Although I'm not an a&f committee member, I do want to respond to Barry's opinion of the Life Member issue and comment on other issues raised. I am one of only two directors who did not vote on the terms - as another board member argued, I believe that should be the purview of staff. 

We GIVE life membership to those who do nothing other than reach their 100th birthday. If they live to be 105, that's $250 plus the cost of a plaque!

I know that the $49 dues doesn't cover the cost of running the ARRL divided by the number of members. We have also seen that demand for membership is elastic - we raise dues, we lose membership. All one needs to do is to look at the financials over the past few years. I think 2019 is the first year we had a net gain in dues revenue compared to prior to the dues increase. We need to reduce cost as well as grow membership. Read on.

We've had a great bull capital market over the past few years and our treasurer has wisely built the wealth of the ARRL. It is a safe bet that it won't continue forever.

Raisbeck Issue - Coronavirus Impact
Vice President Raisbeck raises pertinent issues that we should all think about and discuss informally at least before our next general meeting. We could lose membership and revenue in all sorts of ways,and it is apparent that our membership isn't getting the services they expect without staff being in the Newington facility.

CEO - Strategic Plan, Technology Projects, IT
It is apparent to me as a long term technology management executive and consultant that the League has particular challenges with our own information technology organization. This goes well beyond the inability to keep member facing services up without failure and the ability to plan and deploy major technology projects. 

I believe that it falls at the feet of the Board and our musical CEOs that there is no cohesive integrated technology plan. I certainly hope that the CEO committee is searching for someone who can articulate how they are going to develop a strategic plan for ARRL that recognizes that ARRL should be a technology organization.

The organization of the ARRL seems to be right out of the 1970's - it is striated, there's little cross organization responsibility. IT seems to be an operational afterthought where there should be a CIO who is a peer of the CFO. Typical of this type organization, IT does what they're told and rarely leads projects.

Instead of two (three?) more programmers, there should be a project manager, either hired or contracted, to bring the AMS and LLL projects to completion. Exception projects - like AMS and LLL implementation - should not justifying hiring permanent employees.

Members need to have more input into these initiatives - the VEC and remote testing is a good example. VEC is one of our products. Product marketing should do product marketing there as well!

Member Facing IT should be Member Driven
With good project planning and the willingness to involve the membership with the management of the League, projects like LoTW could be a 90% volunteer effort. For example, look at the thousands of repeaters around the US connected to the Internet and the plethora of repeater management schemes. Out of the thousands involved, we can find a dozen folks like AA6YQ  who could help ARRL if properly tasked and motivated.

With the current issues around NTS and ARES, we need to consider a broader approach to volunteering for amateurs - the Amateur National Service Corps, to encompass NTS, ARES, and Membership Information Technology. This organization could create and manage a replacement for ARES Connect.

I believe that the ARRL should build a significant organized volunteer cadre to manage all external ARRL IT within 2 years. There are people out here who have written  ARES Connect replacements and all kinds of software kit for the field. ...but a good third of Section Managers are not engaged.

Headcount, Attrition and Corona Impact Mitigation
NonprofitHR , a consulting firm, reported that the average nonprofit had 16% employee attrition in 2018. 

ARRL may not have attrition that high, but HR is our largest expense. I suggest that, absent a permanent CEO, that the Board freeze all hires except for the CEO - not fill any outstanding positions, until the economic impact from the pandemic can be evaluated, and a new CEO can drive the organization toward tighter member engagement.

Thanks for reading. I've been told that I cannot speak tomorrow but this is what is top of my mind.

 Mickey Baker, N4MB
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead." Robert K. Greenleaf


On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 9:42 PM Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) <bshelley@arrl.org> wrote:

All:

 

I certainly wasn’t here in January when the Board passed the motion that effectively made this new membership category a reality, but in my long career with the ARRL, I’ve always maintained the position that the League should not be required to take on the morality risk of it’s members like an insurance company does when it issues life insurance policies. And that’s what we do when we make policy regarding life memberships. It’s been my opinion that it’s not our job to be an insurance company. And, in context, the Board was correct in trying to make this motion “revenue neutral”. I don’t expect the membership to understand this position but they are wrong in expecting us to “take care” of the older members. What they’re really asking for is for the younger members to subsidize the risk of their outliving the mortality tables. For us, it’s not about taking care of the older members, its about taking care of ALL the members.

 

Members always want “a deal”. They don’t understand that the $49/year term membership dues don’t cover the full cost of delivering the myriad services we offer. We need to generate non-dues revenues to do that but everyone only thinks about their cost, not the overall financial impact to the organization. Maybe that’s our fault for not explaining this better, but it is the underlying truth that most people, particularly the older, long term members, don’t understand.

 

I look forward to discussing this tomorrow at the A&F meeting but I will argue strenuously not to change what the Board has already done. Honestly, I would have argued strenuously against it when the motion was made.

 

73,

Barry, N1VXY

 

 

 

From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Of Mickey Baker
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2020 6:58 PM
To: Stratton, John, N5AUS (Dir, WG) <n5aus@n5aus.com>
Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>
Subject: [arrl-odv:30296] Re: Life 70+ Membership

 


No positive comments from Southeastern membership.  "Insulting" was a word I've heard several times. I explained to one member that financial analysis showed this to be "revenue neutral." His response was that "that's the problem with ARRL, always looking to make a buck instead of taking care of members."

 

Mickey Baker, N4MB
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead." Robert K. Greenleaf

 

 

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 6:13 PM John Robert Stratton <N5AUS@n5aus.com> wrote:

All the comments I have received have been negative. Some consider the terms insulting.

 

 

_______________________________________

 

John Robert Stratton

N5AUS

Director

West Gulf Division

Office:             512-445-6262

Cell:                512-426-2028

P.O. Box 2232

Austin, Texas 78768-2232

 

_______________________________________

On 5/15/20 5:05 PM, Roderick, Rick, K5UR via arrl-odv wrote:

Hi all:

 

Just a heads up that an article about the Life 70+ Membership was posted on the web and in the ARRL Letter. Here's the link in case you missed it.

 

 

I've received a couple of negative comments from members saying we didn't do enough. Recall that we debated that issue and I know that A&F struggled with it as well. Just a heads up in case you hear from your constituents.

 

73,

Rick - K5UR

 

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