From: on 10 May 2005 09:11:19 -0700

wrote:
From: on Mon,May 9 2005 1:32 pm

Dee Flint wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...



One problem is that August 1996 is about 8 1/2
years ago.

Okay, the "proportions will not have changed
'dramatically' since then" but 8 1/2 years is a
rather long time. In the dated March 2005 page
of ARRL's Sworn Statement, ARRL indicates a total
number of members as of 31 Dec 04 of 151,727 or
roughly a thousand LESS than the number in 1996.

Not "dramatic." :-)

Yes Sweetums, a lousy 0.7% drop in total membership in 8.5 years is
not
a dramatic anything. In fact it indicates a rather comfortable level
of
stability so all is well in Newington.

Has ARRL membership EVER gotten as high as a
quarter of all licensed U.S. amateurs?

On "8.5 years is not a dramatic anything," that's
a rather gross fluff-off, "sweetums." A child who
begins public school at age 5 will be almost out
of Middle school in 8 1/2 years. Rather dramatic,
I'd say...but, since you are cheerleading the ARRL,
you will aerily dismiss it when it comes to the
League. :-)



Sweetums you silly old thing you blew it again, you missed the real
kicker in bush-league imbroglio.

"Blew" WHAT, you silly old beeper geriatric? :-)

The gist of Hans' proposal being that
the League needs to reshuffle some of it's organization charts.

Tsk. It's a LOT MORE than that, "sweetums."

The ARRL has to have its MINDSET realigned and
recalibrated to fit this new millennium. It can't
continue on using the now-very-old standards and
practices of the 1930s in amateur radio...such as
the bias in favor of morsemanship over everything
else...such as the bias in favor of featuring the
HF bands over all other bands.

His new
program would "fix" what he perceives as some huge lack of Techs'
interest in the ARRL and draw them into the Inner Sanctum.

As of 7 May 2005, the actual license numbers from
the FCC database, as shown on www.hamdata.com, show
that 48.43% of all U.S. amateur licensees are in
the Technician class category. [wait a few days
and the percentage will get higher... :-) ] At
the present rate of growth of Technicians...and at
the present rate of attrition in all the other
classes, the MAJORITY of U.S. amateur licensees
will be Technicians in another couple of years.

Regardless of not fitting YOUR perplexed paradigm
on What Ham Radio Should Be, the unalterable fact
is that the ARRL only pays lip-service and spins
"approval" of those "lower classes" insofar as
what the League thinks Ham Radio Should Be. If
you would get away from sniping at others not
sharing your concepts of hamdom, you could note
the "survival syndrome" exhibited by the ARRL and
its BoD...they just don't like CHANGE and want to
keep things cozy and comfy as THEY like it in the
hobby.

Welp, in the
end his perception ain't reality at all even with rough passes at
rough
numbers yes?

Using survey numbers of 1996 in the year 2005 isn't
even close to your "engineering way," "sweetums."
It certainly would NOT be good business sense.
Don't forget that the League gets millions out
of their PUBLISHING and product sale/resale end
of operations. [check out their Federal income
tax statements for the real numbers]

Fact is that ~17% of the pore downtrodden Techs are League
members whilst only around 13% of the "high-ranking" Generals are
members. Now what? Hmmm?

Cut your smoke & mirrors act, "sweetums." :-)

Let's take raw numbers, such as 46,655 ARRL
member Techs in 1996. Compare those to 350,455
Techs as of 7 May 05 of 350,455. That's a delta
of a "mere" 303,800!

Cut your smoke & mirrors act Sweetums, I did not just get off the
boat.

An aircraft carrier is NOT a "boat." :-)

Your glasses must have fallen in the water then,
since you can't understand that USING 8 1/2 year
old data to make your point (preceding) and now
saying that this data is no good...that only makes
you an intellectual hypocrite. Or a PCTA (they
are very similar in that regard).


Like I said, all is well in Newington. Hiram Percy would be delighted.


Tsk. You are still mumbling Maxims?

Maxim DIED over a half century ago, "sweetums."

ARRL membership is STILL LESS than a quarter of
all licensed U.S. amateurs. [21.1% to be more
exact]

ARRL bias, as revealed through the pages of QST,
is still towards "working DX on HF with CW."
QST still has a column of "The World Above 50
MHz," as if that was still a strange planet. :-)

snore

Poor baby...strain too much for your ancient bones?
Can't handle controversy? Think you are "better"
than the average ham hobbyist? Of course...you
are morse code tested!!! That makes you "superior!"

[superior...like the lake...all wet? :-) ]

Quit chomping them hoagies, old timer, they give
you gas and make you fall asleep in your rocker.