March 2026 – Strategic priorities update

Creating the future shape of the Society, together

In this article, I hope to bring together a brief high-level update of what’s happening, why we should all feel positive and excited about the future of our wonderful hobby and get involved to help make it happen.

It’s a cold wet early Monday morning in Manchester as I sit here in the café at Christie’s Hospital putting pen to paper to write this article. Why am I sharing this with you? Well, as I start a difficult personal health journey, I remind myself of the many things to feel positive about, which includes feeling excited about the future of amateur radio, and the RSGB’s role in helping and supporting our members.

The RSGB’s strategic priorities

The RSGB’s strategic priorities sit at the heart of this future. In this update, I’m going to focus upon two of our strategic priorities: Growth and Membership, as well as the future ‘shape’ of the Society.

Growth

In their strategy update in the September 2025 edition of RadCom, Board Chair Stewart Bryant, G3YSX and Board Director Mark Jones, G0MGX reflected on our Growth priority. They shared highlights of how progress is being made on a range of fronts, including the Practical Outreach and Reimagination workstreams. Mark’s subsequent strategy update in the January 2026 edition of RadCom went on to provide further details of the increasing range of radio-related matters being covered by the Society as part of the Reimagination workstream: “aiming to inspire and provide opportunities for members to learn and get all that they want from this amazing hobby of ours.”

Membership

In the middle of January, we held a membership strategy workshop at which just about every aspect of our hobby and member-type were represented. The outputs from this workshop will sit at the heart of helping to push forward our Membership strategy. It was an incredibly creative and productive event. The ideas and insights generated will be used to refresh our existing Membership strategy and more details will be shared in future strategy updates.

In their September update Stewart and Mark also referenced a ‘Project 35’ concept. This idea focused upon what a more forward-thinking plan for the Society needed to look like; what does a Society for 2035 need to be? This idea therefore cuts across and would be a facilitator for all our strategic priorities. The Board has now agreed to put this concept into action, albeit bringing forward the timeframe of 2035 to 2030. The objective of this pillar has been defined as “to effect meaningful change to the structure and operation of the RSGB so as to help maximise its impact and effectiveness as viewed through the experience of our members.” Membership feedback previously collated from a variety of sources through various channels will act as our North Star to help guide this work.

Reasons for optimism

So, not least due to these three aspects of Growth, Membership and ‘Project 30’, our future should be very bright indeed. That said, of course having a strategy is not enough. As a Chartered Accountant with a 30-year career in Professional Services working with clients around the world, I know all too well the critical importance of successfully putting a strategy into action. In this respect, how we come together as a team of around 450 volunteers, working with our team at HQ, to execute our strategy is vital.

Just in my short time volunteering with the RSGB to date, I sense a real drive to deliver on our strategy, something I’m delighted to be part of. I have been bowled over by the passion, commitment and dedication by all I have met. Indeed, it is this very passion and positivity, welcoming new members as well as supporting existing ones, which led me to volunteer in the first place; looking to ‘pay back’ what I had experienced and benefited from.

Here, I must echo the comments of Company Secretary Stephen Purser, GW4SHF in his strategy update in the December edition of RadCom. As a Society we are blessed to have so many wonderful volunteers, but we need more. As Stephen put it, “we need your help to deliver the strategic priorities and to make amateur radio a better place for all of us.”

Will Richardson, 2E0WYA

RSGB Board Vice Chair

strategy@rsgb.org.uk

• You can also find this update in the March 2026 RadCom

Category: RSGB Strategic Priorities