ARRL Expands its Roster of Online Discussion Groups for Members

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The ARRL’s Committee on Communication with ARRL Members, as part of its ongoing efforts to enhance and improve communications between the ARRL leadership and ARRL members and prospective members, has launched three new online discussion forums. These forums, which are focused on the topics of antenna law, regulatory issues, and support for new amateur radio operators, will be activated on Thursday 30th January 2020, at 9 a.m. (ET).

The committee launched the online discussion program in the fall of 2019 when it introduced three forums – on contesting, awards, and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) – that was open to all amateur radio operators. The program was based on the success of the online ARRL-LoTW Group, which for the past several years, has served to answer amateur radio operators’ questions and generate discussions about ways to improve this service. This effort has demonstrated the effectiveness of online Groups as a means of achieving the desired interactivity.

So, the ARRL will be adding three additional online Groups, which will be open to ARRL members and non-members alike:

The committee is launching groups in these three topics areas based on requests from amateur radio operators, as well as to support the ARRL’s efforts to provide more resources to support beginner-to-intermediate operators.

ARRL IT Manager Michael Keane, K1MK worked with Groups.io to set up the new groups. Since these new groups are hosted on the Groups.io platform, those wishing to subscribe must use a Groups.io username and password, if they have one, or create a Groups.io account if they don’t.

The new groups join an ARRL discussion forum lineup that already includes:

Everyone who subscribes to an ARRL Group is automatically subscribed to the “ARRL Groups” group. This is an administrative feature that will allow ARRL to convey routine announcements to subscribers of all ARRL groups, such as an announcement of upcoming downtime for planned maintenance.

In the months ahead, it is expected that additional online Groups will be created to support two-way communications that focus on additional areas of interest to amateur radio operators, including ARRL activities, services, initiatives, and policies.

It is important to note that the ARRL currently has some "members-only" online forums, including on the topics of Awards and Contesting. While these forums will continue to operate, participants are being encouraged to post new topics in the new Groups.

Since the aim of the new Groups is to encourage discussion, as opposed to just being a question-and-answer session, there are some basic ground rules to which participants of the Groups will be expected to adhere:

  • All questions will be welcome, no matter how many times they have already been asked and answered, or how obvious the answers might be in the documentation.

  • Neither personal attacks nor foul language will be tolerated. Violators will immediately be placed on "moderated" status, meaning their subsequent posts will require Moderator approval until the Moderator's trust has been regained.

  • Those postings are reminded that these forums are open to everyone, including prospective hams and operators who are not ARRL members but maybe thinking about joining; so civility and courtesy is expected, even when disagreeing.

The Committee believes that providing more opportunities for two-way discussion between the organization’s leaders and the entire community of amateur radio operators will assist the organization in truly serving the needs of this community.