Archive for the 'Transformation' Category

Many [I hope all of you] will have read the recent blogs posted by VE1OZ/HK3OZ, John Bartlett, VE3HG, Peter West and myself.

My three blogs were drafted from the comfort of my dorm at Mt. St. Vincent University in Halifax during the course of our Annual General Meeting and the Maritime DX Forum. The forum was sponsored by the Halifax Amateur Radio Club.

The purpose of the recent blogs is to encourage membership engagement and debate on the future of the RAC.

I am completely convinced that the RAC has an important role in amateur radio and will be around for many years to come. I am also convinced that we need to encourage membership to enter into the debate so as to better inform the discussions of your directors and executive now and at our planning meeting in late October.

RAC will be vibrant and relevant in the 21^st Century because your directors and executive, in concert with the rest of the members are facing the future. We are facing the future with imagination, partnership and intelligence. We need to address issues: both real and perceived. Perception is often reality.

Some questions for you to consider and provide feedback to your directors:

• What do you want from your national organization?
• What services do you value?
• Are you prepared to be involved? Run for office? Volunteer?
• How do you think that the RAC can be made more open to members?
• How should the RAC communicate with and engage its members?

There are numerous other questions that I could pose but the stimulus provided by the blogs is intended to initiate a dialogue with hams across this country. I believe that it was Oscar Wilde that said “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. The Radio Amateurs of Canada is on the move … help chart the course.

Geoff Bawden   VE4BAW

President and Chair

When Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, speaks even I listen. I’ve met Dave down in Dayton and read his editorials in QST every month. Dave is the ARRL’s Chief Executive Officer and he sent me the following email and has given me permission to reprint them here:

Peter, someone called my attention to your RAC blog post today in response to Keith Baker. While I don’t want to inject myself into your domestic debate I must comment on your statement, “IMHO and in the opinion of some U.S. hams in high places in the ARRL, they don’t want us.”

Perhaps you just offered the comment to be provocative, but I haven’t heard that opinion expressed in the entire time since the Canadian Radio Relay League became a separate national organization, on January 1, 1988, after 67 years as a division of the ARRL. Then, as now, it wasn’t a matter of the ARRL not wanting Canada. It was a matter of how the interests of amateur radio could be best represented in Canada. That was and is a responsibility best shouldered by Canadians.

And just to set the record straight, Keith’s conjecture about ARRL membership in Canada is incorrect. We are pleased that many Canadian amateurs choose to be ARRL members, but the number is well below RAC’s membership – as it should be. There’s no substitute for supporting one’s own national organization.

73,

Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

Keith Baker, VA3KSF/KB1SF has sent us a lengthy comment that deserves to be read by every ham in Canada who is interested in the evolution of Radio Amateurs of Canada. Keith is a former president of AMSAT – NA and as such is a knowledgeable and respected commentator on Amateur Radio and we should pay attention to the wisdom of his words.

I only have two places where Keith and I part company. It’s his opinion that “my hunch is that most have to do with the fact that the active ham population in our country is shrinking and that what new hams we are getting are simply not “joiners”.”

I believe hams are joiners. I’ve been an active member of the Skywide ARC, the Peel ARC, the Oakville ARC and Contest Club Ontario as well as RAC and the ARRL and I wasn’t alone at hundreds of wonderful club meetings (and some that weren’t so wonderful too).

Also the United States Amateur Radio population with 30,000 new licensees last year is growing faster than anytime in the history of ham radio. So why is Canada not experiencing the same phenomenal growth? It’s because we aren’t getting into the schools and reaching young people in the numbers that is happening in the U.S.

My second point of disagreement comes where Keith suggests we join the ARRL as a Canadian branch. IMHO and in the opinion of some U.S. hams in high places in the ARRL, they don’t want us. We are way too small in numbers to contribute anything but problems.

They don’t understand the Canadian perspective and the English/French – two solitudes concept scares them to death. We’re the land of socialist medi-care and multiculturalism and the Americans want nothing to do with us.

If you haven’t read Keith’s comment yet please do so and tell us what you think.

BTW: It’s becoming increasingly interesting to see who is speaking out and who isn’t in this national debate.

The RAC Blog gets about 50 hits or views daily. That’s pretty good and I appreciate those of you who visit and I love those of you who leave comments but yesterday we hit a new high.

Yesterday over 350 of you came here to read about the RAC Transformation Change process that’s underway. That’s amazing.

I’m going to ask each of you who visits this blog site to do RAC and yourself a favour. Our official list of Canadian club email contacts is filled with errors. Even a list I handcrafted this week has many broken addresses. So if you are able, please alert the hams in your community (members and non-members alike) to this opportunity to help make Radio Amateurs of Canada more  responsive to your needs and needs of all Canadian amateur radio operators and send us your comments.

So far, the only comment has been this one:

“The best thing that can happen to RAC is for it to fold up it’s (sic) tent and fade away. It is like an ‘old’ building…. tear it down and throw it away and then plant flowers, grass and trees to improve the area.”

Is this what you think? Is this what should happen to our national organization? What’s your comment?

In one of his posts from RAC’s AGM held in Halifax, President Geoff Bawden, VE4BAW, said that the board and the executive need to have a “frank discussion of how things are really going, develop a team and develop a robust vision and plan and a strategy to execute the plan”.

I’ve taken some time to read between the lines and to some the president’s message might imply the following:

• past discussions haven’t been frank
• things aren’t going well
• we have no team
• there is no vision
• we don’t have a plan
• or a strategy
• and the only thing likely to get executed is a few team members (I can think of one blog moderator.)

Now before Geoff gets on the telephone to demand whether I’ve lost my mind allow me a few more words.

I’ve been on the executive for a year and half and here’s what I’ve discovered so far:

• Discussions are actually pretty good considering we’ve only all met in person just once. The folks on the board and executive are volunteers! Many of them are working very hard for the betterment of Amateur Radio in Canada.
• Things are going better than it appears. Lot of work gets done that that never gets talked about.
• The current email reflector isn’t contributing to team building IMHO and should be shut down. I’b be willing to meet online or by conference call weekly or twice a month.
• We’ve got tons of vision. What we don’t have is your vision. We need more input from the members. I wonder whether a council of club president’s working with Geoff would be welcome?
• There is no real plan and most implementation is done by eager dedicated individuals working on their own.
• Our Core Values document is outdated but could make the basis of a pretty good vision statement.
• And I hope RAC moves toward a mentoring – coaching format when it comes to new volunteers to service positions. Some vital things are not being done and this would help.
• The management model needs changing as hams in southern Ontario and Quebec very poorly represented.
• I’d love to see our management meetings open to all (to monitor) but I wouldn’t want the executive team to focus on these easily fix items. (This is something we tend to do.)
• Finally and I know this is a big one for some folks: Since RAC is a public organization our financial statement and membership numbers should be readily available to all. I’d post them right here.

What I hope will happen is we agree to meet as a team over an extended period of time sometime soon. I trust we can convince John Bartlett, HK3OZ, who has been guiding the management team in the beginning of this visioning and planning process to come to Canada and help us finish this difficult group work.

Unlike business or government when it comes to membership-driven organizations like RAC vision and policy must come from the members.

But here’s the truth: My ideas and $1 will buy you a small coffee. What we need more than anything are open forums of discussion for members and non-members alike. There are too many people sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what RAC will do. RAC can’t do anything. RAC exists only on paper. The only people who can create a new sustainable vision for RAC are you the members.

Maybe we should start a RAC Wiki where everyone can contribute their ideas and dreams for RAC and the future of Amateur Radio in Canada? What do you think? Send us your comments and let’s get talking!