Mike:

The primary (but not only) reason I called for an in-person meeting is that we have a new Treasurer and this is a perfect opportunity for the A&F Committee members to meet, greet and get to know our new officer and for Mr. Sager to spend quality time with the members of the Committee.

The aforementioned notwithstanding, I don’t mind sharing my personal thinking with regards to virtual meetings. These will fall under the category of musings—right or wrong—from my sometimes feeble mind.

Since its inception, ARRL board and committee meetings have always been in-person. COVID changed everything, in so many ways. As we move back to some semblance of normalcy nationwide: schools are back in person, business are back in business with employees returning to buildings, masks are no longer required (with the notable exception of mass transportation). ARRL board meetings have returned to ‘normal’. Amateur Radio clubs nationwide are returning to in-person (while many are retaining their virtual component), swapfests and conventions are being held once again. So, what about ARRL standing committee meetings?

I’ve never been a person who believes we should do things because “that’s the way we’ve always done them”. The decision to meet virtual vs. in-person is a topic of debate around the globe and there are numerous studies (Harvard Business School is an example) that conclude there are pros and cons for each method— and choosing one over the other has to do with various concerns. Of primary interest to me is the conclusion of most experts that virtual meetings by their very nature de-personalize a meeting in subtle but key areas. Communications takes place not just with words, but also includes body language. One example: scanning the room and observing non-verbal cues such as eye contact, posture, facial expressions, etc. helps ensure I get a better understanding of how participants are ‘feeling’ which in turns helps me meet their needs (for example) by bringing someone into a conversation even though they didn’t verbally request to speak. Studies have shown that in-person meetings create a person-to-person bonding condition that can’t exist with virtual meetings—this engenders trust among the participants and enables team building. This in turn leads to a more cooperative approach to decision making. Video conferencing has been around for many decades (I worked for a company that provided video conference rooms for businesses in the 80’s) yet business leaders continued in-person meetings as decision makers from disparate geographic locations tended to make decisions more efficiently when together in the same room— which improved the bottom line. We all know from ARRL board meetings that there are many discussions that take place ‘outside of the board room’ which lead to better, more efficient meetings inside the room.

All members of the committee are entitled to see and hear everything in real-time that transpires during a meeting but sometimes the technology fails us. There’s a difference between a one-hour presentation and a 5 to 7 hour meeting where there is constant interaction between participants. As comfortable as we all are with technology, it actually can get in the way of personal back-and-forth dialog. Managing the technology during a meeting adds another task to the meeting leader and as much as we’d like to believe we are good multi-taskers, many studies (a very well-known one from Stanford) have shown conclusively that there’s no such thing as multi-tasking and adding tasks to an individual decreases the performance and efficiency of the remaining tasks. Again, a one-hour meeting may not suffer as greatly as a 6 or 7 hour meeting and I can tell you from personal experience that as comfortable as I am with the technology (I’ve been a remote worker using Zoom and similar products for years) I can become quite annoyed with trying to run a meeting AND trying to manage the tech simultaneously for hours at a time.

Another factor is the distractions that exist with virtual meetings: it has become a national joke and there are so many YouTube videos of kids or pets wandering into a Zoom meeting; doorbells and phones ringing at participant’s locations; forgetting to mute and leaving the room and all of sudden we’re hearing a domestic argument between adults or a parent and child; someone’s Internet takes a hit we lose them for a few minutes; participants distracted by an email or something else on their screen. Distractions like these are virtually eliminated (pun intended) in-person.

ARRL is a multi-million dollar corporation, not a local radio club. A meeting of its Administration & Finance Committee is an undertaking that needs to be managed as professionally as would any corporate meeting.

Bottom line: my decision to have an in-person meeting is neither arbitrary nor capricious. I prefer to have face-to-face conversations with Committee members—getting to know them better which (I believe) leads to more cooperative, effective and efficient decision making. I contend that virtual meetings contribute to the current national trend of ‘choosing sides’ and remaining entrenched in our personal thought processes— as opposed to working in a cooperative fashion. Getting away from home allows participants to develop personal relationships with each other. It also permits participants to focus on the business at hand without distractions— which our members deserve.

I certainly realize and appreciate that there are counter-arguments to this line of thought.

73,

Jeff, K0RM

From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Of Mike Ritz
Sent: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 9:43 PM
To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>
Subject: [arrl-odv:33494] Re: A&F Meeting Notice

Why the expensive requirement to meet in person?

73;

Mike

W7VO

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 8, 2022, at 8:13 PM, Ryan, Jeff, K0RM (Dir, RM) <k0rm@arrl.org> wrote:

The A&F Committee will be meeting in-person on April 9th, 2022, at 9:00 AM at the Denver Airport Marriott at Gateway Park, 16455 E. 40th Circ., Aurora, CO 80011.

73,

Jeff, K0RM

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