Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Hi All, Seeing as how there's finally something worthwhile to chime in on here (a refreshing break before getting back to the mindless flame wars that have characterized this NG for the last year or two), I'll de-lurk and contribute my $0.02 on this subject, in the hope that it might turn out to be worth at least $0.02. In the comments that follow, I've quoted comments from several other posters as well as from Hans' original post, so as to get all my comments into one place rather than having them fragmented in several replies throughout the thread. As a result, this post is rather on the lengthy side, but...well, like i said, hopefully it's at least worth the $0.02. Here goes: On Tue, 03 May 2005 14:21:48 GMT, "KØHB" got us started with his now well-known (to regulars anyway) PBI: The growth in numbers of Amateurs over the past decade has been overwhelmingly via the Technician license. This segment of the Amateur population does not seem highly attracted to ARRL membership, nor affiliative with the "national association" nature of ARRL. Interestingly, however, these new Amateurs are "local joiners". They attach some importance to public service communications events such as disaster drills, SkyWarn, flood relief, marathons, parade communications, and similar functions of a local nature. Interestingly, even though their on-the-air participation is limited, they represent a significant portion of the crew at Field Day, hamfest staffs, and similar "local" events. They are also well represented on the rosters of many local clubs. I think it's worth noting here, the old adage about birds of a feather flocking together. It's been my experience that people join the local ham radio clubs for a variety of reasons, just as they get involved with amateur radio to begin with for a wide variety of reasons. When you bottom-line it, though, a local club remains a sure-fire way for a newcomer to meet others who share at least some of their interests in amateur radio. For many it's a way of introducing themselves to the other hams in their area, sort of like, "I've got my license and I'm here now, so when you hear me on the local repeaters you don't have to worry that I might be a bootlegger." When they get to the local clubs and hook up with other newcomers (and the observation that the vast majority of newcomers to the ARS enter via the Technician route is dead on...that's why it's called the "entry-level license class"), they find the other Techs basically doing the only things they're permitted to do, absent any meaningful HF privileges unless they pass a code test - they're doing Skywarn; tactical comms for parades, bike races, marathons; Field Day, etc. Another old adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Thus, it's no surprise that many new Techs join in these activities. This is the same route I myself took when I entered into the ARS back in '99 and I'm still active in these pursuits now, except it's in a leadership role rather than as one who is learning the ropes, so to speak. Following is a PBI (Partially Baked Idea) to favorably position ARRL (and Amateur Radio in general) with these newcomers to our hobby. I propose that the ARRL BoD consider an initiative to attract these newcomers to an interest in ARRL by establishment of a new "Department of Community Support". The mission of this department of ARRL would be to organize, train, support, and nurture a system of tactical communications teams on the LOCAL level. I use the term "tactical" as opposed to "emergency" intentionally to broaden the scope of the mission to include a wide variety of community-level communications needs. Mike Coslo contributed on this that many of the people he can count on for such activites are Techs, and added: "That is a good idea. Tactical communications would serve as a good training ground." For what it's worth, I concur. In fact, I think tactical communications is a skill that is too often ignored as many public service and emergency communications groups opt for developing proficiency in formal traffic handling - which is a valuable skill in the right circumstances, but unless a group is located somewhere that circumstances warrant the frequent use of formal traffic handling (like being somewhere that often gets smacked by earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other major disasters that result in relatively long relief efforts and a lot of health & Welfare traffic)...well, many groups will only rarely need formal traffic handling skills. Tactical communications skills, on the other hand, are something I think any such group is going to always need, especially if they are doing parades, races, etc. Incidentally, I personally use the term "public service communications" to distinguish this type of work from the more commonly thought of "emergency" communications that is used during and in the aftermath of some sort of disaster. At any rate, to continue... This "department" would be outside the current Field Organization, and given VISIBLE and COMMITTED volunteer leadership at Director or Vice President rank. Did I hear someone muttering "Isn't that what ARES is all about?" or "Our current field organization already provides for this." Good points -- ARRL already has some of the pieces in place, and it looks good on paper. Unfortunately these "pieces" tend to be scattered around the ARRL organization and are not linked into a cohesive program. Support and leadership responsibility, from Newington all the way down to the local level, is often a collateral duty and the attention level is spotty and often diluted by competing responsibilities and personal interests. Leadership attention at the SM level is widely variable, and SM's have a diminished mindshare of the general membership by the unfortunate H.Q. decision to remove "Section News" from the national journal of our Association. On this passage, Steve, K4YZ, commented as follows: First of all, there's already flexibility written into the ARES program to allow for it's implementation based upon local needs or concerns. The needs of emergency planners in Plymouth, MN or Winchester, TN are going to be different than those of New York City or Miami, FL. As I see it, Steve, the problem with this is that in many (most?) areas, the local ARES group wears two hats, serving also as the local RACES group, and because FEMA guidelines for RACES call for its implementation at the County level, there's often a lack of ARES/RACES groups having established relationships with local governments (city, town, village, etc.). That is something that, as a result, often falls to the local clubs - but ARRL sees it as an ARES function and local clubs looking for support for their efforts in this area end up getting referred to the local ARES leadership...which is often hesitant to help because they see the clubs' efforts as undermining their own. Steve continued: I don't see how a nationally directed program could possibly do anything more than appear to be micromanaging. Again, admitting that their is a niche for local groups to be involved at a local level and offering some support to them independent of the ARES (or ARES/RACES) mechanism would not be micromanaging. Often there are entirely different missions involved, and even when the missions overlap, again it does not hurt ARES all that much for the local clubs to have a relationship with a city government's disaster preparedness officials in a county where the ARES group has a relationship with the county's disaster prearedness office. In other words, this would eliminate the "turf war" mentality that often crops up when the local clubs, or other groups independent of ARES, start to actually succeed at what they're doing. Steve went on... Secondly, the ARRL Special Services Club's program already offers assistance for helping to manage some aspects of club activities, offers of sponsorship, etc. What they (the ARRL) COULD do, without creating a whole new "branch" and field directorship with it, would be to start spending some more money to get more recruiting materials, including TV/Radio "commercials" into the field. They could "regionalize" the materials with pictures of local clubs, landmarks, etc in them to help "identify" them to the target audience. To this I say, "Bingo!" As one of two co-coordinators of the public service communications team sponsored by a local SSC, I know from personal experience that one of our biggest challenges is just letting people know we are here. This is exactly the kind of support I had in mind above. OK, back to Hans' original PBI: Without dwelling overlong on the shortcomings of the current situation, I think we can all agree on four points: I'd settle for seeing everyone agree on ONE point. Four is really asking a lot. But... grin 1) A focused national program with Director (or higher) level leadership would have more impact than the current fragmented attention to "local" Amateur Radio. I'd say that depends on whether the program deals directly with amateurs operating at the local level (in which case I tend to agree), or attempts to use the existing field organization to accomplish its goals (in which case I have serious doubts, mainly because I'm convinced that in many areas the existing field organization is so completely out of touch with "local" amateur radio as to render any meaningful progress in a project of this nature highly unlikely). 2) Such a program, if successful, would give Amateur Radio valuable credibility in the regulatory and legislative arenas, and with national organizations like Homeland Security, FEMA, and the Red Cross. I'm not so sure about this. As far as FEMA is concerned, and FEMA is part of the DHS, they're primarily looking at RACES, and their guidelines call for implmentation at the county level. To me, "local" means this city, this town, this village. In some areas, county-level might work. In my own area, I'm quite sure it would not. As for the Red Cross, in my area the two Red Cross chapters are served agencies of two different county ARES groups. As for the group I co-coordinate, we have a relationship with a city that is served by the Red Cross chapter that is based in a county whose ARES/RACES group has them as a served agency, but it is not the same county our city is in! 3) Such a program, if successful, would serve to elevate the perceived value of Amateur Radio with local civil authorities, perhaps softening the effects of issues like tower ordinances, etc. I'm in complete agreement. 4) Such a program, strongly identified with the League, would provide a membership "attractor" to those classes of Amateurs that are now only locally "affiliative". Gaining some traction into this huge reservoir of potential members would be a godsend to the health and growth of ARRL. Again, I'm in complete agreement. What would need to be done to implement such a plan. Here are some "off the top of my head" thoughts. -- Define the mission and organizational structure. You've already defined the mission quite well. The organizational structure definitely needs to be defined. -- Many of the people (SEC/EC's, etc) are already in place. The organization structure would need to include a short chain-of-command headed by a focused leader at Newington. If you're going through the SEC/EC's, you're going through ARES. In my opinion, this is not going to work in many areas, including my own. This needs to be totally separated from the existing field organization, in my opinion. -- Move Field Day and SET into this organization as "their" events. This is throwing the new dog a bone...however, I think the local amateur radio clubs that sponsor public service communications groups are probably already active in Field Day and already consider FD to be one of "their" events - I know we do. Much less so with SET, which is the "other" annual ARRL-sponsored EmComm event, and (in this area at least) gets far less attention than Field Day. My feeling is that Field Day and SET are fine the way they are, and let both the ARES groups and the new local public service communications groups participate. -- Devise a recognition vehicle to give visibility to noteworthy work by individuals and teams in this Department. This visibility (QST?) should extend outside the organization to the "general population" of hams as a recruiting tool. You've already noted the boneheaded mistake the league made in removing the section news from QST - undoing that mistake would be a good start. The user here who goes by Billy Beeper has commented: The ARRL has made an effort to get web pages up for each division and section. That is the method they use of distributing regional and local information. It's easy to forget that not everyone has Internet access. As far as the section news on the net is concerned, I'm subscribed to the section news summary and am supposed to receive it monthly via e-mail, but have received nothing since December. If they are going to call QST "The Official Journal Of The ARRL" then the section news should be in each month's issue, period. That's the only way of insuring that it reaches each and every member. ARRL membership is about ham radio, not about the Internet. When they have a magazine that is sent to each and every member on a monthly basis, relying on the Internet to distribute regional and local information is just plain bull****, IMO. -- Establish a new periodical (like NCJ for contesters and QEX for experimenters) to help build a "sense of community" among the participants. I can see another magazine like QST, full of advertising, with a little note at the bottom of a page somewhere inviting you to visit the ARRL website if you want anything really useful. In which case, thanks, but I'm going to pass. There's also the problem of how to get the word out about this new periodical to its target audience. Since the audience you want to reach isn't ARRL members, talking about it in QST isn't going to cut it, because your target audience isn't receiving QST and isn't reading it. -- Educate local civil authorities about this organization, their capabilities, and how to best interface with them to take advantage of their capabilities. Definitely. This is exactly the kind of support that is lacking now, in terms of what the local clubs are able to do in this regard. In order to build some critical mass and gain traction, the outreach effort to build these teams should not initially stress ARRL membership for "grassroots" level players, but rather depend on a strong ARRL identity to build esprit de corps and lead to an attitude of support and affiliation with the parent organization. Perhaps appointment to team leadership positions would be conditioned on ARRL membership. Well, first of all, I think you produce a more effective team if you base appointment to leadership positions on ability rather than on what cards one does or doesn't have stuffed into one's wallet. Beyond that, though, if you start to tie in ARRL membership, at that point, with many Techs you crash head-on into the other issue that a couple of guys here have already raised, namely, the perception held by many people about the ARRL and the Morse code issue. Based on what many people have said to me in eye-to-eye discussions, this issue is one of the major reasons why a lot of people choose not to join ARRL. Len Anderson commented with respect to the ARRL position on code testing over the years as follows: The ARRL could have taken a position of MODERN LEADER- SHIP a decade ago. Actually, the ARRL could have taken a position of modern leadership THREE decades ago when the mid-1970's Communicator Class proposal was out there. Instead, the League chose to register strong opposition to the idea of any no-code license class, delaying the introduction of a codeless license class for another twenty years - something that many have never forgotten, myself included. In fact, personally, I never will forget it. Oh, yes, I've gotten over it - I'm now an ARRL member, I'm a duly appointed (by the SM) PIO in this section, and have a leadership role in an ARRL SSC here - but a lot of guys my age would have been involved in amateur radio twenty years earlier, and many retain that *perception* of the League today despite the current ARRL proposal for retaining the code test only for the Extra class license. Whether the perception is accurate or not, it is the *perception* in the minds of Tech licensees that matters, especially NCTs. If someone sees ARRL as acting in opposition to their best interests, they're probably not going to join ARRL...and this is how many hams have felt about ARRL for years. In this respect, Len and Billy are quite correct - the ARRL has shot itself in the foot more than once on this issue, at least with respect to the hams who would otherwise have benefitted from reduced emphasis on code proficiency in the testing procedures. How they go about fixing that now, I don't know. For one thing, they should push hard for and hope for the FCC to get off its collective duff and allow Techs some meaningful HF privileges without a code test. Then, they need to take advantage of the opportunity this will present by providing some support for the newcomers once they start to exercise their new privileges. Sponsoring a new contest aimed at the new operators might help. Incorporating a new award perhaps - or maybe bring back RCC and...what was it called, the Friendship Award (where you tried to get a contact with callsigns ending in all the letters from A to Z)? But they've got to do something to offset the perception many people have of the League having crapped on no-coders for thirty years if they want to ever see those hams joining ARRL in any significant numbers. Obviously a lot of this proposal needs a great deal of "fleshing out" and refinement, but I present it in the spirit of a "topic for discussion". I'm sure that the minds gathered here will not be bashful about improving my PBI. Hans, anything would be better than the endless flame wars in here, but you've actually come up with something constructive that just might be a good start toward doing something positive for the ARRL and for the ARS. Here's hoping it works out! 73 de John, KC2HMZ |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
John Kasupski wrote: I think it's worth noting here, the old adage about birds of a feather flocking together. It's been my experience that people join the local ham radio clubs for a variety of reasons, just as they get involved with amateur radio to begin with for a wide variety of reasons. When you bottom-line it, though, a local club remains a sure-fire way for a newcomer to meet others who share at least some of their interests in amateur radio. For many it's a way of introducing themselves to the other hams in their area, sort of like, "I've got my license and I'm here now, so when you hear me on the local repeaters you don't have to worry that I might be a bootlegger." Exactly...And that's where a "national" organization can help...Recruiting materials, media bites, testing/training materials. It should be up to the "locals" to deceide where the focus of the organization is going. When they get to the local clubs and hook up with other newcomers (and the observation that the vast majority of newcomers to the ARS enter via the Technician route is dead on...that's why it's called the "entry-level license class"), they find the other Techs basically doing the only things they're permitted to do, absent any meaningful HF privileges unless they pass a code test - they're doing Skywarn; tactical comms for parades, bike races, marathons; Field Day, etc. "...absent any meaningful HF privileges..." Sounds like a set-up for the "If you don't have HF you're not a Ham" argument, John. Not only are well over 90% of all Amateur allocations above 50Mhz, so are most ACTIVITIES above 50MHz. I went on up to Extra thinking all the activities were on HF only to find I keep pulling back to 50Mhz and up for a lot of my hamming activities. I think the "failure" comes only from thinking that there's "nothing to do" above 50Mhz. That's just wrong. Another old adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Thus, it's no surprise that many new Techs join in these activities. This is the same route I myself took when I entered into the ARS back in '99 and I'm still active in these pursuits now, except it's in a leadership role rather than as one who is learning the ropes, so to speak. And it's in fellowship that we learn more effectively. My only "problem" with clubs is that they often try to be too many things to too many people with too few resources. "That is a good idea. Tactical communications would serve as a good training ground." For what it's worth, I concur. In fact, I think tactical communications is a skill that is too often ignored as many public service and emergency communications groups opt for developing proficiency in formal traffic handling - which is a valuable skill in the right circumstances, but unless a group is located somewhere that circumstances warrant the frequent use of formal traffic handling (like being somewhere that often gets smacked by earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other major disasters that result in relatively long relief efforts and a lot of health & Welfare traffic)...well, many groups will only rarely need formal traffic handling skills. Tactical communications skills, on the other hand, are something I think any such group is going to always need, especially if they are doing parades, races, etc. I agree on the use of those skills, John...and those are some roots we shouldn't get too far away from. We've done exactly that here in Tennessee CAP, and now we are "re-energizing" those basic communicator skills along with the techie web-rat things. We're creating a "Communications College" to start from Ground Zero and re-establish basic communicator skills. On this passage, Steve, K4YZ, commented as follows: First of all, there's already flexibility written into the ARES program to allow for it's implementation based upon local needs or concerns. The needs of emergency planners in Plymouth, MN or Winchester, TN are going to be different than those of New York City or Miami, FL. As I see it, Steve, the problem with this is that in many (most?) areas, the local ARES group wears two hats, serving also as the local RACES group, and because FEMA guidelines for RACES call for its implementation at the County level, there's often a lack of ARES/RACES groups having established relationships with local governments (city, town, village, etc.). That is something that, as a result, often falls to the local clubs - but ARRL sees it as an ARES function and local clubs looking for support for their efforts in this area end up getting referred to the local ARES leadership...which is often hesitant to help because they see the clubs' efforts as undermining their own. My experiences here in TN are that all those hats are being worn by ARES now. certainly not in all areas, but RACES as a seperate entity is dwindling. Since the Feds have actually pulled the rug out from under a lot of the RACES regulations the lines have blurred and one hat seems to fit better! Steve continued: I don't see how a nationally directed program could possibly do anything more than appear to be micromanaging. Again, admitting that their is a niche for local groups to be involved at a local level and offering some support to them independent of the ARES (or ARES/RACES) mechanism would not be micromanaging. Often there are entirely different missions involved, and even when the missions overlap, again it does not hurt ARES all that much for the local clubs to have a relationship with a city government's disaster preparedness officials in a county where the ARES group has a relationship with the county's disaster prearedness office. In other words, this would eliminate the "turf war" mentality that often crops up when the local clubs, or other groups independent of ARES, start to actually succeed at what they're doing. I think a lot of this is being answered by having the EC's or DEC's oversee the ARES groups and coordinate the ARES representation with the various EOC's. The folks in the EOC's aren't concerned with where the operators come from or what club sponsors them...Just as long as that cah do what they say they can do. BTW...Part of Tennessee's Homeland Security implementation was to issue a funded mandate that all hospitals within the state have operating Amateur Radio facilites. We have a short tower with the V/UHF antennas installed already. Steve went on... Secondly, the ARRL Special Services Club's program already offers assistance for helping to manage some aspects of club activities, offers of sponsorship, etc. What they (the ARRL) COULD do, without creating a whole new "branch" and field directorship with it, would be to start spending some more money to get more recruiting materials, including TV/Radio "commercials" into the field. They could "regionalize" the materials with pictures of local clubs, landmarks, etc in them to help "identify" them to the target audience. To this I say, "Bingo!" Thanks. 73 Steve, K4YZ |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"K4YZ" wrote in message ups.com... John Kasupski wrote: [snip] When they get to the local clubs and hook up with other newcomers (and the observation that the vast majority of newcomers to the ARS enter via the Technician route is dead on...that's why it's called the "entry-level license class"), they find the other Techs basically doing the only things they're permitted to do, absent any meaningful HF privileges unless they pass a code test - they're doing Skywarn; tactical comms for parades, bike races, marathons; Field Day, etc. "...absent any meaningful HF privileges..." Sounds like a set-up for the "If you don't have HF you're not a Ham" argument, John. Not only are well over 90% of all Amateur allocations above 50Mhz, so are most ACTIVITIES above 50MHz. I went on up to Extra thinking all the activities were on HF only to find I keep pulling back to 50Mhz and up for a lot of my hamming activities. I think the "failure" comes only from thinking that there's "nothing to do" above 50Mhz. That's just wrong. Have you noticed how the majority of participants in non-repeater VHF/UHF/and up activities are NOT the Technicians. Just get on during the ARRL VHF contest and count the percentage of stations that are General class and higher that you end up working. My OM is a fan of the VHF realm and has made presentations to the club on what you can do in these area of the hobby. The result? Well maybe 2 out of 100 work satellites and SSB and another couple work FM simplex and SSB. That's it (sigh). Dee D. Flint, N8UZE |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Dee Flint wrote: "K4YZ" wrote in message ups.com... John Kasupski wrote: [snip] When they get to the local clubs and hook up with other newcomers (and the observation that the vast majority of newcomers to the ARS enter via the Technician route is dead on...that's why it's called the "entry-level license class"), they find the other Techs basically doing the only things they're permitted to do, absent any meaningful HF privileges unless they pass a code test - they're doing Skywarn; tactical comms for parades, bike races, marathons; Field Day, etc. "...absent any meaningful HF privileges..." Sounds like a set-up for the "If you don't have HF you're not a Ham" argument, John. Not only are well over 90% of all Amateur allocations above 50Mhz, so are most ACTIVITIES above 50MHz. I went on up to Extra thinking all the activities were on HF only to find I keep pulling back to 50Mhz and up for a lot of my hamming activities. I think the "failure" comes only from thinking that there's "nothing to do" above 50Mhz. That's just wrong. Have you noticed how the majority of participants in non-repeater VHF/UHF/and up activities are NOT the Technicians. Just get on during the ARRL VHF contest and count the percentage of stations that are General class and higher that you end up working. My OM is a fan of the VHF realm and has made presentations to the club on what you can do in these area of the hobby. The result? Well maybe 2 out of 100 work satellites and SSB and another couple work FM simplex and SSB. That's it (sigh). I guess it's a regional thing, Dee...The bands down here are alive with a lot of stuff, including 2M SSB, etc...And lot's of the NCT's that some other ill-informed individuals suggest have been "chased away"... 73 Steve, K4YZ |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
"Dee Flint" wrote Have you noticed how the majority of participants in non-repeater VHF/UHF/and up activities are NOT the Technicians. The Northern Lights Radio Society here in Minnesota is an organization of operators who are active in weak signal (SSB/CW) work on the VHF, UHF, and Microwave bands. I'm sure your OM has heard of the club. A significant number of the members are Technician licensees. May be different where you live, but in this area the Technicians do a lions share of the work in Skywarn, Grandmas Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, and a host of public service events. During disaster recovery (floods and tornados) events they are major contributors of time and talent. Contrary to common sentiment, they are extraordinarily engaged in the local ham scene and not just "shack-on-a-belt-repeater-lizards" as some like to characterize them. The sooner ARRL membership has Technicians as members in numbers proportional to their population, the sooner ARRL will truly represent the full spectrum of amateur licensees. My PBI seeks to make that happen. 73, de Hans, K0HB |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"KØHB" wrote in message ink.net... "Dee Flint" wrote Have you noticed how the majority of participants in non-repeater VHF/UHF/and up activities are NOT the Technicians. The Northern Lights Radio Society here in Minnesota is an organization of operators who are active in weak signal (SSB/CW) work on the VHF, UHF, and Microwave bands. I'm sure your OM has heard of the club. A significant number of the members are Technician licensees. And half our members are Technicians also. And almost half our officers are Technicians. We've been very successful in getting them engaged in the club. May be different where you live, but in this area the Technicians do a lions share of the work in Skywarn, Grandmas Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, and a host of public service events. During disaster recovery (floods and tornados) events they are major contributors of time and talent. As they do here. Contrary to common sentiment, they are extraordinarily engaged in the local ham scene and not just "shack-on-a-belt-repeater-lizards" as some like to characterize them. The Technicians here are also quite engaged in all the public service, community, and club activities. What the participation seems to lag here is in the wide range of on air activities. The sooner ARRL membership has Technicians as members in numbers proportional to their population, the sooner ARRL will truly represent the full spectrum of amateur licensees. My PBI seeks to make that happen. I thought that I had seen a statistic where close to half of the ARRL membership were Technicians. If so, then it simply means that the Techs need to get more involved on the management side to make things happen. Afterall there is no reason that a Tech couldn't be President. Perhaps if this PBI were more aimed at expanding the membership at all levels it would be more fruitful. Very little change would be needed to what you propose other than seeking out non-members of all classes. 73, de Hans, K0HB Dee D. Flint, N8UZE |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Dee Flint wrote:
And half our members are Technicians also. And almost half our officers are Technicians. We've been very successful in getting them engaged in the club. The Technicians have been kicked around by the 'higher class' licensees or some time for some strange reason. There seems to be some elitists attitude among some holding higher class licenses towards the Techs, that they haven't quite attained the status of being a 'real ham' yet. However, it seems that the Techs are doing one of the very things that hams have long been noted for and helps justify our existance, that of using ham radio for public service. They seem to be a class of folk who aren't much interested in setting in front of an HF rig just to chat with someone in the next state or country, but had much rather put their energy into using ham radio to benefit others. Hooray for the Techs. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Dee Flint wrote: "K=D8HB" wrote in message .. . . . The sooner ARRL membership has Technicians as members in numbers proportional to their population, the sooner ARRL will truly represent the full spectrum of amateur licensees. My PBI seeks to make that happen. I thought that I had seen a statistic where close to half of the ARRL membership were Technicians. This thread was started by Hans who stated in so many words that Techs are under-represented by the ARRL because they don't join in the quantities other class licensees join that some changes need to be made, etc., etc. ~Half the hams in this country are Techs. If, as you state, half the Techs are also ARRL members then what's the point to this whole thread?? Or is it me again? If so, then it simply means that the Techs need to get more involved on the management side to make things happen. Afterall there is no reason that a Tech couldn't be President. Perhaps if this PBI were more aimed at expanding the membership at all levels it would be more fruitful. Very little change would be needed to what you propose other than seeking out non-members of all classes. =20 73, de Hans, K0HB =20 Dee D. Flint, N8UZE w3rv |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
wrote: Dee Flint wrote: "Senior moment . . . " This thread was started by Hans who stated in so many words that Techs are under-represented by the ARRL because they don't join in the quantities other class licensees join that some changes need to be made, etc., etc. ~Half the hams in this country are Techs. Change to: If, as you state, *half the ARRL members are Techs* then what's the point to this whole thread?? Or is it me again? w3rv |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
From: "Dee Flint" on Sat,May 7 2005 5:08 am
"K=D8=88B" wrote in message link.net... "Dee Flint" wrote Contrary to common sentiment, they are extraordinarily engaged in the local ham scene and not just "shack-on-a-belt-repeater-lizards" as some like to characterize them. The Technicians here are also quite engaged in all the public service, community, and club activities. What the participation seems to lag here is in the wide range of on air activities. We can be sure some of your best friends are Technicians... The sooner ARRL membership has Technicians as members in numbers proportional to their population, the sooner ARRL will truly represent the full spectrum of amateur licensees. My PBI seeks to make that happen. I thought that I had seen a statistic where close to half of the ARRL membership were Technicians. Whose pipe smoke were you gazing at for that factoid? The ARRL remains silent on demographics of its membership. On the QST "Publisher's Sworn Circulation Statement" [www.arrl.org/ads/circ.html] page marked "last revised 17 March 2005," the ARRL membership as of 31 December 2004 was 151,727. The "individuals who are ARRL members" is given as 138,127. Obvious discrepancy there. ARRL does not clarify what seems to be a glaring error in arithmetic... That's about ALL that is given BY the ARRL on their membership...or any other demographics. According to www.hamdata.com, the total licensees for U.S. radio amateurs was 733,080 on 7 May 2005. Of those, 310,455 were Technician classes...which works out to 42.35% of the total. If the ARRL membership is really as high as 151,727 then that represents only 20.70% of the total number of licensed U.S. radio amateurs. If so, then it simply means that the Techs need to get more involved on the management side to make things happen. Long jump of a conclusion. Tsk, tsk. What would your class say about that? Afterall there is no reason that a Tech couldn't be President. Quite true. The only requirement is that they are natural-born citizens of the United States, are at least 35 years old and been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. - Article II, Section 1, Constitution of the United States of America Oh, you meant the ARRL? The ARRL laready has TWO Presidents...Sumner and Haynie. Are you suggesting they try for THREE? [incroyable...] Perhaps if this PBI were more aimed at expanding the membership at all levels it would be more fruitful. Very little change would be needed to what you propose other than seeking out non-members of all classes. ARRL membership is dropping. [go look at older BoD Membership reports] Dropping with essentially NO change in their requirements. That is NOT good for the League. What is "seeking out non-members of all classes?" First you say that "half the ARRL membership is Technicians," then you want more attraction for all classes? You aren't being clear in what you are saying. BTW, how DID the cake taste? |
Reply |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|