Joel has expressed
many of my concerns very well.
We must be very
specific and very realistic about what is in it for the ARRL to have a National
Convention ... at Dayton or anywhere. When we had the National at Dayton before,
several people came to the booth and asked me, "So, how is this Dayton any
different from other Daytons?" The answer I could give them, "There are more
ARRL-related forums than in other years," didn't impress them much. It didn't
impress me much, either, come to think of it. The allure of getting to go to
Dayton at no personal expense should not distract us from asking hard questions
about what the League will gain in concrete, measurable benefits from
having a National.
It's true that
travel expenses for Directors and Officers come from their existing budgets.
However, if you spend Division budget money going to a National, that's money
you don't have available to spend on membership contact within your Division.
This presents a choice to Directors: go to a National where you may not be
interacting with many of your members, or skip the National and do your
customary in-Division travel, or do it all and over-spend your budget. Any of
these choices has down-sides for the organization. If we have so much money
allocated to Governance that Divisions can absorb a Director's trip to a
National without cutting back on other activity that year, then that raises
interesting questions, doesn't it?
There's something
else I want to bring into the discussion of Nationals:
I believe the Board
needs to develop guidelines for the Director's Workbook suggesting what
Directors and Officers should do at Nationals that we attend. Otherwise, it
seems to me like we are getting to go to Dayton -- or wherever -- on the
membership's nickel to shop, shmoose with our friends, and enjoy
ourselves without being expected to do any particular work on behalf of the
League. Walking around all day with a red badge on and stopping by the booth for
15 or 20 minutes doesn't fill the bill for me. Now I am not saying we should
have to fill out some kind of dumb-ass time cards saying how many hours we did
this and how many times we did that. I am suggesting, however, that as a body
the volunteer members of the Board should come to an agreement about what work
we expect ourselves to do for the League in return for the privilege of
attending a National Convention at the membership's expense. Then we put it in
the Director's Workbook and leave it to the honor and conscience of individuals
to live up to the guidelines we've set for ourselves.
73 - Kay
N3KN