The winds of change in Australia - Almost a new Board for the WIA

Dear fellow Amateurs,

Over the Month of February the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA), the main representative body for Amateurs in Australia and the holder of a Deed of Arrangement for Assessment and Licensing services with the Australian Government, has conducted its required annual Board Election.

There were 2 casual vacancies through directors having resigned late in December, 2016; one sitting Director (Robert Broomhead) chose not to re-nominate. Due to ongoing concerns amongst Australian Amateurs "The President" of the WIA, Phil Wait, also decided to place himself up for re-election.

All 7 positions mandated in the WIA's constitution were therefore up for election.

The result of the election as advised to WIA members via the WIA Returning officer, John Marshall (at http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2017/20170331-1/index.php) has been as follows:

The successful candidates for election to the Board, and the number of votes polled, are as follows:
Justin Giles-Clarke (1182)
Gregory Kelly (1114)
David Ford (1072)
Marcus Berglund (955)
Peter Clee (891)
Philip Wait (690) ( SITTING DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT )
Brian Clarke (687)

The unsuccessful candidates were:
Ewan McLeod (645) ( SITTING DIRECTOR )
James Linton (627) ( SECRETARY )
Roger Harrison (611) ( SITTING DIRECTOR )
Garry Page (607)
John Fisher (563)
Fred Swainston (489) ( SITTING DIRECTOR ; WIA NOMINATED TRAINING ORGANISATION )

I on behalf of WIA members congratulate the newly elected Board Members and wish them all the best. On behalf of all WIA members I wish to thank the Outgoing Board members and also the other candidates that nominated for their efforts.

The winds of change have blown through the 101 year-old Wireless Institute of Australia.

Stephen Ireland
VK3VM / VK3SIR

(Source: http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2017/20170331-1/index.php )

 

The old Board were clearly struggling so this breath of fresh wind is welcome. Good luck to them.

 

What is the chance of retiring the obsolete 400W rule with the government this time around?

Carl

 

Carl

Obviously you are fully aware at the farce that occurred some years back ... There has been some fight-back going on for some time ...

I have had quite a bit to do with this - in fact some would say that I have been the ONLY person GAME ENOUGH to write articles with some EME / EMR for the WIA's "Amateur Radio" Journal. I was VERY CRITICAL of the conduct of the ACMA, or regulator and many of these concerns and complaints were just ignored....

I will also share with you something that happened on 24/3/17 as this is relevant to this:

http://parlview.aph.gov.au/mediaPlayer.php?videoID=345368&operation_mode=parlview

View from around 11:26:00. The Senator asking the questions is Senator Urquhart from Tasmania. We are not too sure who the person answering the questions is as its someone that none of us appear to have spoken with...

The hard work of many has led to us, as Amateurs, and our concerns, finally being heard, and seriously by our Nation's leaders... But the problem is that these questions have NOT originated from our body, the WIA ... It is clear from the testimonies that the Australian Regulator, the ACMA, is trying to deflect matters as being that only of a few mischievous Amateurs...

The election result should indicate FAR MORE than that....

The WIA holds a Deed of Arrangement for Assessment Services with the ACMA. As well it is supposed to represent us. I have been repeatedly told by WIA Presidents (SK and present) NOT to upset the ACMA... for fear of losing the contract.

Who is the WIA supposed to represent first? Remember that a dog cannot serve two masters...

I leave the discussion there; I know that this result has sent SHOCKWAVES through Amateur communities world-wide. The WIA is a 101-yer-old entity; it is as conservative as you can get in its nature! Yet the MEMBERS obviously want results now; "Donald Trump", "Brexit", and even the rise of "Xenephon" and "Hanson" here in Australia should be the evidence that people have had enough of "The same...".

The result should - especially in the context of the world as it is today - be seen as a wakeup call to ALL REPRESENTATIVE BODIES. Representative agencies should have one role and one role only - Representing the Amateur and the Interests of All Amateurs. There should be NO PERSONAL INTEREST or NO PERSONAL GAIN. There is no such thing as "mates" on boards - just the SOLE INTERESTS OF THE MEMBERS.

So a long answer to your short question - The answer is that hopefully a new, fresh approach IF the new Board can overcome conservative resistances will lead to many gains... Regression to the past and what was easy has sent us backwards....

73

Steve I
VK3VM / VK3SIR

 

Congratulations to the new board and wish them well. As one who put a submission to the WIA on the recent band changes proposal to the ACMA am pleased to see the individual associated with the "laughing kookaburras" broadcast not gain re election to the WIA board.

Individuals with attitudes such as were displayed are simply not needed in our Amateur Radio representative body.

 

Now....if we could only clean house in the United States and sweep out the entire Board of Directors of the American Radio Relay League!

 

There are two ways that established "boards" become stale "Cuban Cigar Smokers" - Its through not having constitutional provisions for regular rotational change and its through information control. Electing people JUST BECAUSE THEY PROFILE AS BUSINESS / GOVERNMENT PEOPLE is NOT HEALTHY either ! In the case of AR they need to be ACTIVE AMATEURS, with DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS and GOOD PEOPLE COMMUNCATION SKILLS !

The business aspects should be covered via competent people offering good, member-first advice, from Divisions/Committees.

Remember that America's most dynamic company of the last 25 years - Apple - had Boards, Committees and Divisions that were literally at war with each other. They had diverse, creative, competitive people with varied skills from multiple representative areas. Steve Jobs promoted this; his main skill was people, but people management from a strong technical base. This was how he was able to keep the Management and Divisions in Apple within checks-and-balances. They sacked him in the 90's... Apple went "static"... They brought him back, he brought the dynamism back, and Apple flourished again. I am FAR from suggesting that he was a saint and that he should be bowed and prayed to either !!! Yet the creativity and dynamic nature that he fostered ... WOW !

Interesting over-simplified anecdote that we can all learn from, eh?

Many great monoliths as we know have gone for harmony and as a result lost their dynamic nature... IBM, HP, Kodak, Xerox... But there are also the extremes... Enron being the best example.

Boards should be SEEN but NOT HEARD if they are effective ! It is the Committees/Divisions, with effective management and oversight, that are the powerhouses of any organisation.

One should really seek to be on a committee !!! One should be ACTIVE on a COMMITTEE/in a DIVISION !!! Boards must have FULL CONFIDENCE IN COMMITTEES/DIVISIONS and basically rubber-stamp their recommendations. Sometimes a Board needs to RETURN matters to COMMITTEES/DIVISIONS if decisions, without good reason, are outside their policy direction. They need to have good OVERSIGHT over COMMITTEES/DIVISIONS and sometimes set them back on the policies that they have set if they are not being representative.

This is all taught in Economics 101 at the "School of Hard Knocks"... Basic common sense. IF there is POLITICS.... well, questions must be asked !!!!

 

Steve, I cant access that video, says I need to update my Flash player which isnt going to happen since it is an easy way to get hacked.

Carl

 

That can be done.

All it takes is for new people to run for those offices, and get elected.

The problem is.....getting people who will do what is required to get elected.

League Directors get travel expenses, but they aren't paid. The usual path to Director is to get some sort of field appointment, then Section Manager, then Vice Director, then Director. All unpaid volunteer positions involving a lot of time.

What's more, once someone gets elected as a League official - they've painted a target on themselves for every complaint anyone has about Amateur Radio. Everything the ARRL does wrong is their fault; nothing the League does right is because of them. Practically every complaining person thinks THEIR issue should be #1 priority, and that the ARRL has infinite resources to make things happen.

Such is volunteer democracy.

 

A brief synopsis is located here, Carl: http://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2017/20170330-1/index.php

And if you're afraid of pop-up messages, maybe a trip directly to the MS website may help: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14209


73,


Jon Pearl - W4ABC
www.w4abc.com

 

Hi Jim,

I'm not saying that you're wrong, but is there a flip side to the coin?

At the very least, members should DEMAND openness in an organization that they pay dues money to. When an organization holds announced -but secret- meetings where the general membership is not allowed to attend and no provisions are made to record and share the video and audio of the aforementioned - that organization and its leadership will always find it difficult to maintain trust; attract and retain bountiful membership, and spend anything less than a full time effort deflecting the barbs of past and present members.


My apologies to Stephen, VK3VM. It was not my intention to steal your thread. You have some serious fish to fry down-under.


73,


Jon Pearl - W4ABC
www.w4abc.com

 

Probably no chance of that happening.

 

What I wrote was not political , it was historical.

As Einstein said ''Insanity: is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.''

When countries and it leaders do the same things , it is insanity to expect different results if they repeat the same actions,.
As the world is entering a phase where countries are embracing ideals that are self centered , then the result of these actions , which in the past lead to war , should be expected to repeat again.

That is not politics , it is reality.
It is science , the ability to observe , questions , conclude and then predict.

If Hams have a problem with reality , then they really should not be involved with anything to do with science ,, electricity and electronics included. , all of which require a person to be grounded in reality , a science of the world around them..


gregW OH2FFY

 

Not that it would add much to any argument but as a note of interest foreign radio amateurs in Thailand holding intermediate class licenses (the only kind available for HF operations and limited to 200 watts output) can now upgrade to advanced class (presumably if their home country license has a degree of equivalency). The advanced class license permits output powe of 1kW. This is a very recent change which has perhaps happened for a mix of reasons, nonetheless its an improvement.

http://www.qsl.net/rast/

Martin, HS0ZED

 

Apparently the QRZ moderators thought different and it went bye bye. You might want to read the QRZ rules some day.