Hi Dick, Where have you been? This is not a new idea. We’ve been giving out plaques for centenarians for a while now. I gave out two. One of them is a WW2 vet who still gets out and shovels snow. This merely streamlines the process. Sure it’s political but so is a lot of other stuff. As for widows, a lot of wives hate ham radio when their spouses are alive anyway. They see all the radios and associated stuff as junk. I could see where this could be an opt-in for the plaque rather than automatic. But hams love plaques. 73 Ria N2RJ On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 2:39 PM Richard Norton via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
Plaques?
I seem to remember free QST, but must not have noticed plaques. Plaques are a bad idea.
About 66% of those reaching 100 die before their 101st birthday.
Approximately 42% of people over 100 experience dementia of some kind.
Many are substantially physically disabled, sick, or in need of substantial care to live.
Almost all of those over 100 are living in some sort of senior home or in a room in a relative's home. Almost none are active on the air.
A decent percentage of intended recipients will die in the period from when the plaques are ordered to when they are delivered.
At most the recipients will live a year or a couple years after their plaques are received. If any of them accomplished anything in their ham radio operations, they will likely have more significant ham-radio-related tchotchkes to display than a 100-year-old ARRL birthday plaque.
I'm currently working with a couple widows on disposing of ham radio stuff. Referring to getting rid of ham radio stuff, one of the widows said to me about four times the other day, "Please don't do this to your wife." Widows and families don't need more stuff to throw out.
If someone has contributed to Amateur Radio and reaches 100, it may be appropriate to give him/her ARRL recognition. W7LR, a formerly active ham who is in the present list, was appropriately recognized earlier this year in the ARRL Letter. He now lives in a senior home, and is no longer on the air. My last on-the-air contact with him was in 2014.
The present staff effort has been useful to identify some on the League's membership roles that have definitely passed away. If this plaque program is actually going ahead, that effort is inadequate. Staff should contact the hams by telephone, and get confirmation that they actually want the plaque, or get verbal or written confirmation from a caregiver. Reporting that no death notice could be found on the Internet is inadequate.
I don't see any benefit to Amateur Radio by this proposed program. If anything, it looks only like an opportunity for political publicity.
The plaque idea should be scrapped.
73,
Dick, N6AA
On Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 02:56:50 PM PDT, Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) < dminster@arrl.org> wrote:
Good afternoon everyone.
After much research and chagrin, attached is the list of members we have very good reason to believe are living centenarians and are eligible for the Centurion Award.
Please let me know if you can use other means at your disposal (local clubs, etc.) to confirm. Once you’ve confirmed, let me know and I will have plaques made.
I believe EC would like to make a PR splash about this so coordination will be important.
Thanks.
David
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