[SMCARA] Re-focus

Sun Mar 22 00:37:19 EDT 2015

Tom (et alii),

As one of those reasonably new guys to the club I wanted to toss my 2 cents
into the ring.

I spent about 10 years working for an environmental non-profit with a
struggling membership and lackluster volunteer involvement and just
recently retired from the Southern Maryland Audubon Society where I spent
many years as a volunteer on their Board of Directors. My experience in
both organizations was that there will always be a core of dedicated folks
who keep things alive and the rest come and go. My observation of SMCARA
since last summer has been very similar to SMAS and my work with the
non-profit; and a core of dedicated people can only do so much. If I based
a guess on meeting attendance and repeater use alone I'd have guessed we
only have 30 or 40 members. It's primarily the same voices and faces on the
air and at the events. Most people don't want to be involved in club
activities and operations and there's nothing we can do about it. I say
this because I strongly caution against the idea that a smaller active
membership is better than a bigger one that isn't active the way the
dedicated core is. If 80% of the membership is happy to pay their dues,
occasionally pop into a meeting and otherwise remain inactive (as far as we
know) in this hobby then who are we to expect/require/demand more of them?
We have to take the wide angle approach and invite everyone to the party,
those that want to be involved will turn up. Usually just about the time
someone else is finally burned out and needs a break. And is ready to
retire from the Board of Directors.

The idea that people will be more involved if we make them "earn" it just
doesn't work either, they aren't involved for a hundred reasons that have
nothing to do with ham radio. I've heard that comment, along with the
no-code and appliance operator cracks, over and over online and it still
raises my hackles. At 40+ years old I had to work to earn my Tech and
General tickets and will have to work three times as hard to even hope to
get my Extra. I also did exactly what the FCC required of me. So the idea
that the club should add some hurdles to make sure new members pay their
pound of flesh really bugs me. Frankly, if the club was charging $50 for a
test last summer I wouldn't be a ham now. Correction. I'd be a ham but I
would have taken my class and/or test with some other club. Which would be
a shame because I think it's a great club and I'm glad to be a member. I'm
also grateful for the free membership, it's a nice gesture of welcome that
goes a long way to foster a new friendship. Someone who isn't going to
renew the free year to a paid membership probably wouldn't have paid for a
membership in the first place. And if the ARRL membership was a forced
requirement, well...

I've only experienced one Field Day so far but I can say, without a doubt,
that it was the encouragement I needed to finally jump into amateur radio.
It was fun, it was free, everyone was nice, they put me to work entering
data and offered to let me get on the air. I stuck around until midnight
and decided to sign up for the summer classes based on my experience that
day. I think it's a reasonable guess that if we polled a random group of
non-hams that many think this is a hobby for old white guys with disposable
income who sit and talk about the weather on their expensive radios. We all
know that both the demographic and the purpose of amateur radio is so much
more than that but it wouldn't take much in the way of pay-to-play
requirements to make us look like stuffy elitists. And that's no way to
encourage the curious to check us out.

I absolutely agree that it would be great to get the new hams active and on
the air, if that's their goal, and that we should do more activities that
catch the attention of the community. I really appreciated the CW class you
did last year and would like to see more activities like it. I also think
we should have an Education/Outreach person or committee so we can get more
face time with kids who are being encouraged (bombarded?) to get into STEM
related fields. I know Dan does this to some degree but I don't know
whether it's a club thing or just because he loves to talk about technology
and electronics. I think the club is already great but can see the
potential for growth and I'm happy to share some ideas and thoughts I have
with whoever the President is.

Chris Ordiway - KC3DIG

PS: I'm sorry if I offended any of the old white guys with disposable
income, I hope to be one too someday! LOL

On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 10:36 AM, Tom Shelton <gl1800winger at verizon.net>
wrote:

> During the discussion on by-laws, I mentioned that I would step-up for the
> position of president, but that I would just be a figure-head.
>
>
>
> Anyone who knows me knows that that comment was hyperbole and that I just
> can't help myself from being involved.
>
>
>
> Dan and I continued the discussion off the reflector, and here are a few
> excerpts - In short, my hats in the ring.
>
>
>
> As President, I would focus on getting our new hams active and on the air.
> Meetings would feature different modes and how they're used, different
> entry
> level equipment available - with demonstrations and hand's on play time -
> different antennas from home-brew to commercially available with pros and
> con - how to set-up your home or mobile station.  I'd like to see more
> community support and would ask the club to sponsor a pizza party (or other
> social get-together) for volunteers - and their families - after each
> community support event.  I'd also pump up the Elmer program in the club.
>
>
>
> I also have a few ideas on why the new people aren't active:
>
>
>
> Because the FCC made it much easier to get a license, people don't have to
> earn it (at least without as much effort as before) and if you give
> something to someone then they don't appreciate it as much.  Step 1.  Stop
> giving free membership to people who take the class and pass the test (same
> for radios, but as I understand it, that's gone away).  Step 2.  Charge for
> the classes (I don't think that $50 is out of the question - include study
> book and test fees and split additional funds over the cost of the
> book/test
> between club activities and class room support).  On a side note - I really
> prefer the ARRL study guide over the W5YI guide.
>
>
>
> Right now (IMHO) the new hams see the club as a social organization, so I
> would want to re-focus it towards being a General Ham Group.  For example -
> Field Day should focus more on operating than on dinner, testing, side
> meetings, etc.  The site I operated from last year cost me $60 to operate
> there - but I and one other guy made over 1,000 contacts just on 75M phone
> (over 13,000 for the whole site, with over 800 just on the GOTA station).
> Give people a choice - if they provide a radio or antenna or other
> equipment, or do set-up/tear-down, then they can operate and come to dinner
> - if they don't, then they'll be a cost associated ($10?).  No test session
> at FD - but certainly have a GOTA station going.  Just going to back to
> people appreciating things more if it costs them something.
>
>
>
> Make ARRL membership mandatory.  Well -   at least strongly encourage it.
> Maybe at every meeting have the ARRL members stand up to be recognized.
> Perhaps give a discount to the annual SMCARA dues for ARRL members ($5
> off???).  Have ARRL member only activities.
>
>
>
> I'd rather have a lower number of members who are active than a huge number
> who are there for the parties, but inactive otherwise.
>
>
>
> I know some (or all) of these will be unpopular with some (or most) people
> -
> but let's open a dialogue and discuss it.  Share your thoughts, step up and
> volunteer for a position or to sponsor an activity.
>
>
>
> Tom Shelton, ND3N
>
> Ham Radio, Motorcycling, and a Loving Wife who lets me play with both
>
> What more could a man need
>
>
>
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