Our global cultural heritage of Amateur Radio can only be credibly represented by organisations that are based on competence, equality, honesty and transparency.
Global IARU does not meet these requirements.
The following are facts I learned in my services for USKA and IARU. It is part of the History of Amateur Radio.

eine unglaubliche Geschichte

Kommentare aus dem Gastland Schweiz und Zug

Die verpasste Chance
Die Betrügereien kommen ans Tageslicht
Der Stand der Ermittlungen

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
opens up to the general public ! honestly ?

im Sumpf von Täuschung, Vertuschung, verdeckten Aktionen, Schwindel, Lügen, Mauscheleien, Unehrlichkeit, Verrat, Nötigung, Blödheit, Dummheit, Panik, Täter-Opfer-Umkehr, Vertrauens-Missbrauch, Arroganz – wie Idiotien uns in den Abgrund reiten.

Chronologie aus Sicht USKA-Präsident 2016-23

Journal on important developments in the Amateur Radio World

last updated on 24 August 2023/ 6 July 2024

Revealed in July 2023: IARU opens up to the general public

Natural persons are now also welcome !

Total Fake / Scam !

Everything is fully legal

By-Laws / Statuten
for reading the new, published By-Laws/Statuten click here.

Registered legal seat of IARU
For the information in the official Commercial Register of the Canton of Zug, click here.

The postal address is:
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
c/o Bär-Nutz-AG
Scheuermattstrasse 8A
CH-6330 Cham Switzerland

Organigram IARUs (click for full size pdf)

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is an organization representing the interests of “Amateur Radio” on a global level. The organization is a federation of 172 national member societies.
It is not an association !
Membership to International Amateur Radio Union has long been limited to national associations of radio amateurs.
Unknown to many, International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) opens up to the general public. Not only clubs, but also natural persons are invited (by promotion offer!) to become direct members of IARU. As well as companies, authorities, international organisations etc.
(Article 3 in the Bylaws: The Association has individual members who support the vision and goals of IARU)

This is a groundbreaking change of IARU’s membership policy. Foresight, vision and leadership of the President and the whole AC team made this radical change possible !
Strategic objectives of the ongoing Shaping-the-Future Initiative of IARU (STF) are to establish and maintain connections with other communities, and to broaden the technical focus of “Amateur Radio”.
In order to support and foster these STF goals, the Administrative Council (AC) of IARU decided, to open membership to any person, including persons who do not hold an amateur radio license but are interested to support IARU’s goals.

In order to develop the organisation rapidly, IARU defined an annual membership fee of only one Swiss Franc, as set forth by the general assembly. Considering the considerable activities they offer, this is indeed a very generous offer! According to the Bylaws of this new Swiss based IARU, sending the equivalent of the amount of one Swiss Franc (CHF) to the legal seat of IARU in Cham, Switzerland (see left column), causes joining the association with immediate effect, allowing members to profit immediately from various IARU benefits and services as described on IARU’s various web presences. Sample letter here, proof of acceptance here. Yes, sending by registered mail is recommended!
Membership is open to both natural persons and legal entities such as amateur radio associations. The former limitation of one association per country has been dropped. This will give “International Amateur Radio Union” a much wider representation of many more persons, parties and communities associated with Amateur Radio.

BUT: Try it yourself !
Now – what happens after you sent your letter to this clandestine IARU “entity” in Cham Switzerland ?
Guess what – absolutely nothing ! You will get no answer whatsoever ! Even if you are president of a national society (as in my case) ! Keep in mind that this organisation is owned and financed by us as members of IARU ! The arrogant clique *) doesn’t even have the decency to reply ! Unbelievable. Code of conduct ? ham spirit ? Compliance with statutes/constitution/bylaws ? – not for the self-proclaimed IARU aristocracy !
At least this proves that it is a hidden operation that abuses the names of all radio amateurs in the world. Structure and behaviour are exactly the same as those of criminal organisations CIA/Crypto style – so why should it be any different? Is deceiving ITU really the only purpose ? Most probably, not.
*) morally and legally responsible for this unbelievable misconduct are: Mr Ellam Timothy, VE6SH, Mr Garpestad Ole, LA2RR, Mr Thiemann Andreas, HB9JOE, Mr Azarian Sylvain, F4GKR, Prof. Gorsline George, VE3YV, Dr Hasbi Wahyudi, YB1PRY, Mr Harrison Joel, W5ZN.

The former national “Member Societies” supposedly remain member of “International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)”. Maybe they are unhappy to loose significance when membership will go into the thousands. But this was the very intention of the Administrative Council of IARU from the beginning, there can be no doubt about this.
The independent so called “regional organizations” might apply for membership in International Amateur Radio Union in case their General Conferences decide so. I expect a vote in R1’s GC this November whether to join IARU or not.

Important side remarks
Please recognise and honor that everyone within the organisations of IARU works on a honorary, non-paid basis. This includes of course people working in the secretariats, including international secretariat and treasurers.
We are grateful for their contribution to fiercely defend our world cultural heritage “Amateur Radio” and that it will develop into a future prosperous for all.
It is in no case my intention or will to criticise any officials, officers, and further numerous people who fulfil important duties.
We all know that “marketing” has never been a task of any of the IARU organisations. We members did never demand marketing activities. This invites me to communicate by means of my Journal.

Home

The Making of ...

The Administrative Council (AC) of IARU global

The Administrative Council (AC) is the executive management team of IARU global, working directly under the direction and supervision of the new IARU Board as published in the registration in the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zug.
Comparable to CEO with its management team.
AC’s competences are defined in old Constitution Article III. They are rather limited.

AC Meeting Landshut Germany 15+16 Sept 2017
(Link to minutes)

At that time, the “Board” (as introduced late 2017) did not exist yet. Under “11. IARU Restructuring”, the minutes inform us about:
«Mr. Ellam led a discussion of documents circulated in advance of the meeting relating to the registration of an IARU entity as a Swiss association for limited purposes related to representation at the ITU and other international bodies. Council authorized the officers to proceed with the next steps to implement registration.»

At this moment at latest, AC members should have become extremely suspicious about what’s being played here!

Why did AC panic ?

During my investigation, I heard from one of the board members the narrative, that ITU «had refused IARU as an observer at its conferences as long as the association remains without official registration. » Frantic Panic!
My informant was falsely informed, because as can be seen easily on ITUs website, IARU is still regarded as organization seated in Newington Connecticut and is still accepted by ITU (screenshot taken in July 2023).
(However, ITU revised the list of fee exempted organisations. Clearly, IARU’s status was of course never in danger! IARU-global is fee exempt at least until 2027. Should this have been achieved by presenting a Swiss Corporation ID to deceive ITU, this  would not be helpful to a good reputation.)
And: why did AC not request registration in the U.S.A. first ? (like ARRL registered ?) Is IARU-global regarded by Connecticut State authorities as “rogue business” ? If so, for what reasons? Why has that registration request been declined ?
The next explanation I heard is that AC feared that ITU could bill them for an annual fee of USD 75’000. Of course, this never materialized ! Panic again! Calculate: 75’000 divided by 2 Million radioamateurs worldwide equals USD 0.0375 per person – even if this «worst case» scenario ever would happen, no issue whatsoever!
Remember that «fee exemption» is a purely political decision, not just an administrative one. I am am sure «our people on site» have never been consulted! Did someone in the AC really think ITU would dare to kick out an organisation representing the users of 10 percent of the whole radio spectrum ? Come on!
So why this panic ?
So why this panicked evasive action to Switzerland?

The Secret Meeting

Some day(s) later, but still in Landshut, a top secret meeting was called by the President, in order to execute AC’s will. It was decided that the new International Amateur Radio Union was in no way “limited”, but a full fledged “replacement” (contrary to the minutes).
For this purpose, the meeting developed and decided totally new ByLaws/Statuten. This replacement organisation received a legal Board, elected by the AC, “carefully” circumventing information and vote by the communities they represent in their functions as elected officials. There may be doubts whether a step of such tremendous importance and consequences lies in the competences accorded to the AC by the Constitution.
Documents related to the secret meeting in Landshut, never disclosed to the member societies:

The real purpose ?

We can only speculate what went through the heads of the AC members.
My impression is, that this new association was set up to compete with the old IARU-global and with all Regions. This is not a bad idea “per se”, and it is certainly not “illegal”. It is not very “polite”, however, to piss on our existing constitution.
Its creation and operation should have immediately be published, in Landshut where we were all assembled! Instead, this secretive organisation seems to have reported at one or two moments to the AC, but we have never seen any information directed to the members.
Mainly, this creation appears to have served one main purpose: to gain access to an official Swiss enterprise identification, called UID, in this case CHE-468.372.511. To use this goodlooking umbrella for any activities whatsoever, possibly to confuse IARU’s business partners in making them falsely believe the are doing business with the Newington-IARU-global and/or that this is a transfer of legal seat from the U.S. to Switzerland!
In the goal as published by Commercial Register of Zug, there is no word that the activities shall be hidden from its Newington-Member Societies, serving the AC as kind of “covert operation” for actions outside their statutary competences. We can only speculate.
Why keep it strictly secret for almost six years ? Secrecy never builds confidence. Secrecy is a very reliable sign of wrongdoing and bad intentions. Is Administrative Council a Muppet Show or rather a conspiracy group ?

The official registration act

The AC mandated a professional Swiss lawyer to submit the necessary documents to the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zug. Registration is an official act, with legal consequences, and without any doubt, legally binding for all.
The registration act did not merely create a “link” to IARU-Newington, as the AC minutes would have us believe, but did create a completely new association.
Please take into consideration that this whole covert operation has been carefully planned and executed, at least three of the responsible persons were professionals familiar with rules and laws!
The new Bylaws can be downloaded after “registration” at the download symbol from the site.

Clearly, this covert operation has been set up to remain clandestine for many more years to come, behind the back of Member Societies. The disclosure made some persons around AC very nervous, understandably. They always knew well that their dishonest actions were a time bomb that could go off at every moment – unless these people are very stupid!

Please note: Lying to the authorities is not a violation of the laws in North America, but it is in Swiss law (e.g. Falschbeurkundung).

In case you suspect the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zug of wrongdoing,
you should urgently seek psychiatric assistance.

Consequences

please be aware that – as a consequence of above – there are now confusingly three legal entities by the same main name in operation as visible on European/Region 1 territory:

At this moment, all three exist and operate totally independent from each other. Upcoming General Conference 2023 of Region 1 is well advised to define a commission to start negotiations between the three on how to cooperate, meaning to join forces to fight for Amateur Radio and develop our fascinating world cultural heritage into a prosperous future.
I sincerely hope that this will be possible. Let’s do it !

Warning: are there even more such unauthorized covert operations started and run by the Administrative Council without approval and control by the Member Societies ? It would be no surprise at all !
Once fooled, the trust is gone !

Open questions

  • Have the “ancient” 172 members of old Newington IARU “automatically” been transferred to successive International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) ?
    The latest available financial information on International Amateur Radio Union is here, and shows no sign that this important step has been made.
  • Should all previous “Member Societies” apply for membership in “International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)” ?
  • will there be any disciplinary consequences against the participants of this conspiracy ?
  • will the conspirants face any legal action for their potential breaches of Swiss Law ?
  • are the Member Societies really happy with the new Statuten/Constitution as defined without their consent ?
  • will the Member Societies take action or prefer complicity instead? Because there is no decent corporate governance at IARU-global level (“checks and balances”), Member Societies will eventually have to go to court.
  • will the Member Societies insist in an independent commission of investigation, veryfying also the books and all (bank account and other) now camouflaged financial transactions of this covert Swiss IARU entity ?
  • how can it be ensured that elected IARU officials abide by the IARU constitution in the future ? do they have to be sworn in to the IARU constitution ?

More evidence

I do have access to more information than what is published on this website. Several people have given me documents under the condition that I do not publish them and/or that I protect the source. Be assured that I will keep my promise, and will protect my sources under all circumstances.

Jurisdiction of Switzerland

please take note that IARU has been created and is in operation under jurisdiction of the laws of Zug, Switzerland. Please be aware that Swiss Laws and Judiciary differ substantially from the anglo-american ones.
Among those are Freedom of Thought, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of the Media, citizen’s rights I will fiercely defend if needed.
All board members and other personnel are subject to Swiss laws in their actions.
Die Schweiz kennt eine verfassungsmässig garantierte Vereinigungsfreiheit, Swiss Constitution Art 23. Danach hat jede Person das Recht, Vereine zu bilden und Vereinen beizutreten.
Furthermore, all correspondance with IARU can now be done in German because this is now the official language as declared in the By-Laws.
On my website, only the German text is legally binding.

We have different views of decency than in North America.

it is downright hostile and highly indecent of the AC to move its (pseudo?) HQ or this covert operation to a member country without even consulting us. As USKA, I feel insulted. As MS and part of IARU, I feel ashamed.
(see also my remarks on Crypto AG – it is exactly the same type of behaviour, total disrespect of other countries.)

Important personal recommendations
Should you find this unconventional approach to develop IARU further, strange, PLEASE CALM DOWN!
Maybe good will and good faith of the AC at the beginning, but then executed unprofessionally, partly stupid and with deceptive intent, until short of derailment.
We should not try to find “culprits”. Anyone makes mistakes. Stupidity is not a punishable offense!
We cannot reverse history of events.
If you cannot fix it, feature it!
And:
if you can’t beat them, join them.
That is what we all should do, in great numbers, now.
Send the equivalent of 1 Swiss franc by registered mail to the legal seat of International Amateur Radio Union in Cham, Switzerland, thus declaring your membership (sample letter here, my receipt here). This will allow us to take part in taking decisions, with the goal to bring current legal IARU bylaws closer the Newington edition – or better: closer to what we really want. In full compliance with the voting rules to which the (already existing 172) members are legally entitled.
Forget about the (in my opinion) “rude” behaviour of some of our elected officers, and contribute to clean up this mess !
It is possible, and it is worth doing it !
Think and act positive !

Home

Acknowledgements

to the honorable re-inventors of “International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)”:

President Mr Ellam Timothy, in Calgary Canada VE6SH, personal email
Vice President Mr Garpestad Ole, in Vestby Norway LA2RR
Secretary Mr Sumner David *), in Coventry U.S.A. K1ZZ
Mr Beattie Donald *), in Church Stretton Great Britain G3BJ (retired from IARU)
Mr Jost Peter *), in Zurich Switzerland HB9CET
Mr Leandro Rodriguez Reinaldo *), in Caracas Venezuela YV5AMH (deceased 23 May 2021)
Mr Thiemann Andreas, in Muri Switzerland HB9JOE
Mr Madhavan Gopal *), in Tamil Nadu India VU2GMN
Mr Azarian Sylvain **), in Orcemont France, F4GKR, no signing rights
Prof. Gorsline George **), in Toronto Canada, VE3YV, no signing rights
Dr Hasbi Wahyudi **), in Bogor, Jawa Barat, Indonesia, YB1PRY, no signing rights
Secretary Mr Harrison Joel **), in Judsonia AZ, USA, W5ZN, no signing rights
(Mr Matthias Schumacher in Schwyz Switzerland HB9JCI as aide in 2017)

*) quitting 2 July, 2024
**) joining 2 July, 2024

Please be aware that the socalled “Swiss IARU” is the only officially registered unit and the highest entity of the global IARU.

IARU “management”/shadow organisations completely ignore the democratically established rules and do not even adhere to their own arbitrarily determined rules, including violating right, misleading authorities.

Home


Please feel free to contact any of these Board members.
They are pleased to answer your questions.

You may also contact the Presidents or Secretaries of Region 1, Region 2 or Region 3. All have been well informed of these developments.
Remember: The initiative described here is a purely IARU-global-ONLY covert operation, without consultation, information or any other involvment of the Regions, nor any of the Member Societies.

The Regions will be able to continue their own activities as usual.
Although with reporting to Cham, Switzerland instead of Newington.

the foul play goes on (2024)

Instead of stopping this covert clandestine operation once and for all, completely unlegitimized by and hidden from Member Societies, a self declared “elite” gang continues to damage the cause of “Amateur Radio”. Right at my doorstep!
Here are the latest developments, as far as accessible to us.

  • on 12 Oct 2023, a General Assembly of Members of IARU R1 reportedly took place (videoconference)
  • Neither IARU R1 nor “Swiss IARU” (aka “IARU Cham”) members have been invited, in violation to Constitution/Statuten of both.
  • the Minutes of this IARU R1 GA have been signed by Timothy Ellam and Joel Harrison. Both have no signing rights for IARU R1 (footer red arrow). Mr Ellam does have signing rights for “Swiss IARU”, but Joel Harrison does NOT and signed illegally – why this attempt to mislead the authorities again ?
  • (Why does Sylvain Azarian tolerate this in his function of IARU R1 president ?)
  • False certification (Falschbeurkundung): because of neglicence of the Commercial Register, the gang succeeded in registering changes by submitting a falsified document. Thereby again making abuse of the (intended) confusion of two entities of almost identical associations.
  • the gang finally admits that no board member is required to be resident in Switzerland (which has been denied by Mr Ellam). First “Swiss” is kicked out, second resisting: Thus, Andreas Thiemann’s position in fake IARU Cham became untenable, he has never held office in “IARU Connecticut”.
  • Again, no information made by IARU Connecticut, IARU Cham, IARU Regions or IARU Member Societies. Still no reporting whatsoever !
  • Statuten/Constitution of the fake “Swiss IARU” remain unchanged, in total contradiction with Constitution and Bylaws of “IARU Connecticut” !

Please be aware that the socalled “Swiss IARU” is the only officially registered unit and the highest entity of the global IARU.

IARU “management”/shadow organisations completely ignore the democratically established rules and do not even adhere to their own arbitrarily determined rules, including violating right, misleading authorities.

Our global cultural heritage of Amateur Radio can only be credibly represented by institutions that are based on competence, equality, honesty and transparency.
Global IARU no longer fulfills these requirements.

Home

above: certificate, as submitted by IARU R1 to Commercial Register Zug. 

By the way……
Last year, I reminded IARU R1 Secretariat to correct their wrong legal text:

Can’t we expect professional behaviour from an organisation representing 100’000 radio amateurs ?

True or Fake ? or: What is really being played here ?

Two narratives – which one is true ?

 

 

Remember: we only publish information that has already been available in public for years, mostly from government official sources. The “messengers” are those who published already in 2017 at the official Register of Commerce, Zug.
I learnt about it only very recently while working on an IARU project. It alarmed me at once.

During the past days, I have been contacted by several people. Board members telling me that what they officially published themselves differs from their real purpose and intentions they wanted to hide forever.
Not surprisingly, accompanied by what psychologists call DARVO (“deny, attack and reverse victim and offender”), also known as “perpetrator-victim reversal”.

Here are the two most likely scenarios:

possible scenario 1
IARU really opens to the public –
a revolution in IARU’s history – a giant leap forward !

according to this version:
This is what I personally think to be true because it is proven fact:
IARU was re-founded in 2017 as published by the Register of Commerce, according to new bylaws, now open to the general public, with new bylaws in force, a new board appointed by IARU’s AC.

(Comment: this is not ideal, but by far much better than the sombre Scenario 2. Though rather stupidly executed, but still the only way to have any chance to clean up this awful mess with least damage – by correcting the bylaws, and electing a new board.)

possible scenario 2
Covert Operation to the detriment of IARU’s credibility and reputation, unauthorized by Member Societies.

 

according to this version:
What I heard: IARU was created, registered and operated for many years in complete secrecy in Switzerland with the main purpose to deceive IARU’s business partners into making them falsely believe that IARU would be a Swiss association. And to conduct business under the name of IARU or outside IARU, without disclosing it to the Member Societies.
Never with the intention to do what has been submitted as goals and bylaws to the Commercial Register of Zug, and for that reason put into force a secret “Management and Administrative Services Agreement between IARU and IARU”. Forbidding “Swiss” IARU the disclosure of any activities to anyone, including to Member Societies.

(Comment: More than one board member assured me that this narrative is true. I could not believe my ears, to be honest. This would be a catastrophe to the reputation of IARU-“global”. For Regions 1, 2 and 3 only in the case their Executive Committees decide not to act, thus becoming complice).

How do we find out ?

How can YOU find out ?

 

 

Home

As long as IARU as registered in Switzerland does not change its bylaws (art.3), Membership is acquired by sending the equivalent CHF 1 to the legal seat in Cham, Zug, Switzerland. Registered Mail is recommended.
I have done this myself, and consider myself now as a direct IARU individual member. «If you can’t beat them, join them!» This is the easiest way to fix the problem, and the one causing the least damage in the public.

Should registered IARU kick you out of the IARU association, they admit that Scenario 2 is the true one.

Remark: again, please be aware that English is not my mother tongue. Only my german text is authoritative and legally binding. Be aware that german is now official language of IARU association, aside from english.

About the author

Why this investigative journalism ?
Because I invested many hours in preparing the Technology Working Group TWG as decided by IARU R1 GC 2020 during the last few months, in cooperation with a team of other Member Societies, I wanted to make absolutely sure that there will be no disturbances whatsoever by such things as IARU-global-International Secetariat. This is how I discovered the existence of this covert Administrative Council operation in Switzerland. Yes, I must admit that I am deeply disappointed by the intransparency of the so called “International Secretariat” alias IARU-global and its president. It is not my fault that I lost trust completely. Nevertheless, we should not over-react. Rather work together to clean up the mess and save what is not beyond repair!

Switzerland
We certainly welcome the global IARU association in Switzerland!
Sure, Switzerland was not the only option. But certainly a good choice! Another neutral country would have been fine as well.
Read my opening address at the GAREC 2013 International Emergency Communications Conference here.
Further recommended readings:
The Swiss Confederation – a brief guide
Easy answers about life in Switzerland (official site).
Switzerland Tourism.

My office in USKA – Switzerland’s national association of radio amateurs (member of IARU R1)
I have been elected member of the board of USKA since 2011, presidency 2016-2024, having reached statutory term of office limit by end of February 2024.
I welcomed IARU’s Shaping the Future Initiative of 2021. Switzerland took actively part in the workshop and the following “Strategic Objectives” teams. My paper presented at the STF workshop can be found here.

My professional background
in short: Electronics Engineer Diploma/M.Sc. ETH Zurich, M.Sc. in Computer Science at RPI, Troy, U.S.A., entrepreneur first in software delelopment, followed by IT training Business-to-Business, at large scale over twenty years. Classroom training came to a sudden halt with the outbreak of Covid. Retired since.
Extensive political experience as elected representant of my constituency at the Parliament of the Canton of Zug and of the Parliament of the City of Zug. As a former lawmaker, I probably acquired some understanding of law during my total of twelve years in parliaments, and in nine years as member of the Board of the Gymnasium Commission of the Canton of Zug. My special interests have remained Security policy, Education policy and Energy policy.
Swiss Radio Amateurism profited from the implementation of an article into swiss federal law to facilitate antenna construction permits. This was made possible with massive lobbying work in all regions of our country by inviting parlamentarians of various political parties to visit representative Amateur Radio stations in order to understand our cause.

Frequent abuse of Swiss Neutrality and Reputation by dubious foreign actors and operations
Switzerland has a good reputation for precision, reliability and honesty. When you do business with Switzerland, or visit our beautiful country as a tourist, you get betrayed only extremely rarely.
Our excellent reputation is frequently abused by dubious and criminal foreign actors, for any kind of rogue business. This led to several business catastrophies in the past, from “Swissair” to “Credit Suisse”.
In Zug, where I live, we had a very dramatic example of this. The company “Crypto AG” had an excellent reputation for producing trustworthy encryption devices. However, these were compromised, deadly and catastrophic for the clients.  Hidden from them, “Crypto AG” was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with it’s subsidiary West German intelligence (BND), and the spy agencies could easily break the codes used to send encrypted messages. The operation was known first by the code name “Thesaurus” and later “Rubicon”. High government officials of the canton of Zug were board members. Some specialists in the Signal corps of the Swiss Army knew about the betrayal of dozens, if not hundreds of customers.
Turkey and Iran discovered that something was wrong. Our friend Crypto AG salesman Hans Bühler HB9XJ was arrested while in Iran and put into prison. He survived, and thanks to a ransom payment returned to Switzerland. Many of my local radioamateur colleagues at Crypto AG had better luck and were not caught.
This history can be read here.
Why do I write this ? Trust and honesty are among the core values in our Swiss culture. Because we take this for granted, we are predestined to fall victim to criminal activities committed by persons or entities of other cultures where trust and honesty have zero or near zero value.
For this reason, I have zero trust in anglo-american entities. I would never in my life sign a contract with an anglo-american entity. Betrayal is preprogrammed also because texts have different meaning for different cultures.
When I heard of the existence of a 24 (!) page AC-drafted “cooperation agreement” between “Newington-IARU” and “Swiss-IARU”, all alarm bells started ringing and have not stopped since. I am really allergic against such covert operations abusing our good will and severely damaging our reputation as a decent country.
I do not care whether such “activities” are operated by CIA/NSA or AC !
Please keep your dirty business in your country, don’t show up with it at my doorstep !

Either “Swiss-IARU” remains a Swiss operation, or we better forget the whole project!

Home

Join our (inofficial) Restructuring Team !


Our world cultural heritage of “Amateur Radio” deserves a decent and credible organisation that we all can be proud of !

Let’s do it!

 

 

 

Stay informed !
Subscribe to our Newsletter !

Preface
All above discussions would be completely unnecessary if IARU-global had a decent Corporate Governance and a culture of member-friendly Transparency, such as:

  • Form of organisation very similar to the one of other international organisations, where all nations are treated equally.
  • Establish and practice corporate governance structures that meet today’s requirements for a professional, credible organisation, in which Member Societies as well as business partners can once again have confidence. And which allows Member Societies to intervene in the event of violations by the organs without having to go straight to court (“checks and balances”).
  • Annual Report on Elections, Votings, Activities, Ressources, Delegations to conferences, achieved results etc
  • Publication of the structures in full, including all “subsidiaries”, agreements etc
  • Financial Report including “subsidiaries”/entities such as Swiss-IARU
  • Professional, independent Audits of all separate entities in existence
  • Full disclosure of all Working Groups, Commissions, Experts etc working under the auspices of CA. No hidden or covert activities whatsoever.
  • Written commitment by all officers to comply with the IARU statutes/constitution and with the laws of their own country and of the country of IARU’s legal domicile (the latter taking precedence in case of conflict).

We Member Societies currently have no information what our financial contributions are used for.
This policy of Omertà / Code of Silence has to be stopped at once !
Very strangely, there is fierce opposition from the AC to this fundamental right of paying members !
This is totally unworthy and inappropriate behaviour of “our” supreme authority responsible for the preservation of “our” world cultural heritage! Member Societies, please wake up! Don’t put your heads in the sand ! Defend your rights !

R1, R2 and R3 are OK
There is no need for restructuring the regions R1, R2 and R3. Every of these organisations is strong enough to take care of Amateur Radio in their respective region professionally.
“IARU global” consisting mainly of vague “international secretariat” is superfluous and can be disposed of. This has a lame duck reputation and is by noone perceived as effective or relevant.
Tolerating any further an out-of-control Zombie IARU at the top of worldwide Amateur Radio Movement is a huge risk for the reputation and credibility of over two million radioamateurs worldwide and their organisations!
R1, R2 and R3 can cooperate with each other whenever needed. They can convene and set up task forces, committees, delegation teams etc in full transparency themselves. Like federations really work. If needed, R1, R2 and R3 can convene on the election of a temporary “Ambassador” – no need for a pseudo “president” who has no organisational authority anyway.

There is urgent need for action, as the events prove! No one has been achieving anything for years !

Let us assemble a team of responsible persons to take on this challenge.
Let us work on a new concept that can later be presented to the worldwide Amateur Radio community. Within due time. We cannot wait another three years. You may contact me directly.

Please subscribe to our newsletter, without any obligation. Your personal data will be kept strictly confidential.
Your data will NOT be forwarded to any of the IARUs.


Important side remarks (again)
Please recognise and honor that everyone within the organisations of IARU works on a honorary, non-paid basis. This includes of course people working in the secretariats, including international secretariat, and treasurers.
We are grateful for their contribution to fiercely defend our world cultural heritage “Amateur Radio” and that it will develop into a future prosperous for all.
It is in no case my intention or will to criticise any officials, officers, and further numerous people who fulfil important duties.
We all know that “marketing” has never been a task of any of the IARU organisations. We members did never demand marketing activities. This invites me to communicate by means of my Journal.

Home

open Letter to IARU R1, R2 and R3

My vision is that IARU will find to a form of organisation very similar to the one of other international organisations, where all nations are treated equally.


The Strategic Process of Rejuvenation
of our global organisation

Gentlemen, Ladies,

please allow me to present you some of my thoughts regarding our global organisation. (I met most of you personally in Friedrichshafen, either at IARU booth or at the DARC reception at the Seehotel).

Please keep in mind that we are in a strategic process.

We cannot change the past or undo it.
We have to start with what we have today, make the best out of it and develop for a bright future. Not only for us, but for generations to come.
I propose to concentrate on how to organise the global amateur radio community in a good way to assist all nations in preserving and developing our world cultural heritage treasure of our Amateur Radio Movement.

My private name for this process is “rejuvenation” – for me personally, this describes this process best.

My vision is that IARU will find to a form of organisation very similar to the one of other international organisations, where all nations are treated equally.

Obviously, this is not what we have today at global level. I recommend that we all should work together to find a solution.

In my country’s democratic culture, we are used to work toward solutions by having discussions, public discussions, lots of discussions, and frequent votings. Discussions sometimes polite, sometimes less polite. In my country’s history, we always found good solutions, often not perfect, but good. In my experience as a lawmaker/parlamentarian, I sometimes had fierce discussions, but after the plenary or commission meetings, we all met in a pub and drank a beer or a glass of wine together, peacefully.
We all should listen to what other people say, we can criticise arguments, but should refrain from attacking persons.
(Not to be confused with holding persons accountable for their duties in office.)
We are more than 160 nations, and we should carefully listen to every single one. At the end, we will find a consensus.
This is mainly a philosophical and diplomatic process, neither a technological nor a legal one.

Certainly, I am thinking in my spare time how this process could be organised, and we *) will bring forward a proposal on “the road ahead”, for public discussion. *) As you have seen on my website iaru.ch, I am collecting names of other people interested in bringing Amateur Radio forward. As I published, I see no need for action in R1, R2 or R3. They are all strong enough by themselves to master their challenges.

Please keep in mind that we are in a strategic process.
There is no need for haste or even panic.

(continuation in right column of this page)

Home

(continued from left column)

On my website, I addressed our cultural differences.
First, my english is far from being perfect. Sometimes I might use suboptimal words. Some readers suggested changes to me, which I did. However, I do not falsify facts.
Second. We all have different cultural backgrounds. The same text, sentence or word can have completely different meaning for me than for people living in another culture. We should be dealing very very careful with this issue. This is why I try to avoid eMail exchanges and prefer discussions in person where misunderstandings can be corrected immediately in most cases. (The only language where I can express myself perfectly and precisely is german.)

I feel some impatience by some of you. We are working here on a big project. So please be patient. Sure we have to act. Sure it has by now become “relatively” urgent. Keep in mind that this process was started by IARU Region 1 Executive Committee’s proposal, authored by Bob Whelan, already in 2005 at the Davos GC!
A hastily produced solution is no solution at all.
Status quo is no option neither.

Should you be interested in contributing to my “inofficial” “think tank”, you are welcome to subscribe to my newsletter.
But I wish and prefer that this process of public discussion of how we reorganise ourselves at the global level should finally take place on a much larger scale than on my “private” website alone. I will discuss this at upcoming R1 GC 2023.

with best 73s de Willi Vollenweider, HB9AMC, President USKA, one of the founder associations of IARU in 1924/1925.
Zug, Switzerland, 28 July 2023

Good to know

  • The International Secretariat (IS) is one of the Member Societies (Const.I), currently ARRL. ARRL alone nominates the President (Const.III 3.e) for election. Member Societies have no right to propose candidates. In clear: «ARRL runs the show».
  • The President directs the representation at international telecommunications conferences (with delegates from R1,R2,R3)
  • The International Secretariat (IS) works in secrecy, no responsible, no annual reporting to the Member Societies, no audit, no discharge etc. Rare “The Calendar” («at least twice per year») demonstrates decline of AC.
  • Neither International Secretariat (IS) nor AC do account for what happens with the Region’s tribute payments
  • AC including president have no authority over Regions 1, 2 and 3
  • The “president” is beyond this not authorised by the Constitution to represent IARU-global externally.
  • International Secretariat (IS) is under full control of ARRL (simply because ARRL is the IS)