Well, following my post to uk.radio.amateur (about the RSGB renewal) various people suggested trying to change it.
The problem with that is that there is no means of communication with the RSGB.
You can write to them or phone them, but that would only put you in contact with the paid staff.
You could possibly write to the board of directors as a whole but I guess the secretary would field that.
One person can;t actually make any difference. As we all know democracies tend to favour the status quo because thats the average opinion of people who vote on such things. Even if one "pro change" candidate was elected it would not make any
difference to the voting on the board. As not all members change every year a "coup" is actually impossible even if the membership voted 100% for pro change candidates. It would take years.
Interestingly the RSGB does not send communication to members by email.
It does not have a news announce list like the ARRL, although you can get GB2RS by email. I think the RSGB's communication with members is very poor in general.
If I retain my membership I may go the whole hog and stand for election at
the next board meeting. Imagine a board member for Scotland who was actually born here and has lived here for a long period of time. Normally they parachute in candidates....
The problem is that I am not "anti rsgb" I am just "pro amateur radio" and the two sometimes cross over.I don't agree with a licence for life because it will skew the licence statistics and lead to a bad database.
I also don't think a paid 5 year livcence is wrokable commercially for accounting reasons. Its likely to cost more than five times the one year fee to run a system like that (and I do have considerable experience running subsrcription services
with a one to ten year period).
Here are some suggestions:
1. The RSGB should reduce the cost of membership by 10 to 20% and offer one
free year to all new licencees.
The uptake on renewals and increased membership base would bring in enough
cash in a year or two to keep it going.
2. The RSGB should review Radcom as its not hitting the mark for anyone
these days.
They should look at electronic delivery options or other ways of
distributing the same information. Use the internet to deliver some of the
services electronically.
3. The RSGB should review the success of GB4FUN to determine what the actual
outcome has been before throwing any more cash at it.
4. The RSGB needs to look at its staff recruitment policies to make sure
they follow modern human resources procedures (no nepotism).
5. The RSGB should review all overseas trips for board members and how these
are funded. Any benefits to board members should be published in the annual
report so its clear who is getting what and why.
6. The RSGB should review the QSL bureau as there may be simpler ways of
sorting the cards and handling them. No services should be provided for non
members.
7. The RSGB should review all book publishing activities to see if they make
a profit and if they are worthwhile.
In general they need to reduce their cost base and increase the number of
members.
Both of these will lead to an increase in profits which can then be
covenamted back to the RCF whuch itself is a whole can of worms that needs
to be scrutinised.
Thats some suggestions to set the ball rolling.
