Higher ARRL dues? Um, no thanks.

I've made no secret of my disdain for the ARRL, mostly because of the history of the code requirement, and the prevailing attitude about that requirement which extends to this day, among some League Life members. In other words, the few folks still funding the ARRL. Consider this comment from someone I assume to be one of them. It's a fairly typical, if distasteful comment:

The worst thing ever done was to do away with code. It has let a lot of idiots into ham radio. People that know absolutely nothing. It destroyed ham radio.

These are the bsame folks who, by and large will tell us endlessly how digi modes are "not Ham Radio". I can recall as a young SWL back in the early 60's listening to Hams operating on AM complaining that SSB would be the death of Ham Radio. Obviously, they were about as correct at those saying the same of FT8 today.  I usually respond to such folks that their operations are not ham radio, either, unless they're running spark gap transmitters like Hiram did it... Conversations tend to peter out at that point.

It is (quite correctly) explained in detail in many forum conversations that there was no call from most ARRL members, for a code-free ticket, back in those days... and therein lies my objection to the ARRL's actions there. Understand: In my view, the League has a dual role...

Yes, they are tasked to represent their dues paying membership to the government bodies.... but they also have a responsibility to the future of Ham radio as a whole, the vast majority of which are not league members.,nor were they at the time... and I firmly believe that the code requirement nonsense put those two responsibilities at odds with each other. At that point, the choice should have been to look to the future, instead of holding onto the past, in an effort, apparently to hang onto the dues paying membership.

They blew that decision. They failed to look to the future.

That error has been costing Ham radio ever since. Sorry, that's the reality.

 The result of that lack pushed many folks away from the hobby. There was a great deal of radio talent on CB back in those days, involved with clubs, public service projects (Remember REACT?)... which could have been shaped and molded into great hams. But they got pushed away by a group of people who in my view, couldn't get over themselves.  Amazingly, there's still a fair number of hams who agree with the quote above.  Amazing to me that a hobby that  bills itself as a welcoming one and on the cutting edge of radio technology, should suffer with folks who insist on century old technology being required, or to hell with you, you're not welcome.

Yes, I agree that the return of code requirements is a dead issue, which is as it should be. Reinstating Morse Code requirements is rather like someone being required to fix a Model A before they can fix a Lambo. Totally different skill sets are required. Put another way, the ham radio hobby is not your great grandfather's hobby.

Understand me clearly on this; The attitude of a goodly number of Ham radio ops that the requirement should never have gone away, is problematic. For the most part, those holding those views are life members of the league. The problem I have with that is twofold:

* It still has the likely effect of swaying league (and thereby governmental) policies. Even to a small degree, that's unacceptable.
* Even absent the first point, it's keeping people away from the hobby. Witness again, the quote above.  Think that attitude not a net negative for the hobby? Who wants to get into a high-dollar hobby where they're not wanted?

In fairness, such attitudes are increasingly a minority. But then again, as I've already pointed out, so is league membership.

Add to that, the nigh on useless LOTW,

A bit of personal history to explain my comments on that point: I spent a number of years as a computer professional. One of my tasks was supporting interfaces to mainframe legacy systems. 

I tell you straight out: LOTW  has the feel of a 1975 mainframe program with a cobbled together web front end, designed by a 12 year old genius. Yeah, I've heard that Newington has begun to understand the problems with LOTW have gotten too large for it not to be completely re-designed.... and have begun to move in that direction. Given the history of the thing and my conversations with some of the developers of that system, I personally expect the (Likely buggy as hell) first beta of this redesign in 2047. Such is the situation with every committee driven platform development. It is said that a camel is a horse built by committee.

I've been using QRZ as my primary logger and backfeeding it to LOTW. I've actually touched the LOTW front end 4 times in the last three years. I load to LOTW as a courtesy for the folks who insist on using it.  The attraction of award wallpaper is strong for some, I suppose. (Shrug) OK, I'll play that far, for their sake.

And finally, what are members really getting from the ARRL?  That seems an open question and the vast majority of Hams are asking that question and do not like the answer. Thus the pitiful membership numbers.

 Pan up to about the 42 minute mark of this vid.

One tidbit he shares in the vid is that each year there are approximately 30,000 new FCC amateur licensees. 3,000 of these join the ARRL, and only 600 of them keep their ARRL membership into the second year. 

Clearly, those numbers are not sustainable, particularly with the rate of members going SK. The ship is sinking.

Equally clearly, what is causing this is at least a problem of perception.... where folks don't see any bang for their increasingly tight dollars. Admittedly, and in fairness, that can go either way.... either they're not getting a value, or they are but they're not sold on the idea. One thing for certain, whichever way that goes........ jacking the prices up ain't gonna help that perception issue. If it's felt to be not worth the price currently, what in the world makes them think it's going to be worth the higher dues?

 So, it comes down to the question to what can the ARRL do to improve the situation?  

 I'll tell you what they cannot do:... they cannot keep trying to feed the current membership. That's only going to drive those outside the fold away most of them permanently.  .... In any event, the league can't sustain that path, because current membership is going away anyway... attrition will cut the membership by roughly half in the next ten years, sadly.

The solution... and I think it's the only viable one... is going to be counter-intuitive to some.  Start representing hams who are NOT league members. They are the majority of ticket holders by a high factor, after all. It's the biggest target for improving membership numbers. . Make the ARRL something THEY wantt o be a part of. Make it worth their time and dollars, (by their lights, not yours.) 

But for the time being, until you get these issues resoled to THEIR satisfaction, the ARRL and Ham Radio as a whole would be better served by shelving the idea of increased dues.

The ARRL has much good to be said for it, and has much in the way of potential. For that potential to be realized, however, there are many changes that need to take place.... and I wonder if the ARRL, being a body of committees,seemingly bent on creating horses that look like duck-billed platypuses,  has the ability.... or the desire, for that matter,  to execute those changes. I have my hopes, but I have my doubts, as well.