Putting ARRL back "mainstream" with hometown hams
 

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.


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.


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. Without dwelling overlong on the
shortcomings of the current situation, I think we can all agree on four points:


1) A focused national program with Director (or higher) level leadership would
have more impact than the current fragmented attention to "local" Amateur Radio.


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.


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.


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.


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.


-- 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.


-- Move Field Day and SET into this organization as "their" events.


-- 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.


-- Establish a new periodical (like NCJ for contesters and QEX for
experimenters) to help build a "sense of community" among the participants.


-- Educate local civil authorities about this organization, their capabilities,
and how to best interface with them to take advantage of their capabilities.


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.


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.


73, de Hans, K0HB
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~k0hb

KØHB wrote:

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.

ARRL needs to speak to them.


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.

No argument there. Many of the people I can count on to help with this
sort of thing are the Tech's.


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.

That is a good idea. Tactical communications would serve as a good
training ground.


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. Without dwelling overlong on the
shortcomings of the current situation, I think we can all agree on four points:


1) A focused national program with Director (or higher) level leadership would
have more impact than the current fragmented attention to "local" Amateur Radio.


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.


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.


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.


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.


-- 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.


-- Move Field Day and SET into this organization as "their" events.


-- 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.

Perhaps if the new hams believed that there was relevancy, they might
join, eh?


-- Establish a new periodical (like NCJ for contesters and QEX for
experimenters) to help build a "sense of community" among the participants.

I have mixed thoughts on this. Perhaps if the other efforts appear to
be working, it would be a good thing. It might be an expensive thing if
the effort were to fall flat.


-- Educate local civil authorities about this organization, their capabilities,
and how to best interface with them to take advantage of their capabilities.

Absolutely. Some effort should be extended toward event coverage also.
I think that there are a lot of groups that do not know about Hams even
offering this sort of coverage. And their other options don't work very
well. But these groups would probably enjoy the tie-in with the civil
work too.


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.


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.

I do think this is a good idea, and as PBI's go, it is pretty good. I
believe that at some point in the process, advancement should be gently
suggested. I think esprit de corps hinges upon that also.

- Mike KB3EIA -

And tks for something to talk about! 8^)

"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...


I believe that at some point in the process, advancement
should be gently suggested. I think esprit de corps hinges
upon that also.


That may be true, or it might not be, but I think it is a completely separate
agenda from pointing ARRL back at "mainstreet America".

In my mind we should leave the question of social-engineering missions to the
regulators (FCC).

73, and thanks for your thoughtful comments,

de Hans, K0HB

K0HB Said:

QUOTE:

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.

UNQUOTE.

Yes, that was my first thought, Hans.

A couple of points of my own.

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.

I don't see how a nationally directed program could possibly do
anything more than appear to be micromanaging.

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.

Otherwise, I like the ideas.

73

Steve, K4YZ

K=D8HB wrote:

.. . . .


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.

All warm and fuzzy good Hans but it's another OF's top-down
"reorganizational solution" which I don't see would work any better
than it's predecessors.

The League needs to recognize/concede that it has a serious marketing
problem and address the problem the same way other businesses do in
these situations. They have a product line which isn't selling to a
large sector of their potential buyers. Why? Nobody actually knows. And
nobody will know until the League finds out why the Techs aren't buying
their wares.

Well-run businesses tackle this problem via market research and the
League needs to do a bunch of long-overdue bottom-up market research as
a first step if they expect to get any more real penetration into their
Tech market.

The League should go out into the trenches in volume and, for openers,
start asking all the Techs who are not ARRL members why they aren't
members and what the League needs to do to pry the forty bucks a year
out of them. Then properly analyze the results of the surveys and make
the appropriate changes in their product line. Shuffling SM's duties
around and talking up ham radio to the town burghers, etc., etc. as
"potential solutions" would drive a real marketeer to tears of
laughter. =20

73, de Hans, K0HB

w3rv

I do think this is a good idea, and as PBI's go, it is pretty good.
I believe that at some point in the process, advancement should be
gently suggested. I think esprit de corps hinges upon that also.

For some reason, when I read "advancement" above, my first thought
was to encourage the Techs to advance to "general" or "extra".
Then they'd get on HF and then have a reason to join a national
club (ARRL). But that reason is kinda stupid. Upgrading
doesn't mean that you'd have to give up the Tech allocations,
so the Techs could still do local stuff even if they did
upgrade. Not like the old days when a Novice upgraded to
Tech and thus lose the Novice allocations (now THAT was
stupid). Where am I going with this? Damm if I know... :-)

- Mike KB3EIA -

And tks for something to talk about! 8^)

You can say that again. Lately this newsgroup was nothing
except mindless flameage... :-)

wrote:

The League needs to recognize/concede that it has a serious marketing
problem and address the problem the same way other businesses do in
these situations. They have a product line which isn't selling to a
large sector of their potential buyers. Why? Nobody actually knows.
And
nobody will know until the League finds out why the Techs aren't
buying
their wares.

Here's one big reason:

The League is a *national* organization. Focused mostly on national,
international, and regional issues, and not so much local ones.

Now if a ham's focus and interest are national or international, the
League can have a lot to offer. But at the local level, how much the
ARRL can offer someone depends entirely on who the local folks are.

As a prime example, look at QST. How much of it is devoted to purely
local stuff? Not much - the mag would have to be huge to cover ever
locality in any depth at all. So why should someone whose main interest
in amateur radio is the folks within, say, 50 miles, shell out $40/yr
for a membership?

73 de Jim, N2EY

K=D8HB wrote:
The growth in numbers of Amateurs over the past decade has been
overwhelmingly
via the Technician license.

Do you have any numbers to back that up, Hans? The license numbers I
post here every two weeks point back to 2000 but not to 1995.

I agree that since about 1987 or so, most new hams have started out as
Technicians. Maybe even earlier than that. But it's also true that many
of them have gone on to other license classes.

The total number of Technicians and Technician Pluses today is less
than it was 5 years ago.=20

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in message
oups.com...

KØHB wrote:

The growth in numbers of Amateurs over the past decade
has been overwhelmingly via the Technician license.

.... since about 1987 or so, most new hams
have started out as Technicians.

Jim, we can nit-pick the semantics if you really think that's productive, but
the two statements above both seem to convey the same notion, which we might
more clearly state "Most new hams since 1991 have entered via the Technician
class which is now the largest single license class in the US, comprising almost
half (47.7%) of the population of licensees in this country, nearly equal to the
combined total population of the three higher classes.".

73, de Hans, K0HB

"KØHB" wrote in message
ink.net...
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.


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.


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. Without dwelling overlong on the shortcomings of the current
situation, I think we can all agree on four points:


1) A focused national program with Director (or higher) level leadership
would have more impact than the current fragmented attention to "local"
Amateur Radio.


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.


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.


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.


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.


-- 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.


-- Move Field Day and SET into this organization as "their" events.


-- 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.


-- Establish a new periodical (like NCJ for contesters and QEX for
experimenters) to help build a "sense of community" among the
participants.


-- Educate local civil authorities about this organization, their
capabilities, and how to best interface with them to take advantage of
their capabilities.


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.


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.


73, de Hans, K0HB
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~k0hb

Overall I like the ideas. So who is going to take on the job of
spearheading this. It's going to take someone willing to take the time and
effort to work with bulldog determination to work with the ARRL (and push
the ARRL) and make it happen.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE