Pete,
You said: "it makes no sense for them to acknowledge it in a public document".
"them" - I'm only talking about the ARRL Directors
Aren't the resolutions of the IARU public documents? Aren't documents like the IARU Region 2 bandplan public documents upon which the ARRL provides input and a vote of approval or disapproval?
As I read it, the ARRL, as an IARU member society, has an obligation to represent all US amateurs, regardless of ARRL membership status, in matters before the IARU.
How can the ARRL fulfill that obligation and represent non-members if they don't "officially" take input from them?
From Paul's post, Item 1:
"...member Societies to represent adequately the interests of radio amateurs throughout their country or separate territory."It doesn't say "all". And I said, Directors should not acknowledge nonmember input in public documents. If the ARRL spokesperson at IARU meetings want to acknowledge both member and nonmember input, I have no issue with that. That spokesperson is not one of the 15 Directors.
When the ARRL Regulation by Bandwidth proposal was in its infancy, the ARRL set up an e-mail address where inputs from both members and nonmembers could be sent.
As an ARRL member, I would not generally want nonmember inputs to be "highlighted" or "blessed as gospel" in public forums or public texts. By default, even if the nonmember input was the greatest proposal we've ever heard, it becomes "member input" in public text or forum.
During the Comment process for any ARRL proposal submitted to the FCC, both member and nonmember comments become a matter of public viewing.
