Brian I have some comments and observations regarding the comments made by the New Mexico SM. Since he's apparently just been elected maybe he can be excused for not being aware that the ARRL Board meets the 3rd Friday and Saturday EVERY January and July. I would be very surprised if an Annual or a Second ARRL Board meeting snuck up on any SM and took them by surprise. That having been said, it seems to me if an SM has a particular issue to bring to the attention of the ARRL Board then they certainly should know who to contact, i.e. their very own director. I have to chuckle a little about the comment that "a lot" of SMs were upset because they didn't get the agenda before the meeting. SMs have never got the agenda before the meeting! Maybe they've been upset all these years and didn't say anything. ;) That's not to say I agree they shouldn't get it. It just hasn't been done. If the agenda has something on it related to the Field Organization, it usually doesn't get as far as the Board meeting without the SMs giving input. You might also point out the minutes of all the ARRL Board Meetings that can be seen on the ARRL web site. As a part of the minutes, the agenda for the meeting is always set out in general terms. I would point out to him that the nearly identical pro forma agenda varies very little from meeting to meeting. That will give him an idea what will be on the agenda for July. We talked about Long Range Planning this past meeting including the original LRPC came up with "cabinet meetings" where the director gets the SMs and Asst Directors together a couple of times a year just before the Board meetings to discuss the upcoming meeting and issues that might arise. I know since the early 80's that's been going on in the Pacific Division and I think Bob Vallio still does that. I believe quite a few of the directors do the same. Sorry if I'm a little testy, I've been stuck indoors for days with continual rain. I'm getting cabin fever. hi hi 73, Rod W6ROD p.s. The more I think about it I'm getting upset because I wasn't given an agenda before the Board meetings when I was an SM. Damn! Come to think of it, if I had brought that issue up to my Director when I was SM he likely would have said, "when we want your input, we'll ask for it." At 05:29 PM 1/26/2008, Brian Mileshosky wrote:

All –

First, does anyone have an agenda for the last board meeting in electronic format? If so, can someone please send it to me?

We had a swapfest today and I was talking with New Mexico’s newly elected Section Manager. He commented that ‘a lot’ of Section Managers were angry that they didn’t know what was on the agenda for the board meeting in advance so they could provide input.

I explained that the agenda is pretty general, and the meeting is predominantly committee and officer reports, which then result in motions depending on the discussion that takes place. I don’t know of a single motion (at least in my time on the board) that have been prepared in advance of the meeting, much less specific topics of discussion (outside of committee reports) such as the regulation by bandwidth topic – which was promoted as being a topic of the board meeting in advance. After offering this explanation his comment was to the effect of “that’s not a good way to run a board meeting.” Now, he’s a great guy, brand new to the section manager job, not aware of how board meetings are conducted, and probably getting opinions from other opinionated section managers.

As for his “that’s not a good way” comment, I don’t know any better way to conduct our meetings unless we have a separate pre-meeting to cast things in concrete before we have the real board meeting.

Does anybody have a better explanation I can provide him? I’d like to share our agenda with him so he sees how general it is, with nearly nothing on it for advanced discussion other than the scheduled discussion of reports.

On a separate note, I think offering the SMs a summary of board decisions was a wise move, and we should consider giving them a heads up of what’s to occur at future board meetings – as is appropriate, depending on the topic, and depending on if we ODVers know what’s to be put on the table – so they don’t feel isolated.

Thanks and 73, Brian N5ZGT

Rod Stafford W6ROD Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/rodstaffordphotography