Who empowered this Director to address the US Senate at this time? Being a chairman of a BoD committee shouldn't grant privileges outside the board. According to their General Counsel this is a job for an ARRL corporate officer or senior staff. "It is not the proper role of individual directors to speak for the organization ..." - W3KD letter on CoC and censure of N6AA. Especially on an important topic which so much of the membership has strongly called into question. Hypocritical - the League cabal still playing favorites, fast and loose on their own rules ...
The board empowered N2YBB to lobby. In principle there is nothing wrong with that. The issue is whether this bill means something different from how he is representing it. Obviously there are many, including those schooled in the law, that disagree with the way it is being represented, when compared to what it says and the incredibly bad downside of what it says. ARPA is fine. But HR555--as worded-- is a disaster and needs to be scuttled. Wording obliterated-- start from scratch. Just like you guys have a tendency to see some directors, and apparently N2YBB, in 'bad' terms', my sense is he sees us the same way. Both views are incomplete and thus stupid. The reality is that,IMO, N2YBB does not understand the wording, or at least the implications, of , the HR555 bill as written. And that is a major, major, problem. MO.
If you like starting all over again and standing at the very back end of the line, change the wording in HR-555 That's not exactly something I would call "progress" or moving forward though. Changing the wording in HR-555 would instantly kill this bill, but you already knew that. So is that what you want to do, because that's exactly what will happen.
Of COURSE I 'want' to kill this bill, for reasons both numerously articulated and obvious. No one has changed a damn word, despite the dire need. Absolutely! That does NOT mean that we should NOT do an ARPA. It means that HR555, as presently worded, is a disaster. I have been saying this, factually enumerating its problems (starting with its previous incarnation), since Fall 2016. Everyone knows this; I have not wavered; the evidence of its wording errors is overwhelming; and hundreds of people, including many ham attorneys, have since --independently-- pointed out exactly the validity of my objections and even pointed out some more. Does HR555 affect ME? Y-E-S. My attorneys have recommended NOT BUILDING MY KENTUCKY SUPER STATION, because it would be dismantled through HR555 and the overeach of contracts it affects. In fact, MOST RURAL HAM STATIONS would have their antennas in violation of federal law IF HR555, as worded, passes. Does that affect ham radio? You bet! I was going to use fractal antennas in KY to showcase, in a highly obvious fashion, the benefit of Part 97 in its mission. Not now. Won't do it. Window opened and closed. I am not going to be a poster child test case in a HR555(if passed) generated lawsuit. Waste of a half a million dollars and my time. Ain't no conspiracy. Just informed people pointing out what should be obvious in HR555 fatal wording. BTW, eager for more info? OK. Sure. NONE OF THE COUNSELS I SOUGHT OPINION ON HR555 ARE HAMs. NONE OF MY attorney ham friends and counsels were involved in my education and comments on HR555. They reached their own conclusions, and acted accordingly. I sought and got INDEPENDENT COUNSEL opinions on the wording of HR555. WHY HASN'T THE ARRL BOARD DONE THE SAME?????? So what is YOUR point? 73 Chip W1YW
Posting about how many members are paying $49 a year or have paid for a "Life" membership means nothing. Looking at the last issue of QST, I'd say its at least 50% advertisements. They are the ones who keep the ARRL afloat, not membership. The membership gives them numbers they can show to those same advertisers and say "X number of people read this publication monthly and will see your advertising." Its the same as any other magazine (or online magazine). A good number of them have died. The reason they die is partially the subscribers fault, if they don't "re-up"...then that is one less person seeing the advertising. Drop too low and you cannot charge as much as you used to (many of them base the cost on those numbers). That is why magazines of all genres are now 50% or more advertising. I remember looking at a "MAD" magazine recently when I went to the store. What used to be 90% content and 10% advertising (if that) is now peppered with it. They only need half the staff to produce it now because they cut 50% of the content away. This is probably what is starting to bite them. Advertisers are more choosy now. Marketing is a different ballgame. Shelf space at eye level is something that many brands in a grocery store will fight for. Children's cereals are placed a little lower so it is at their eye level so they can scream "Mommy I want....." You get the idea. I don't know if the ARRL has lost or gained members, but with the advent of the internet there is now more competition for ad dollars. Subsequently a Ham Radio related company now has more than one place to advertise. QST and the ARRL used to call the shots because they had this captive audience. Now those same advertisers can hold the ARRL to the fire. They can threaten to pull advertising or demand a lower rate not only based on how many people get QST, but by the simple fact that Ham Radio operator information is available to the public. This is where this very website (and many others) can give you a daily list of new hams, hams who changed callsigns, hams who upgraded etc...and they can take those ad dollars and directly solicit those people. With that power, they now call the shots, and if they see the ARRL as not as valuable a resource for advertising as they used to be, they pay less for their ads, reduce the size of them (or maybe just have a small blurb versus a few full pages like HRO does, etc) or just not use QST at all. That money can be instead tossed at a printer and the USPS to send an advertising leaflet or catalog to their target audience. The money starts to slip, people start to grumble, tensions rise, and you start having petty bickering over all kinds of things. The CEO and the board call the shots. They see the writing on the wall, they have to do something to increase the membership numbers, trim the fat, save money. They start toying with policy. They start going after people who are on or off the payroll. Even though a lot of section or district managers are paid zero, they still have to be supported in some ways. There is some cash flow there. So you start looking at what can be cut first, and they look at that stuff. Yeah its not a good place to probably be picking at, but that is what they chose. It reminds me of a few California State budgets that were stalemated and they cut education funding first. Not a very logical decision, but they did it and somehow kept things afloat. When you're on a boat that used to be pristine and its now starting to take on leaks and you're running out of corks to plug them, people start getting desperate and they do stupid things. Am I a member? Yes. Will I re-evaluate next due date? Probably. I will see what happens. I get QST electronically and I can honestly say the last issue I looked at was Decembers. I'll probably get to the other ones, but it really doesn't take long to "read" QST anymore when 50%+ of the pages you're flipping are advertisements. Unless its something I may be in the market for, I just flip to the next page. Probably like many of us do. Which is something advertisers don't want to see either. That is why sometimes when you sign up for a catalog, newsletter, etc on the internet, they ask you how you heard about it. You probably don't think much of it, but you can bet their advertising section does. When more and more people checkmark anything besides QST....they pursue those avenues. Don't be surprised if there is more stupidity in the coming months. Its not wise what they are doing, but people who may very well be out of a job soon if the ship doesn't get the holes plugged and the water pumped overboard sometimes don't think logically. Consolidating operations and streamlining stuff happens in business all of the time. Sam's Club is a prime example. They looked at their stores numbers, set a bar, and any store that didn't meet that bar got closed down after the holidays...for good. When you put your survival first as a company or a non-profit and your members second (or third, or tenth, or whatever, but surely not number one) things go bad. Non-profit or not, it happens. If you look at the number of licensed Amateurs versus Members.....There are a good many who don't care (period) or don't care for the ARRL to represent them by putting dollars forth to support them. Its very likely that number will be increasing if they continue to make bonehead decisions. But, living in a free country, people are free to do good things. Or totally flush them down the....well you get what I mean.
