+ AA6YQ comments below

1. The Awards and Contesting forums were created by ARRL and were announced in the ARRL Letter and on the website. An ARRL Governance forum was also announced but appears to have never happened.

+ An ARRL Governance forum was next on my list, but was never announced. Actually, it was first on my list, but we decided to start with relatively non-controversial topics and master those before jumping into the volcano.


I did not subscribe to the ARRL LOTW forum and thus can't comment.

2. Both the Awards and Contesting forums were billed as discussion groups between members and HQ offices. Obviously, Directors, Vice-Directors, and Officers are welcome and encouraged, I'm sure. But the expressed purpose of the lists was to facilitate member interaction with David's crew at HQ.

+ and with Board Members.


So far, all of the subjects that have arisen here fall into the "Operations" category, and the answers/resolutions will be found in Newington, not with the BoD.

ARRL's regional organization creates stovepipes or silos ... vertical structures based on arbitrary [and meaningless] regions with little if any information and discussion paths between them. I had no reason to find out who the Director of the Dakota Division is, or who the NTX SM is, neither you nor he is in my silo and thus, while I recognized your call [who doesn't? 😉], the fact that you are a Director went unnoticed. If other Directors post, they're just another ham to me unless identified and the posts are regular. I know about Ria and the Hudson division only because Ria defies the structure and has a visible and reliable presence on many of the forums ... including non-ARRL ones.

These forums are not optimal methods of communication but they're all we have, at least right now. Every time a member comes here and "vents" about something such as the quality of an award, it represents yet another time that the way it should have worked at HQ -- didn't.

+ Actually, not all posts to these fora have been "venting". Months ago, a spirited exchange here led to a proposed resolution of the "remote operating creates an un-level playing field" conundrum, a resolution that I understand is wending its way through various ARRL committees on its way to the Board (venting: at the ARRL's standard speed - glacial).

73,

Dave, AA6YQ