This is a good time for us all to consider member population in each division. There are six divisions with fewer than 10,000 members. Dakota has 3,361, fewer members than each of the SECTIONS of Georgia and Northern Florida. The Southeastern Division has more members than the next smaller division by almost the same population as Dakota. This was my primary takeaway from these data - we can look at our own membership data to correlate this. Florida has seen huge growth. As likely the only member of this board who has worked in, and hired people in the Hartford area (as a consultant for Hartford Insurance Group IT) there are many educated and qualified people. Taxes are high, but government services are as well. Public schools are some of the best in the nation - some of the best colleges and universities in the world are within 100 miles. Lee mentioned gross GDP per state. If you look at CT, WA, NY and CA, GDP per capita is higher than TX. This means productivity per person, indicating (geographically) that individual productivity is greater in CT than in Texas. People come to work for people. Recruiting includes selling and delivering expectations of potential employees to a workplace. We must answer their question, “Why should I work here?” early in the process, and introduce them to employees who mirror their goals. I haven’t heard from staff that ARRL is having difficulty hiring people. If staff chooses to hire individual contributors as remote employees, particularly those who are creative staff, I think that’s a good idea. But Mr. Minster’s call. But moving HQ would need a really good justification case. Mickey ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of John Robert Stratton <N5AUS@n5aus.com> Sent: Friday, December 31, 2021 6:33 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:33189] US Domestic Migration All See the following articles that quantify the shift of the US population from the Northeast, Midwest and West to the South. https://www.dailyinfographic.com/united-states-domestic-migration-2021 https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/12/new-us-census-data-major-mi... This directly impacts our efforts to hire or retain competent and productive employees and again highlights the continued, and worsening, lack of business sense in remaining headquartered in a failing economic environment. The mantra was once "move west"; in this century, hard data says it is "move south." _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office: 512-445-6262 Cell: 512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 _______________________________________