This afternoon, I was talking with a fellow who approached me about providing leadership training for ham radio club officers. Back in 2012, when I was the Michigan Section Affiliated Club Coordinator, I developed just such a course, based on my work as a facilitator for the Rotary Leadership Institute. The topics I covered included:
- Leadership Characteristics
- The World of Amateur Radio
- The Amateur Radio Club and its Activities
- Membership: Recruiting and Retention
- Leadership: Team Building
- Leadership: Setting Goals
- Evaluating Your Club
- Moving Forward
I conducted this training here in Michigan a couple of times, and it was well-received by those who attended. I offered to do this for the ARRL, but that proposal went nowhere. I guess they decided it wasn’t worth the bother.
After discussing how we might revive this training program, the talk naturally drifted to the support—or lack thereof—that the ARRL provides to clubs. One of the items my friend mentioned is that he hasn’t seen an issue of the ARRL Club News for a while. I hadn’t thought much about that, but I checked, and the last issue was published in April 2024, more than a year ago. I guess they’ve decided that supporting clubs is less of a priority than making draconian election by-law changes.
This sticks in my craw because I volunteered to produce a newsletter for clubs free of charge about a decade ago. It was heartening to see it start up in November 2021. It’s equally disheartening to see it go by the wayside.
A new leadership training course
At any rate, I’d be interested in hearing from you if you might be interested in participating in some kind of club leadership training. When I did this back in 2012, it was all in person, and we covered the material in one, eight-hour-long session. And, it was a fair amount of work to find a place to hold the training, and arrange for lunch and coffee. Now that the use of Zoom and other online meeting apps has become widespread, I envision doing this at least partly online and only one module at a time.
If you would be interested in attending these sessions, please let me know, and I’ll keep you up to date on when we might actually hold this course. I envision this happening sometime in the fall. Also, if you have any suggestions for what we might cover, please send me your ideas.
Please!
Hi Dan,
I think there is a need for this and it is a good idea.
I see many radio clubs struggling to develop a leadership pipeline that keeps the organization healthy.
The challenge is that the training needs to be impactful — really make a difference for a typical radio club.
Bob K0NR
As a new ham, I have no designs on club leadership at this juncture of my journey into the hobby – however, I think this is a really important topic, as I have dealt with leadership vacuums and variously plagued chains of command in other parts of my life over the years.
It is very unfortunate the ARRL did not see value in ensuring the future of clubs. Since getting into this hobby I have been overwhelmed by support from local clubs. I have joined several and actively volunteered with them for Ham Fest and Field Day even without a license. The welcoming attitudes and well-planned events have made my entrance to the hobby a true joy and I cannot imagine entering such a byzantine, technical hobby without that sort of support. As the hobby evolves and the demographics of age play into clubs, I can foresee a lot of locales struggling to find people to take up the torch and welcome newcomers and run events without some sort of skill-building enterprise available to bring the new leaders up to speed.
I would like to take the course even without being in a leadership role in my clubs nor any plans to join the leadership cadre, as a brand new ham (passed my Tech and General this weekend after dismantling our Field Day setup!), because I know how valuable depth of expertise in leadership is from my professional career(s).
– Daniel
Dan, as a supplement to and possibly a poor substitute for the course, could this material be turned into a book? If so, I could see how a lot of little start-up clubs could benefit from this.
Yes, I would be interested. I would like to bring in the officers and others from our club into this as well
This is a great idea. I’d be interested.