Are hams making pigs of themselves?

December 14, 2015 2:35 AM

I have an ethics question for fellow amateur radio operators who are also members of an active club.

Before Field Day last year, the club I’m in went hat in hand to local restaurants and other purveyors of food and drink. We were quite generously given many pizzas and bottles of soda and an astonishing number of hamburger patties and sausages to grill. We had never eaten so well at Field Day.

I hated the idea from scratch and ate before I went out to our site. Hams are to provide a community service of our own free will. It felt wrong for us to beg for food rather than buy it out of our own pockets or the club treasury. I am in a minority, though, and club members are already talking about doing it again come June.

Does this feel to you like it crosses a line, or am I being a prig?

posted by bryon to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (17 answers total)

Best answer: My family boasts many amateur radio operators, and I own a business that might donate to your event. Allowing me to donate would help me say thank you + raise awareness of your group's contributions. Most people don't have the slightest clue how important you folks are! Gosh, yes. Let us feed you!
posted by jbenben at 2:51 AM on December 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

I would be uncomfortable with it as well. It's sort of a gray area, as Field Day is ostensibly an emergency preparedness exercise. Some clubs are very heavily involved with local emergency management officials and conduct their Field Day operations in close cooperation with them, so it really can be considered volunteer work. Other clubs treat it more as a fun contest. If a club is giving donors the impression that they are doing serious emergency preparedness work that benefits the community, when they are actually just out having fun and eating free food, then that's shady. I guess it depends on the individual situation.
posted by jkent at 2:52 AM on December 14, 2015

As someone who runs a club (for a totally different activity), I'd only be happy to solicit donations from businesses if we were running a charity fundraiser or community event; if we were asking for food donations, it would probably be to help the local food bank.

Your case is a bit borderline, because what you do is beneficial to the community. But the donations received here are not going towards paying for equipment or training that might help you to help others - the members are just looking at it as free party food.

Ultimately, it's not that serious an issue, but my take is that if the club has sufficient funds to buy its own food without causing financial hardship, it should. There are probably charities out there that could make much better use of donated food. What your club's members are doing is a kind of grown-up trick-or-treating.
posted by pipeski at 4:02 AM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

Are hams still actively involved in emergency communications? I know theoretically but are there recent cases of hams providing real live comms during crisis or is it all happening over standard cell infrastructure? I sure think that it's a community that should remain strong and any support from the general community is far from wasted, first time the net shuts down during an actual crisis and emergency services can be directed by hams it could save that deli owners family.
posted by sammyo at 5:51 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Hams are to provide a community service of our own free will.

Well, sure. But you're not charging anybody. The donations are voluntary. If you really don't think you're actually providing a community service at all, this is shady. But groups that DO community service get donations and thank-you sorts of gifts from local businesses all the time. Habitat for Humanity workers are freely donating their time, but I'm pretty sure to get lunch donated by local restaurants for them isn't at all unusual. Donating food to provide an environment that encourages people to volunteer is a thing. I mean, you're also supposed to give blood freely, but I know I've seen the Red Cross giving out donated gift cards from Chipotle before, and I presume those are also donated.
posted by Sequence at 6:18 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

So long as your colleagues are accurately representing the activities of the club to the businesses they approach, this seems fairly normal. Restaurants and shops sponsor events for activity groups, sports teams, and other non-community service organizations all the time. Depending on the size of the group, it may be a reasonably effective advertising strategy for them. But it is certainly critical that the donators have accurate info about the club activities. Then they can decide to give or not, whether for charitable reasons or to get their name out.
posted by snorkmaiden at 6:43 AM on December 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm with snorkmaiden - local businesses sponsor my chorus, for instance... I think it's mostly just about being part of the community.

Also, arguably by allowing sponsoring businesses to share some of the load of your activities, you are reducing the burden on your club members and potentially making it easier for people with less resources to participate in your club, which I think is a net bonus. Like with my chorus - if a local realtor wants to pay to have her name listed in our program, and that makes it easier for us to offer sliding-scale dues to members who might not otherwise be able to afford to participate, that's awesome!
posted by mskyle at 6:57 AM on December 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Local businesses sponsor all kinds of community building events--local sports leagues, parades, high school clubs, police and fire department social engagements. This is a local community building event.

Did anyone misrepresent the activities? I have ham radio friends but am not in it myself; is there a code of ethics that specifically forbids any compensation whatsoever? If not, then I don't see the problem at all. They chose to help, the advertising is inexpensive, the goodwill is great.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:00 AM on December 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Are hams still actively involved in emergency communications? I know theoretically but are there recent cases of hams providing real live comms during crisis or is it all happening over standard cell infrastructure?

If standard cell infrastructure is up, then you don't really need the hams. To quote the bumper sticker, When All Else Fails… amateur radio!

In North America, amateur radio emergency operations are largely coordinated via the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. Some semi-recent large scale events: NYC ARECS' 911 operations, ARRL letter on Katrina.
Ham public service isn't just major emergency response- a lot of local clubs are involved in providing communication for marathons and other road races. Occasionally emergency & race operations overlap, like the Boston Marathon bombing.
posted by zamboni at 7:15 AM on December 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

Local businesses - especially restaurants - donate food and products to gatherings like these partially out of charity, but also, more significantly, for advertising. In the particular case of restaurants, food cost only accounts for ~30-35% of actual restaurant costs. So, if a restaurant has excess labor during down times of the business (often the case, and generally underpaid labor at that), preparing a few dishes for your gathering is not that big of a cost if it results in, say, someone from your organization catering a party through the restaurant. As a general comment, local businesses often find that customers are more willing to shop at local businesses that actively support the community. This is particularly important since local businesses often can't compete on price, so they can essentially compete on community participation.

You are focusing on the purity of your organization's activity, but I can guarantee you your local business' charity is not pure.
posted by saeculorum at 8:06 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

1/Field Day is ostensibly an emergency preparedness exercise.

2/Other clubs treat it more as a fun contest.

3/Restaurants and shops sponsor events for activity groups, sports teams, and other non-community service organizations all the time.

Possibly you are focusing too much on the fun of Field Day, and the fact that it's mainly hams interacting with hams. But inherently it is also a preparedness drill involving rapidly setting up the antennas, wiring, generators, portable Internet, etc.

Presumably you wouldn't have this question if the restaurants fed your club while it was supporting a marathon or parade, something with a clear direct public service.

Most of the commenters think that it's fine for restaurants to support your event. It's best if there's some signage or publicity acknowledging the restaurant's support.
posted by JimN2TAW at 8:11 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Lots of good answers above, I think, especially mskyle's note about barriers to entry. I agree with others that if your club and Field Day are anything like the ones I'm familiar with, I would definitely consider them deserving of donations.

The best way I can explain my thoughts is by comparison: I'm involved with an all-volunteer nonprofit that teaches bike repair. We routinely solicit donations of food, which we provide to both volunteers and "patrons" because we know that hungry people do not contribute to a positive learning environment. Sure, many of these people can bring their own food. But not everyone can - several of our core volunteers are living on the edge - and even those with the means sometimes end up volunteering longer hours than they anticipated, sometimes straight through mealtimes, so having food at the shop is useful. We do have a food budget, which we use, but it's just enough to stock the cupboards with a few simple snacks when we don't have donations from other sources.

We provide a service to the community of our own free will. Being well-fed (and feeding the people we work with) allows us to provide that service more effectively. Receiving donated food allows us to devote our (small) budget to things we MUST pay cash for, like rent and speciality tools.

If you're concerned that your club is not providing sufficient public benefit to the community, and that's why you feel it doesn't merit donations, that's another matter. In that case, especially if the club is incorporated as a non-profit, I would encourage you to advocate for changes in the club's operations.

But if it's just the "providing a service of your own free will" aspect, I don't think donated food detracts from that. If anything, I think having donated food at Field Day would allow you to direct more of the club's resources toward your core mission, which is presumably something like the ARRL's "To promote and advance the art, science and enjoyment of Amateur Radio." Not spending club money on food means those funds can go toward equipment, education, and outreach - things that aren't donated as often.
posted by sibilatorix at 2:40 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

The ham club I hang with (although I am not technically a member) are more often supporting a charity, not the ones acting like one! That said, there are projects they've asked for donations to support. My comfort level with the food begging you describe would be totally dependent upon the 'sell' they're giving the donors. As already suggested, if the club is completely up front about the nature of the event - including the publicity (or lack of) a donor will get for the donation and the donor still wants to support the event, that's their choice. Field Day is about preparedness practice as well as civic engagement so local businesses wanting to get involved is legitimate. One thing to consider - is your ham club a registered non-profit, or affiliated with one? There's nothing stopping them asking for donations either way, but make sure they're not presenting themselves as a non-profit if they're not. And if you fall under the blanket of a larger organization, make sure that organization knows about the donations.
posted by AliceBlue at 5:06 PM on December 14, 2015

Response by poster: Thank you for all your responses so far. Let me clarify a couple of points and duck out again.

The club was open and above-board in telling the food providers who we are and what we do, and we sent cards of thanks to all the businesses.

We ran only one transceiver last year, but we do treat this as an emergency preparedness exercise. It's part of how we keep track of who has what emergency power available, who has what radios, practice in setting up antennas, etc.

I guess my squick factor comes from the knowledge that amateur radio is a public service, using public airwaves set aside for us. A lot of businesses want those bands, but we've mostly held the line so far because we do help with walkathons and state fair band days and various disaster situations. We're already getting a lot just having those frequencies, and we're the ones who are supposed to give back.

Shutting up again.
posted by bryon at 9:53 PM on December 14, 2015

Best answer: A lot of businesses want those bands, but we've mostly held the line so far because we do help with walkathons and state fair band days and various disaster situations. We're already getting a lot just having those frequencies, and we're the ones who are supposed to give back.

The businesses who want the AR frequency allocations probably aren't in your local community, and they are exceeding unlikely to be stopping by with some hot dogs. Your club helps the local community, and it's OK to let that community give a little back to the club.
posted by zamboni at 9:20 AM on December 15, 2015

Community is an interesting thing. Here's an analogy based on roads.

It sounds like you think of your group as being at one end of the proverbial two-way street. But your street has a pretty specific character. It's more like a highway, a single ribbon of blacktop through an empty field. Stuff goes down one side, stuff goes back up the other side.

But local communities, just like local street networks, don't work that way. Streets criss-cross each other. Some streets are one way, some join up via round-about, there are overpasses and bypasses and pedestrian cross-walks, some have counterflow options to increase flow at times of high need. People start from different places and want to end up in different places, but the streets are there for them wherever those places might be. The end result is that most people can get to where they're going (even if not by the shortest possible path) in a reasonable time, most of the time.

You and your hams sound like you probably live on one of those counterflow-enabled streets. Most of the time, traffic is flowing in your direction. You get some bandwidth that the government could otherwise sell to Google. You might even get some free hot dogs. You do some occasional maintenance on the outbound side of the street to keep things running smoothly, even though mostly you just use that side of the street for to play street hockey with some weird guy from France. And then when rush hour hits and what you have to offer is necessary, counterflow goes into play and suddenly your side of the street, which you have been carefully maintaining is filled with highly important traffic.

For the businesses, the map is different. They have lots of little roads going out to all sorts of places -- schools, community groups, hospitals, etc. Those roads all look like they're one way roads. But the reality is, there's a multi-lane bypass that runs straight into their parking lot -- by sending traffic on so many little roads, they encourage people to drive on their big access road. And then too, on the day when your counterflow swings into gear, they benefit from your activities, both personally as members of the community and as a business.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:46 AM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: The general feeling is that I'm being a prig. I can deal with that.

Thanks again.
posted by bryon at 12:40 AM on December 17, 2015