Steve Bonine wrote on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:55:21 EDT:

wrote:
Should a membership organization not do what the membership wants?

Pardon my taking a single line from your article, but it's the topic I
want to discuss.

The first problem is figuring out "what the membership wants". What do
you do when the membership is split into approximately equal factions
with opposite opinions and both feel passionately that their position is
Right? Do you develop a position that pleases one faction and is
completely unacceptable to the other, or a compromise that no one agrees
with 100% but most folks can accept?

A quandry worthy of Soloman. Natuarally, the organization splits
into two and each organization can then rightly claim to "represent"
its
membership. Every organization meeting night will be equitable as to
opinions. :-)

Everyone in both camps thinks they are "doing things" until they
need assistance from outside of a club group and run into
competition for assistance services from the other club. Then the
"battle" of wills begins anew, just at a different venue.


Setting policy for a large national organization is a complex task. I
don't agree with everything that the ARRL does, but I don't expect to.
I suppose I have a mental threshold and as long as I agree with "enough"
of what the organization espouses, I'll continue to be a member.

The ARRL is the *ONLY* national organization of radio amateurs.
It has no competition...which can lead to a very small minority
directing or strongly influencing what the majority wants. But,
without any national competition for a long time, the ARRL has
gained a reputation with the FCC and has some status of some
representation. It must be blatantly obvious to the FCC that the
ARRL does NOT represent any sort of majority of US amateur
radio licensees, just less than a quarter of those.

But, in trying to discuss the matter of efficacy of the ARRL, we all
run into the League Zeolots to whom the ARRL is perfect, without
flaw, and get denounced for daring to negatively criticize their idol.
That clouds the issue and destroys any possible discussion.

73, Len AF6AY