I oppose this motion. It falls into something related to contests that has been generated rapidly by a small group, and not vetted by those impacted. I continue to suggest that anything like this be considered for six months, and comments from the Advisory Committee members and ARRL members be considered. This is bringing unneeded negative publicity to the Board and PSC in particular. There is no reason any PSC member or Board member can't consult with anyone they choose on any subject. If you need advice, find an expert or impacted person, or anyone you choose, and ask. You do not need them to be approved by any subset of the Board or PSC. 73, Dick, N6AA On Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 01:30:26 PM PST, Michael Ritz <w7vo@comcast.net> wrote: As a member of PSC for the last two years, I thought I'd provide my fellow Board members my thoughts on the motion to restructure the two PSC advisory committees. Take it for what it is worth. 1. The current two advisory committees (CAC and DXAC), are fixed, and are comprised of one appointed representative from each ARRL Division per committee. The committees rarely change members, so the committee make-up remains pretty stoic over time, and arguably, somewhat ceremonial in nature. 2. While members of these committees are certainly "subject matter experts" themselves, are they all up on the latest technologies? How many of the CAC members operate digital contests using FT8/FT4, the most popular mode on HF operating at the moment? The answer is "very few, if any", so are they really the best ones to consult on a digital mode contest rule? Wouldn't it be be better to "ask the experts" themselves? 3. It is felt that with the advent of e-mail, e-surveys that can be conducted by the Radiosport team at HQ, and social media, the "one member per division, per committee" structure is archaic. At present ARRL HQ has the ability to work directly with the contest and DX community on issues, they don't need individual Division representatives to "work their territories" to provide feedback. The survey and questionnaire that HQ put out last year about Sweepstakes activities is a great example of this. They received great feedback from the Sweepstakes participants themselves. 4. The current advisory committees are tasked assignments from the PSC as required to provide input on a matter, they are not autonomous. Nothing will change here. Tasks will be assigned by HQ radiosport staff to those that know the most about the subject at hand, and not be limited to consulting whomever a Director appoints for his or her Division. 5. There was a PSC tasking requested by the Executive Committee way back in 2018 that started this all, as there have been issues in the past in getting tasks completed by the two advisory committees in a timely fashion. It is thought that the new "tiger team" approach will be much faster in getting things accomplished. With a larger "pool of experts" to draw on, the PSC is not limited to just those two fixed committees for input. Adhoc committees can be put together specific to a particular topic as well. 6. Current DXAC and CAC members will be encouraged to apply to be a part of the new "pool of experts", as well others within the DX and contest community. Nobody will be purposefully left out, or is going to get thrown out in the streets. 7. This change will allow the PSC to draw on "experts" with expertises beyond the current two advisory committees to tackle other issues beyond just the DX and contest genres. In my opinion, this change is to both increase efficiency and the quality of input provided to help the PSC make good decisions for our members. It's not to squelch input from anybody. In fact, I'm sure many of the best of each discipline (contesting and DXing), in the world will end up becoming members of the "expert pools". Lastly, if for some reason this doesn't work out, we can always go back to what we had before. Just my two watts. 73; Mike W7VO _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv