Bear with me, this may be a long and boring blog entry. It was written
for the Hawaii amateur radio community, members of the EARC and also
those with interest in the ARRL Pacific Section in mind. This will
likely never get published in any form, but I needed to write it all
out as a way to vent my frustrations. Here goes...
The evening of 26 February 2004 was a sad night in the history of the
Emergency Amateur Radio Club (EARC). Before I say more, I should give
you some background.
The EARC has elected Kevin C. Bogan as it's President for the calendar
year 2004. For those of you in Hawaii, you may also know Kevin as the
recently appointed ARRL Pacific Section Manager. For years, Kevin has
held many offices within the EARC from Secretary since at least 1999
through 2000, then President from 2001 through the present.
Fast forward to the last Board of Directors meeting, held 9 February
2004. We discussed the normal agenda, then things got interesting. A
new item to be discussed was the upcoming Ham Swap Meet. The EARC and
KARC (Koolau Amateur Radio Club) were asked by the swap meet's
coordinator to help co-sponsor the event. The coordinator's request
entailed financial responsibility, as well as insurance coverage for
the event. The event coordinator later compromised on the financial
contribution portion of the request, but the board still had concerns
about our insurance coverage for such events. For example, how would
two insurance policies would cover us should a mishap occur at the
event. The board agreed to hold a vote via the board's e-mail list when
these concerns were addressed. Kevin was tasked with checking on our
insurance policy to make sure it would cover the swap meet.
Kevin tried to answer our insurance concerns by stating that our
insurance policy covers swap meets... according to an officer of KARC.
I'm still trying to figure out how that KARC officer could
authoritatively state what our policy covers, but I digress.
Kevin then states, "I suggest we have at least four more members on the
BoD agree to have the EARC sign on as a cosponsor. It looks like a good
deal and won't cost us anything. As soon as I get four to say yes, I
will let [the coordinator] know." It's very difficult to vote on
something that was in constant flux, something with no formal motion
put into words. Even lacking the formality of words, three votes
supported co-sponsoring the swap meet, but never four. Not that this
was a formal and binding vote anyway.
Fast forward to Thursday, 26 February 2004. Not garnishing his four
votes to allow the EARC to sign on as co-sponsors, Kevin takes this
vote to the attendees of the EARC General Membership meeting, with no
advance notice to club members or the board at large. In fact, Kevin
neglects to even inform the general membership (GM) meeting attendees
that the board is already in the process of voting (albiet informal) on
the very same issue in e-mail. When asked if the vote by the GM meeting
attendees superscedes the ongoing discussion and board vote, Kevin
replys in the affirmative. Funny, I don't recall that the board decided
to take the decision to the general membership in lieu of completing
discussion and proposing a formal vote within the board.
Anyway, the GM meeting attendees vote in favor of the EARC
co-sponsoring the swap meet. Nevermind that questions pertaining to how
two insurance policies will split their coverage in case of a mishap.
Nevermind that we have no clue how a claim against our two insurance
policies will affect our premiums in the future. Oh well, the votes are
in - the GM meeting attendees vote to co-sponsor the swap meet.
Wait a second, did anyone notice that attendees of the meeting included
both members and non-members of the EARC. In fact, some of the
attendees are solely members of KARC, yet voting to transact business
for the EARC. Non-members have no right to be counted in elections and
voting to decide business in the EARC. To add insult to injury, no
tally of votes was ever taken, so there's no proof that a majority of
EARC members in good standing actually voted to approve co-sponsorship
of the swap meet.
The vote was a sham. Full of deceit from the hands of Kevin C. Bogan.
Would you want your club, organization or ARRL section to be led by
such a man? I sure wouldn't. As a member of the EARC, I'm outraged at
his behavior in this voting fiasco.
Just as clarification, I have no opposition to supporting the swap
meet, I've attended nearly all the swap meets that have been held since
becoming a licensed amateur in 1999. I am, though, beginning to
question whether I'm wasting my time supporting the EARC. I joined the
EARC because I've monitored their repeaters for probably 10 years
before getting my amatuer radio license. Although always a diverse
group on the air, I always felt the EARC cared for their members,
supported the amateur radio community and helped maintain their
publically available repeaters. The EARC seemed to be run with the
utmost professionalism and ethics, even in the face of controversy.
Now, it seems, it's leader has his own agenda.
I feel so sorry for the members of the EARC. It seems that morals and
ethics have been thrown out the window. I hope these practices by the
ARRL Pacific Section Manager don't follow him into that organization,
too. As for the Ham Swap Meet, let's hope for a smooth running event
where our insurance policies are never challenged. It's highly unlikely
that we'll have an incident occur at the swap meet which will incur an
insurance claim, but then again, I never thought that Kevin could
deceive the club and get away with it.