News Release 23rd General Conference

[IK0ZCW]

Written by Dennis Green ZS4BS
Monday, 29 September 2014 18:29

The 23rd General Conference of IARU Region 1 opened on Sunday 21 September 2014 with 43 Member Societies present at Conference and 17 Member Societies represented by proxies. The Conference was held at the Flamingo Grand Hotel in the Albena Resort, north of Varna in Bulgaria and hosted by the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs (BFRA).

Progress was made at the conference on a number of topics that are of key concern to radio amateurs. This came from getting people together over several days and facing them with the realities that we need to protect our spectrum as well as address the declining numbers of active Radio Amateurs. It was heartening to see the real progress made by Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, the Region 1 Youth Coordinator in this latter respect.

The Conference reviewed the strategy of IARU Region 1, its finances and membership. Other matters reviewed includes the work of a number of permanent Committees, Working Groups and coordinators, including EMC, Political Relations, Emergency Communications, Youth, ARDF, Development of Amateur Radio in developing countries, Spectrum development and protection via ITU, CEPT and the World Radiocommunication Conferences (External Relations Committee), Intruder Watch, Space and High Speed Telegraphy.

Of particular importance was the amendment of the Terms of Reference for the EMC and Political Relations Committees that now provides a clear requirement for Region 1 to lobby at political, governmental and business levels on matters of EMC and related legislation and standards.

Conference also reviewed policy in the key spectrum areas of LF/HF and VHF/UHF/Microwave. Discussions extended over a range of areas, including band planning, contest, remote working and innovative developments in the areas of satellites and digital TV. The position on future World Communications Conferences was also discussed.

Conference considered and made recommendations in the areas of trans-border QSL management, responsible QSLing, malicious QRM, Youth initiatives, copyright and article reproduction and CW procedures.

A full report of the proceedings of the final Plenary will be published in due course on the IARU Region 1 web site at http://www.iaru-r1.org

The Region 1 Roy Stevens, G2BVN, Memorial Trophy was awarded to Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, for his meritorious service to amateur radio over many years. Gaston was the chairman of the Eurocom Working Group and then the chairman of the ARSPEX Working Group.

A new Executive Committee was elected during the Final Plenary of the 23rd IARU Region 1 General Conference. The Executive Committee for 2014 to 2017, who will start their term of office on 31 October 2014, are

President: Don Beattie, G3BJ

Vice President: Faisal Al-Ajmi, 9K2RR

Treasurer: Eva Thiemann, HB9FPM

Secretary: Dennis Green, ZS4BS

Members: Thilo Kootz, DL9KCE; David Court, EI3IO; Oliver Tabakovski, Z32TO; Ivan Stauning, OZ7IS and Ranko Boca, 4O3A

The 24th IARU Region 1 General Conference will be held in September 2017 in Wildbad Kreuth, near Munich, Germany, hosted by the DARC.