Did you ever consider why the ARRL Section is organized the way it is?

Yes, the head "honcho" is the Section Manger (SM) but behind him are the folks that help coordinate the work of the Section. These include the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC), the Section Traffic Manager (STM), the Public Information Coordinator (PIC), Official Observer Coordinator (OOC), and others that have a reporting function to the SM. Yes, it is much like a military hierarchy, but it does serve a purpose.

Just remember you are licensed by a US government agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), that allocates communications spectrum space to interested parties. You are an "interested" party. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is considered to be amateur radio's lobby that is defending your operating frequency spectrum; the organization that is looking out for your continued operating future as an amateur radio operator. However, as with all things relegated to government control, reporting is an essential function.

This is where you come in. Reporting is developed from data and statistics. The monthly data compiled by the ARRL from Section reports is used in support of comments on petitions for proposed rule making and other regulatory functions of the FCC and the legislative side of the US Government. The only way the data and statistics get built is from monthly traffic and participation reports. These are reports captured by the STM and SEC and reported to the SM. The SM files those reports monthly with the ARRL Field Organization group. Normally, the more reports received, the better for the Section.

Why? The reports reflect the health, vibrancy and diligence of the Section, especially when the reports reflect 12,000 message traffic transactions and 10000 hours of emergency communications training and operations in just one month. Those are the kind of data that "pop out" at you when you are reading or presenting a report or delivering testimony before an FCC panel. They are also used a measure for allocation of funds from the ARRL to support the Section's operating costs.

So, if you are involved in net operations with ARES training and operation and net or NTS traffic handling, I suggest that you get on the bandwagon and regularly file a monthly station activity report. You will be the one that ultimately benefits from it. Reports need to be filed with your STM, EC, DEC, or SEC. File your reports over-the-air, via email, or even with a telephone call. It really doesn't matter how the report gets to where it needs to be, just get it there by the very first week of every month..

If you are going to do it over-the-air, then just send a quick and simple NTS message to whomever needs your data.

If your station operations meet the Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) criteria as listed at the URL above, then file a PSHR report in addition to the traffic report....Generally, in our case, more reporting will always be better than none.....