[Dx-qsl] IARU Studies QSL Bureaus

Wed Oct 1 22:50:13 EDT 2008

Just for the information of people on this list, who are presumably
very interested in such matters:
In a press release dated 26 June 2008, the IARU Administrative Council
summarized its latest meeting held in Konstanz, Germany. Point seven
of the press release states:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
7. A study of the international QSL bureau system was commissioned.
The study will seek input from member-societies on the problems they
face in light of escalating postage and other expenses, and the
anticipated impact of electronic confirmation systems such as the
ARRL's Logbook of the World.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
The IARU Secretariat, headquartered at ARRL, on 10 September followed
up on this point by sending a two-page single-spaced questionnaire to
all IARU Member Societies asking detailed information about how each
Society's QSL Bureau operates.
Having been involved with IARU matters in the past, I would predict
that it will take a long time to get the questionnaires back from most
Societies, and some will never answer it. But eventually the IARU
should have a pretty good idea about the circumstances in which the
IARU QSL Bureau system operates these days. The discussion of the
matter in the mailing to IARU Member Societies mentions that the
current IARU QSL Bureau policy was written 23 years ago, and a lot of
things have changed since then.
It was IARU Region 1 that raised the point with the Administrative
Council, and G3BJ of RSGB appears to be the person who initiated
discussion of the matter.
73, Fred Laun, K3ZO
Manager
NCDXA/ARRL Third Call Area Incoming QSL Bureau