07/01/2026
Attention: Full ARRL members in the ATLANTIC, DAKOTA, DELTA, GREAT LAKES, and
MIDWEST Divisions. You have the opportunity to choose a Director and Vice
Director to represent you for 3-year terms beginning January 1, 2027.
ARRL is governed by its Board of Directors. A voting Director is chosen by
ballot by the full (licensed) ARRL members in each of its 15 divisions. Vice
Directors who serve in the absence of the Director at a Board meeting and
succeed to the position of Director should a vacancy occur, are chosen at the
same time. Elections are held in five divisions per year. It only takes 10 full
members in a division to nominate a candidate for either office.
Qualifications
The eligibility of nominees for the positions of ARRL Director and Vice Director
will be reviewed by the Ethics & Elections Committee, composed of three
Directors not subject to election this year: Tom Frenaye, K1KI, Mark Tharp,
KB7HDX, and John Litz, NZ6Q. A nominee must be at least 21 years old and must
have been licensed and a full member of ARRL for a continuous term of at least 4
years immediately preceding nomination. Each nominee must provide information
concerning their employment, ownership, investment interests, and other
financial arrangements to ensure compliance with the Board Member Statement (see
Article 12 of the ARRL Articles of Association and By-laws 18 - 24), available
at www.arrl.org/general-information[1]. The qualifications for Director and Vice
Director are identical. All the powers of the Director are transferred to the
Vice Director in the event of the Director's resignation, recall, move outside
the division, inability to serve, or death.
Nomination Procedure
Step 1: Obtain official nominating petition forms. Starting July 1, any full
member residing in a division where there is an election may request an official
nominating petition package in writing, either by letter or via email, to
execadmin@arrl.org[2]. The request must reach the ARRL Secretary no later than
noon EDT on Friday, August 14, 2026. If you are seriously considering running or
nominating someone to run, please don't wait until the last minute to request
the forms: the deadline for submitting a completed petition form is just one
week later.
Step 2: Complete the questionnaire and obtain signatures. Only the official form
may be used. The candidate must complete the questionnaire, providing the
information required to determine eligibility, certifying its accuracy, and
agreeing to assume the office if elected. To be valid, a nominating petition
must name the candidate and must bear the signatures of 10 full members of the
division.
Step 3: Submit the petition form. The completed form must reach the Secretary no
later than noon EDT on Friday, August 21, 2026. The submission may be made by
electronic transmission of images (i.e., a PDF or JPEG attachment to an e-mail)
or facsimile provided that, upon request, the original documents are received by
the Secretary within 7 days of the request. A person who is nominated for both
Director and Vice Director may choose to decline the nomination for Director;
otherwise, the nomination for Director will stand, and that for Vice Director
will be void.
On Friday, August 28, 2026, the Secretary will notify each candidate of the name
and call sign of each other candidate for the same office. Candidates will then
have until Friday, September 11, 2026, to submit a 300-word statement and a
photograph if they desire those to be made available to voters in accordance
with instructions that will be supplied.
Balloting
If there is only one eligible candidate for an office, they will be declared
elected by the Ethics & Elections Committee. If there is more than one eligible
candidate for an office, the full members in that division who are in good
standing as of September 10, 2026, will have the opportunity to cast ballots.
Official voting documents will be mailed to members who are eligible to vote no
later than October 19, 2026, and for those with valid email addresses on file
with ARRL a follow-up email will be sent on October 26, 2026. Votes must be
electronically cast by noon Eastern Time on Friday, November 20, 2026. The
candidate receiving the most votes will be declared the winner that day.
Absentee Ballots
A full member who is residing temporarily outside his or her home division,
including overseas, may arrange to vote in the home division by notifying the
Secretary before September 6, 2026, giving their current mailing address as
reflected in the ARRL membership records (i.e. QST mailing address) and the
reason why another division is considered home. Members with overseas military
addresses should take special note of this provision; in the absence of
information received to the contrary, ballots will be sent to them based on
their postal addresses.
The Incumbents
The incumbent Directors and Vice Directors, respectively, in the five divisions
in which elections will be held this year are: Atlantic: Marty Newingham, AG3I,
and Ray Sokola, K9RS; Dakota: Bill Lippert, AC0W, and Christian Stallkamp, KI0D;
Delta: David Norris, K5UZ, and John Mark Robertson, K5JMR; Great Lakes: Scott
Yonally, N8SY, and Roy Hook, W8REH; and Midwest: Art Zygielbaum, K0AIZ, and
David Propper, K2DP.
[1] http://www.arrl.org/general-information
[2] mailto:execadmin@arrl.org
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