I just got back from HamXposition in Marlboro, MA. The ARRL had a booth there and were passing out these Radio Club Health Check checklists. The checklist includes the following items:
Meetings
- Regular meetings
- Presentations
- Welcome new members
- Building projects
Classes
- New license class
- Upgrade class
- Skills training
- VE sessions
Mentoring
- New hams mentoring
- Skills mentoring
- Net operation mentoring
- Digital skills mentoring
- Radio operation skills
Events
- ARRL Field Day
- Public service events
- Special event stations
- Member recruiting
- POTA
- SOTA
- Fox hunts
EmComm
- ARES nets
- ARES drills
- CERT training
- AUXCOMM
Youth & School Programs
- School presentations
- Demonstrations
- ARISS
- Scouts
- General youth outreach
Outreach
- Public service events
- Hamfests
- Morse Code training
- Community displays and demos
- Repeaters
Contesting
- ARRL contests
- DX contests
- Inter-club contests
- Digital contests
One could quibble about some of the items—I’m not so sure that a club has to participate in contests to be a healthy club, for example—but, in general, I like this list. It serves as a reminder of some of the things that your club can do to make it a more vibrant and engaging organization.
I would quibble about most of the list. I don’t think checking these boxes indicates a healthy club at all. Perhaps this list is doable for a large metropolitan area club with hundreds of members, but not a rural club with 15 people. If this checklist indicates what ARRL considers a healthy club, I’d like to see someone formulate a checklist for healthy ARRL.
Yeah, this looks like more of a “big club” list.
That’s probably OK though as long as the small club doesn’t get discouraged because they can’t check as many boxes.
I don’t think that you need to check all the boxes to have a healthy club. But, these are activities that many healthy clubs do conduct.
Having said that, I like the idea of coming up with a checklist for what constitutes a healthy ARRL. :)
I’ll put in a plug for contesting. I found that even casual contesting is enjoyable, and allows me to learn more about propagation to various locations and to fill in my ongoing DXCC, WAS, and other awards. It’s good to talk about contesting with other club members, and some contests (NAQP for instance) encourage teams to sign up, which makes for even more fun. And it keeps my station in working order, such as it is.
I belong to a contest club (Mad River Radio Club), mainly because my local club, except for Field Day seems to be mostly disinterested in contesting. At least my scores count for club competitions in a medium (175 mile radius) club like Mad River. I tried to get folks to submit scores for my local club, but we couldn’t get enough folks to submit to make the local listings.
I put my name in our club for treasure secretary. I was called out for my attendance in regards to this position to meetings & functions. . Covid ( did) & work keeps me from attending. They have zoom for the meetings. I felt, that my making the meetings & functions, had nothing to do with the position, the person they elected was gone all summer to a scout camp. I felt sabotaged by the attendance question. Politics played into this election. As a result I will not renew my membership for 2023. Remember that clubs are strictly volunteer.
Thanks. I hadn’t seen that before and it’s very useful. If there’s a parallel to McKenzie’s framework, a healthy club would have several characteristics: (1) it would revolve around the member’s common interests, (2) it would manifest those interests in programs and activities, and (3) it would renew itself by attracting new members and adapting as it went. Back to the list, not every one of those items on the list is necessary, but for a club seeking to make itself “healthier,” that list seems like a good starting point. Plus, it’s always nice to hear from people who are trying to be helpful, something that ARRL does well.
Thanks again, 73 Skip K4EAK