[QCWA Hotlist] Straw Poll on Associate Member Issue

[Vic Culver]

QCWA Chapter 119 conducted a straw poll of its members with 
announcements via the Virginia QCWA Newsletter and announcements on 
our Virginia HF Net and the local QCWA VHF net.  While dialog was not 
asked for, it would have been naive to expect that there wouldn't be 
any.  Without more information, however, such dialog is not really 
helpful.

Of course the ultimate decision on this issue will depend on many 
factors, not the least of which would be the actual definition of an 
Associate Member.  A determining factor would also be the extent to 
which such a move could be seen as providing enough membership 
financial support to QCWA to keep it alive and providing member 
benefits.  All of that would have to be considered at the time The 
Question was called in a proper forum.

There will be discussion of this issue, as there has been each time it 
has arisen.  While many of our members have not changed their thinking 
about this issue over the years, the conditions leading up to the 
proposal certainly have changed, and at some point this change might 
be seen as a NECESSARY step to reverse our present decline.  Keeping 
the organization alive is a powerful incentive to do what must be 
done, in spite of many other feelings.

The result of the Chapter 119 members poll is as follows:

Those in FAVOR of relaxing membership requirements -- 11

Those OPPOSED to relaxing membership requirements -- 16

Those Chapter 119 members NOT VOTING -- 52.

One might interpret those results in this way:  Eleven members would 
be happy to increase the membership by allowing formal association by 
those who now interact with us as Friends of Chapter 119.  There is, 
perhaps, a danger in losing some of the 16 members who oppose relaxing 
membership, but probably not ALL of them.  The real mystery in all 
this is how to consider the vast majority -- 52 members -- who were 
not sufficiently moved to vote.  Given that we have approximately 85 
Friends of Chapter 119, how many of them could we expect to pick up as 
paying members? -- some, but certainly not all of them.  But probably 
enough to offset those who value QCWA so lightly as to let a necessary 
change in nomenclature drive them from among our ranks.

Tough Times --Tough decisions.  We will have to have much more 
information than is available at present before we can make a truly 
'informed' decision on an issue this complex.  It would be best for 
all to keep in mind that QCWA is an organization we all love, and that 
we only want to preserve the proper respect for it in the long run.  
It is NOT responsible leadership, at ANY level, to bury ones head in 
the sand and ignore the present reality.

Vic Culver, W4VIC
President, QCWA Chapter 119 Inc.