Straying FAR away from the stated subject line of "Multi-Single", W2CE
recently opined,
>You have to realize that there are people who attain some form of
>position be it an officer of a large radio club or even ARRL position
>that are experiencing the biggest influential position of their lives.
>Few would be selected if they had to present resumes with business
>qualifications.
>Who do people elect to manage a corporation the size of the ARRL ? Does
>anyone ask for corporate managerial experience or do you just shake the
>hand of a guy with a big signal? ...These people are not gods...
>Position and ethics don't go side by side.
These are some sweeping indictments that cover a number of people I hold in
very high regard, and I am personally offended by these remarks. Overall
management responsibility of the ARRL rests with the board of directors.
The division directors (and vice-directors) with whom I have had personal
contact invariably have had distinguished business careers. I'm not sure
why W2CE should consider that such a necessary qualification, but the
correlation here is quite strong. The staff in Newington surely must suffer
from the highest ratio of competence/compensation I have ever observed
outside of a monastery. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the ones I've
been privileged to know are NOT there because they are "experiencing the
biggest [sic] influential position of their lives". They're there because
they love the hobby and want to give something back to it. I think we
should be grateful there are people like them who are willing to take the
responsibility they have, suffer the abuse they have to endure, and then try
to provide for their families on the salaries the league is able to give
them. (The technical salaries in Newington are about 1/4 to 1/3 of what
they could be making here in Silicon Valley.)
Likewise, the people who belly up to the bar to accept elective office in
our radio clubs are probably not doing it because they're getting their
kicks out of exercising some kind of power they would not otherwise be able
to earn. They're most likely doing it because they feel it's everybody's
responsibility to take their turn and try to help the hobby and because they
honestly feel they can make a difference. I spent one year as president of
NCCC and had fun doing it, but I don't think I ever want to do that job
again. There were just too many people who felt I owed it to them to be
their personal punching bag for whatever in ham radio it was that was
irritating them at the moment. Just as in everything else in life, it's 10%
of the people (who never come to club meetings, of course) who cause 90% of
the problems. That 10% can be really irritating, though.
I'm sure there are examples W2CE could offer to try to prove his point, but
to generalize the accusation to include the set of people he did is just a
gross insult to a lot of dedicated people.
Bruce, N6NT
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|