From: an_old_friend on Sep 14, 11:40 am

wrote:
From: an_old_friend on Sep 14, 3:01 am


Actually, the League did NOT act openly. ARRL simply announced
the candidates for Divisions and Carl Stevenson was left out of
the list. For all those who haven't had an idea of what's been
going on elsewhere in radio, the Atlantic Division, or NCI, they
would have been none the wiser.

Forgive my inprecision I meant more openly than I would have expected.
What concerned me was playing florida like games with what is and isn't
a proper ballot. they have moved more openly than I would have expected

Well, the ARRL is a PRIVATE membership organization...even if they
try very hard to convince folks that they are "official" and some
kind of beneavolent "democratic principled, free election" kind of
group.

Or perhaps as you say later they just lack an understanding of the way
info propagates these days

I doubt that. Carl Stevenson would be seen by the League hierarchy
as "controversial." Remember that the ARRL has been a staunch
supporter of morsemanship ever since Maxim was their president.
Their core membership is made up largely of morsemen.

Carl is ALSO executive director of NCI. The ARRL did NOT get what
they wanted in one of the past 18 Petitions, that of having the
code test retained for Amateur Extra. As far as the League is
concerned for their appearance to their core membership, that has
to rankle.

The "game" is simply Sinning By Omission. Leaving out Carl's name
or any mention of why a proposed candidate was tossed gives the
APPEARANCE of "orderly progress" to the League. They don't have
any "dirty linen" to hang out and display so they appear to be the
"good guys." [they've got a huge hamper full of that dirty linen
but just don't mention it, so it APPEARS they don't have any]

making anyone wonder what else is in the hammper

Wear a haz-mat breathing mask if you look? :-)

No. Sin by Omission is a convenient tool to convince others of a
group's wonderfulness. Done right it can convince a LOT of folks
that the League can do no wrong and never has.

Take the simple (but very complex) history of radio. To hear the
League tell it, amateurs "invented radio, pioneered HF, and did all
the exceptional state-of-the-art things" in radio. They didn't and
that has been proved in more than one historical text involving the
beginning of radio and on through the post-WW2 period.

Take another one, where the League stresses the "importance" of
morsemanship to basic radio, emergency communications, and having
this "pool" of experienced (i.e., morse code skilled) operators
for the nation. It's all nonsense, but it pleases the core
membership of the League so they just omit mention that ALL the
other radio services have either dropped morse code use or never
considered it when they started. The core membership thinks highly
of morse code as all the 'best' things in radio. The League is
representing their core membership.


The League is NOT out to win brownie points for themselves. They
are ENTRENCHED and have been so since 1914...84 years now. By
all the past minutes of the BoD, by all their statements of the
past half century, they've assumed a mantle of "leadership" of
and by themselves. All their decisions are done by a very small
cadre of "leaders" who decide among themselves "what is good for
amateur radio." Oh, they do have some articles on "advancement"
of the state of the art, but the majority of their decisions are
done for their core membership, those who "work DX on HF with CW."

and you know they don't even do right by them (those core members) they
proposed dropping the code tests standard dfurther helping to insure
the Victory of NoCode

The League HAD to recognize the law AFTER it was enacted (99-412,
the R&O creating "restructuring" which included 5 WPM maximum rate
for all code tests). The League was AGAINST such "draconian"
rate reductions BEFORE the R&O was issued.

What is interesting is to look in on the 2200+ Comments on WT
Docket 98-143 between 1 January 1998 and 15 January 1999 (that
latter being the official cut-off date for Comments). Mixed in
with the early documents are a couple of RM Comments on previous
Petitions for resctructurings. The first one I found in reference
to code test rate was Cecil Moore's around the middle of January
1998...describing making all code test rates 5 WPM. Cecil, then
W6RCA, had been a long-time poster in this newsgroup.

The League's latest Petition involves retention of the code test
for Amateur Extra and they've managed to convince lots of the
already-Extra that this "must" be retained. Many many comments
on WT Docket 05-235 keep bringing up that.


So...how does one GET INSIDE to start changing things? It is
NOT by joining and running for any office. Carl Stevenson has
shown that isn't possible. Dee's and others' remarks about
"joining to change things within" is just sophistry, an emotional
phrase to attract membership that has nothing to do with "changes."
The only way to "get inside" is to toady up to the "leadership,"
suck up to the BoD, and begin very slowly in all meetings to turn
things around. That will take decades and will only work by
human attrition, waiting for the present "leadership" to age and
go SK. Right now the League is an oligarchy.

And from history I don't think that will work either, look at the
leadership in the COmunist Party in the USSR over the years (or read
RedStrom strom rising by clancey) on how one exists in these structure

The ARRL is an oligarchy...but it is NOT a political party nor is
there anything close to a dictatorship NOW. In terms of
historical length, the ARRL lasted longer than Commununism did in
the USSR! NO real parallel. :-)

However, oligarchies CAN be dictatorial if they rise to a power of
influencing those who don't bother looking elsewhere for
information. Through its publishing arm, the ARRL influences U.S.
amateur thinking greatly. The League CONTROLS everything they
publish, right down to "letters to the editor" section in QST.
Ultimate CONTROL. That can be the danger.

In 84 years of existance, the League has done a LOT of conditioned
thinking of members. Such has made many into zealots an Believers
that the League can do NO real wrong. As such, these zealots and
Believers have elevated the League well beyond their actual
political influence organization capabilities. That is excellent
for the League's survival. It's a big feedback loop: The League
controls all their publishing, they publish - and sell - a LOT of
amateur radio interest literature, making money for the League,
then play at being a quasi-governmental democratic-principle
organization having "free" elections. Remember that the League
CONTROLS what the "free' election "results" are...they are NOT
governed by any independent government organization as is done
in federal government.

Now if there is to be any comparison of organizations, try the
American Olympic Committee ruled by Avery Brundage in the 1930s.
Amateur to a fault, the slightest infraction of those American
amateur definitions resulted in a few top-notch amateur athletes
being forbidden to compete. Oligarchial, yes, dictatorial to a
degree. NOT a good time for American amateur sport in spirit.
That draconian insistence on PURE amateurism in Olympic sport
disappeared in the reality of later decades, the IOC recognizing
that sport was sport, for the enjoyment of sport...not some
intense religious-zealot insistence on maintaining antiquated
rules and regulations of ideals that were impossible to hold.

So, Carl Stevenson is "denied" a candidacy according to some
League "law" about "conflict of interest" supposedly for being a
professional in radio. In all probability, the only "conflict of
interest" is simply that the League hierarchy didn't find Carl
"comfortable" to Them. The charge of "conflict of interest" in
regards to IEEE Standards Group work...where Wi-Fi and Wi-Max do
NOT conflict with amateur radio in any way. [Carl is also
running for Member At Large position on Standards on the IEEE
November ballot]

Mainly it would seem that Carl is just "too controversial" to
the League and their stand on morse code testing in amateur radio.