In article m, "Ryan, KC8PMX"
writes:

The proposal that the arrl should be working on is increasing the membership
ranks instead of trying to change the system of licensure that has been
discussed to death here. What, theres like around 25% of all hams that are
members??

True - but what percentage of active hams are members? I think you'll find it's
a lot higher than 25%.

If the arrl is "sooooo good" then they should be working towards
increasing the membership.

They are! Note that the license proposal offers a free upgrade of license class
to 57% of licensed US hams....

Not only would this actually help to lower the cost of membership by
spreading the costs of doing business over a bigger spread, but also give
more strength and credibility to the organization.

Sure! Now, how can ARRL increase membership?

With a good percentage
of the members being in the 55+ range there seems to be a good need to come
up with new people to add to the membership ranks.

Age alone is not really a major factor because people are living longer, and
many newer hams are from the ranks of the retired and near-retired. One of the
*big* reasons you don't see many 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings at hamfests is
that they're too busy working and raising familes these days.

How about this for a marketing idea?? If the arrl recieves 200,000 new
subscriptions for 2004 then they rebate some of the cost of the subscription
rate as it is now? (Thats 200,000 over the existing memberships)

It would have to be structred in such a way that existing members would get the
benefit, too.

Maybe it could work like this: If membership grows by a certain number, every
member gets a rebate coupon worth a certain amount, good towards any ARRL
publication or membership.

Again, the license class/testing situation as it stands now is just fine and
does not need any more changes for a while.

I disagree slightly. I think the entry-level license should be more balanced
between HF and VHF-UHF. But that's about it.

More important, what's all the rush?

73 de Jim, N2EY

Work on promotion and building
from within before trying to recruit more.