I think Brian's point is no small one. ESPECIALLY in this age of email, and email misunderstandings since people don't get the inflection, etc. that at least one could hear in a phone conversation, I have increasingly gone back to responding to email (professionally as well as personally) by phone. I have noticed a decrease in 'issues' coming from misunderstanding ('convenient' or otherwise.) People will resist providing their phone numbers unless we make absolutely sure that they understand they will never be sold, never be used by us to 'bother' them (which raises an issue with using outside firms to poll or telemarket), and that we will treat their phone numbers like other personal information in that we will guard it very closely. 73, Grant -----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org]On Behalf Of Brian Mileshosky Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 8:04 PM To: arrl-odv@arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:19776] ARRL member phone numbers Hi Everyone -- I believe this was discussed briefly in the past, but I'm finding it increasingly frustrating to look up a member in the directory found in ODV with intentions to call them on the phone for something, only to find that no phone number is on record. I know that this is a function of who voluntarily provides a phone number, but almost all of the problem is ours: we don't ask members for their phone number. There's no place for a phone number on the print form available on the website at https://www.arrl.org/resources/membership/membership_app.pdf and the online membership/renewal form doesn't require someone to provide a phone number...it's optional, which means more often than not someone just leaves it blank to move on to more important (i.e. required) information. Not sure about other Directors, but I like to have a personable conversation with members as needed, especially when I need to contact them about something timely. I kindly ask that the League return to the practice of requesting phone numbers for renewals and new memberships (i.e. modify the print form accordingly and modify the online form such that the phone number is among the other required information). This trivial modification will go a long way to helping us better represent and maintain contact with our members. Thanks and 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division On the web at www.RockyMountainDivision.org _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org http://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv