You'll also see another false narrative in the coming months: "Contesting is good training for emergency traffic handling." ARRL's a small lobbying organization in business for itself. ARRL represents the 20% of hams who choose to join. The other 80% aren't part of the ARRL. Don't confuse marketing and B.S. for support of hams and ham radio. Although it sometimes looks like a cult, it's just another club pretending to speak for the majority.
Greetings My Esteemed Friends, Gentlemen and Ladies of Valor, Perhaps a better way to represent our requirement of Full Disclosure and Transparency is simply said: "It is a requirement of the body of members that all ARRL meetings and finances be made generously available in a timely manner to any current member making request without complaint or reproach by the governing body of said Entity." The issue is not so much a small grievous infraction of secrecy, but the road that it leads to. Our once great country was founded on these ideals of being ruled by the People, of the People and for the People. Corruption and Special Interests eroded the foundation a little at a time, never more than the members of the Constitutional Republic would tolerate. We now face potential Marshall Law under the control of a Progressive Regime who is not by the People, nor of the People and definitely not for the People. Let us not make the mistake here. Simply correct the issue in good spirits and friendship. If any refuse to comply, they will be required to step down from their position effectively immediately. We will then vote in an appropriate candidate to carry on the duties as "WE" define them, not as the governing body wishes affect them. Humbly Submitted, The Minute Man - KG5KQY
Maybe in your town hams serve no purpose but in mine (NYC) hams did participate in passing info on 9-11 (a REAL emergency) and countless other times including the annual NY marathon but hey, there are only 8 million of us. What do we know? As the folks in Hatti about how hams got info in and out of the effected area or those in Nepal or many other places outside of your town. Let us know what you find out.
You need to do your homework, they are on digital trunked systems for interoperability. If that system is compromised UHF simplex does not go far, assuming they might have a direct channel programmed into the radio. Cell does not have enough capacity to handle all the panic calls if an emergency would arise, so cell would be for the most part useless. Sounds good, in reality you will be in shock and crying. Unless you plan on walking to the "hills", keep in mind your vehicle that contains solid state components will not be funtional...... Fact is, the only people that MIGHT,,, note that I said might, have communications out to a few miles distance would be some one with an old fashioned tube rig, and that is contingent upon having enough power to run it.
You take me back to Wichita, KS in the 1970s when some of us with good connections and real ability were again discussing with then division director Paul Grauer of Wilson, KS, on what was ahead and what could be for the ARRL when retiring Bob Denniston's energy and the changing times marked another point of possibility. Nothing happened then, nothing has happened since except for bigger buildings and overhead, more missed opportunities and many other things easy to complain about and not easy to fix. ARRL has missed so many opportunities to innovate and to involve itself in real leadership and education to open doors and awareness and innovations that could have been and, alas, likely never will be if you don't become involved or commit more than dues and noise. It's part of what is wrong with the USA today that shows here. Fixing things ain't easy or it would have been done by some of us who tried and were told to get out of the way or just go away. Money won't do it. Real awareness, education and commitment can. An old ham; W zero JOG
Some would perhaps be more interested than you in financial matters, others in politics, others in goal setting. A People should understand what there governing body does for them in order to vote for and monitor them. It is the old rule, that in order to teach a dog new tricks, you must first know more than the dog.
In my personal experience as a member of ARRL, I found that the secret deliberations of ARRL committees (and secrecy surrounding who was actually on those committees) made it impossible to engage in any kind of reasonable dialogue. ARRL has made some awful filings on FCC rulemaking over the years, and failed to champion issues that could benefit the future of ham radio. After finding great difficulty engaging in meaningful discourse with league officials (in person and via correspondence) , I voted with my feet. There are no significant benefits to membership, and it is simply counter-productive for hams to continue to fund ARRL.
Very incorrect. At the present time you should feel very grateful that amateur radio still has frequencies higher than 28 Mhz. Threat of losing ham spectrum is going be even worse in the coming years because IOT will include many wireless applications and along with that will be reallocation of spectrum. Look what happened in the UK, they lost some prime UHF spectrum to commercial interests and the IOT revolution is just beginning Your statement will hold very well AFTER all of the spectrum is taken away......... .
ARRL "Detailed financial data is extremely difficult to obtain." The pay for the top 5 ARRL officers runs from $150,000/year to $100,000 as I recall from previous articles. That seems a bit excessive for what those people actually do for their pay. The annual reports are available on line. http://www.arrl.org/annual-reports It shows $7 million per year for salaries, compensation and benefits. 2013 and 2014. why so much ??? Old info= http://www.arrl.org/forum/topics/view/882 I am a member because 1, they seem to do a lot of good things, despite the above concerns and 2, QST magazine. However, it does seem like a good "inspection" is in order.
ARRL, as a non-profit organization under IRS rules, must make its federal tax returns available to the public. Also, with the Internet, there are several places online where you can get to copies of the Form 990 tax returns used by organizations like ARRL. After a very quick Google search, I found one such example at: https://www.citizenaudit.org/organization/066000004/AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE INC/ There are other sites that require you to set up an account to get access to these files, but this link got me to the tax returns (as PDF files) without setting up an account. Click on "Tax Documents (Form 990s)" at the top of that page, then look for the links to the 990-EO forms. I saw one as of December 2014, which appears to be the most recent filing available on that site. This is separate from the ARRL Foundation, whose tax returns are also available for public inspection. The tax returns don't have all of the other stories and information contained in the annual report documents that are available from the ARRL web site, but they do have the numbers that many seem to be looking for in this thread. For example, the most recent tax return cites 110 paid employees, seven of whom have salaries in excess of $100000/year, and over 45000 volunteers. 73!
That is actually "cheap" for the responsibility. It only seems excessive to people that have not accomplished anything in life that are possibly living on hand-outs or just do barely enough to get money for cigarettes and liquor.
There is nothing new under the sun....or at least not on the 'zed. One does not work for the ARRL in hopes of getting rich.
