The RSGB Board – stronger strategy links and responsibilities

| June 14, 2018

RSGB Strategy 2022The RSGB’s Strategy 2022 has been in place for a year now and is already affecting various aspects of what we do.

With major changes to the Board we now have three new Directors, including a new Chair, and we also have a new President.

There has also been a major rethinking of the Volunteer Leadership Team.

Taken together it seemed a good opportunity for the Board to reflect on how its own organisation could be improved to deliver the Society’s strategic priorities.

These priorities are:

  • Growth—grow and develop amateur radio
  • Participation—support and encourage active participation in amateur radio
  • Research—promote active involvement in research and technical development
  • Diversity—encourage and respect the full range of amateur radio activities, in all its diversity
  • Membership—increase the proportion of radio amateurs who are members of the RSGB
  • Recognition—support, encourage and recognise our volunteers and staff
  • Organisation—ensure that the RSGB is an effective, efficient and flexible organisation that works with and listens to our members, clubs and special interest groups to meet the changing needs of the amateur radio community

This is an ambitious list but you might notice that these priorities depend on one another.

For example, Growth, Participation and Diversity overlap in various ways.

Membership depends at least in part on having people who Participate in amateur radio; it benefits from Recognition and also requires the RSGB to be well-organised at all levels.

The Board believes that the best way to ensure progress in all the priorities is to have one Board member take the lead for each priority.

This ensures that decisions taken by the Board will have been reviewed for their full strategic potential.

The aim is to encourage thinking that goes beyond our continuing roles as Board Liaison Members for Committees.

It will allow us to create initiatives which target certain priorities in a more imaginative way.

For example, the Training and Education Committee and the Youth Committee recently cooperated to have a presence at the UK Maker Faire 2018.

This directly addresses Participation and Diversity but also feeds in to Growth.

In future, each Board member will be able to look at any initiative to see what we can improve to get the most benefit for their Strategy priority.

The Society already carries out and supports a wide range of activities that fit within its strategic priorities.

However, the Board will now have a better overview of all of these and, together, will be able to offer a more joined-up approach to achieving the Society’s goals.

If the Board decided to launch a new project to boost the growth and development of amateur radio, it could approach this in a different way, precisely because there is an established amateur radio community.

For example, the RSGB Convention includes lots of talks covering aspects of amateur radio that you may not yet have tried.

As a result, many attendees will be inspired to try something new.

This is Diversity in action but, with additional support, it could also allow the new experience of those delegates to feed into the clubs.

This would address Participation and, by encouraging more people to train and join, also addresses Growth.

“ensures that decisions taken by the Board will have been reviewed for their full strategic potential”

If we foster initiatives which bring together the expertise of a mix of our Committees, our Honorary Officers and our Regional Teams, while ensuring that what we do specifically addresses some of our strategic priorities, then the very substantial effort of all of our volunteers will be amplified for the future benefit of amateur radio as a whole.

Philip Willis, M0PHI
Board Director

Category: RSGB Strategy 2022