but I will withhold my judgment until the cement is fully cured. Thank you for applying pressure and keeping us all informed.
Roy Woods says
Most all ARES members are volunteers associated with ARRL yet we get nothing from them. Not even window stickers! ARES is a plus for ARRL and the teams need support to keep membership.
May I suggest a price cut for items in the store for ARES items I.e. hats, clothing, stickers and etc. I would think you would want team members to advertise for you.
Dave New, N8SBE says
If the Technician class license received new HF privelages, wouldn’t that require re-visiting the question pool before it’s normal expiration date. This is assuming, of course, that something like this might happen before the sun explodes.
On membership dues, my opinion is that ARRL waited far too long before raising dues, which caused a lot of consternation amongst the rank and file. I’m still in favor of a ‘cost of living’ dues increase annually, so that we don’t suffer a shocking increase again.
Bob Rice KG4RRN says
I hate that they redesigned the QST logo and removed the lightning bolt. I dont mind paying an extra 10 dollars for membership, but you always want more more more ! My suggestion for ataining new members would be a 25 dollar introductory member price for first year members.Most new hams don’t have big bucks !