At the most recent meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors, I put forth a motion suggesting that the Division Director and two members of the Legislative Advisory Committee should attempt to meet with a few principals from each of the 15 or so major vendors to the Amateur Radio Community.

As I understood it, there was overwhelming agreement that we have things to learn from our vendor community, but that a minute in our published minutes would have negative implications. I withdrew the motion.

The next major regional convention occurs soon, September 6-8, and happens to be here in New England (“Boxboro,” https://hamxposition.org). I expect that K1TWF will be able to tell me which major vendors will have management present. It may be only one or two. But nonetheless, it will be a good opportunity for a trial run at a qualitative survey.

The plan:

·         A Thursday (during the day), or evening meeting – requested in advance – and off-site.

·         Not a lot of questions, and those that are asked may best be open-ended.

·         A summary provided to the Legislative Advisory Committee to help the next round of qualitative interviews.

·         A report back to the Board by July 2020.

A guideline to such interviews (and it is clear that chats on the show floor are nowhere near as good) is attached. It is only Version 1. Improvements welcome!