[CQ-Contest] Cost Cutting and Revenue Enhancement

[Rick Tavan]

For starters, reduce the size of "Travelling with My Radio" articles from three pages to one or two. And you don't need more than one or two such articles per issue. I think there were four in the last number! (Don't get me wrong - I enjoy them. But enough is enough.)

Thanks for moving Minutes to the Web. Section News would be MUCH more timely and useful there, too!

A development office should become a profit center within a year. If not, then something is wrong. Some wild ideas that you probably have thought of already: Solicit endowments for key contest trophies. Endow the labs at HQ. Endow "chairs" such as the Contest Editor, Field Activities Manager, DXCC desk, ... even the Development Office!  Get manufacturers and vendors to sponsor individual runnings of ARRL contests. Create aggressive giving levels for the Fund for the Defense of Amateur Frequencies. Give donors visible PR on the Web, in QST and at conventions. Solicit In Memory gifts. Get educational grants for the schools project. Get homeland security grants for NTS, ARES, FD, etc. Good luck on all this - it is vital far beyond the size of the magazine.

I'm disappointed that publications sales are not increasing. The quality of ARRL pubs is excellent and continues to improve. Not sure what to do about this. Perhaps the current generation of shack-on-the-belt hams don't need to read very much? Keep that in mind as you dumb down the content of QST and as FCC dumbs down the licensing requirements to meet the new demographics and to satisfy the feel-good, no-fail imperative of modern American life. This will attract and may even create a less literate, less curious, lower spending population. You may find yourself with more members who spend less. This forces vendors and manufacturers to advertise less, too.

73 & GL,

/Rick N6XI

Tom Frenaye wrote:

> I think the number is still around minus $600k.   Instead of cutting Section News this year, there will be other cuts in QST.   Even though we've postponed action on moving detailed contest scores, those changes were not even proposed to start until 2003, so no impact this year.
>
> Mary Hobart is the new development person and is actively working on ways to reduce it but no promises.    Long term we've decided to invest (lose money for a couple of years) in the new development office because revenue from our traditional sources of income are declining or not increasing (publications sales, memberships and advertising).
>
>                 -- Tom/K1KI
>
> At 10:50 PM 1/28/2002 -0600, Ford Peterson wrote:
>
> >Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Meet with the BoD
> >
> >> In general, I'd also like to know how they view the long-term trend on
> >League finances.  Do they see an upside of any sort?
> >>
> >> 73, Ward N0AX
> >>
> >
> >As far as finances are concerned.  The ARRL was staring at $600,000 of red
> >ink.  Pushing some numbers around and receiving some money (thanks to the
> >new grants and endowments prospector-- Mary something), the number is now
> >looking like $100,000 of red ink.
>
> =====
> 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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