Now that the ballots are in the mail for the Great Lakes Division election, I’ve been sending out e-mails to ARRL members in the division. I’ve had some interesting replies, including this one from Joe, N8ATB:
Hi Dan,
A very thoughtful email. I wish you the best of luck in theelection.
Amateur radio has been an incredible hobby [...]

From the ARRL:
With just a mouse click or two, ARRL members can now access the online QST magazine archive. This new benefit — a service of the ARRL Technical Information Service (TIS)—provides PDF copies of all QST articles from December 1915 through December 2004, enabling members to view and print their favorite article, project and [...]

I received this e-mail this morning. In a way, it’s a shame that more elections aren’t being contested……Dan
The following are candidates for ARRL Director or Vice Director in the fall election.
The Ethics and Elections Committee is still in the process of reviewing the eligibility of candidates whose names are marked with an asterisk; this process [...]

At the July 18-19, 2008 meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors, they voted to to develop a timeline to review and revise the ARRL Strategic Plan. They also directed CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, to release the plan to the membership and to solicit comments from members. Accordingly, the 2006 ARRL Strategic Plan was [...]

Well, as you can see, I am running again for the ARRL Board of Directors. I ran three years ago, and then I wrote:
Amateur radio and the ARRL face a number of difficult problems. Two of the most urgent are declining membership (currently less than 25% of licensed amateur radio operators are ARRL members) [...]

From Jim Weaver, K8JE:
The GLD web site is totally revised and updated!  You are invited to go to http://www.greatlakes.arrl.org to get a look at what webmeister Gary
Osborne, W8XS has done.
The web site and how we plan to use it will continue to evolve.  If you have suggestions of features you would like to see on [...]

Say what you will about the ARRL, but no other organization could mount this type of legal challenge…..Dan
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 8 ARLB008
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT April 25, 2008
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB008
ARLB008 Court Finds FCC Violated Administrative Procedure Act in BPL Decision
The US Court of Appeals for the District [...]

On QRZ.Com, K3UD frequently reports on the number of licensed radio amateurs. Comments on the latest item, “ARS FCC License Numbers 4th Quarter 2007, A Look At The Trends,” took a turn when WW3QB reported:

I looked up ARRL membership for a few years (from annual reports).
1996 - 175,023
2000 - 164,106
2004 - 151,727
2006 - 148,641
I would [...]

About a week ago, I worked a guy and he told me he was glad to work me again. To be honest, I was a bit flummoxed at this, as his call did not ring a bell. I punched his call into my computer log, and as it turns out, we had had a single [...]

A while back, I commented on a QSL I’d received from the club station of the UBA, the Belgian equivalent of the ARRL. I noted:
One factoid really struck me. The UBA says that 95% of the licensed amateurs in Belgium belong to the UBA. As a point of reference, less than 25% of licensed amateurs [...]