Thank you for the update, Barry. Please let us know when we can have something for public consumption as it would help the public become aware of what was said in your second to last paragraph. Ria N2RJ On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 12:43 PM Shelley, Barry, N1VXY (CEO) < bshelley@arrl.org> wrote:
Good afternoon. Happy Easter and Passover.
I wanted to give you a status report on VE testing. Despite not making any public statements on the subject, the ARRL VEC has been working with a very few VE teams to expand their capabilities for different methods of delivering amateur radio exams. We will be changing our public stance with the attached statement although, once again, I strongly urge everyone not to promote any of this as the ultimate solution.
The truth is, one ARRL VE team in Massachusetts has conducted two video supervised, electronic exam sessions. Each one was for only one examinee and, in this age of social distancing, that’s all we can really expect to do. No other VEC’s teams have done it for more than one examinee at a time either. The Massachusetts team has offered to produce an operating manual for other teams that are interested but we will still have to monitor this closely as our VEs are not as technologically savvy as we might think they are. Surprisingly, while examinees seem to be clamoring for video supervised, electronic exams, our VE teams are not.
Please remember, the VEC testing system is one that has been based for decades in producing and moving paperwork. The skillsets of everyone involved in the process (including the ARRL VEC) are centered on pushing paper. Everyone is demanding we turn the Queen Mary on a dime in this time of the COVID-19 crisis. This is not the best way to change the entire process. While we offer our VE teams rudimentary electronic methods for completing and filing all the information required after an exam session, the online processes need to be expanded to the front end registration and payment processes, and quite honestly, we need to automate the entire process.
And finally, for the record, the early work to provide electronic exams through the ARRL VEC precedes both the COVID-19 crisis and my current tenure as CEO. Internal discussions began in the fourth quarter of last year. We currently have a basic set of specifications for the process, from beginning to end, and are using those specs to hold discussions with several parties that may be able to help us deliver on this concept. As reported to you earlier, we are talking to the creator of Exam Tools, the system used by the Massachusetts team, another commercial exam software company and, finally, some volunteer programmers who have done good work in other areas for us in the past. We want to be sure we look at all viable options in a business-like manner, not simply rush to respond to a perceived need.
I realize that we’re not going to have what everyone seems to think is possible immediately, but if there’s any message to take away from this it’s that the ARRL is in the game, just as much as W5YI or any other VEC.
I hope everyone is continuing to be safe and healthy.
73,
Barry, N1VXY _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv