You have put your finger on something that is partially a Washington, DC disease. Insiders in DC frequently say: “FAA’s rule 72.02 says:” You and I think they should say: “The FAA’s rule 72.02 says:” This is true across many many acronym agencies. But everyone still says “The White House today announced. . .” So DC insiders have not settled on one usage. OTOH, our British cousins always say: “MI6 today announced. . .” “Number 10 Downing Street received delegates from . . .” and “Buckingham Palace today released . . . But they do say: “The Home Secretary today announced. . .”, or “The Office of the Secretary today announced.” So it would appear to be a question of style and usage. Me? I prefer “the ARRL DX Contest” (and not “the ARRL’s DX Contest), and “K5UR, President of the ARRL.” HOWEVER, I think there is such a thing as using the word “the” too many times. I would discourage “the ARRL – the National Organization for Amateur Radio.” So that leaves us with “ARRL – the National Organization for Amateur Radio.” So I still say “the League.” W3KD always wrote “ARRL views this as . . .” and I haven’t yet noticed what K3ZJ does. Welcome to the modern world where there are no firm lines between right and wrong. -Fred K1VR From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Michael Ritz Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020 12:03 PM To: arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:30150] Use of "ARRL" question... I have a technical question that has been puzzling me for a while now. Maybe one of the grammar gurus or lawyers can answer this: I've always considered the use of "ARRL" to be an acronym for "American Radio Relay League". That would indicate that a sentence would use the word "the" in reference to the ARRL. For example: "The ARRL (took this action)". What I'm seeing a lot of is: "ARRL (took this action)" ie: "ARRL wants you to stay safe in these times" verses "The ARRL wants you to stay safe in these times". It seems that all of the ARRL news releases I'm seeing now use the former, and not the latter. That seems somewhat odd to me. Are we now just "ARRL" (like "IBM"), and not the "American Radio Relay League" ? Is it still OK to refer to us as "the League", if we are really just "ARRL" now? 73; Mike W7VO -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus