Back in March we had a dialog with Ed Hare and Bob Naumann about Lab staffing as they were looking at hiring a part time junior lab assistant.

The discussion became one of succession planning for Ed where he told us he’d be leaving in “a year or so”.

In June we hired an Assistant Lab Manager for Ed to begin migrating his management tasks over to, and the transition seems to be going well.

Ed has now announced to us in writing that he will be leaving in April 2023.  Bob Naumann is working with Ed and with others to understand external committees ARRL needs to be represented on and lining up candidates for those positions.

I am happy to go into more details, which you should know prior to contacting Ed, at the next EC meeting.  It is important as Ed will not have his departure being characterized as a “retirement” and messaging to that effect will cause an emotional response from him.

I have already met privately with Rick, Carl, and Kermit to formulate a strategy to work with Ed through this period, and for the moment we are giving Ed some space to become comfortable with his decision.

If you need to, please feel free to call me directly.

Thanks.

David