[IRCA] Reflections on merger question

[John <johncallarman@xxxxxxx>]

I am one of the few NRC members remaining from 1963-64 when the division that resulted in the formation of IRCA came to a head, and my memory, at age 78, is still vivid enough that I could go into some historic detail as to how it all came about. However, though I distinctly remember the issues that arose, it really wasn't the issues that caused the split, it was the way the issues were handled. 
 
Karl Zuk, whose comments appeared on the IRCA thread, identified the one key difference between the two clubs, the method of governance. Those who believe all of a club's members should have a vote in how the club is operated are more comfortable in the IRCA; those who are content with the concept that those who do the work make the decisions accept the governance of the NRC. It's as simple as that, and for that reason, I see little chance that a merger can emerge.
 
A good case can be made that the spirit of cooperative competition that has evolved makes both clubs better; thus, those of us who still DX benefit from information that is generated by either, or both, clubs. If there were just one club, the incentive to do better might fade.

Though the divisive issues from 50-plus years ago have faded, I intended to provide a brief history of how the division came about and some attempts to bridge the differences have occurred. The result was not quite as brief as I had originally intended.
 
When I joined the NRC in 1956, the club was governed by an elected board of directors. Between 1956 and 1959, issues arose that were heatedly debated within the pages of DX News and in correspondence between club members. Prior to the 1959 convention in Omaha, the publisher, whose title was executive director, announced his resignation. At that convention, there were options presented to the convention goers for a new publisher, but none had long-term experience with the club. Some of the old-timers urged a previous publisher to come back; he said he would if the convention would agree to abolish the board of directors and turn over governance to a three-person team, the publisher (executive director), the Musings Editor, and the International DX editor. The convention-goers voted to do so.
 
That vote established a precedent about the power of a membership vote at the convention. Between 1959 and the Amarillo convention in 1961 some controversial issues arose. At Amarillo, convention-goers voted to take certain actions, but the three-member governing board later overruled some of the votes, resulting in more heated debate that eventually resulted in a decision to cut off debate. A movement grew to establish a new publising team and return to a membership-vote form of government that was OK'd at the Denver convention, but was again rejected by the three-member governing board.

In 1962-63 I had tried to convince my friends among the eventual IRCA founders to be patient ... that the publisher at the time had planned to retire a couple of years down the road, and the opportunity would arise to transition to a new three-member board that could have decided to reinstitute an elected board of directors that would have made the club's decisions. If they were ready to publish, they were ready to govern.

In 1964, the publisher/executive director retired, the reins were turned over to a successor. By 1965, I had become international editor, thus one of the three governors, and a volunteer to succeed the new publisher. In 1966, Gordon Nelson became International editor, Ernie Cooper remained Musings Editor and Dick Cooper turned over Executive Director voting power to me, as his future successor.

At the Montreal convention in 1966, Nelson, Ernie Cooper and I presented a proposed new constitution and by-laws that would have provided a way, a difficult but possible way, for the membership, through an elected board of directors and a membership vote, to impeach an editor or publisher who made contested, unpopular decisions.

Some of us remember that during all this time -- 1959 through 1968 -- ALL DX club bulletins were mimeographed publications, hand-cranked, sorted and stuffed into envelopes by the publisher and any others whom he could get to help. It was labor intensive — volunteer labor intensive.

Because the NRC, largely due to shared antenna and propagation research by Nelson, thrived and grew, the convention-goers at Montreal soundly rejected the constitution we had written, expressing what we took to be satisfaction with our efforts. There were no controversies at the Eugene convention in 1967, and, even when third-class postal service out of Boston became iffy and we raised the dues from $4.00 to $7.00 so we could send the bulletins via first-class mail, harmony prevailed. Publishing of the bulletins became a team effort by the original BAD Guys, the Boston-Area DX'ers. I turned the crank and, after the team collated the bulletins, stuffed the envelopes, applied the address labels and stamps, I made a late-Thursday-night run to the 24-hour-a-day Boston post office to put the bulletins in the mail.

In July 1968, I married the schoolteacher I had met five years earlier in Pampa, Texas, and quickly learned that a gang of DX'ers publishing a bulletin in our home was incompatible with the life of a newlywed. I felt I had no choice but to resign a year before I had intended to do so. The remaining members of the publishing committee decided what needed to be done was to pursue a merger with IRCA, the terms of which were in the process of being worked out. The three-member governing board, Nelson, Cooper and  myself, made the decision to merge, under the name IRCA, and it became my duty to make the announcement at the Boston convention in 1968. One of the club members who had urged the club to set up the three-man government in Omaha in 1959 quickly asked for a vote. I, my heart breaking as I spoke, reminded him that the governing board had, in Montreal, presented a mechanism to overrule us, but it was rejected. I expected debate, but none ensued. It was a done deal. I had, in essence, killed the NRC.

Except for one thing. The IRCA board had not yet voted on the merger. Somehow, the IRCA board REJECTED the negotiated plan. I, as the lamest of ducks, had not taken part in the negotiations. Fortunately for all concerned, the BAD Guys could not bring themselves to pull the plug on the NRC. Nelson and others explored the options and determined commercial offset printing could save the day. The NRC, out of sheer necessity caused by my sudden choice of marriage over club management, became the first U.S. DX club to scrap mimeograph and go offset.

The last mimeographed NRC publication was the first NRC Log, which I had hand-typed on stencils during that trying summer and fall of 1968. When I had stepped down, NRC had a little over 400 members. Several years later, when the BAD Guys turned over publication to the team headed by Russ Edmunds, the membership had risen to more than 700. Nearly all the other DX clubs moved from hand-cranked mimeograph to offset. Between dedicated volunteers in Boston, New Jersey and Louisville, the NRC was strengthened, a corporate form of government replaced the highly informal triumvirate I briefly headed, and both clubs grew.

I was allowed, both by the club governors and by my wife, to resume stewardship of the NRC Log for a couple of years more, so I eventually overcame the shame I felt at having nearly killed the NRC. It took a while for me to forgive myself, but the lasting friendships I've made through the BCB DX hobby have made attendance at both IRCA and NRC conventions, even as an inactive DX'er, highlights of my life.

I do hope someone will step up and, before time runs out, agree to host the NRC this year, the year that will mark my 46th wedding anniversary. I don't have the energy currently to be that someone.

I don't really care how either club is governed, as long as each keeps in mind its primary function is providing avenues of communication among the BCB DX'ing community. 

John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon)

John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon)
 		 	   		  
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