Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking.

Time is flying thought the calendar this year and I wonder what we can log as our accomplishments.

There have been contests and field days and more to come as the summer months draw nearer. Often it is the New Year when people do a reckoning if only to flippantly make resolutions based on the successes or failures they chalk up. Some people make resolutions and actually keep them.

We have heard in WIA National News that nominations for Board members to succeed the 3 retiring people are needed. I would think that those willing to fill the roles of representing all Australian amateurs as much as the members of the WIA would give thought to what they wish to achieve both personally and on behalf of us all.

Periodically, I raise the need for more action to recruit people into the orbit of amateur radio. Regularly, I receive no obvious reaction or response of even a dull yawn for doing this. However, I know that there are efforts online and within clubs to promote this hobby by conducting training for fresh candidates. I am not sure how many clubs within Queensland are actively promoting training or conducting sessions.

I and many others would like to see the opportunity given to as many people as possible.

Of course, when we have the opportunity to talk with another person about Amateur Radio, it is all too easy just to reflect on those areas of interest to oneself and not give a broader picture if it is asked about. To this end I have noticed that at least one club has a brochure which covers many of the things people might wish to have an answer about. Does your club?

Would a poster and brochure to cover all of this wide brown land help with local recruitment? Would a press kit help when the media seek to understand us and learn it is not just old men playing in their sheds? Would a set of speaker’s notes help when a local group asks for someone to say a few words at their meeting?

It is not as if these things haven’t been available before but they appear to have lapsed from lack of use or general disinterest amongst those they were meant to help. As we know, when the world changes we have to keep up so it is that these materials need to be pulled out, the dust blown off and the details brought up to date. Is this something that clubs could undertake as they have with many other tasks such as managing QSL cards?

I know the issue is that many of us aren’t as spry as we were a few years ago and personal circumstances change also. However, a group of friends can get a lot done when they set their minds to a job. It seems to be a task that is needing to be done and doing it from the bottom up may have to be the solution.

I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think....how about you?