Blog prompts IARU engagement

Following my recent post concerning IARU's aspirations for the future, I was interested to receive contact from a IARU R1 representative by e-mail.

If, as it seems, someone was trying to cause trouble between myself and IARU by advising them of my blogpost, then they didn't have the required effect - at all.

 

Instead, I've been pleased to find that, at least in the person who contacted me, an open and transparent approach that accepted some of the criticism that I levelled at IARU.  They've even gone as far as to say that they want to take some of my, admittedly pretty simple ideas forward for further development.

A few key things have come out of the so-far brief but positive discussion, which I'll try to summarise.

IARU's aspirations of how it wants amateur radio to be were written in a present tense in its recent report.

So the aspiration 'we want ham radio to be inclusive', for example, was written as though this is already true: 'ham radio is inclusive'.

As IARU have written it, it can be seen as a form of denial of the problems we face in radio, even though, as I've accepted, that was not the intention.  

I've suggested that IARU should clear-up the confusion and, moreover, show it is up to the task of looking at ourselves squarely in the mirror by accepting the problems we have. Most of these are a real threat to the future of amateur radio, if not addressed.

I thought it would be a good idea to re-write the aspirations in the following manner: 'Amateur radio has a number of problems: a lack of inclusivity amongst gender, age and ethnic backgrounds.  IARU wants to help change this, quickly'.

I think that, written in this way, the IARU statements gain a much greater degree of honesty, which can only assist it get to where it - and the ham radio community - wants to be, because the problem is properly defined from the outset.

I've also suggested that IARU is not very well understood by a typical amateur radio operator, and that a key aim of IARU should be to address this. 

I'm persuaded that IARU has an important role to play, and should work a lot harder to make us all aware of what this role, in practice, is.  If it doesn't do this, it could lead to a lax approach to accountability and, ultimately, a loss of relevance.  Neither of these things are of benefit to our hobby.

In coming months, I hope to be hearing a lot more from IARU, what it has been doing and, especially, how it is going to achieve those aspirations for the future of our hobby. But this is not a love-in; I've already told IARU that I don't warm to any attempts, should they be made, to control the narrative. In that respect, I'm keeping to tradition, as this blog post from 2018 demonstrates.