[IRCA] More on mergers

[James Renfrew <jim.renfrew@xxxxxxxxx>]

This got bounced from the IRCA list yesterday due to length, though it
appeared on the NRC list. So I removed the rest of the thread.

So if there is significant overlap, according to Russ' estimation, it can't
be that either club is TOO intolerable to the other.

When it comes to mergers that I know about - churches - I've learned a few
things:

1.  Each potential mergee is in favor of it if it is the one that doesn't
have to change buildings.  This is usually what stops the merger
possibility in its tracks.  We of course have no buildings, but there may
be certains hallowed traditions that we're eager to have others join, but
less excited about having to give up (west coast/east coast or board
composition, for example).

2.  Mergers are often orchestrated by denominations to help prop up two
struggling churches.  What a merger often accomplishes is to combine two
weaknesses into one bigger weakness.  Churches are usually in decline
because they haven't managed to adapt or change, or have lost their core
purpose and energy.  Combining two groups that are resolutely unwilling to
change and have an energy deficit means you have a larger number of  people
who don't want to change or who lack energy.  Our clubs may have a huge
weakness not quite the same as churches, but the effects are similar ...
there are few new or younger recruits.  In our case we can't transform
ourselves into an internet listeners club or an i-pod club because the
actual use of radios is essential to what we do.  It would be like
suggesting that a church cease being Christian in order to survive.  There
has to be a future-oriented and enthusiastic spirit in all parties to make
a merger work. Settling for the least common denominator (e.g., we don't
want to die) is not a recipe for success.

3.  For mergers to work there has to be an intentional process of coming
together, sharing, and dreaming before any formal merger is possible.  This
takes time and willingness.  All it takes for this process to be disrupted
is #1 above - when even one person loudly insists that y'all are welcome to
join me but *I'm not budging an inch in your direction.  *

*4.  Sometimes it's healthier for a church to close in order to give birth
to something else.  To pour money and resources into a dying church that is
unwilling to change is a waste of money.  One of the churches I served
closed as the membership aged and was overwhelmed by the growing poverty of
the immediate neighborhood, sold it's building, but in its place a
Presbyterian street ministry took form and after twenty years is occupying
an old pizza place in the same neighborhood.  I know that one of the NRC's
issue is not enough volunteers.  For a church it's not enough people, and
more importantly not enough money.  This may one day be the final nail in
the coffin for MW clubs, that there just aren't people willing to step up.
 Or our last stages may increasing depend on one person to hold it together
until they can't  I think the Worldwide DX Club ceased operations because
the one or two who held it together could no longer sustain it and there
was no heir-apparent.  *

*So what might be birthed by one or both clubs reaching the end of their
days (which I think is still down the road a ways)?  If one shuts down,
then there may be migration to the remaining club.  But I wouldn't count on
that migration.  If my experience with churches is any guide (because the
remaining few, once the door closes, are exhausted, burned out, angry,
bitter or afraid of having to go through the whole thing again with the
next church) migration is the least likely outcome.  I suspect that if
clubs stop functioning there will be at least a loose e-network of DXers,
but how that is organized remains to be seen:  a single individual who
comes forward to maintain an e-list? or web site?  A cluster of people
willing to do the same?   People finding a medium wave message board
created in Yahoo Groups or the like?  DXer friends maintaining their own
contact lists?  Or we become the "medium wave" tab on the web site of a
more general all-band group (that may also be in decline).  If print
operations are discarded, then the financial dimensions of our operations
are likely to be significantly reduced.  You usually need a board of
directors when money is involved, but do we need a board when there's a lot
less money?*

*If you have a moment, give a watch to "Other People's Money" (1991) a
movie about a corporate raider (Danny DeVito) taking over a family business
(Gregory Peck).  DeVito has a rant about the the manufacture of buggy whips
that is worth considering as we talk about the medium wave hobby.  "The
last surviving buggy whip company made the best damn buggy whip ever, but
the problem was that no one needed buggy whips anymore!"  Now I much
preferred Peck's character over DeVito's in this movie, and I really don't
like corporate raiders, but I keep coming back to DeVito's words in
relation to churches.  *

*That's what I'm thinking about today as I read the earlier posts.*

*Jim Renfrew, Clarendon, NY*




On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I doubt we will know anytime soon, as both clubs tend to keep their
> membership lists
> pretty close to the vest, especially as their numbers dwindle as members
> age, die and
> are not replaced.
>
> My educated guess would be that as much as 2/3 of IRCA's members also
> belong to
> NRC, and probably about a half of NRC's belong to IRCA, with NRC having a
> larger total,
> as it always has.
>
>
> Russ
>
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