[UK-CONTEST] HFCC info pls

[Donald Field]

Tim et al

This is probably exactly the wrong week to be asking those questions - I
know Justin G4TSH (Committee Chairman) is up to his ears in preparing for
the Convention (forum, trophies presentation, lists of claimed scores and
results, etc, etc). As IOTA Contest Manager I am not a full member, just a
corresponding member, but I'll try to answer as best I can

 > What positions are within the committee?

Like any committee, the "formal" positions are Chairman and Secretary. Other
jobs are allocated as appropriate.

> Who is responsible for what tasks?

Generally, like any group of volunteers, anyone who is to slow to take a
step backwards when a job comes up. The main job of the Committee for many
years has been to adjudicate contests, provide the results for RadCom and
organise the certificates. These have been so time-consuming (as one of my
old non-ham colleagues used to say - I can understand why you hams take part
in these contests, but why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to
adjudicate them!), so the Committee has had little or no time to focus on
philosophical questions of where contesting is going, whether adjudciation
criteria should evolve over time, etc. I will be doing a short presentation
at the Forum this year about developments in computer-supported adjudication
which, hopefully, will free up more volunteer time to focus on the bigger
questions. But it isn't going to happen overnight.

> How does someone become a member of the committee?

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.

> What qualifies someone to be a member?

Willingness to take on some of the tasks that need to be done. As I said,
this is cvery much a working committee.

> Is it all fully 100% voluntary?

Yes. You didn't actually ask about budgets (surprising omission!). The HFCC
is allocated a budget each year by RSGB. This covers travel expenses to
meetings, cost of getting trophies engraved (and mailed, where appropriate),
certificate printing and mailing, etc, etc. I called on a substantial
percentage this year to help with the cost of printing and mailing the IOTA
results booklet (which also promoted the Jubilee contest and the IOTA Awards
Programme). HFCC hasa  good track record of working within its budget.

> How many times and where do they hold meetings?

These days, once or twice a year, to save travel costs (see above). Most
work is done by e-mail. Most contests are allocated to a single volunteer to
manage - he can call on other committee members (or, indeed, as I do with
IOTA, ask for volunteers from a wider audience) as and when he feels he
needs to.

> How are decisions made?

What decisions? For example, on IOTA contest rules, the Committee will
listen to what I have to say, and overrule if they think I am being stupid,
but generally, as I am closest to the contest, they support my
recommendations. On "bigger" issues, like starting a new contest or dropping
an existing one, it is by vote in the Committee after a discussion (again,
like pretty much every committee in the world). As with most things in the
world, many decisions are driven by resources. If volunteers aren't
forthcoming, something will have to go undone. The HFCC Website is probably
a good example - much more could be done with it, but Website upkeep is a
major chore.

> Are there minutes taken at the meetings and are they publicly available?
(to
> see who was for and against what and why)

Yes, and no (I don't know of any voluntary organisation that publishes
Minutes of every committee meeting - most restrict themselves to publishing
the AGM minutes. Publishing minutes just generates more work as they are
usually succint and will only generate more questions if they appear in
public. They). The minutes certainly don't record exactly who voted for and
against anything, just whether a decision was made, and who was actioned to
carry it out. This is normal practice in most such committees.

> What were their Aims and Objectives for 02/03?
>
They should have appeared in RadCom - Justin will no doubt be able to answer
when he surfaces. They are in the annual report.

>
> It's very unlikely I'll be at the convention this year, I had a whole
bunch
> of stuff to ask hence the post here.
> It's a shame as it looks like a great weekend.
> Enjoy.
>
Pity. It's the major event in the year for competitive HF ops (i.e. DXers
and contesters). Bad planning!

The thing to remember about the HFCC, like any other similar committee, is
that most of the members are either working full time and therefore have to
squeeze their voluntary efforts in, or are retired and therefore old and
doddery (like me!). HFCC business is time consuming. I only agreed to take
on IOTA because I had recently taking early retirement. I would guess this
year (last year was worse, as I had to do most things manually), it is
taking 10-20 hours a week, from when the contest took place, probably
through to about December when I put the RadCom write-up to bed (and after
that there will be certificates and trophies to think about, etc.). I don't
get paid - I get expenses (posting paper logs to those who volunteer to type
them up, etc, etc), but probably end up out of pocket (phone calls, computer
costs, etc.). By the way, I need a volunteer to help organise trophy donors,
engraving, etc, etc for IOTA - anyone willing to step forward? Even if each
IOTA log takes only 15 minutes of my time, that's 300 hours gone
immediately - some take a lot more! I'd love to spend more time on each
one - many entrants put thoughtful little comments in the log (which I have
to find and edit out, or the computer rejects the log!), many make an effort
to find some new and previously undiscovered log format, to enliven my day,
about 30% forget to give full details of their category, or simply assume
every contest in the world is exactly like CQWW and use the defaults for
that one, many send their cover e-mail and forget the attachments ... (I
could go on, but won't bore you). I'm sure all HFCC members and
corresponding members have similar tales to tell, I'm simply using IOTA as
the example I know!

73 Don G3XTT
IOTA Contest Manager