Earlier this evening, I received the following email from a friend:
With regard to the ARRL CEO situation, here’s an example of what I am hearing (from multiple sources):
“I know several of the current Directors personally and talked with them at Dayton. None of them liked Michel. Apparently he was not a ‘real ham,’ i.e. hadn’t been on the air in 25 years, etc.”
You know, you just gotta be A REAL HAM…whatever that is.
I replied:
I expect that there’s more to this than whether or not WB2ITX is a real ham or not, but I’ll tackle that at some other point. Let’s consider whether or not the ARRL CEO should be a “real ham.”
We (the ham radio punditry) have, of course, discussed whether or not there is such a thing as a “real ham,” and if there is, what does that really mean? Is a real ham a CW operator? a DXer? a contester? Honestly, when someone seriously starts talking about “real hams,” it makes me want to puke.
Speaking of “being real,” we have a somewhat similar situation here in Ann Arbor. Over the past 10 – 15 years, the University of Michigan has had a succession of head football coaches, none of whom have restored to the football program to the rarefied status it enjoyed in the past. When the previous two coaches—Rich Rodriquez and Brady Hoke—were fired, it was said, “Well, he wasn’t really a Michigan man®” as if being a “Michigan Man®” (whatever that is) is a prerequisite for being a good coach at Michigan.
The same cannot be said about our current head coach, though. Jim Harbaugh grew up in Ann Arbor and was the starting quarterback for the University of Michigan in the 1980s. You can’t be more of a “Michigan Man®” than Jim Harbaugh.
Unfortunately, he’s not proven to be the Messiah that everyone was hoping that he would be. While his overall record has been pretty good, he has yet to win a Big Ten championship, and even worse, has yet to lead the University of Michigan to a win over arch-rival Ohio State.
The point that I’m trying to make (in an admittedly long-winded kind of way, especially for me) is that being a real ham is not necessarily the best credential for the top spot at the ARRL. Ideally, the ARRL head honcho should be both areal ham and a real CEO, but I rather doubt there’s someone out there like that, and if there were, that he or she would take the job. That being the case, I think that if I had to choose, I’d go for the real CEO.
It’s tough enough trying to lead an organization like the ARRL, much less having to be a “real ham” besides. Like I said earlier, I think that there were some other things going on that led to this decision by the ARRL board, but if his lack of “ham cred” was the biggest factor in his dismissal than the board has made it that much harder to find a replacement.
Having said all that, here’s final question to ponder. Should the head of the ARRL be called the CEO in the first place? Most of the nonprofit organizations in this area call their senior manager “Executive Director.” At the very least, that title has more of a nonprofit ring to it, and last I checked the ARRL is still a nonprofit corporation.
73, Dan KB6NU
Bruce Dubin says
Agreed. What should be required of the CEO is a fundamental understanding of the benefits and virtue of ham radio along with the problems opposing ham radio now and in the future. That understanding is more important than an FCC issued license or a large number of inquiries on the QRZ web page. All of this knowledge is important in understanding the organization’s mission and working the short and long term strategic plan in meeting the metrics to accomplish the mission. K8RQX
Alan Biddle says
Funny, but I have heard this basic argument applied in multiple settings. For instance, local doctors I know who are hams talk about how medicine has been changed by the replacement of doctors directing hospitals and health care systems by smart, sharp laymen “bean counters.” Not for the better. The same for airlines and aviation companies which were once headed by passionate pilots and engineers and are now headed by smart, sharp laymen “bean counters.” Or NASA, though that is being turned around a bit recently. While the CEO of the ARRL does not need to be at the top of the DX lists, it seems reasonable to have someone who shares the passion rather than an academic interest. de WA4SCA
W1PJE says
Right with you, Dan. Anyone that uses the criterion “the CEO is not a _real_ ham” has never managed large and complex organizations. And if anyone on the board of directors is saying that, things are much worse. Much, much worse. ARRL will not survive the modern world for long if that attitude prevails.
Sadly, I also see the misogynistic, 1950s Coke-and-Burma Shave world attitudes that are dragging things down again when you go read the 17+ page QRZ thread on this topic and have to wade through not only those “not a real ham” comments, but lots of references to Hooters (??) that would make any female ham tear up their FCC paperwork in an instant. Very depressing.
People need to wake up and wake up now. No one gets a free pass here. The Part 97 granting of spectrum to amateurs is unique, valuable, and should NEVER be assumed. The sharks are circling the $$$ of spectrum. Beware.
W1PJE
Joe AA8TA says
The CEO doesn’t just show up in the corner office and start re-arranging the furniture then the BOD walks in and says “who’s this guy?”
They hired Michel. He reported to the BOD. If they wanted a “real ham” or a best buddy, then they should have hired such.
The last two CEO hirings make the BOD look clownish. They’re not hiring the next playground activity manager so they should decide what/who they want and make sure that person is who/what they want.
Spending tens of thousands of dollars on executive search firms every 12 to 18 months is not where I want my dues to be going.
Jim - K5ND says
Thanks for sharing this insight. In my view, much of the discussion regarding a real ham or a real Michigan man is driven by those observing life through the rear view mirror. Not only that but the rear view mirror has some natural filters built-in — filters that eliminate the more unfavorable moments and only highlight fond memories. Plus, the entire world has changed since those old times. Hiring the best executive for a nonprofit association in 2020 has considerable challenges, and we’re watching those issues play themselves out with an organization we care about deeply. Best of luck to the ARRL Board of Directors. And, along the way I hope they find a solid communications professional that can help them tell their story to the membership and the amateur radio community at large.
Fred Becchetti W8ZLK says
Apple tried that approach…Hired a non-ham (ie non computer guy..Scully) to be CEO of Apple…He didn’t understand Apple’s client base..what computers could.could not do,,and especially possible future trends/technical developments..Was disaster for Apple and they brought a “real ham” back..computer guy..Steve Jobs ..Rest is history. Hopefully ARRL finds CEO with technical expertise/ experience /vision/ who can relate to members to guide ARRL into future.
Bob, W6BP says
As if amateur radio operators could ever agree on what a “real ham” is…
Listening Post Able says
ARRL is a penny ante operation $12mil/yr at most. CEO is a laughable job in that context. WB2ITX was pulling down a quarter mil $$$ doing what, exactly? (Look up his pay online via tax filings.)
ARRL is not big! How many people on headquarters staff? He promoted the contest clerk to operations manager. Why? On what basis? Can’t a talented self-described “strategic visionary” also walk around the building and manager his people too? Air force pilots are “hands on” no?
My money says 2ITX is no longer employed because he played hardball on salary negotiations thanks to an unrealistic opinion of his market value. After all, he’s never run a business in his life making him unqualified in any conventional sense.
How many well qualified hams would do the job free of charge as a volunteer?
Plenty and I say that’s why Howard is unemployed today. He’s a terrible negotiator and probably a worse poker player.
Of course this is only speculation!
W. Bradley Rachielles, KC6NNV says
Clearly, the exec should by all means know the current technology and the latest issues posing amateur radio. However, pounding brass does not a great executive make. I think it is rare to find really high powered executive talent that spends his time at his hobby unless he is retired. Although I know several who have been very successful in business and are major contestants and ham officionados, I’m not sure how active they were on the airwaves during their working lives. If we can have a great ham AND a great exec at the same time that would be great. If we have to choose between a heat ham and a great exec, I’d opt for the great exec….. who can quickly learn the current issues and make the best decisions in support of his organization.
John Maggitti W3IRL says
Let’s define a real Ham ..
She puts protecting spectrum as job one.
He asks the question ” why are only 1/4 of US licensed Hams ARRL members?”
She understands that new licensees must see value in membership or the organization dies.
He understands that the “base” has a large analog bias.
She understands that Ham radio is under threat both externally and internally.
He understands that emergency response has lost that unifying value it once enjoyed.
She understands that a slow and mobile intolerant website is emblematic of a backwards culture.
He understands that being a Ham is mostly an individual identification.
She understands that Ham radio isn’t monolithic.
He understands that members want more than a magazine to hang their dues on.
She understands that painting a verbal picture of what the future will look like when we get there is what being a visionary is all about.
He understands that buy in is everything.
Maybe the selection committee could use the above as a check list…
D Jeffrey Blumenthal says
If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
Failure to have a well thought out job description and hire a good retained search firm to find qualified association executives will result in deja vu all over again.
Andrew Thall. K2OO says
ARRL is a business. It requires a CEO who knows how to run a business. He can be surrounded by hams who can help him with the nuances of our hobby until he learns them.
Steve~W8SFC says
I believe the ARRL should follow the example of other non profit organizations and confer the title of Executive Director instead of CEO, especially in light of the facts that the CEO is apparently hired or fired at the command of the board of directors. I believe that CEO implies a for profit structure and they should conform to the practices of most non profit organizations.
I also believe that this instability in leadership hurts ARRL with prospective members more than the cost of dues, which is considerably higher than a lot of non profit organization’s membership requirements. I am a life member of Vietnam Veterans of America, and the life membership was a lot less than ARRL is asking for a one year membership. Instead of focusing on that, however, I think they should be more interested in representing amateur radio in situations such as the current rule making comment period FCC has established in the matter of removing amateur use of the 3.3 to 3.55 GHz band in favor of corporate interests that want exclusive rights to those frequencies to make room for their development of 5G technology in their commercial interest. Was ARRL involved in any respect in speaking up for hams who have personal investments in equipment to access and use that range of frequencies? It does not appear that they did, as the wording of the rule will immediately exclude amateur radio from access to that range of RF.
I think this matter should be of greater importance to ARRL than internal politics, but that seems to be all we hear about regarding the organization. The sad part of this is ARRL historically has been an advocate for amateur radio operators and they still have a wealth of knowledge and resources for amateur radio operators. The only other thing you hear about ARRL are calls for membership recruitment, but if they do not support local clubs or our access to the airwaves what do they expect?
One thing is certain, they need to resolve the internal focus on personnel and get back to the business of advocating for amateur radio. These two things that they can do – and should – could make the difference between ARRL growing or not.
It would be a shame for ARRL to cease to exist, especially since they have the power to avoid it.
Sterling N0SSC says
I think you ought to be a “real CEO” before you’re a “real ham.” Anyone who says a licensed radio amateur is not a “real ham” is gatekeeping and it’s doing the hobby a disservice.
Tristan N7TWM says
This doesn’t surprise me. The few times I’ve delved into the forums on QRZ I just saw a lot of grumbling from people who complained about his MBA talk.
What I saw was someone trying to drag the ARRL into the 21st Century, acknowledging the issues in the hobby.
I wonder how long ‘On The Air’ is going to last now?
Laurin Cavender says
I have been a Ham since 1966, I have been waiting all this time to become a “Real Ham”! Back in the beginning I wasn’t a real Ham because I was just a kid, then it was the CW Fanatics and the Stick In The Mud AM’ers who put everybody else down including us SSB Stupid Slop Bucket operators. Yet I was right there converting Surplus Military Equipment with the rest of them only I took mine a little farther and actually built add on equipment such as SSB generators, and Product Detectors. Then it was us Jerks on High Band CB, on 6, 2, 220, and 440 FM again ahead of the pack converting Surplus Commercial FM radios that came from Business, Police, Railroad, Taxis and other sources. Us “Not Real Hams” made mods, upgrades and built things industry had not made available to the Ham community, heck not even a available to the public period. A good example was the Synthesizer that could be added to most any radio to make it Frequency Agile! Dale Heatherington WA4DSY designed it and made available the board to build one. I was one of the first in the world to put one together and have Synthesized Motorola HT220. Even the mighty Batwing “Motorola” did not offer anything other than a Crystal “Rock Bound” radio for years to come! This was long before there was any commercially available Synthesized Radio let alone a handheld one. At the time I was designing RF Preamps and their circuit boards, Touch Tone Interfaces, and Building those Dreaded High Band CB Repeaters, and many other projects that haunt mountain tops, basements, and spiderweb covered closets and dark corners today. There were still other’s of us who designed and built Digital Readouts, Frequency Counters, Slow and Fast Scan TV systems, Yet we were just LIDs or Lid Kids as we were referred to. Dale is a little older than I but not much, yet he and another “Not Real Ham” Dennis Hayes are largely responsible for us holding this discussion today. They built Touch Tone Decoders, the World Renouned and Famous “Hayes Modem and its Standard” as well as other integral components taken for granted in today’s society in both Cellular Phone Worlds and the Computer World. Oh yes that is the little company called Hayes Modems that you might have heard of, they developed the strategies that most of the world’s communications and backbone for those very communications run on still today! Next that brings us to us Computer Crap Guys, I have often heard at club meetings and hamfests “I just wish all that Computer Crap was not at the Hamfest it just clutters it up with Junk!” Well my friends that computer junk as you call it first started showing up as power supplies from Telephone systems and IBM, Univac, and other such companies, however You Real Hams being the “Cheap Bastards” that you are bought these power supplies that some thoughtful Ham had modified from 15 volt rail supply voltage down to 13.8 vdc that you run your fancy store bought out of the box radio on! That whole Computer industry that you complain about would not exist were it not for us “Not Real Hams”. We started with flip switches and light bulbs and migrated to LEDs and Touch Pads all brought to you by us “Not Real Hams!” Who am I you ask? Well first I am still a “Not Real Ham” although I have held my license since I was in the 6th grade some 54 years ago! I am a successful RF and Communications Engineer working for international companies and Governments the world over. I owned and operated an electronics company since I was in the 10th grade. I have built and repaired thousands of computers, as well as owning 3 different computer companies. I was chosen as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) in the LMRS (Land Mobile Radio Systems) and Wireless Communications Systems and Instrumentation and Controls for a Nuclear Regulatory Agency new design project by a division of Westinghouse Nuclear. I have decided that I don’t want to be a “Real Ham” it seems all they do is bitch about what is going on while the rest of us are busy doing it! My Dad WB4STQ just died a month ago at age 88, he had all but quit Ham Radio. I couldn’t understand how he could sit there with a brand new station, amp, antennas, and all still new in the box yet have no desire to get it on the air. Not only that he had put away most of the gear that he had setup in the past. Maybe he had realized he wasn’t a “RealHam” like I have realized that I don’t want to be one! Because it looks like to be a “Real Ham” you can’t experiment or learn anything. You cannot push the envelope, you certainly can’t have fun (unless you count griping as fun) you cannot be innovative or reutilize equipment for a purpose for which it was never designed let alone conceive design and build something never heard of before. So yes I say we Need a Real CEO or Executive Director or Grand Pooh Bah I don’t care what you call him but whatever we do we do not need a “REAL HAM”! If he happens to have a ham license then so much the better, or perhaps we help him want to be a Ham and help him become one. Then he will have a vested interest in what we hired him to do. If I am building a basketball court I do not care if the builder can sink a long shot, I care if he can do the job I hired him to do! We need someone who will look out for our best interest including the future, any lurking dangers, work to expand our community as well as keeping folks like my Dad interested and not feeling used and ignored. Our future is not only the kids coming up but our guys who have been around for a long time they are our resources for our future, and we certainly need everyone in between. It’s like a sandwich it wouldn’t be much good if it was not all there, the two ends without the middle wouldn’t be much of a sandwich would it? WB4IVG Laurin Cavender
Dan KB6NU says
Great comment, Laurin! Thanks!
Rob says
Well said OM, well said,
David Barnard says
Laurin said much of what was behaving like “floaters” in my mental field of view. My favorite management guru of the last century was Peter Drucker. As he put it; “non profits results are in changed lives”. Their importance is not just in a “null” in the profit and loss meter. How much was my life changed by ham radio? My original novice ticket for KN0HIW is lost in the dustbin of history but I find I’m listed in the Fall ’57 Callbook. I was a novice upon starting 9th grade. I have a lot of memories and a few friends who remain frieds from long ago.
There was no CB, no cell phones. If you wanted to have your own license and talk on your own radio, you had to be a ham. There was no internet so connection was “wireless”. Wireless on the shortwave bands meant fluctuating, fading from over S9 to gone as the “Ether” that Maxwell predicted would be a good media for wandering electro-magnetic waves suddenly seemed to quit working. That has changed and makes it challenging. I don’t know what a “real ham” is. My “Elmer” was Larry (a silent key). If I drive through zero land mobile I may run into some of those highschool ham fellow hams and radio club members, and it’s always like a conversation that was merely paused and has now resumed despite decade long gaps.
I have ham friends who were among my cadre of “rag chewers” on 75m and 10m in the ’60s. I moved around and found ham radio to be my anchor by which I kept the friends 3 moves and 3 highschools would have cost me. I learned a lot of hands-on stuff about transmission lines and “standing waves”. Unlike my fellow EE students I had insight from experience. SWR was real! (well maybe complex). Over the years, I evolved. Just like an amateur photographer evolves for example. I think that may still be true even for the new Techies who get their license after a half day “Ham Cram”. They evntually move on wondering “is this all there is” and evolve if we can keep their interest up. There are so many more avenues to chase down in Ham Radio now!
I think it would be a worthwhile thing to get a head “Executive ” manager with leadership skills and induct him/her into the hobby. If you can’t sell them on it; you’re / we’re doomed. We need newcomers. Those of us who have been doing this for 50 or 60 years can offer enouragement. And stand back and be amazed. My daughter with zero technical background recently did her “study” session and breezed through both the Technician and the General. Now to keep her intersted and curious. I think Ham Radio offers the best of the tinkering and what iffing. What if someone had never thought to ask “what if hams had a sattelite in orbit”, there’d not been an Oscar 1. What if we take our old morse code (old binary) to a new level using more modern modulation and decoding so we challenge the noise floor a little more? We no longer tinker with MITS Altair but with Rasberry Pi and newer things. There will always be grumblers. But the excitement seems to lay with the people who still wonder “what if”. But don’t be mistaken, I still enjoy those old Radio Craft magazines and the lore of Hugo Gernsback (and winners of the prestegous Hugo Sci Fi Awards). It’s pleasant back there in the “days of yesteryear” but there is a new day out there. 73s
Dave AE7EF
Rich WA2CCD says
Nobody knows what a “real ham” is.
But if a “real ham” takes the High and Mighty attitude of “The CEO creates something from only an idea, while everyone else in the organization follows.” Or “Then the CEO needs to create a path in his or her own mind …. ”
followed by “A successful CEO needs to get everyone to follow him or her along a path they may not fully understand to a destination they may not see” (November 2019 QST Second Century column),
then where do I go to renounce being a “real ham”?