It has been six months since A&F and Management proposed moving Section News and Contest Line Scores to the enhanced ARRL Web site. ARRL staff has done a commendable job of improving and expanding the Member's Web site month after month.

The motion deferring the decision to relocate Section News to the Web identified QST and the Web Page as the primary means of providing information to members. Director Walstrom has indicated he will present a motion to grant the Web site equal status with QST as the official journal of our association.

As contemplated by the motion, the intervening months have provided an opportunity to inform members of the reasons and advantages of moving Section News to the Web site through articles in QST, discussions and members’ experience with the expanded Web site.

Section Managers have supplemented News on their web site with photos, graphics and links not possible in the restricted pages of Section News. They have posted timely alerts with breaking news in their Sections. They have used the email relay to send timely information to members in their Sections. Staff continues to work with SMs to assist them in learning to use the capabilities available to them on their Section Web page.

Perhaps the best indicator of our member’s feelings toward the relocation is the fact that member concerns regarding the move appear to have reduced to a trickle. Even those SMs who have used Section News to encourage members to express concerns about the relocation have found the response minimal.

Another reason for deferring the decision to relocate Section News and Contest Result line scores was to afford an opportunity to evaluate variations and alternatives to the proposal. Thus far the only variations that have been proposed have come from staff and A&F. They have sought to assure that every member who wanted to continue to receive the news of their section would have that capability. No one else has presented alternatives other than continuing to delay this decision.

The Readex Surveys have consistently shown Section News has readership interest that is fairly low and similar to other columns on specialized topics. With Section News, however, we're publishing not 1 page every other month, but 6 pages every month. And of those 6 pages, only a very small piece is of potential interest to any given member.

Director Maxwell asks: "Do only 27% (or, 43,200 members) read Section News almost always or often because 73% of members don't particularly care?" He then goes on to suggest one reason may be that Section News may be the most unattractive difficult column to read in QST. That very concern was one of the reasons for moving Section News to the Web. The constraints of size, small type, absence of color and graphics don't exist on the Web page. The only way to implement those enhancements in QST would have been to significantly reduce the number articles of general interest to members.

We now have a means of getting Section News to every interested member and a plan to provide the Text Box Section News for every section on the annual QST CD-ROM. What will we know six months or a year from now that we don't know now? The Section Web page that was just a concept six months ago is a reality today. SMs and members have had a chance to see and evaluate Web based Section News. The positive comments received and the absence of ongoing member concern suggests the with few exceptions SMs and members now understand and have accepted the reasons and value of the move.

It’s time to move ahead.

73,

Jay, KØQB