[FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - How to lose more than half of your membership? #podcast
lemmy.radio[FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - How to lose more than half of your membership? #podcast - Lemmy.RadioThe International Amateur Radio Union or IARU, is the governing body of our
community. It represents us on the world stage through the International
Telecommunications Union, the ITU. As I’ve discussed before, it consists of four
separate organisations working together, the International Amateur Radio Union,
the global body, and three regional ones, Region 1, 2 and 3, each representing
the hobby of amateur radio. Previously I’ve looked at the constitution of the
IARU to get a sense of its purpose in the world. At the time I mentioned the
notion of comparing the four organisations against each other, since ostensibly
they’re doing the same thing for a different part of the world. Each of these
regional bodies was created separately by different groups of people and their
constitutions reflect that. The Global IARU constitution, last updated in 1989
consists of nine pages. The IARU Region 1 constitution, with proposed amendments
from 2020 has 31 pages, the English version of the Region 2 constitution, since
there’s also a Spanish one, was amended in 2019 has six pages including two
copies of Article 2, and refers regularly to the Global IARU constitution and
finally, Region 3, amended in 2012 has 15 pages. What is striking at first
glance is just how poorly these documents are constructed. Formatting,
inconsistent spelling, indentation, general layout and all are lacking attention
to detail. I think that this reflects poorly on the internal workings of the
IARU, but I digress. Curiously, the Region 3 website has a whole section on
proposed changes to the constitution. Many of those changes are around the
election of officials and voting procedures. It also includes the use of modern
communications like email and remote conference facilities on internet
platforms. One paragraph stood out: “It was also realised that changes would
need to be made to formally recognise that we will (as happened at the online
conference in 2021) have females as well as males taking responsible positions
in IARU Region 3.” It must have come as quite a shock to the delegates to learn
that there are females in our hobby. This must have already happened in Region
1, since there is a reference to “he/she” in relation to being elected. Mind
you, use of the word “they” must not have occurred to the authors. But don’t
worry, we shouldn’t rush these things, the International body and the Region 2
constitutions both use “he” for roles. I will point out that the International
body has a weasel clause where it states, among other things, “words importing
only the masculine gender include the feminine gender and the neutral gender”.
It’s a good start, but falls short of standards expected today. If you’re not
sure what all the fuss is about, let me illustrate: “The term of office of the
President shall be for a period of five years from the date of ratification of
porcupine nomination, and porcupine shall remain in office until the nomination
of porcupine successor has been ratified.” If that felt jarring for you, you
might get some sense of what it feels like for someone reading that with gender
pronouns that don’t match the text. A better solution would be: “The term of
office of the President shall be for a period of five years from the date of
ratification of their nomination, and they shall remain in office until the
nomination of their successor has been ratified.” It’s not the first time we’ve
struck this type of issue. It’s high time that we did something about it. Over a
year ago, I pointed out that OM, Old Man, and XYL, eX Young Lady, were
derogatory and we should replace them with OP, operator, and SO, significant
other. A year before that I proposed a revision of the Amateur’s Code to make
its language inclusive and reflective of the wider community in which we
operate. I’ve had discussions with people who identify across the gender
spectrum about much of this and the overwhelming feedback I received is that our
community is Old White Men clamouring to grow the hobby without a clue that the
words they use are part of the problem. So, credit to Region 1 for implementing
some of this and to Region 3 for starting this conversation. I don’t doubt that
there are members in the Global IARU and Region 2 who would like to see this
implemented and to you I say: It’s time, high time, to review what language our
community uses to identify itself to the wider community. More generally, as the
governing and representative global bodies you should be leading the way and
providing guidance to the member societies. So, next time you promote our
community, refer to others, link to articles, and attempt to encourage
participation, you should take a moment and ask yourself if what you’re saying
is truly speaking to people who are not Old White Men and if that’s the case,
what you might do to embrace the wider community. The standard you walk past is
the standard you accept. I’m Onno VK6FLAB
Ours is a painfully slow hobby when it comes to progressive change.
I think it’s up to us to change that.
@vk6flab @propter_hog We're a hotbed of intransigence, so I'm not holding my breath.
I mean, we stopped using spark gap transmitters … eventually, so there’s hope …