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Author Topic: The Problem With Some Clubs  (Read 4835 times)

K1QQQ

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2019, 10:50:45 AM »

Excuse me...just some thoughts before I shut up...

Listening to the repeater a little more. (although most have almost no activity)


I am trying to figure out how to mention something without naming anybody.

The ego thing. Probably most have to have some degree of ego. Maybe even for contests you sort of have to pump yourself up.

One club. Only a few members or more appropriate a few left.




Person(s) know everything. I just heard talk of they quit jobs all the time because they are so much in demand they get paid more.

The old fiction thing. Newcomers often know little so you can feed them anything without questions. Nobody questions anything they hear presuming all 'hams' are 100% in tune with truth.

Even a simple question about how long licensed brings fiction. Like who cares but just for accurate conversation.

3 HF rigs. 2 for some reason quit and all are kept off site. The working one comes back as I FIXED IT. An ongoing process. Did you ever know anybody that fixed all radios..all....and you never even saw any test instruments ?

My suggestion let others learn or observe ? All elsewhere ?

I KNOW EVERYTHING. It seems the original idea of a club was maybe help others know everything or almost ?

Time for me to shut up. I could always be wrong as to observations.

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W9FIB

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #16 on: June 30, 2019, 06:02:16 PM »

Huh?!?
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

N9LCD

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2019, 05:00:44 PM »

1.  Officers and board members are elected for an organization

2.  It's election time and nobody steps forward to run for the board or an office.

3.  The existing board and officers are reelected.

4.  Steps 2 & 3 are repeated any number of times.

5.  The organization becomes the "PROPERTY of the board and the officers.

6.  Questions & suggestions come to be regarded as personal insults.

7.  Only the board, the officers and their cronies remain.

I know.  I've been through so many times in the last 55+ years.

N9LCD 
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KD0VE

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2019, 06:16:34 AM »

Wow!  I guess I should appreciate my local club more.  Certainly we have "personalities" but the club does public event communications, an annual hamfest, field day, Boy Scouts, and SkyWarn and everyone seems to get along well the vast majority of the time.

I was a rookie 5 years ago and the club was a lot of help to a newbie. No one ever made me feel stupid and I definitely asked some "stupid" questions.
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K6CPO

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2019, 03:15:52 PM »

A friend of mine who is studying for his tech exam recently visited a club meeting.  Only one of the members even acknowledged his presence.  He tried a different club later that was far more welcoming of a new comer.  Even though it's a much farther drive I dodn't have to tell you which club he decided to join.

This pretty much mirrors my experience right after I obtained my Technician license.  Needless to say, it wasn't long before I became an officer of that welcoming club and I'm now in my seventh year as the club President.
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AC2RY

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RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #20 on: July 07, 2019, 09:12:04 AM »

Club is important when people engage in some activity that is too expensive to be part of on their own.

Examples are:
- building competitive contest station and participate in major contests with a goal to get into the top somewhere (state, country, worldwide).
- building EME station
- building regional AREDN network and actively participating in emergency preparedness at county or state level
- Experimenting with microwave communications (above 10GHz)

All of this requires investing significant time and money, and pooling that together in a club (formal or informal) multiplies the result.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2019, 09:15:12 AM by AC2RY »
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K1QQQ

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #21 on: December 21, 2019, 08:07:07 PM »

This thread still around ?

I have observed nothing more positive of recent times.

Maybe you have to be old to relate to some things. A radio club in the 60's ? 70's ? Everybody enjoyed operating their radios and exchanging information. A collection of people meant a pool of different people to help with different subjects. Share info. --- and I don't mean totally communistic style ---

Kinda strange but many clubs have/had a place to go but of coarse often it was a courtesy of something/somebody. -- BUT get that sense people/the population do not like the radio people ? .....Instead of something positive not so. Maybe they just figure they are obsolete.

Now a club gives license tests once and awhile begging for new TECH's. A TECH license is the cream of the top of excellence. I'd swear there is something wrong with this approach. Radio Waves go from 'very low' to 'infinite high' ? Only 146 mhz ?

To even be noticed you have to be 'white' and blessed with non-radio assets. (I'm white..I think..even getting old) Clubs are very private. If you don't get the interest of the clique forget yourself.

I have observed NO HELP/ZERO with radio problems. No sharing anything. An ego arena ? Who has the most expensive toy ?

#1 I think this is mostly a HOBBY. There is some type of hobby interest. If the only reason your around is job promotion it might work but often not. (who cares about hams?)

I can recall a club always having a 'radio room' and people that operated radios. (and it was fun) Now a monthly meeting or yearly and bring your Baofeng and a backup ?

The shock is the internet here. Sites like EHAM/QRZ/QTH,etc. and it seems amateur radio is still alive.

Personally and I could be all wrong but take the earths population. Nobody still interested in radio waves ?

-- but better try to keep frequencies to operate !!  3 ghz going now ? The lower part of 220  ?

Serious though. One local club had a membership into the hundreds. Almost zero now. Everybody die ?

Stop by a club. If not looking like you just got out of the 'military police' you will be ignored.

ARRL ? Just got January QST. I read the new CEO editorials and sort of kick back and think....what did he say ???

So..my almost 2020 rant....


o-just a PS... Connecticut there are tons of repeaters. They are almost 100 % silent.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2019, 08:26:32 PM by K1QQQ »
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WE4B

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2020, 03:38:43 PM »

Some clubs are good. Some are bad. Just visit them until you find one you like (or not).
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AC7CW

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2020, 02:31:55 PM »

Some clubs are good. Some are bad. Just visit them until you find one you like (or not).

I've been in three clubs in the last few years. One was fun, one sucked, and the current one is very new to me but it seems fun.
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Novice 1958, 20WPM Extra now... (and get off my lawn)

W0AEW

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2020, 06:34:34 AM »

Aren't most similar organizations and clubs having the same difficulty? Elks, Masons, et al have trouble attracting young and/or new members*. The causes? Who knows? QRZ and Eham are online clubs of a sort, with many subspecialities added all the time.  Ham clubs were probably more fun when the members would pool resources to have test instruments available to members and a really nice ham station to make up for all the one-tube transmitters and S-38 receivers available at home. Today, just buy the rig and use it. Who needs a club for that?

*I read this on the internets. Somewhere.
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K6CPO

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Re: RE: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #25 on: January 24, 2020, 12:13:41 PM »

A friend of mine who is studying for his tech exam recently visited a club meeting.  Only one of the members even acknowledged his presence.  He tried a different club later that was far more welcoming of a new comer.  Even though it's a much farther drive I dodn't have to tell you which club he decided to join.

This is exactly how I joined my club.  I've now been President for the past seven years, partly because I enjoy doing it and partly because no one else has expressed a desire to do it.  As long as the club continues to be happy with my leadership, I'll continue.
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WO7R

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #26 on: March 16, 2020, 12:42:01 PM »

There is a strucutural problem with all kinds of clubs, especially ham clubs right now.

The boomers are retiring from their retirement.  That is to say, not only have they retired from their jobs, they get to a point 5, maybe 10 years into retirement where they figure they have had their turn at running even civic organizations.

There is a relative dearth of people until the millenals (there are as many of those as boomers, but most are substantially younger).

Your club needs to think about how to make that transition lest they become the "personal property" of an aging board who just isn't up to it anymore.

I am currently president of a club board right now.  Said club has done very well for many years, including long before I moved to Arizona.  But, I've  been on the board for six straight years.  It isn't healthy.  I've already told them I am not running for office this fall.  I am not indispensable, never was.   We should be fine.  If it wasn't for the demographic issue, I won't worry at all.  But, it may bite us, sooner or later.

Encourage your younger members to take a hand and step up.

Anyone who isn't courting younger members is committing demographic suicide as a club, BTW.
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AC7CW

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #27 on: March 16, 2020, 06:04:40 PM »

The president of one club I was in sent out the monthly newsletter: His editorial was an anti-war screed! No mention of radio in the article at all. I didn't agree with him on that and he's probably still working in the background to "cancel" me, whatever...
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Novice 1958, 20WPM Extra now... (and get off my lawn)

K3UIM

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #28 on: March 21, 2020, 09:01:58 AM »

OEY: "Many of our current members do have other jobs and responsibilities but a good number as well are retired like me and have the ability to volunteer to help as I do when needed. As I am sure most are aware a radio club normally isn't rolling in money since the membership is usually smaller and the yearly dues are not going to maintain your repeater and so on. I just want to see the club do better since it seems that the membership is dwindling."

I joined the local radio club in 1962 and most of the members were either Novices or studying for the test. There were probably 30 members at the time and the sessions were usually pretty full of questions from the newbies at the ending of each session.

More often than not, they wanted to know why they were coming in on the neighbor's tv, or why they couldn't get the grid current right, or etc, etc. There was always either an answer or someone would check out their problem asap at the newbie's shack. The meetings really came to life at those times. LOL

Every Saturday morning the "big guns" would be at Warren Radio (electronics store) to answer questions, or look over the problems and even fix a few in the back room. The manager, John Woods, was a great guy and it very often involved sales of some sort (Often covered by the "elmer". hi)

Our club now-a-days seem to evolve around radio communication at local doings or involved the repeater operations. The interest is there for the majority of the group, but I'm afraid it couldn't keep mine up. I hate to admit it but I felt like a dinasour(sp?) and lost interest. It just wasn't the same. Instead of questions of a technical nature pertaining to their homebrewed project, or cw speed, it would be about their handy talkie or something seen on the drive to work, etc.

I love the way high tech has come to our hobby, but I remember the thrill of hearing "something" coming from the speaker of our newly completed home-brewed, 40 meter receiver. So pleased that it almost brought tears! Truly a moment to be remembered. I expect something similar is experienced by a newbie today when he powers up his new 2 meter hand-held.
… sigh … But somehow, it just doesn't seem the same. Hi.

Charlie
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Charlie. K3UIM
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Where I am: You will be!
So be nice to us old fogies!!

WO7R

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Re: The Problem With Some Clubs
« Reply #29 on: March 25, 2020, 06:40:23 PM »

Quote
I expect something similar is experienced by a newbie today when he powers up his new 2 meter hand-held.
… sigh … But somehow, it just doesn't seem the same. Hi.

DIY in ham radio has just changed form.  Check out Adruinos, Raspberry Pis, and the "maker" community.  They aren't generally doing it with discrete transistors and resistors any more, but a lot of custom radios and radio control gear are still being built by today's hams.

They are also doing things like figuring out how to run their gear remotely -- whether on the out door patio or twenty miles out of HOA land in the country.  Is it everyone?  No, but it never was.

At any rate, that's where your successors are if you want to see them out.  They may not be in your club (in fact, they probably are not).  They may organize entirely on-line these days, depending.  But, they exist.
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