From: ehare@arrl.org (Ed Hare KA1CV)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: Re: ARRL Bulletin 68  ARLB068
Date: 24 Jul 92 10:47:09 EDT
Organization: American Radio Relay League

In rec.radio.amateur.misc, winter@Apple.COM (Patty Winter) writes:

>Thread history deleted

>While I'm at it, let me add that I agree totally with Jay Maynard's
>posting. People like him and Phil and lots of others are active League
>members (and in Phil's case, even on a technical committee) who are
>working to take amateur radio forward instead of sitting on the sidelines
>carping. I'm not by any means saying that you need to belong to the League
>to do good things for ham radio, but for heaven's sake, quit making false
>generalizations about those who are.

>Patty

>(FYI, I'm not--although I'm about to re-up. Both decisions were made
>for personal reasons having nothing to do with whether I agree with
>every League policy.)

Patty,  

I work here at Headquarters and can tell you with certainty that not all of 
US agree with every League policy! :-). The way I like to put it to people
is this: If you feel that any organization is doing any one thing that is 
important to you, join the organization to support that activity or program.
That also gives you the opportunity to influence (and more effectively 
complain about) all the rest.

The ARRL is not located in Newington. The Headquarters and Headquarters staff
is located in Newington. We are an important part of the ARRL, but the 
most important part is the membership and the Field Organization. It is
their activities (or inactivities) that really shape what this organization
is about. I could not possibly agree with the activities and programs of
an organization that consists of 160,000 parts.

Your comments about not sitting on the sidelines are well put. One of the
biggest problems faced by any organization from the local civic club to
the largest organization is apathy. Ham radio is often just what the
individual players make it. I applaud the doers and do what I can to
encourage the watchers to play a more active role.

But don't be too quick to condemn the flamers. We need them for a lot of
reasons. First, they are among those who care about ham radio and the
issues that confront us. The fact that they are willing to sit in front
of their keyboards and hold up their ideas for the world to look at 
suggests that there are probably a lot of doers among their ranks. Also,
I have noticed that there is a lot of valid criticism among the flames.
No individual or organization is perfect, and there is always room for
improvement. I just wish all of the suggestions were constructive, but
I am willing to read between the lines to find a good idea. :-)

This is part of the reason that I do not leap to the defense of ARRL every
time a flamer comes on the net to roast us. I encourage other staff to
tread lightly, too, although we are not of one mind here -- each of us
acts on his or her own. I don't want to stifle needed criticism and feedback
by jumping on each person who disagrees with something we have done. We
need that feedback to let us know when we have dreamed up a bad idea
or undertaken a poor program. Feedback also serves to point out pitfalls
so that we can avoid them before they cause us or Amateur Radio harm.

Let's all keep it in perspective. If we communicate peacefully to resolve
differences we will either resolve those differences, or realize that we
really don't have such major differences at all.

73, Ed


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Ed Hare, KA1CV                  ehare@arrl.org
American Radio Relay League
225 Main St.
Newington, CT  06111            There is no limit to what you can 
(203) 666-1541 - voice          accomplish if you don't care who
ARRL Laboratory Supervisor      gets the credit. - Harry S Truman
RFI, xmtr and rcvr testing  
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Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc