I curated a YouTube playlist that contains over 130 videos of ARRL Field Day action. Check it out here, or in the convenient embedded player below.
It’s surprising how many videos have popped up already; just a little fewer videos than last year, despite COVID-19 concerns. Many were single or few-op, but I did see a few larger operations, but I was sad to see a lot of multi-operator stations where not everyone was wearing face coverings and not distancing themselves.
Good that you remembered this from the last article.
In 2018, a lot of things changed in my life. I got married, I bought a house, I changed my last name, I changed my job, and I changed emails. In all of that commotion I had no less than 54 venues – banks, credit cards, airlines, hotels, passport, drivers license, etc etc etc – to update. Unfortunately for my chances to become an ARRL Director this year, one fell through the cracks, which was my ARRL profile.
My membership lapsed officially on March 31, 2019. I didn’t notice the missing QSTs, nor did I receive the renewal emails and mailings since they were being sent to my old home address (and the USPS failed to forward any of my mail to my new address, as I came to find out well after this was all said and done).
On the morning of June 14, 2019, I got a message from a coworker (and ham) to read an article that might interest me that was March’s QST, and so I tried to log in to ARRL to access Digital QST, but I couldn’t. And that’s when I realized…
Oh no.
Oops.
That’s where all my QSTs have gone!
(Wait why aren’t they being forwarded by USPS…)
I immediately renewed my membership and read the article, and updated all of my ARRL member information and all was good.
Fast forward 7 months: the ARRL CEO is kicked out, the ARRL Midwestern Division Director is up for re-election this year, and I suddenly have an urge to run for the Director so I can pursue my goals of getting the ARRL modernized and relevant, and more interested in youth initiatives, engagement, and recruitment.
I frantically emailed past friends who were directors and other ARRL staff and leaders to get a pulse on whether or not it’s a good idea (sorry y’all!), and I start getting some advice from other N0SSC.com readers that it might be a great idea. Low-key growing some hype there.
I’m reading the ARRL Articles of Association and By-Laws (to make sure I’m not a big idiot on the internet) and then suddenly, out of nowhere, I remember this 75-day lapse in membership happened this year and now my hopes and dreams of infiltrating the ARRL’s upper echelon with my brilliant ideas of youth advocacy are dashed.
I sent a message to the ARRL’s Assistant Secretary Dan Henderson (N1ND) just to be sure I couldn’t get by on a technicality or exception, but he told me the Ethics and Elections committee would not be able to render a decision until I had submitted my petition for nomination; in other words, only after I campaigned, petitioned, and submitted my application in July would I know whether or not they would let me actually be a director. I’m also told by another director (who was initially inspiring me to run in the first place) that someone was recently disqualified for the same exact reason, only having lapsed a few months too. I certainly don’t want to be that guy. To do all of that work, blowing up the status quo, touring ham fests, calling and sending letters to hams, and growing support for my campaign all to fall flat on my face due to my membership lapse is definitely NOT the right foot to start on.
It’s sad because throughout college I told myself that once I graduated I’ll buy a Lifetime membership, only coming to realize the $1225 fee is a hard pill to swallow when you’re sinking $3000 into your student loans and all you get is a stinkin’ magazine full of irrelevant ads for the rest of your life (and the warm and fuzzy feeling that you jipped the ARRL out of at least $1,600 for it too!) (that’s not actually a warm and fuzzy feeling) (also sometimes I really like QST articles).
Thankfully, there is more than one way to skin the cat. I continue to help lead the Young Amateurs Radio Club as well as Youth on the Air (which needs your donations by the way!!!) and through those programs I think I can bring considerably more influence on amateur radio as a whole (and still have a positive influence on the ARRL directors and other leaders) than being a director myself. Plus I don’t have to worry about jumping headfirst into a boiling cauldron of who-the-heck-knows. It’ll be nice to let the CEO drama blow over and things to settle down before I start poking that bear, and also investigate other ways to bring some of my ideas to the table.
But just so you know – the battle may be won, but the war is far from over. Look out for me in 2023.
Meanwhile if you’re in the ARRL’s Midwest division (IA, MO, KS, NE) and you share my vision for ARRL, AND you’ve definitely been an ARRL member for at least 4 continuous years prior to 2020, I hope your name will be on my ballot. Also worth mentioning again that the Atlantic, Dakota, Delta, and Great Lakes divisions are up for reelection this year as well.
Also I’ll be submitting my resume for CEO ok thanks bye
The ARRL loses another CEO, whats going on? Only one way to find out…
Today’s news of ARRL’s CEO Howard Michel (WB2ITX) being “voted out” by the Board of Directors is another strike in the saga of the League’s struggle in finding new leadership after Dave Sumner’s (K1ZZ) retirement.
I thought Howard was doing alright. He showed up to a lot of hamfests, spoke at many club meetings and conventions, and generally shared a message of optimism regarding the future of the ARRL. I suppose that message was not well-received by the Board. Nobody seems to have any idea why the board voted him out. If I had to speculate, it might be some sort of conflict of interest (the ARRL has a VERY long section of COI in their By Laws), while the MyARRLVoice people are saying that “the ARRL BoD did not judge his job performance to be satisfactory and decided a change in leadership is necessary.”
UPDATE!
UPDATE 2 (26 Jan 2020): Southwestern Director Dick Norton N6AA addressed the following claim and discussed the decision in somewhat more detail in K7AGE’s video from Quartzfest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7o2nBPQZ0g
Additionally I spoke with the Central and Midwest Division Directors (W9XA and K0DAS) at the St. Louis Winterfest, but they did not disclose any new facts, reiterating that the CEOs contract wasn’t renewed and to wait until the minutes are released for more information.
UPDATE 1 (20 Jan 2020): I did some digging and I was led to Howard’s Facebook page, where he posted about his company’s robot last year. To me this implies that was still actively working for or had obligations with his Chinese robotics company, which the ARRL By Laws #35 seems to frown upon. It might also be a conflict of interest, though as written COI by laws seem to only apply to directors, vice directors, president, and vice president. Obviously, I am not a lawyer. Do note that this isn’t a smoking gun, and from what I’m told there are myriad other factors that lead to his removal.
Screenshot of facebook.com/howard.michel.3 (public profile), 21 Jan 2020 09:39CST. I haven’t friended him, so this is public! From http://www.arrl.org/arrl-by-laws: ARRL By Law #35 implies the CEO shouldn’t have another job. Doing so also probably violates conflict of interest by laws but again I am not a lawyer and there’s likely other reasons leading to his removal.
His departure comes at a particularly awkward time for the St. Louis Winterfest where he was slated to speak at ARRL Forum and a banquet next weekend (January 24-26, 2020). We’ll see how that shakes out!
We’ve seen a lot of drama in the ARRL over the last 5 years. Tom Gallagher (NY2RF) became CEO, Dick Norton (N6AA) was publicly censured, Ria Jairam (N2RJ) was elected as Hudson Division director, N6AA was un-censured, Tom retired as CEO, and Howard Michel came on as CEO leaving 2 years later to the day. Meanwhile many threads of dwindling membership, lack of transparency, signs of internal political infighting and inaction have been popping up all over the place. The Parity act, the CalFire Repeater debacle, a number of natural disasters have also came and went, all putting a lot of pressure on the ARRL to get things done.
I think a big, BIG change is needed at the Board of Directors level. I think Ria N2RJ is the first of many new faces to save the Board from it’s incumbency.
Meanwhile I have been thinking…what would it take to get on the ARRL Board of Directors?
What does it take to run for ARRL Board of Directors? It’s actually quite simple: Be 21 years of age, be a licensed ham and ARRL member for at least four years prior to nomination, and don’t have any conflicts of interest. All you need after that is to get nominated and elected by ARRL members of your division. Easy, right?
I think I might give it a shot before I turn 30.
What would you do if you were on the ARRL’s Board of Directors? Split QST from members-only? Make youth membership free? Livestream Board meetings? Push updates to the website and store?
