- First of all, Brian and Dwayne ran as a slate more or less. I think that extended Brian's reach as the incumbent vice-director into the new vice-director election. There's nothing wrong with that but it did mean I was fighting uphill from the very beginning. Brian is a popular guy, having won the 1997 Newsline Young Amateur of the Year award and the 1999 ARRL Hiram Percy Maxim Award. So my only hope was to get ARRL members to split the ticket and vote for me over Dwayne. I thought (and still think) that Colorado should have someone on the board seeing as how it is the most ham-populated state in the division. If I could have gotten all of the ARRL members in Colorado to split for me I may have had a chance.
- Brian and Dwayne were willing to spend some money and put in more effort to campaign for their positions. I received a postcard from them and more than one email. On my part, I was not willing to spend the money necessary to send US Mail to every eligible member. They also put together a series of telephone conference calls with club leaders from ARRL associated clubs in all four states of the division.
- Although the ARRL puts a lot of effort into making the incumbent's position not an overwhelming one,there are still some things that I think make incumbency important. For one, just the knowledge of how the ARRL office works and what information is available. I didn't know that it would be possible to get an email list of eligible voters. I'm not really sure that it is, but somehow I received email from the opposition campaign. The election materials talk about making a postal mailing list available but I wasn't willing to spend the money necessary to put that to use. It would really be nice if known email addresses of ARRL members would also made available to all candidates. I was somewhat overawed by speaking to the ARRL HQ staff and did not call them up to ask if I could get email addresses or other information. Maybe it was just that easy.
- There isn't really any big shocking issue that people disagree about. So voting for the most competent people is probably the best policy. And that usually means a vote for an incumbent candidate. Both Dwayne and Brian had me whupped on that. I'm just a ham. I am confident I could do a good job as vice-director, but I have no name recognition and not much reputation to work with. I couldn't try to be a revolutionary candidate because generally things are running pretty good. Some few people are still upset about AM power limits, losing the CW requirement, even incentive licensing from the 1960's. But I don't think there is any big groundswell to "throw the bums out."
- I am not unhappy with the outcome. I enjoyed my brief connections with the ARRL staff and leadership. I also learned a lot about how the ARRL works. I think I would like to try again in another election down the road. Brian and Dwayne are sharp guys and they will do a great job I'm sure. I hope they can keep up the level of communication they started out with in their campaign and in the division email newsletter since the election.
- I also learned about the concerns of other hams in this division. Homeowner's associations and deed restrictions are the #1 concern. Most of the housing in the west is new. Most of it is under restrictive covenants. Neighborhoods are very concerned about views and visual impact of antennas, towers, etc. There are also some concerns about how the ARRL is operated, like why the DXCC desk is so far behind.
- It really wasn't very hard. If you think you would like to run for an ARRL office, I would encourage you to give it a try. All you have to do is get 10 ARRL member friends to sign your petition and you are off and started. If you really want to win you may have to spend some money: go to ham club meetings in multiple states, send out some mass mailings, make as many phone calls as you can.
As for me, I finally have a wire HF antenna put up at my newly built shack in the city. I have plenty to do.
I hope to see you on the bands.
Chris Howard
w0ep
Fort Collins, Colorado
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