We continue to struggle to get enough participants in activities such as our monthly hospital radio nets and even our weekly on-air meetings. Recently, a regular participant in the monthly hospital drills asked that we consider holding these drills on a different time and day of the week, perhaps even on a weekend. It has also been suggested that we activate only two of our three hospital stations on any given month on a regular rotation in order to address low turnout. This stimulated a broader discussion at the most recent MCACS board meeting about how to increase participation and engagement in our activities.

Our weekly nets have been held on Tuesday evenings at 8 PM for as long as I have been a member of Montgomery County RACES/ARES/MCACS, dating from 1978! Perhaps another time and/or day of the week would be more convenient for more members. We have always struggled to maintain a balance between those members who don’t get home from work until late in the evening versus others for whom the net is uncomfortably close to bedtime. 8 PM has been the compromise, but is it the optimal time?

On a similar note, we have long scheduled our hospital nets to be on the same night of the week (Tuesday). This has a few benefits:

1.  It keeps things simple: Tuesday evening is for ARES activities.
2. The monthly State RACES drills have been scheduled on Tuesday evenings since the 1970s (and probably back to the 1950S!). Since those drills are conducted from the county EOC, by scheduling the hospital net on the same night as the state RACES drill, the EOC station is able to be a participant in two drills for the price of one visit to the EOC.

However, I’m sure many of you have other things you are or could be doing on a Tuesday evening. For example, Tuesday is PTA night in Montgomery County – and has been for as long as I can remember.

Rather than arbitrarily picking a handful of alternative times and having the members vote on which they would prefer, we’d like to invite any open-ended thoughts each of you might have on the subject. In the comments below, please tell us days and times that you would prefer for weekly nets and hospital drills, and/or days you would prefer that we avoid. You can also mention other factors that bear on your involvement or lack thereof. We are interested in any suggestions you might have that would increase participation AND engagement.

Thanks and 73,