April 2024 – Strategic priorities update

Marketing Strategy Manager | March 19, 2024

Growth of amateur radio workshop

As members will be aware, the Board is focusing on four key strategic priorities: Growth of amateur radio; Membership of the RSGB; Spectrum and licensing; Ensuring the continued financial stability of the Society. These bring extra focus to the original priorities outlined in the 2022 Strategy.

At the 2023 Convention, RSGB President, John McCullagh, GI4BWM, announced that a workshop was planned for the first of these priorities. The ‘Growth of amateur radio’ workshop took place in early February. Designed to agree direction and actions for growing amateur radio in the UK, the workshop brought together the Directors and a cross-section of volunteers and staff. The use of an external, impartial facilitator proved invaluable in the planning and delivery of the workshop.

Thank you to those who participated, in particular the volunteers who gave up their time to attend the workshop, in addition to the pre- and follow-up meetings online.

‘We really benefitted from getting together in person to discuss plans and priorities for growing amateur radio. The Board is committed to delivering on these plans to grow our community, ultimately protecting the future of amateur radio.’ RSGB President, John McCullagh, GI4BWM

The process

At the workshop, everyone had the opportunity to put forward and discuss their ideas. After much consideration, the ideas were clustered into interlinked themes.

Work is already underway in the following areas:

Practical outreach (Developing planned outreach activity targeted to different audiences)
Skills and career development (Demonstrating the amateur radio skills contribution to careers in the RF engineering sector)
Mature audience segment (Tailoring our growth activities to specific target audiences)

This work has included agreeing long-term ambitions, leadership, measurement criteria, plans for the next six months, and initial actions.

Working groups are being established to the remaining themes:

Positive support and encouragement (Ensuring we have the right volunteers in the right places to deliver our plans)
Getting started (Creating an easier path to getting into amateur radio)
Reimagination of amateur radio (Broadening the definition of amateur radio to increase appeal and attract diverse audiences)
We will also continue to develop and deliver activities targeting young people

Main outputs

The main outputs from the day were:

Identification target audiences for growth
Agreement to form a dedicated outreach team
Agreement to build relationships with organisations operating within our target audience segments
To ensure that we take full advantage of the new amateur radio licence

The new outreach team will work at a national level, outreach activity targeted to different audiences. This will be hands-on, practical activity to engage new people in the hobby, maximising opportunities afforded by the licence changes.

This team will complement the work of the Regional Team and RSGB National Radio Centre volunteers. We need to ensure that volunteers with the appropriate skills are delivering activities to target audiences, using those who thoroughly understand these different groups.

New resources for the different target audiences will be developed, which could also be used by clubs and the Regional Team.

Next steps

The Board is committed to delivering on this activity to drive growth and is considering the best way to take plans and priorities forward. We will report further on the growth strategy as we transition these ideas to actions.

We are in the planning stages of a second workshop to focus on increasing the membership of the Society. This will look at how we serve our members and how best to demonstrate why it is important to be an RSGB member, ensuring that we are a strong and fully representative body.

Get involved!

We would welcome current and prospective volunteers to step forward to help the Society progress its plans for growth. Whether you want to join an existing working group or play a leading role, we would love to hear from you. Please email strategy@rsgb.org.uk

Stewart Bryant, G3YSX
RSGB Board Chair

g3ysx@rsgb.org.uk

You can also find this update in the April 2024 RadCom

Category: RSGB Notices, RSGB Strategic Priorities

April 2024 – Strategic priorities update

Growth of amateur radio workshop

As members will be aware, the Board is focusing on four key strategic priorities: Growth of amateur radio; Membership of the RSGB; Spectrum and licensing; Ensuring the continued financial stability of the Society. These bring extra focus to the original priorities outlined in the 2022 Strategy.

Thank you to those who participated, in particular the volunteers who gave up their time to attend the workshop, in addition to the pre- and follow-up meetings online.

‘We really benefitted from getting together in person to discuss plans and priorities for growing amateur radio. The Board is committed to delivering on these plans to grow our community, ultimately protecting the future of amateur radio.’ RSGB President, John McCullagh, GI4BWM

The process

At the workshop, everyone had the opportunity to put forward and discuss their ideas. After much consideration, the ideas were clustered into interlinked themes.

Work is already underway in the following areas:

Practical outreach (Developing planned outreach activity targeted to different audiences)

Skills and career development (Demonstrating the amateur radio skills contribution to careers in the RF engineering sector)

Mature audience segment (Tailoring our growth activities to specific target audiences)

This work has included agreeing long-term ambitions, leadership, measurement criteria, plans for the next six months, and initial actions.

Working groups are being established to the remaining themes:

Positive support and encouragement (Ensuring we have the right volunteers in the right places to deliver our plans)

Getting started (Creating an easier path to getting into amateur radio)

Reimagination of amateur radio (Broadening the definition of amateur radio to increase appeal and attract diverse audiences)

We will also continue to develop and deliver activities targeting young people

Main outputs

The main outputs from the day were:

Identification target audiences for growth

Agreement to form a dedicated outreach team

Agreement to build relationships with organisations operating within our target audience segments

To ensure that we take full advantage of the new amateur radio licence

The new outreach team will work at a national level, outreach activity targeted to different audiences. This will be hands-on, practical activity to engage new people in the hobby, maximising opportunities afforded by the licence changes.

This team will complement the work of the Regional Team and RSGB National Radio Centre volunteers. We need to ensure that volunteers with the appropriate skills are delivering activities to target audiences, using those who thoroughly understand these different groups.

New resources for the different target audiences will be developed, which could also be used by clubs and the Regional Team.

Next steps

The Board is committed to delivering on this activity to drive growth and is considering the best way to take plans and priorities forward. We will report further on the growth strategy as we transition these ideas to actions.

We are in the planning stages of a second workshop to focus on increasing the membership of the Society. This will look at how we serve our members and how best to demonstrate why it is important to be an RSGB member, ensuring that we are a strong and fully representative body.

Get involved!

We would welcome current and prospective volunteers to step forward to help the Society progress its plans for growth. Whether you want to join an existing working group or play a leading role, we would love to hear from you. Please email strategy@rsgb.org.uk

You can also find this update in the April 2024 RadCom

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