[OMIK] OMIK Future Convention Considerations & Member Input

[OMIK Amateur Radio Association]

Dear OMIK Membership

Next week we will meet in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the 63rd Annual
Anniversary Convention. The latest reports indicate that our registrations
are less this year than in 2014.  Those of you who have been attending for
the last few years have seen our convention attendance numbers go steadily
down.  While I do understand that everyone can not make the convention each
and every year, it appears past due that I bring this to the attention of
the membership in hopes of finding an equitable way to proceed.

>From a business point of view, if we are not able to book a minimum number
of attendees for the convention we may have to discuss a new strategy in
terms of putting on the Anniversary Convention.  The organization can not
sustain operating the convention at a deficit.  This puts an unnecessary
strain on our budget that can not be sustained year after year.

I also realize that site location plays a major role as it pertains to
attendance.  It has been our custom to choose cities that are accessible
coast to coast.  Currently convention site selection is done at the yearly
convention's General Meeting, but with attendance dropping as it has a
larger percentage of active OMIK members do not have input in the
convention location process.

In an attempt to be more inclusive of the memberships needs and wishes, as
well as a way to possibly increase the number of members able to attend the
convention we have created an on-line comment form related to the current
issues concerning the convention.

Please do what you can to attend the yearly conventions, and please take a
minute to follow the link below to our on-line convention comment form and
register your thoughts which will help us decide what the best direction
for future conventions.

(
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1iGri3wTbT1tqV8VgjVKvuR5ByAL2C6nZVgJuiR4F3Uw/viewform
)

Sincerely

Jeff Drew, N4JDU
OMIK President