Mission

The mission of http://frrl.net is threefold

1. Provide a collection of original technical articles on Amateur Radio and related subjects.
2. Provide observation, opinion, and commentary on Amateur Radio in larger society in both historical and contemporary context.  That is, Amateur Radio in historical context from early 1900’s to present.
3. Provide observation, opinion, and commentary on corporate governance and organizational practices of various Amateur Radio clubs.  Communicate to the readership of this site what works and what does not work.  That is, what leads to an Amateur Radio clubs success, failure, or fall into mediocrity and eventual irrelevancy.

Each of these is explained in more detail below.

Background – what you already know about Blogs

The Internet provides an unparalleled opportunity to form communities to share interests, information, and knowledge.  From the beginning in the early 1900’s Amateur radio operators were experimenters and tinkerers with the new discovery of wireless.  In 1914 the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) was formed.  The ARRL was the first national organization that united Amateurs across the country.  In 1915 the ARRL published and distributed the first issue of QST to this nascent community.  These two events, formation of community and publishing, provided a force for unification of the Amateur community.

Amateur Radio operators today in 2008 have easy access to the Internet and the easy availability of publishing via web sites.  These together – the global reach of the Internet and easy, near-zero cost of publishing makes possible extended communities and a ubiquitous publishing medium.  In using enabling technologies and the new media for this blog we are not doing anything different than what the first generation of Amateurs did in 1914.  But now we are not limited to physical geography in order to easily communicate with each other.  The reach is now global and the communication is almost instantaneous.

1. Technical Articles and Knowledge sharing

To the extent that Amateur Radio has a technical component, sharing technical knowledge is a benefit to everyone.  Therefore, the first aspect of the mission of this site will be the sharing of knowledgesuchas product reviews, practical experiences, and highlights of emerging technology through original articles published on this site.  We will share our knowledge globally using the new media as part of the implicit collaborative mandate of the Internet.  Knowledge is information that has value.

2. Amateur Radio in Larger Society and Historical Context

In every historical period any service, hobby, or interest exists in the context of larger society.  For any community there is the natural ongoing desire to recruit new members toward growth.  The success or failure of this endeavor is generally linked to perceptions of the community by society at large.  In this contemporary period, by general observation of the popular media such as television, movies, and print  society at large has branded Amateur Radio in a certain way.  The contemporary perception of Amateur Radio is not what it has been in the past and its relevancy to post modern times is in question.  The perception of Amateur Radio will always be against the backdrop of the values of contemporary society and the reigning technology of the day.

The second aspect of our mission is to provide observation, opinion, and commentary on how Amateur Radio has been “branded” at various points in history including contemporary society.  We will also highlight Amateur Radios contributions at various points in history.  This aspect of the mission is a focus on the social history of Amateur Radio.

3. Amateur Radio organizations as 501(C)(3) Charities.

We’ve made many observations of Amateur Radio clubs over the years.  Almost without exception , these organizations are formed out of a technical interest by technical people.  Generally, the resulting organization has strength in its technical infrastructure such as communication systems, delivery of technical education to the membership and adjunct communities, community outreach, and emergency communications.

Amateur Radio clubs are generally incorporated as a 501(C)(3) charity thus creating a true corporate entity.  Therefore, there is a formal and legal organizational aspect of these clubs as well as a technical aspect.  At this point, these clubs essentially technical in nature, enter a new realm of which they may not be familiar. 

Vision, Integrity, Direction, Strategy, and Execution  – not Technology

No amount of technical knowledge of Radio and electronics can assist in the development of excellent organizational design and structure; corporate values;  mission;  long term strategy; financial management of the members money; programs that fit members needs; systems of accountability & transparency of officers; marketing and promotion of the club; fund raising strategies and activities; and the general  establishment of good towards excellent corporate governance practices. 

With technical knowledge as irrelevant what moves to the forefront of relevancy is Vision, Integrity, Accountability, Ethics, Team building, Respect for individuals, Empowerment, and everything for which technical knowledge is irrelevant.

The collision of technical people rising to levels of leadership without vetting their competency in the areas that are core to organizational leadership and organizational success can lead to some bizarre and interesting outcomes.

Patterns of Success

There are about 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States.  There are decades of well documented experiences of the success and failure of not-for-profit and for profit corporations.  There are well established frameworks of organizational success for non-profits which can be easily be learned and followed. 

By observation, Amateur Radio clubs seldom take advantage of decades of experience of these nonprofits - to their detriment – and to the erosion of their credibility to larger society from which they these clubs want to recruit new members.  The erosion of credibility also undermines the club membership.

The success of Amateur Radio in larger society is linked to their external perceptions and to the success of the organizations that represent and communicates identity and purpose of Amateur Radio to the wider society.  This leads to the third aspect of the mission of this site.

Our mini-research Project – on the side

The third aspect of our mission is to survey Amateur Radio clubs and write original articles of observation, commentary, and opinion on what makes Amateur Radio clubs highly successful, completely fail, or fall into mediocrity towards irrelevancy.  Much of our analysis will be drawn from observation and research on existing clubs and what is considered best practices of governance by professional organizations.  

The end goal of publishing these observations and analysis is twofold:
a)  to help Amateur Radio clubs be able to recognize potential problems and avoid practices that have undermined other Amateur Radio clubs.  There is no benefit in repeating and validating practices that lead to failure or under-performance.
b) to help Amateur Radio clubs be able to recognize patterns of success by real world examples.  That is, some Amateur Radio clubs can become models of highly successful organizations.  For-profit corporations look to thier competitors for great ideas to copy.  Not for profit Amateur Radio Clubs can surely take the same approach if they are highly motivated to succeed.

Collaboration Opportunity

Note: If you want to collaborate on our min-research project on corporate governance or if you have a story to tell about an exceptional (or not) Amateur Radio club then send e-mail to research at frrl dot net.

Independence

The domain http://frrl.net and the associated web site, blog, and newsletter are not associated with any Amateur Radio organization.

Uniqueness

At the time of this writing, we have not found any web site that deals in general with Amateur Radio clubs in their success or failure in their corporate governance and organizational structure as 501(C)(3) Charities.  In this aspect our web site is unique.

We found only one web site that documents the failure of a particular Amateur Radio Club into bankruptcy and provides the reasons for this decline.

Last Update: 11 September 2008