We have 156,000 (more or less) members, or roughly 10, 400 per ARRL Division, on average.

If we were to have the Dakota Divison annex contiguous states until it got to a total of 10,400 members, it would probably encompass one-third of the land mass of the Lower 48 states.

There are some alternatives:

1. Use proportional voting; Dakota Divison votes on Board matters would be weighted as 0.3;  Southeastern Division would be weighted as 1.4.  Etc.  That has the added advantage that it might encourage Dakota Division members to recruit harder.
2. Recognize that Dakota Division members are “good folk”, and thus not be concerned that their votes are worth more than mine.
3. Recognize that life is not always fair.  There are other issues (travel times, distances, and costs; shared propagation characteristics; sense of community; etc.) that should factor into determining division boundaries.

Directors should base their decisions and their votes on the quality of the arguments presented during our deliberations; since we share those arguments here on ODV and in our Board and Committee meetings, I don’t see why or how strict proportional representation is a big deal.

Speaking as a League member (not as a Board member), I’m not bothered by this.

Answers to K1TWF’s three questions:

1. Fair?  Perhaps not, numerically.  Important?  Not.
2. Yep.
3. Poor survey question; it presupposes the current dividing lines need fixing.  Instead, I have the vital-body-part to contend it’s not a big issue.

Bud, W2RU

From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Mike Raisbeck via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>
Reply-To: Mike Raisbeck <vze18vwgu@verizon.net>
Date: Friday, February 5, 2021 at 11:21 AM
To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>
Subject: [arrl-odv:31922] And while we're on the topic of voting ...

Folks,

It's been some time since we have discussed the matter of redefining some division boundaries.  

Yes, I know just how unpopular this is as a Board topic; it has bubbled up several times during my tenure.   No one wants to do it but to ignore it is to condone a very substantial unfairness in the value of the individual vote of our members.

At the moment, the individual votes in the Dakota Division (all 3241 of them) have 4.6 times the clout of individual votes in the Southeastern Division (all 14,943 of them).

QUESTION 1 - is there anyone on this Board that feels this is fair?

QUESTION 2 - is there anyone on this Board who believes this is acceptable?

QUESTION 3 - is there anyone on this Board willing to admit that s/he doesn't have the [name-your-favorite-vital-body-part]'s to do anything about it?

If anyone answers "yes" to any of these, please present your opinion and arguments to the Board so we can discuss.

So, what ARE we going to do about it ??

Mike

K1TWF

1st VP