Is Field Day stirring the pot?

We’re getting closer and closer to Field Day 2010 (June 26, for those who are in the dark), and I’ve seen several articles about clubs beginning their Field Day planning. Most notably, I’ve found a couple posts (1, 2) that summarize a few problems that some clubs seem to have with participation and leadership.

Since Field Day is probably the biggest event year after year for most clubs, it requires a lot of help and a lot of logistical planning and general forethought for it to be pulled off without a hitch. Some ham groups tend to not be very organized, and/or they don’t move swiftly and efficiently at putting together a plan of attack and then setting it into motion.

So, it’s no surprise that it brings some clubs great consternation when it’s time to request help and resources from their membership. A lot of clubs have memberships that have become complacent with having everything fed to them with no participation required.

Luckily, my amateur radio club doesn’t have this problem. Tom, the president, says “participation breeds participation” — we have a board that is highly active in the central Iowa amateur radio community, and we get input from members on what presentations they would like to see at general meetings.

Or perhaps it’s because “participation” and “volunteering” isn’t heard just around Field Day — we request it year-round in a multitude of ways. One way is to have “show and tell” as a part of some of our general meetings. If we’re doing a presentation on homebrew, then we’d like for our members to bring their homemade trinkets to the meeting to talk about them and share their knowledge.

We recently had our annual hamfest at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our members. Because of this, our hamfest is likely the largest gathering of the amateur radio community in the state of Iowa. Big enough, in fact, that we will have to move to a much larger venue next year.

Because of these constant, yet subtle, expectations of participation and leadership, It’s never a surprise to our members when we ask our members for help in putting together the W0AK Field Day. Our members see the value in providing help to the hamfest — and other club events and projects — they see the success grow year after year, and it truly does show that “participation breeds participation.”