At 10:05 AM 4/12/2017, Mike Lisenco N2YBB wrote:
Greg and all-
This is a marvelous idea and, perhaps, the crux of what we should be doing to focus on, and meet the needs of, the bulk of our newer and future members;
Greg wrote,âWe must offer them something to make them stay--things like lower-cost membership and an emcomm-focused journal--that the comments of non-renewers already tell us we need.â
If we donât look forward now, today, in ten years we will find a Board of 80+ year-olds directing a dying organization of old fogies completely out of touch with reality whose primary issue will be the decertification of Scarborough for DXCC.
Greg brilliant!!
Just for historical input, the Board went through something like this 30 years ago. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take a hard look at it now. Actually, it means we probably have not been doing what we needed to do. The Board considered a serious proposal to create a second publication aimed at newcomers, I think the project was called "silverlake" or something like that. In the end, the conclusion was that the costs to make a new magazine viable compared to the benefit was not significant enough and it was dropped. A lot has changed in the intervening years. But one thing that has not changed is that ARRL continues to do very well with Extra Class licensees and very poor with Technician (and Novice and even General) licensees. Over the years I think we've seen that QST can not be all things to all people - we have too diverse of a population to work with. I'm not convinced that the comments from non-renewers are any different now than they would have been 10-20-30 years ago. But, it's easier to ask them and get feedback now. Maybe we collectively have the sense that change is needed. My guess is that the only thing that works financially will be an electronic publication - but even that is expensive because it requires talented authors, editors, etc. I'm QRV to see what is recommended! -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444