Sorry about the late reply, meant to respond to this yesterday. It sounds like if we follow this course, we will be embarking on tiered membership levels, which has been somewhat avoided in the past -i.e. if we have an Emcomm-focused group, they would pay less, and should not get full member benefits. If they did, everyone would say that they are Emcomm, and ask for the lower rate. We would have to decide how to structure this, and whether this level would ever qualify for elected office, or even voting. Granted, if we give one tiered level, there will be an outcry for electing not to get a mailed QST for a reduced full member rate. That buzz has been around for quite some time. Developing a program for emergency response should be one of our main priorities, particularly since we now know that close to 50% join the league for this purpose. As I mentioned at the board meeting, Dale Williams’s PSC subcommittee-PSEWG- is really going in the right direction, IMHO, looking to move ARRL in line to have an operational equivalency with our partners. Their work should be encouraged, barriers removed, and issues mitigated to ensure their rapid forward progress with this important program. And no, I’m not an Emcomm guy. I just realize that having a respected, viable ARES Emcomm program that makes sense in our current environment is absolutely essential. And yes, I’ve used the term Emcomm multiple times. I realize that no one outside of amateur radio knows what that is. It’s just a label. ’73 de JIM N2ZZ Director – Roanoke Division Serving ARRL members in the Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina sections ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio™ From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of G Widin Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2017 8:42 AM To: David Norris Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:26362] Re: Emergency Communications Driving Increase in Amateur Radio Operators As we look to the growing community of Makers and other DIY-interested folk to become hams, we should not forget the cadre of new operators coming to us via emergency communications. Many of the comments of those who do not renew their ARRL memberships seem likely to come from this group. They find QST too technical and yearly membership too expensive. Some will be "converted" to long-term hams, but we don't offer much to entice those who enter with a pure emcomm focus. These people are already hams, so the hardest part of getting them to be long-term members is already accomplished. We 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. Hardcore, longterm hams will decry "pandering" or the dumbing-down of ham radio, but we definitely need some bridge to ensure "emcomm-only" licensees become a permanent part of ham radio, and ARRL 73, Greg, K0GW On Wednesday, April 12, 2017, David Norris <k5uz@icloud.com> wrote: Good article! http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Emergency-Communications-Driving-Increase... Time to get those membership numbers growing again! 73 David A. Norris, K5UZ Director, Delta Division Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org <javascript:;> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv