After six days of hard work the IARU Region 1 Virtual General Conference closed this afternoon.

During the week, discussions on papers submitted by Member Societies, the Executive Committee and other parts of IARU resulted in some 50 Recommendations to the Final Plenary Meeting in areas of finance, HF, VHF, EMC, youth and on issues concerning the governance of IARU Region 1.

The Final Plenary was opened by Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, and some 120 delegates were present. Heads of national delegations considered and voted on the recommendations, which will result in actions and policy changes in IARU Region 1.

The Final Plenary meeting also agreed some new appointments in the Region, to succeed people who were retiring from their roles. The new appointments were:

Chair, IARU Region 1 VHF Committee: Dick Harms, PA2DW

Chair, IARU Region 1 EMC Committee: Dr Wolf Mahr, OE1MHZ

Chair, IARU Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee: Barry Lewis, G4SJH

Chair, IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group: Philipp Springer, DK6SP

IARU Region 1 Monitoring System Coordinator: Gaspar Miró, EA6AMM 

After agreeing the appointments, Don Beattie thanked those retiring – Tore Worren, LA9QL (EMC), Jacques Verleijen, ON4AVJ (VHF+), Dave Court, EI3IO (SRLC), Lisa Leenders, PA2LS (Youth WG) and Peter Jost, HB9CET, (IARUMS ad-interim). Don recognised the significant contribution each had made in their particular field and wished them well for the future.

In closing the meeting, The Region 1 President looked forward to the planned in-person workshop on the future of amateur radio, to be held in 2021, and expressed the hope that the COVID situation would allow the event to go ahead as early as possible. He challenged member societies before then, to increase their focus on “tomorrow” issues – tomorrow’s people, tomorrow’s technologies, tomorrow’s activities and tomorrow’s ways of communicating with those we represent. He asked societies to speak to their younger members and take account of their views to help reshape their societies for the future. 

Looking back on our first Virtual General Conference delegates agreed that it was different from General Conferences held in the past. Although we did not have opportunities for social interaction between delegates, we can look back on a successful and very effective meeting. We are already looking forward to our hopefully in-person workshop in Novi Sad in 2021.

Day four of the Virtual General Conference opened with the final meeting of Committee C4 (HF).

Most of the meetings involved papers relating to band planning issues on the HF bands. Appointments were also considered and agreed for forwarding to the Final Plenary meeting on Friday. 

Committee C3 (Administrative and Organisational) then resumed its work and received reports from the Working Groups and coordinators around IARU Region 1 about the work in their specialist fields. We had also reports from the other Regions (2 North & South America, 3 Eastern Asia & Oceania) by Ramon XE1KK and Ken JA1CJP and from the AC (Administrative Council) by Dave K1ZZ. As part of this, a number of appointments were agreed for recommendation to the final plenary. Finally, further consideration was given to proposed constitutional changes relating to the ability to hold a Virtual General Conference in the future.

Finally, Committee C2 (Credentials and Finance) reviewed the financial position in the Region. Budget requests for funding for special projects were considered and the overall interim budget through to end-2021 was reviewed and agreed. The full three-year budget will be agreed at the in-person workshop and conference in 2021, when it will be able to reflect decisions made in the workshop about strategic priorities. 

One more meeting of Committee C3 is scheduled for Thursday morning, after which documentation will be prepared for the Final Plenary to be held Friday. The next news release will be after the end of the final plenary on Friday evening

The Region 1 Virtual General Conference continued today with three more sessions. The day started with a joint meeting of the Political Relations Committee (PRC) and the Spectrum and Regulatory Affairs Committee (SRLC). Between them, these two committees steer the IARU work in the Region 1 Regional Telecommunications organizations and also in the European Commission. The SRLC also undertakes much of the Region 1 preparatory work for ITU World Radio Conferences.

The Chair of the SRLC, Dave Court, EI3IO, discussed with delegates the work of the Committee and the current challenges IARU faces in its work. Séamus McCague, EI8BP, Chair of the PRC discussed the PRC work in the European Commission and the inputs that had been made on a number of important EU regulatory issues.

Both Chairs encouraged delegates to consider joining the work in spectrum, regulatory and political areas for IARU. Those interested should contact either Dave or Séamus.

The day continued with the second EMC Committee (C7) meeting, at which work in CISPR, the international standards organization was reviewed. The meeting then reviewed the work on the threat of spurious emissions from high power Wireless Power Transmission systems and also heard about the work in South Africa on noise measurement.

Finally the EMC Committee ended with a discussion on the importance of involvement in National Standards Committees and the steps needed to increase the voice of radio services in those forums.

The final meeting of the day was the last meeting of the VHF+ Committee (C5), at which a number of band planning issues were discussed and resolved.

The recommendations of all Committee go forward for ratification in the final Plenary meeting to be held on Friday.

Although this virtual meeting is really effective and productive and the number of participants is really high, the delegates missed the social part of a meeting, a very important part to strengthen the work in some MS.

We are living difficult times, but we can’t standstill.

See you tomorrow for the next update.