Think about how you got enthusiastic toward amateur radio. For me, I was eight years old and it was through a cheap transistor AM radio. This passion has been unabated since that time, albeit not always top priority in the broader scheme of life. It’s my belief that most hams have a “burning love” of the activity embedded in the amateur radio hobby. But, alas, it’s a social activity for the most part. We operate in groups of two or more and sometimes, like Hamvention, thousands! To get engaged and reap the benefits of a national organizing association, there is the National Association for Amateur Radio with over a hundred thousand. This should be an amplifier of that passion that took root with the hobby. Like Johnny Cash crooned, it is now a burning ring of fire for U.S. hams as well as those international members. And it’s going down, down, down. That burning ring is what puts a damper on the passion that drives us on in so many ways. Many hams have just hit the trail, I’m told, moving on from membership to the tune of about 1,000 non-renewals per month.
Johnny Cash’s famous song, Ring of Fire, symbolizes the League’s operation right now, at least to so many current and previous members. Even though, I’m told, the routine defense mechanism by a few Division Directors and the CEO is that there is only three percent of the members who are “haters” and should be ignored. Arrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic anyone? The flames are getting higher in the ring of fire that the power grab by the “shadow Board” and CEO has put the League in. Let’s look at the glowing embers, shall we?
The news is burning hot if you’ve wanted things to get better in Newington. It burns higher with the unmitigated lack of transparency that the IRS tax-exempt status says the ARRL should have toward its membership.
I’ve now had three independent sources confirm a provisional number of ARRL members as of November 2024 which I’ll use as the End-of-Year total in my charts. I’ve also used the League’s number of amateur radio licenses as the total market. The news is burning hot if you’ve wanted things to get better in Newington. It burns higher with the unmitigated lack of transparency that the IRS tax-exempt status says the ARRL should have toward its membership.
The chart below shows that 2024 reflects the lowest membership this century for the National Association for Amateur Radio. One can view “members” in several ways. For instance, I am a member of the RSGB and RAC. But I don’t live in England or Canada. I am a Life Member of the ARRL (and AMSAT, but who’s counting?). Am I “more” of a member in the League than the ones in other countries? However the reader views it, I’m also told that there are some 9,493 associate members and 6,000 or so international members. Full members total some 121,725 according to my sources. Some would call these members as the essential and core members but that’s simply a choice of the reader. All told, it adds up to around 137,218 total “members” in the ARRL but 121,725 core members. I have listed both the provisional total and the Full membership numbers in this chart.
The interactive chart above uses the “full” member number as the figure for the lowest membership number since 2000. It would still be that even with the foreign and associates were added, totalling some 137,218 as of November 2024. (Internal word is that the “ransomware” attack prevents the League’s HQ from having firm membership numbers, although my sources say they can count about 1,000 members each month who do not renew.) The chart illustrates on whose executive watch this debacle has occurred.
The chart .. shows that 2024 reflects the lowest membership this century for the National Association for Amateur Radio…All told, it adds up to around 137,218 total “members” in the ARRL but 121,725 core members…[It] illustrates on whose executive watch this debacle has occurred.
The biannual Board of Directors meeting of the ARRL was held recently with, I’m told, much division over Bylaw changes. One of the Directors who tends to be candid, whether the CEO or other Board members want him to or not, is Dick Norton N6AA. He gave his annual stump speech at Quartzfest last week. It tells the story with the authority of someone “in the room” of the meetings. That’s a helluva lot more transparency that the membership gets from the sanitized Agenda and post-mortem meeting summary! It’s worth a watch:
It is not difficult to read online and in conversations on the ground with fellow hams that the QST subscription to charge extra for the print version while not honoring the three-year subscription members with the promise of that duration is driving the “ring of fire.” But that’s not all of it, I’m told by others “in the room” who do not like what the “shadow” Board (a subset of about 10 Directors) is trying to do.
This would effectively allow the CEO and “shadow” Board to appoint Division Directors without an election. This is the accelerant for the Ring of Fire surrounding the ARRL right now.
The Bylaw changes proposed would, if fully passed, allow the Ethics & Elections Committee to vet the entire social media history of a submitted candidate as to their “loyalty” to the corporation known to the State of Connecticut as the American Radio Relay League, Inc. (EIN 06-6000004). Say something negative, like I’m doing here, and the E&E Committee would report: Nein, he is not of sufficient ethical material to stand for election. Or something like that. As I understand it, this would effectively allow the CEO and “shadow” Board to appoint Division Directors without an election. This is the accelerant for the Ring of Fire surrounding the ARRL right now.
The additional defense mechanism bandied about by the CEO is that most hams who hold licenses, especially Technicians who are about 50 percent of the license pool, are not “active” enough for the League to be concerned with their needs. I recall the CEO’s words were that the “Lion’s share” of these active hams were ARRL members and this has been known in Newington for a long time. See my analysis here which lays that to rest. It’s a common ploy by management to reduce the burden of service through downplaying the market so I am not surprised by this demonstrably incorrect rhetoric out of Newington. It merely fuels the fire and does not reflect professionalism in leadership.
As the chart above shows, the market share using the Full membership number is now down to 16 percent of the total number of ham licenses posted on the ARRL website for the end of 2024.
If you love amateur radio, this is nearing a catastrophic level, 16 to 18 percent of all licensed hams are members of the National Association for Amateur Radio. It’s a burning thing, this Ring of Fire….
But it is not too late. There is beaucoup narrative by the CEO, the League’s counsel, and some Directors about the fiduciary duty that officers and Board members have to the corporation of ARRL Inc. Don’t self-deal, lie about the finances, but do things in the best interests of the organization. This must be the individual Board member’s sensibilities of “best interests,” not the CEO or the legal counsel. (Remember: a lawyer’s statement is an opinion. A judge’s is the law, for the moment.) The QST debacle could still be reversed for those who purchased a three-year membership option. Make amends! That is in the best interests of the corporation.
Next to not lying about the finances, I’m unsure what else is more important than the membership of a tax-exempt non-profit corporation. It is the causa existere for the organization. (I understand that one of the Officers likes to use Latin to poke fun at my columns.) The membership should be the reason for the existence of the ARRL, not providing an executive stop at the end of someone’s career.
If you are so inclined, contact your Division Director to express your thoughts on the “Shadow” Board and the Bylaws that represent the CEO’s power grab in Newington. It’s their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of this membership-driven non-profit corporation. To aid in your outreach, here is the list from the ARRL website. Maybe doing so will relieve some of the burning…