RadioBanter - Radio Club Personalities

"Tony Viglio" wrote in message ...
If you been in a radio club, you've seen your share of characters.
Ham radio has no shortage of all types of personalities.

Ever see this guy before? He just joined our club.

Comes to first meeting. It's pretty obvious he's is the hyperactive
overbearing type, talks constantly & loudly, dominates the discussion.
Says he quit such & such club because "they didn't like this and didn't
want to do that, they were a bunch of losers." Shows up second
meeting & proposes all sorts of changes to what the club has been
doing, wants to start this & do that, & go here and there. Volunteers
to head up all the committees, wants to bring in outside speakers
that will offer this or that to the club members. (The outside speakers
are family members or buddies of his). Does the majority of speaking
at the meeting. Again, makes mention of how his last club was a
bunch of losers and how happy he is to be a member of this great
club! At his third club meeting, he does ALL the talking and is the
center of attention. Some club members say they like him, others
remain silent. Can't wait to see what happens at the fourth meeting
with this guy. We're betting he will run the entire meeting himself.

A. I see our club breaking up, because some will agree with this
guy and others will want no part of him.

B. I see this guy being challenged and told to shut up, which will
probably result in him leaving our club, since we're all "losers."

Have you seen this guy before? Has he come to your club meetings?

No. The club to which I belong is a large regional DXing and DX
contesting .org with filters. Nobody simply walks in off the street
and signs up. First at least two existing members must know a
prospective member personally and about his/her dxing and contesting
activities and sponser them for membership. The prospect must attend
at least two meetings before his/her membership is even considered.
Usually toward the end of the second meeting the prospect is sent out
into the hallway while the attendees discuss his/her's particulars and
potential for making contributions toward the club's objectives and
vote yea or nay on his/her application for membership.

These rather Draconian filters work for this particular club which has
been around since 1927. The purposes of the club are very narrowly
targeted at specific operating activities so there is very little
thrashing around about what to do next, establishing committees, what
we should and shouldn't be doing, meeting speakers, etc. On those very
rare occasions when somebody went over the edge verbally at a meeting
the various Presidents we've had over the years simply cut it off by
taking the floor back.

We all know what the meetings will be about before we get there. The
srategies and tactics to be used in the next major dx contest and
that's about it and outta there. In 35 years I've never had to sit
thru the usual Secretary & Treasurer droning-on sessions at a meeting
with "reports".

We don't get involved in Field Day, Emergency comms, walkathons or any
of the rest of the neighborhood radio club staples. Those members who
get into these sorts of acitivities do so as members of their local
neighborhood clubs.

The jerk filters this club uses are probably too stiff to fly in any
conventional neighborhood club but implementing some bits and pieces
of it might cut back on the kinds of problems you've described.

Tony

w3rv