Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for
September, 2019.
At several recent hamfests, I have had the opportunity to
seriously discuss the status of our Great Lakes Division radio clubs with some
of their members. The range of comments
was extraordinary, from "very healthy and growing" to "desperate
and dying". The latter of course
was very disappointing news. Why the
differences? We did discuss them and
also talked about what possible changes had affected the dying clubs.
[This is where this message gets tenuous.] The members' comments seemed often to relate
to the effectiveness of the current slate of officers and/or their immediate
predecessors. This is of course reported
from the members' personal perspective and may have no basis in fact.
However, for most of us, perception is pretty close to
reality, so the comments included items such as these: Some leaders had grown weary of the job and
could not recruit replacements, others seemed unaware of their plight, others
seemed to have no plans for the club while other leaders pointed their fingers
at the "other guy" being at fault, not facing the reality of their
own situation.
In the meantime, the really successful clubs are reported
to have truly active and involved leadership, programs at their meetings, guest
speakers, club projects, special interest groups, active local nets, club field
activities, club parties, and importantly a PLAN to make themselves a success.
Perhaps it is time for the less than successful clubs to
take a self-examination and ask themselves "Where do we want to go and how
do we want to get there?" Frankly
folks, if your club Board of Directors does not occasionally meet and plan for
the club's future, you may want to consider urging them to move in that
direction. Strong words I am sure, but
today, one has a choice to do the things necessary to succeed, adapt to change,
and CREATE excitement and growth, or face the unfortunate alternative: a slow
and certain demise. From some of the
members from those clubs on that slippery slope, I have heard the stories of
"power struggles", "club empires" "entrenched
officers" and a host of other reasons alleging change is not
possible. Really?
Club members need to stand up and take action. Don't allow a continuing stagnant condition
to exist in your club, empower yourselves to make change. Set some goals to make your club the success
it needs to be.
It only takes two or three to create a "wake up
call" and encourage the
needed changes.
Plans and goals are critical to a club's future, have
at it!
To those clubs on the successful part:
congratulations! Keep it rolling! To those ready to make the paradigm shift to
a new adventure, best wishes for your renewed success.
TOM'S TOME
Comments from your ARRL Vice Director Tom W8WTD.
Of the many ways that ham radio has changed over the years,
one of them has to be in the operating habits of many of us. It used to be that
you could find contacts on the HF bands easily, whenever they were open. (As an
operator who prefers SSB, I wish we were at a different point in the sunspot
cycle. Oh well....) Of course, there are still some contacts to be made. But
not as easily. Maybe our schedules provide us with so many more things to do
that we allocate less time to radio.
So “events” become more important. Probably the biggest
event to bring out lots of activity of HF was the National Parks on the Air
several years ago. It was the right combination of contesting, contacting,
portable operating, etc., to really make a hit with hams and get a lot of radio
waves stirred up.
There are still lots of operating events to take
advantage of. For example, the state QSO parties usually do well for
participation. So if you’re looking for an “event,” you can probably find
something to operate in most weekends.
A short-term “event” sponsored by ARRL is coming up right
now. The Hiram Percy Maxim Birthday Celebration starts on August 31st and runs
through September 8th. Full details are on the ARRL website or in the September
issue of QST.
Some of us need an “excuse” to get on the air, or at
least an assurance that we’ll find stations to work. This is a good one. Hope
we take advantage of it.
--73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
OUR GREAT LAKES DIVISION web page does carry news from
some of the recent events in the Division, useful links and information as well
as some neat photos supplied from around the Division. Check it out: http://arrl-greatlakes.org/
Be sure to check your ARRL Section's news pages for the
latest local happenings, club and net information.
HAMFESTING: Here
is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule covering
the next few months. These swaps have
received their sanctioning approval from ARRL HQ at the time of this publication.
If you plan to request ARRL Hamfest Sanctioning, please
be sure to do it well in advance of your Hamfest date, as this allows adequate
time for
QST Listings. Be
sure to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your
date is set. Plan
ahead and request your ARRL Officials to attend.
With 52 weeks and 70+ hamfests in the Great Lakes
Division, things do double up a little and we need to share duties.
9/7/19 GRAHamfest Wyoming, MI
9/7/19 CMARC
Hamfest Okemos, MI
9/7/19 Greater
Louisville Shepherdsville, KY
9/8/19 Findlay
Hamfest Findlay, OH
9/14/19 Central
Kentucky Richmond, KY
9/15/19 Adrian
Hamfest Adrian, MI
9/21/19 GMARC
Trunk Swap Shelby Twp, MI
9/21/19 OHKYIN
ARS Hamfest Cincinnati, OH
9/22/19 Cleveland
Hamfest Berea, OH
9/22/19 Flying
Beers Int'l Ferndale, MI
9/28/19 Paintsville
Hamfest Paintsville, KY
10/5/19 Alpena
Swap Alpena, MI
10/5/19 Scioto
Valley Chillicothe, OH
10/12/19 Northwest
Ohio ARC Lima, OH
10/19/19 Muskegon
Color Tour Muskegon, MI
10/20/19 Kalamazoo Kalamazoo, MI
10/26/19 Hazard
Hamfest Hazard, KY
73, Were you on the air today??? Ham it up!
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
