I agree on the endless reminders... I don’t agree on the books. Section managers have told me that people have flat out refused to renew unless they could walk away with a book. HQ made the decision to stop letting section managers give new and renewal incentives on the spot some years ago. Instead the incentives are shipped from the League. The current model of letting HQ ship the books seems like it would waste more money in shipping charges. If the SMs could get a smaller stock of books (maybe 3-5 each) and if they run out the incentives can then be shipped from HQ. There was concern raised that the books go out of date and that SMs don’t capture much renewals at events but consider that SMs are going to attend hamfests anyway and our cost for a small stock of books doesn’t seem that much since the sticker price is not the cost price. I would like us to at least investigate this. Ria N2RJ On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 2:36 PM Michael Ritz <w7vo@comcast.net> wrote:
I went to a club meeting last night and gave an "ARRL Update" presentation to the group. Below is an interesting comment from a member that I thought I'd pass along to ODV. I guess this is for A&F members to think about, but is also food for thought for Barry and maybe others at HQ. We are looking at a huge deficit in revenue verses expenses this year and this is something to consider. It also may be an insignificant cost verses the benefit received, I don't know.
Thanks for the bandwidth.
73; Mike W7VO
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Doug Foran <dforan@spiretech.com> To: w7vo@arrl.net Date: February 28, 2020 at 10:50 AM Subject: Huge Cost-Cutting Suggestion for ARRL
Hi, Mike,
Thanks for your excellent presentation at the DX meeting last night. I was the guy (visitor) who talked about measurable objectives, strategic planning, growth-share matrix, and cost-cutting.
You said I should contact the director, but I think it would have more impact if you reached out to him, plus I only have a dialup modem Internet connection with an obsolete browser. SEE MY SUGGESTION BELOW.
You mentioned that ARRL is running a $1.1 million deficit, so I "chimed in" with a significant cost-cutting suggestion for ARRL...Tell them to stop sending FOUR membership renewal reminders over a 6-month period prior to a member's expiration dates. It's a total waste of paper, four-color printing, scoring, perforating, folding, envelope stuffing, and postage. I always wait until the last day to phone them and renew over the phone. The ARRL could eliminate this expense by just e-mailing members ONCE, a month before expiration. Also, I don't think the ARRL needs to provide a free gift upon renewal of a membership. Huge expense for printing and shipping those books. Agreed?
Keep up the great work.
73 Doug WA7LET
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