Dear Colleagues:

Becoming directly involved in the Web project has been interesting and educational so far, and reasonably productive. I would like to share with you some of what I have learned, and make a request.

The website is designed to increase members’ sense of belonging to the ARRL community – to strengthen their ties to the organization and to one another. The principal tool for doing so is the Member Profile. The basic information contained in each member’s profile is taken from our membership records. Members can add to this if they wish to do so, including an image (typically a photo of themselves) if they choose. How much information is shared with other members is entirely up to them. A member may choose to make no information or a lot of information available, or almost anywhere in between. If a member chooses to make any part of their profile public, they will be included in the Member Directory that can be searched by other members (and only by members). Of course, this is entirely at the member’s option; it is essential to let people control their own personal information.

The website design relies on the Member Profile as the primary means of providing contact information about active ARRL volunteers to members and others. In other words, our active volunteers now control how much contact information and other information about them is made public. If a volunteer appointee or elected official does not make any part of their profile public, or if they withhold basic contact information, then someone wanting to contact them will have to look elsewhere for the information. As of now, most of our section-level field appointees do not have public profiles. As a result, when you visit their section pages the only information you will see are their titles, names and call signs.

My request is simply this. Currently there are 15 volunteer officers, directors and vice directors who have public profiles and 20 who do not. I would like to ask everyone who has not yet done so to set an example for other League officials by making at least your basic contact information available via your Member Profile. It’s easy to do.

1.      Assuming that you are already logged in, click on “Edit your Profile” just below the “Favorites” window on the home page (or go directly to http://www.arrl.org/Users/edit)

2.      Click on the “Edit Profile” button.

3.      Review the information that is displayed under “Profile Information.” In particular, note the options available to you under “Public Location.” The options are to not show a physical address, to show one of the addresses for you that are in the ARRL database, or to add a different address and show that one. For example, while the 225 Main St, Newington address is not in my membership record, I have created an additional address called “work” and am showing that address on my public profile.

4.      Review the check boxes under “Permissions.” Note especially the sixth box, “Allow ARRL to show my profile on the website.” If that box is not checked, none of your profile will be made public. If it is checked, only the information you have elected not to hide will be shown.

5.      If you want to indicate the activities you enjoy and how you became interested in amateur radio you can do so, but that’s entirely optional. Reading some members’ stories will give you a chuckle.

6.      Don’t forget to click the “Save” button at the very bottom of the page. Once you do that you will be returned to a screen with a yellow banner saying “Profile Updated” at the top.

The Member Profile is potentially a powerful tool, but we need to build greater acceptance among our leadership volunteers or we will have to find another way of providing their contact information.

Comments welcome to dsumner@arrl.org.

73,

Dave K1ZZ