Barry, thank you for the sobering report. One of the more poignant observations is: "The [Readex] market study indicates that the pool of licensed Amateurs is aging, in many cases they are less active than they were 10 years ago and there is a growing number who report that they are "not active" in Amateur Radio. The health of the organization is substantially the result of committed, active Radio Amateurs. Active Amateurs are more likely to be members, more likely to purchase publications and more likely to involve themselves in our various programs. These trends identified in the market study, while certainly not a death sentence for the service, are troubling nonetheless." Our offerings and our development efforts do a great job in targeting and appealing to the committed, enthusiastic core of Amateur Radio. (The Board family includes some of the most committed/enthusiastic hams there are.) But trends show this core is a declining fraction of total population. We are trying harder. We are doing more mailings. But the air is slowly leaking out of the tires of the vehicle we've chosen to drive. The trouble is, it's leaking out slowly enough that we can still make several more trips to the grocery store without fixing the leak. Where does the initiative come from to address this issue? Are there as yet undiscovered strategies for increasing the fraction of hams who are committed/enthusiastic? Perhaps an ARRL Mentoring program - according to Dave's CEO report. Perhaps re-structuring license classes/privileges so that every license class has access to the HF bands? What has to happen before we will adopt strategies for broadening our appeal to folks who may be less committed/enthusiastic than our traditional core group - folks whose connection with Amateur Radio may be incidental to the pursuit of other interests. What are the ways to broaden our appeal without losing the core? Are our past dabblings in this arena just cause for not trying again? 73, Art ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shelley, Barry, N1VXY" <bshelley@arrl.org> To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 12:50 PM Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9925] CFO Report Enclosed is my report to the Board for the upcoming Board of Directors Meeting. If you have any questions prior to the meeting, please let me know. 73, Barry, N1VXY <<12 CFO Report Jan 04.doc>>