I really do not want to do this but here goes:

Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Officers, Directors and Vice Directors.

As Officers and Directors of the American Radio Relay League, you are faced with a unique and challenging responsibility. You have been chosen from the membership to play a key role in representing them in the ARRL. The decisions that you make, or help to make, may have a great influence on the fate of Amateur Radio not only in the US, but throughout the world. As high-ranking representatives of ARRL, you lose whatever anonymity you might previously have enjoyed. Your every action will be on public display. Every statement you make, every cause that you support, will be subject to widespread public scrutiny.

It is the purpose of these guidelines to assist you in maintaining an ethical standard of conduct that will bring credit to yourself and to the ARRL.

What is ethics? According to Webster, it is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. Perhaps Dr. Albert Schweitzer's definition would appropriately amplify Webster: "In a general sense, ethics is the name we give our concern for good behavior. We feel an obligation to consider not only our own personal well-being, but also that of others and of the human society as a whole."

In your service as an Officer or Director, your sense of ethics must guide you in a pattern of behavior that will be beyond reproach.

As an elected official of the ARRL, your decisions must be for the good of the ARRL and its members and there should be no opportunity for criticism that your decisions have benefited you or any small circle of your friends.

In your appearances at hamfest and conventions (and club meetings) and in your on the air activity, you will be measured by everything you do -- not as an individual amateur, but as a representative of the ARRL. You must bend over backwards to ensure that your conduct cannot be faulted.

Taken from page 2.1 from the Directors Workbook

I am asking all of us to review the above once again.

Thanks,

Jim Haynie, W5JBP
President