How many certs do they mail for say ARRL DX and how much is postage?
Over a dollar for USA, not including the certificate and printing costs
and the envelope. Overseas postage has gone up dramatically it is over
1 dollar for an letter. I have no clue what a large envelope costs.
Cost savings? Every penny saved is a savings as there are no entry
fees. Do these certificates turn people into ARRL members, who are not
already? Probably not. I bet there is close to $5.00 or more involved
with each Cert maybe more.
I am not suggesting adding entry fees but what is in it for the ARRL by
mailing them out?
W0MU
On 4/4/2018 8:38 PM, Ron Notarius W3WN wrote:
Sorry Mike, I disagree.
If someone does not wish a cert mailed, that's fine. Use the CERTIFICATES NO
option then, it's easy enough to implement.
But given the relatively small cost of mailing out a few certs, I don't see a
major cost savings by dropping them.
It may seem otherwise to the grizzled veterans on this reflector, but outside
of this realm, I think you'll find more than a few souls who would be happy to
keep getting those certs.
Now even so, it should be easy enough to implement a "reprint" option for those who wish
to download a cert, be it from a current contest or an old one. I don't see an issue with enabling
an option to do so. But not as an "either/or" situation.
As the young whippersnapper said to Dottie Henson, "Can't we do both?"
73, ron w3wn
-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of W0MU
Mike Fatchett
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2018 6:46 PM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Certificates for ARRL DX - a great motivator for new
contesters
Other than plaques the ARRL needs to go to a download your award system like
CQ. This would eliminate the need for a Certificates NO.
For marketing purposes I can see sending out certs to new people, but someone
would have to stay on top of that and I don't see that happening.
I was actually surprised that when I go to my account on the ARRL that I am not
able to download previous certificates.
W0MU
On 4/4/2018 3:31 PM, Jim Stahl via CQ-Contest wrote:
Printed certificates do matter to experienced contesters; they are a
waste of the ARRL’s money. I’d rather have that money go to something
more useful like spectrum defense or RFI mitigation, than spending
over a dollar to send me a certificate saying I was the top low power
all band section award winner in a VHF contest. (I think they even
send those certificates to those who merely had the high score on a
single band.)
ARRL ought to adopt support of the Cabrillo "CERTIFICATES: NO” tag. I’ve
suggested this to my division director, who seemed receptive. But apparently at the last Board
meeting there was too much other stuff going on.
73 - Jim K8MR
On Apr 4, 2018, at 10:21 AM, rjairam@gmail.com wrote:
I know that some contest sponsors have done away with printed
certificates to cut costs, and this is understandable. I have no
problem with keeping it sustainable.
But I would just like to point out that I have seen quite a few
people on social media sharing unexpected ARRL DX certificates. These
are usually single op, low power entrants who decided to sit at the
radio and work the contest even though they have zero chance of
winning one of the big prizes. Some are even encouraged to try even
harder and get into contesting more.
I think if possible, at least for first time entries that contest
sponsors should look to get the certificates to encourage these
contesters. There is nothing like finding out that you did well
enough to win *something* to encourage you into diving deeper into
contesting. Online certifiicates are nice but there is nothing like
opening the mailbox and finding a real certificate. This isn't really
a participation trophy - these folks topped their section, or maybe
earned a single band award. IARU also gives for 250 QSOs, which was
my initial motivator for participating in the IARU contest and why it
holds a special place for me.
For experienced contesters like myself and others, printed
certificates really don't matter - we go for the big awards or even
just our callsign in the results column. So for us we can mostly opt
out. But I think for the newcomers it is important,
73
Ria, N2RJ
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