I am a member of said committee and I oppose even this language. 

I would encourage all of my fellow directors who do not approve to voice their dissent as well.

I do not agree with counsel’s assessment and in our previous communications you have indicated that counsel was “wishy washy” and you didn’t trust what they said. I was not aware that they have firmly come out in favor of this requirement. This is certainly news to me. 

A well known defense contractor is facing this very issue - Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) is facing a federal investigation by the DOJ over alleged discriminatory practices after a candidate who is a permanent resident complained to the EEOC about discrimination based on national origin.

ARRL does not deal with national secrets. None of what we do requires any sort of security clearance. 

As much as ham radio operators would like to pretend that we do, we don’t. 

If a defense contractor who deals with intelligence gathering and ICBMs can’t impose this requirement, who are we?

At the very least we should remove anything that would allow anyone to complain about national origin discrimination. 

If I were an outsider applying for the job, I would decline to disclose my citizenship status until an offer was made. And I would be well within my rights to do so.

Ria
N2RJ  

On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 5:45 PM Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) <dminster@arrl.org> wrote:

This is a follow-up to the posting about the search we are doing for the Director, Emergency Management.

 

In the posting, a requirement listed was for US Citizenship.  I received emails within minutes from 2 Directors concerned about this requirement.

 

I will be rewording the requirement, but I have worked with CT counsel and here’s the short of it:

 

  • It is not illegal to require US Citizenship for a position
  • The requirement must be tied to a legitimate reason or cause
  • The reason or cause must be documentable and defendable

 

My assessment was confirmed by counsel.  The reasoning is this:

 

  • The first two served agencies examined (FEMA, DHS) -REQUIRE- US Citizenship for employment.  Although there are “rare exceptions”, they require citizenship.
  • These requirements are public and well documented.
  • It is not unreasonable to expect that our EmComm Director, in order to attend meetings of a sensitive nature or clearance, would be held to the same standards.
  • It is not unreasonable to expect that if our EmComm Director did not meet these standards, these agencies could quietly or overtly exclude ARRL from those meetings.

 

It is my intention to add the following language to the job description after having passed it through counsel:

 

“Must be able to be credentialed by our served agencies, who may require US Citizenship and an FBI background check.”

 

If you have an issue with this, please contact me directly, ASAP.

 

Thanks.

 

David

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