KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Should the ARRL CEO be a "real ham?"

Posted: 20 Jan 2020 10:23 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


Earlier this evening, I received the following email from a friend:

With regard to the ARRL CEO situation, heres an example of what I am
hearing (from multiple sources):

I know several of the current Directors personally and talked with them at
Dayton. Â*None of them liked Michel.Â*Â*Apparently he was not a real ham, i.e.
hadnt been on the air in 25 years, etc.

You know, you just gotta be A REAL HAMwhatever that is.

I replied:

I expect that theres more to this than whether or not WB2ITX is a real ham
or not, but Ill tackle that at some other point. Lets 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

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