[QCWA] QCWA - The Future

[William Pasternak]

Ive been reading all of the comments and suggestions regarding cost 
cutting for QCWA, but when you take a step back and look at most they 
either involve an added expense to QCWA, or an action that will 
likely lead to a loss of membership.

Raise the dues rates and those members who are financially sitting on 
the borderline will opt to drop out.  The same if you take something 
traditionally free and convert it to a value added premium.  You have 
to always remember that ham radio is a hobby and when money is tight, 
leisure past times are the first that are set aside and cut back.

Its easy for those of us with computers and high speed access to sit 
back and enjoy the wonders of the www including e-publications.  In 
fact, long before most even thought of it, we at Amateur Radio 
Newsline were defacto e-publishers with both the audio and the text 
versions of our weekly newscasts on-line at www.arnewsline.org.  And 
as a result, the number of those who take the newscast by telephone 
feed has dwindled, but it has not disappeared.

While some 9000+ entities a week download our audio files -- mostly 
for replay on repeaters and nets -- what is apparent is that there 
are still a lot of hams who have no computer or Internet and their 
only way to hear the newscast is via the telephone -- just as they 
did 35 years ago when we began operations as "The Westlink Radio Network."  .

Once in a while I will be sitting here and will do an intercept on 
the phone here in my office before the newscast playback ends.  Ill 
ask the caller why he/she is using the phone rather than garnering 
better audio over the MP3 from our website.  To a caller, the answer 
is something like: "...In ain't got no  (expletive deleted) computer 
and ain't going to ever have one..."  And folks, these are hams calling!

How many you ask?  We release the newscast on Friday morning -- local 
12:00 a.m. EST.  For the next 4 days the machine here is answering 
around the clock.  As the newscast runs about a half hour, and there 
are 24 hours in a day, thats about 48 a day times 4 days.  Thats a 
minimum of 768 people every week dialing in on the phone here and 
likely an equal number to the only other phone thats still 
operational in the Seattle area.  It also says quite loudly that not 
all hams are Internet savvy and not all hams are interested in the 
www nor do they want it in their homes.

Now apply this to QCWA.  If it were to take away the print Journal 
from those with no Internet access, or charge a premium fee to still 
get the print edition, what reason is there for these people to 
retain their membership?  Likely none and when the membership renewal 
is sent to them it will get tossed in the garbage.  And membership 
will shrink.

Also, from a production point of view, for a traditional "print 
publication," having both an electronic and hard copy print edition 
of any publication is time consuming and an added expense.  Its not 
just a matter of preparing the print edition and converting it to a 
.pdf file to be sent by e-mail.  Electronic publication is an art and 
a business unto itself and hiring an e-publication company (as CQ 
Magazine recently did) can eat up any monies you might save in 
reduced postage.  Unless you can get 100% of your organization to 
immediately accept a publication by electronic delivery or on a 
website, or your intentions are that of investing in the long term 
future and accepting a significant start-up loss, the concept is 
futile.  And for QCWA -- at least going by the stats I remember - the 
membership is simply not ready in total to receive e-publications.  A 
majority are, but a very significant minority is not and likely never 
will be.

My take is that there is no single"magic silver bullet" that can cure 
the financial problems facing clubs and social organizations during 
the time of a recessional economy.  Rather, all an organization can 
do in times like these is to hope that it survives the global 
economic down-turn.  We will all have a better understanding of where 
the global economy -- and that of each of us is headed once the stats 
for holiday 2011 retail sales season are complied and released in 
February 2012.  Lets all hope the results are positive.

As to QCWA:  My view is that there has to be two criteria for any 
suggestions from the membership must take and/or subsequent action by 
the national BoD.  First is that it cannot cost the organization 
anything in initial expenditure outlay and (second) that it cannot 
lead to a loss in current membership.

My advice is to "think whats free" and suggest along those lines.

de
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF