[CQ-Contest] FCG Letter to ARRL BOD

[Chris Plumblee]

As indicated by k1ar, below is the text of the Florida Contest Group’s
letter that was delivered by email to the entire ARRL BOD as well as the
League CEO and other officials. Apologies if the reflector mangles the
formatting somewhat. The letter is quite lengthy and detailed; there is an
executive summary at the beginning of you want a brief overview of the
issues.

73,
Chris WF3C

SUMMARY

The officers of the Florida Contest Group (FCG) have prepared this report
to express their concerns about recent actions by the ARRL Board of
Directors (BOD), and to make recommendations about items that are to be
considered in the forthcoming January 19, 2018 meeting of the BOD.  This
document will be distributed to the ARRL Board members, President and Vice
Presidents of the ARRL, the ARRL CEO, members of the FCG, and
CQ-Contest at contesting.com.

RECOMMENDATIONS

   -

   The Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the Board of
   Directors and Vice Directors should be revised to permit Directors and Vice
   Directors to state their opinion of BOD policies to their constituency,
   regardless of whether they support the position adopted by the BOD.
   -

   A proposal by Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB to revise the
   Bylaws of the ARRL to extend voting privileges on the BOD to the President,
   First and Second Vice Presidents, and International Affairs Vice President
   should be voted down or withdrawn.
   -

   A proposal by Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB to revise the
   Bylaws of the ARRL giving the BOD power to “eject” an ARRL member, even a
   Life Member, from ARRL membership for “cause” should be voted down or
   withdrawn.
   -

   The censure of Southwestern Division Director Dick Norton N6AA should be
   formally rescinded by the BOD.
   -

   FCG members who is also are members of the ARRL and feel the ARRL BOD is
   acting correctly in any or all of the matters outlined in this memo are
   encouraged to communicate their support to the FCG officers, and to their
   ARRL Division Director.


The Florida Contest Group (FCG) is an ARRL-affiliated club centered in
central Florida with members throughout the state of Florida, and associate
members across the world. With over 300 members, the FCG is one of the
largest contest clubs in the United States.

The FCG counts among its members a number of former and current ARRL
elected and appointed officials, headquarters staff, and Contest Advisory
Committee members. We, the officers of the FCG, are writing to express our
concern on behalf of our membership over 1.) The recently proposed changes
to the ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the Board
of Directors and Vice Directors, 2.) The censure of Southwestern Division
Director Dick Norton N6AA, and 3.) Changes to the ARRL Bylaws that are due
to be voted upon by the BOD at the January 19, 2018 meeting.

Regarding the ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the
Board of Directors and Vice Directors, we understand why it is appropriate
for the ARRL’s Board to publish a code outlining expectations and standards
for its Members. However, we believe that some provisions of the code
adopted in January 2017 are not appropriate for a membership organization
such as the ARRL. Specifically, provisions of the adopted code inhibit the
free communication between membership and elected officials. Such
provisions make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine how
individual Directors voted on specific issues, which in turn makes it
difficult for members to decide for whom to cast their vote in
Division-level elections. The ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct
of Members of the Board of Directors and Vice Directors makes it even more
difficult to evaluate individual Directors’ voting records on issues of
importance to the individual members. The Policy on Board Governance and
Conduct of Members of the Board of Directors and Vice Directors should be
revised to


permit Directors and Vice Directors to state their opinion of BOD policies
to their constituency, regardless of whether they support the position
adopted by the BOD.

Additionally, there are changes proposed by Hudson Division Director Mike
Lisenco N2YBB to the Bylaws of the ARRL that would give voting privileges
to the President, First and Second Vice Presidents, and the International
Affairs Vice President. We are concerned this proposal will effectively
dilute the vote of all individual ARRL members, as the President and Vice
President positions are not directly elected by the membership.
Concurrently, this change has the potential to give additional, unelected
representation to certain Divisions. At present, two of the three Vice
Presidents who would be given voting privileges are from the Dakota
Division. Already the smallest Division by population, this change would
effectively give this Division three votes on the BOD. At this time, we do
not believe there is a compelling reason to make such a change to the
voting structure of the BOD. We believe this motion should be voted down or
withdrawn.

Furthermore, Mr. Lisenco has proposed giving the BOD power to eject an ARRL
member, even a Life Member, from ARRL membership for “cause.” Such “cause”
is not defined in the draft revision of the Bylaws. We believe this change
represents a significant shift in the balance of power from the membership
to the BOD. If a Director or a candidate hoping to become a Director were
ejected from the ARRL, they would immediately be ineligible to serve.
Similar to the provisions of the ARRL Policy on Board Governance and
Conduct of Members of the Board of Directors and Vice Directors, this
change has the effect of centralizing power with the ARRL Board at the
expense of the individual members. We believe this change to the ARRL
Bylaws should be voted down or withdrawn.

Finally, recent actions of the Ethics and Elections Committee give the
appearance of impropriety. By treating the disqualification of a sitting
Director or candidate for Director as a personnel matter, the Ethics and
Elections Committee effectively shields their standards for what is
acceptable and not acceptable from any future Directors or Director
Candidates. In so doing, the Ethics and Elections Committee retains the
power to disqualify any candidate or sitting Director from standing for
election or reelection at any time for any reason, with oversight only from
the remainder of the Board. By any commonly-understood standard, an elected
officer of a non-profit corporation is not an employee of that
organization.  Mr. Lisenco, in his communication to his constituents
regarding the censure of Mr. Norton, alludes to a “personnel matter” as the
reason that he cannot elaborate on the details of the accusations. These
accusations, heard only by the Board in a closed session, were found to be
more persuasive than the recollections, both published and unpublished, of
a number of other attendees. This reliance on “personnel matters” to shield
the Board’s decision-making process from viewis suspect. We believe this
policy, if indeed there is a formal policy of treating the decisions of the
Ethics and Elections Committee as personnel matters, should be changed to
explicitly make the decision-making process of the BOD transparent to the
membership.

As to the case of Mr. Norton’s censure, we are aware of two eyewitness
accounts to the discussions at the ARRL Forum during the 2017 Visalia
International DX Convention. Both published accounts, from unrelated
attendees who do not appear to have a vested interest in the outcome of the
BOD’s proceedings, indicate Mr. Norton’s actions were consistent with the
requirements of the ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members
of the Board of Directors and Vice Directors. Both accounts also agree with
one another in their significant details. We in the FCG and the ARRL
membership in general, have been given no reason to believe the accounts of
the events of the ARRL forum as publicly provided by Mark Weiss K6FG and
Tim Duffy K3LR are inaccurate or incomplete. The communication from Hudson
Division Director Lisenco to ARRL members in his Division indicated there
were “individual

witnesses who attended the forum in Visalia who came to us [the BOD] with a
different story than those released by Mr. Norton’s purported supporters.”
Mr. Lisenco goes on to say that he “will not discuss the specific reasons
enumerated as they are of a personnel nature and not appropriate for
discussion.”

Mr. Lisenco’s letter to his constituents greatly alarms us. Mr. Lisenco is
implying the Board made their decision to censure Mr. Norton based upon
facts or allegations not available to the at-large membership and which
significantly contradict the publicly available accounts of the events in
question.  A number of other credible individuals have indicated their
personal recollections of the ARRL Form at Visalia do not contradict the
published accounts of K6FG and K3LR. The weight of the evidence and the
lack of transparency on the BOD’s part suggest there is an ulterior motive
to the actions of a majority of the BOD. In addition, the not-too-distant
disqualification of K4AC to run as a Southeastern Division Director showed
a similar lack of transparency.  This perception of bias and ulterior
motives on the part of the BOD is much more likely to bring the Board’s
overall decision-making into question than anything Mr. Norton said or did
at the 2017 Visalia ARRL Forum. Given the available evidence to date, we
believe the censure of Mr. Norton was not supported by the weight of the
evidence. Absent any additional evidence that contradicts the current
accounts, which are unanimous in concluding that Mr. Norton did not violate
the ARRL Policy on Board Governance and Conduct of Members of the Board of
Directors and Vice Directors, we believe the censure of Mr. Norton should
be formally rescinded by the ARRL BOD.

Although we have not yet spoken to any FCG members who support any of these
proposed changes to the ARRL’s governing documents, we recognize that there
may be some in an organization of our size. While our statement represents
the opinions of the majority of our 300 members and the unanimous opinion
of the FCG officers, we understand that individual club members’ opinions
may differ. We would hope that any other ARRL member who feels the Board is
acting correctly will communicate their support to us, the FCG officers,
and to their Division Director.

Very truly yours,

The Florida Contest Group

Chris Plumblee WF3C, President

George Wagner K5KG, Vice President

Dan Street K1TO, Vice President - FQP

Fred Perkins K4LQ - Secretary

Charlie Carroll K1XX – Treasurer
-- 
Chris Plumblee
407.494.5155