A few members did contact me and showed me livestreams from W5KUB and others of the floor that showed the rate of mask wearing to be very low. They expressed concern. I explained to them that it’s up to the organizers, and there’s nothing I nor the ARRL can really do.

Frankly this is less of a concern to me as the vaccine seems to be our most potent weapon against the virus but I just thought I would point it out. But as you said, there didn’t seem to be any conflict regarding masks because there was no mandate, just a suggestion.

Regarding ARRL forums - what you’ve said is absolutely true. I moderate two forums at a conference here - ham radio University (NLI section conference). The ARRL forum is sparse. The SDR forum (my other forum) is packed to standing room only.

Attendees have told me that they really aren’t into the politics. They’re there to learn and have a good time. Maybe this is an issue of marketing. People hear “ARRL forum” and they think that we are going to give them a political speech and ask for money. Perhaps it could be called something of a learning hour, or have a specific theme, if we aren’t doing that already. The last keynote speech with Kris Bickell at HRU was well attended. Members love learning initiatives.

I’m very glad to hear that you engaged with members. A previous experience with a CEO at a conference didn’t go well as he didn’t spend a lot of time talking with members and mostly kept to himself. They want to hear from you and you’re delivering. Private comments I get reinforce that notion.

I’m hoping that HOA legislation can show some movement as members have been asking me as well. I do know about the constraints.

I wish I could have attended (and booked everything) but as explained we had to head off to florida to attend to a funeral. Hoping we can see you at HamXposition in a few weeks.

On Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 1:23 PM Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) <dminster@arrl.org> wrote:

I wanted to give everyone some of the highlights from the Huntsville Hamfest:

The event was well attended.
Both attendees and exhibitors were respectful of each other re: masks.
On Friday night, we held a pizza reception for the YouTube Content Creators group which was well attended and went extremely well.
The booth was in an excellent location, next to Icom, at the entrance to the hall.
There was an enormous open area in front of the booth for us to wander away from the tables to engage with members while keeping socially distant.
The mood at the booth was universally positive. Members with ideas, but no real complaints about anything that I heard.
Rick and I were able to meet with one of the largest donors – ever – to ARRL. The discussion was brief, extremely positive, and he has committed to re-engage as a major donor.
The Members Forum was not well attended but went extremely well. The only questions asked were re: ARES Connect and status on HOA legislation.
The membership revenue at the booth was below expectation, but given the unknown surrounding how many people might come, was quite good.
There was a better mix of memberships from new members vs renewals over prior shows.

On a personal note, now with this as only my 2^nd in-person event, I struggle with how lightly attended the ARRL Forums have been. We need to create more excitement to get people into the sessions. I have heard from them how excited they are after having attended the Forum, but with such a small audience, we’re missing the opportunity to get more people energized about ARRL.

Any suggestions you have that could improve Forum attendance would be most welcome. I suspect it has everything to do with marketing in advance, and the title and messaging surrounding the session.

On a personal note, it was great working with Mickey at the YouTube event and at the Forum. There’s just so much more energy and team dynamics felt at an in-person event over a Zoom call.

David

_______________________________________________
arrl-odv mailing list
arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org
https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv