Hey everyone, working behind the scenes to develop a new national organization. We are developing to provide resources, an annual award, and on-the-air events (not contests). We are looking for passionate people to serve on the board of directors, the advisory board, and the board of review of the award. Are you passionate about ham radio and looking to make a real impact? We’d love to have you on board! As with many organizations, we rely on dedicated volunteers to help us thrive in areas like web design, award management, event planning, member support, and more. Your skills can make a difference! Reach out by leaving a comment, sending a message, or emailing us – CQ@Usnara.org, together, we can create something great.
Join us for a brainstorming session on Monday the 24th at 7:00pm Central time. Let's discuss the need for a National Amateur Radio Alliance and how we can rise to meet the needs of the US amateur radio community. Topics include The need for NARA, Initial funding and board formation, recruiting volunteers & website development.Questions can be sent to cq@usnara.org Facebook event link https://www.facebook.com/share/1A3oQPvfR7/. Google meet meeting: meet.google.com/qiu-vsgr-zqr Welcome & Introductions Overview of the need for NARA 80% of US amateurs are not part of a national organization Promotional and educational materials for organizations Promotion of on-the-air events (not nets or contests) To address retention & involvement of new hams Promote higher levels of training for those involved in EMcom A central hub for collecting opinions and needs Promote amateur radio in general Unified voice for advocacy Initial funding & forming a board Board of Directors: 5-7 people Board of Advisors Board of Review for awards Committee Members Cost needs 3,000-5,000 to start up Recruiting volunteers Website development
Website is here but it's pretty useless: https://amateurradioalliance.org/ NONE of the menu tabs at the top do anything. Having a "Facebook only" presence will be a severely limiting factor - many folks don't use Facebook, and if they do, not very much. Dave W7UUU
Thanks for the info Dave. Yeah the website is bare. Maybe they'll get more information up soon. I agree a Facebook only presence is not going to get them very far and may in fact turn away a lot of interest.
If I might make a suggestion, I would expect to see a lot more curiosity into what your new organization might do differently. A lot more questions than statements. I didn’t see a single question in your meeting agenda. Also I agree with @W7UUU that being Facebook centered will be limiting. I don’t do Facebook.
I'm hopeful for their efforts; more is merrier. But I don't go to Facebook, and I prefer not to do anything Google, either. Tech Bro Sniffer Syndrome leaves me cold. 73 Tom W9YW
Facebook-only means I'd never consider it. I've reduced my fb presence significantly (and am reducing it further) and my goal is to have a minimal exposure to any Meta property. It also sounds like you're management-heavy right out of the gate. You're recruiting for three different boards here. Set some early goals for a small group and, together, recruit for a board once you have those goals.
I find it curious that the group's website fails to name any personnel involved thus far. Who is running it? Who are the founders? I'm always suspicious when any organization is anonymous, since I've later found questionable motives, unsavory people, and unacceptable intent. Such experience has taught me to ask such questions, and sometimes all is well. Good. I've emailed the anonymous address, and presume Mikel, W4OPS, who posted this thread, is somehow at the root. I looked up his profile to try to put a face on the group. We shall see. Some of those on here might remember SPAR, the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio. They were well-intentioned, and actually offered some support in regulatory maneuvering that benefitted AM on HF. Unfortunately, with only a handful of people actually running the place, they eventually burned out and the group today is gone. I wish these newcomers good luck. The more attempts, the greater chance someday we may have a viable successor to the group in Newington that seems to have lost its way.
We have a website, bare bones, but it is being redone. Its usnara.org or amateurradioalliance.org. You can check it out, but it will be much better in a week, I just threw up some text to summarize our thoughts.
Hey Dave, that's just a static picture at the top, the website is being redone. We are also on twitter, we will be at local hamvest, we will be at Dayton and in Huntsville as well, where we will announce our annual award. This this is stuff that has come together just in the last week and a half.
Mikel, I wonder if your new group was inspired at least in part by SPAR of 20 years ago? I see you are involved in one of its descendants. https://winterfieldday.org/history.php
I see your point. I read a lot of statements on facebook, radio reference, qrz and blogs about what the ARRL isn't doing. I think there is a place to fill in the gaps. We have asked ourselves list of questions about what we could do or what we would do differently and thus came up with the idea of just doing it. We have a long way to go before some people will consider us legit. I thank those who applaud our efforts. It will be a group effort as no person can do this alone, but we get the interest and get momentum, there is very little that the ARRL does, that we couldn't do. But having said that, know that we aren't going to waist time reinventing the wheel, we don't need a VEC group, we don't need to offer insurance. We need to create resources and reasons to get people licensed and keep them involved that first year and get them upgraded. I have a lot of ideas and encourage you and everyone else on here to sit in on that meeting. I apologize, it is a google meets meeting, we just listed the event on facebook. Here is a link to the meeting. meet.google.com/qiu-vsgr-zqr. It's Monday the 24th at 7pm central time. I guess that might clear it up some, but yes to your comment we will always be asking what can we do for the clubs.
Ha Ha, I told my brother we could name it SPAR. I was joking though. I am involved in WFD. We took over the organization a couple years ago. I also own HamStuffOnline.com. I'm no stranger to the non profit world, or growing organizations. I actually think it's quite simple, listen to people and meet their needs. I ready every comment good and bad and consider it. I have spent days and days reading comments bout what the ARRL is or isn't doing. I'm don't know much about SPAR but they did start WFD and WFD is still around. Today we have much more opportunities to promote NARA and get the word out. We have the need to fill (helping clubs) we have new hams getting licensed every week, we have the passion and the desire. We have those who want to help but have lost faith in the ARRL. I think there is an opportunity now more than ever for an organization to step up. Is it called NARA, is it RACPAC, is it something else? I chose Alliance because if we can work together and combine our resources we stand a chance at making something great. It has to be done the right way and it will be hard work, but I'm ready to do it. Mike, W4OPS
