[CQ-Contest] Meet with the BoD

[Tom Frenaye]

I've noted a couple of mostly minor corrections to Ford's detailed notes below.

                -- Tom/K1KI

At 11:30 PM 1/28/2002 -0600, Ford Peterson wrote:

>[stuff cut]
>During his presentation, Mr. Bellows described some of the rationale in the
>decision making process related to QST.
>
>187 pages/month with 60% in ads = 75 pages of content.

Over the last 20 years, QST has been roughly 50% advertising and 50% editorial content, and the number of pages has been adjusted based on advertising income.    In the last few years, advertising income has declined, but pages have not been cut (we were expecting a small increase in ads during the sunspot peak).    Today the ratio is closer to 40% ads and 60% editorial content, that's why a change is planned.

>The QST will be trimmed to 176 pages with 60% ads = 70 pages of content.

Today QST is 176 pages, and unless advertising picks up it will drop to 160 pages for several months this year.

>Fully loaded cost of a QST is about $3,000 per page annually.
>
>9% of the membership is considered "related" to contesting.

9% is too high - I don't think there are 15,000 contesters in the USA, it's closer to 6000 (4%).

>Depending on the issue, between 14% and 26% of the issue is contesting.
>Apparently, 5000 individual calls are listed in a given QST.  1500 from
>contesters and 1800 in section news.  An apparent disparity exists in the
>mix of editorial space (75 pages) and the mix of amateur interest.  Puerto
>Rico Section News as used as an example -- 71 members and in spanish --
>recorded forever for all to see.  Why?

PR Section News is in Spanish but it's the Virgin Islands Section with only 71 members.

>A study found that 89% of "contesters" had access to the web.

89% of all ARRL members

>[more stuff cut]


                73 Tom/K1KI


=====
e-mail: k1ki at arrl.org   ARRL New England Division Director  http://www.arrl.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444


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