The ARRL has just published the Fall 2017 ARRL Executive Committee minutes. As always, there are some interesting tidbits:
- In the president’s report, Rick Roderick, K5UR, “expressed concern in the continued drop in membership numbers.” I’ve been saying for years that the ARRL should be working towards a membership goal of 25% of licensed radio amateurs. I don’t think that’s asking too much, and setting a specific goal would focus ARRL’s efforts in this area. Just think of what the ARRL could do with more members!
- Chief Executive Officer / Secretary Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, is recommending “that the Programs and Services Committee be tasked to conduct a thorough evaluation of all current program offerings to the membership, with a report back to the Executive Committee in the fall of 2018.” I like this idea. I would also highly recommend—as I always do—that this evaluation include input from a wide range of ARRL members. Without the participation of the membership, this is going to be a wasted effort.
- In his report, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, “requested guidance on a possible ARRL response to the August 30, 2017 Public Notice of Technology Advisory Council’s “technical inquiry into reforming technical regulations” in radio services. The purpose of the notice is to identify FCC technical rules that are obsolete or might be ripe for change in light of current communications technologies. Mr. Imlay was requested to work with ARRL resources to develop a series of recommendations for possible deregulation, with such recommendations to be brought back to the Executive Committee.” If you’ve been keeping up at all with what’s going on at the FCC, you know they’ve been blitzing through the regulations and making a lot of changes, some good, some bad. Unfortunately, the FCC set an awful short deadline (October 30, 2017) for comments, so I’m not sure that there was much that the ARRL could do on such short notice.
- Second Vice-President Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT, reported on the updates to the Amateur Auxiliary program. He “briefly discussed the recent work on the Amateur Auxiliary Study Ad Hoc Committee. The committee has completed its discussions and a first draft of the new training manual incorporating the proposed changes has been written. The committee is reviewing and editing the draft manuscript, which will be presented to the Executive Committee for review and comments. We are waiting feedback from the FCC on the proposed MOU for the Amateur Auxiliary. Several topics related to in-house management of the revised program still must be resolved. It is hoped to have the package completed shortly, so that it can be circulated to the Board for consideration in January.” Interesting.
- There was also some discussion of how to implement the recommendations of the Entry-Level Licensing Committee. As you may recall, the ARRL has decided not to ask for a new license class, but rather to expand the privileges of Technician Class licensees. The minutes say, “Discussion next turned to developing a plan for implementation of recommendations that might come from the Entry Level License Committee. Mr. Imlay will work with Mr. Bellows and Mr. Frenaye to develop a specific proposal for the frequencies and modes to be requested to expand the current Technician class operating privilege. The goal is to have this proposal to the Executive Committee in time to be reviewed by the full board at their January 2018 meeting.”
If you have any thoughts or recommendations on any of these topics, please get in touch with your division director.