Changes to BARTG membership scheme (updated 1st March 2020)

3rd April 2019 – the committee has decided to close BARTG’s membership scheme. A brief explanation for this decision is shown below. 

In June/July 2018 we wrote this:

BARTG was founded in 1959 with the twin aims of helping to get amateurs on the air using datacoms and encouraging and promoting the use of datacoms in amateur radio. BARTG’s magazine, contests, awards scheme and goods (components and books) were four ways it encouraged and promoted datacoms.

It was a ‘members + subs’ group. Members paid subs to fund BARTG and in return received the BARTG magazine and benefitted from discounts (whenever production costs permitted) on BARTG’s goods. Members were also an essential component of the BARTG Members’ Award.

BARTG has changed. It no longer levies subs. It no longer publishes a magazine nor sells any goods nor runs a Members’ Award. BARTG is now a ‘contest + awards’ group. All its activities are open to everyone; nothing is open only to BARTG members.

The committee feels that BARTG’s membership scheme is no longer necessary and can be closed. The committee believes that this closure would not affect any BARTG member. Members would keep their BARTG number for life and would be welcome to continue to display it and/or the BARTG logo on QSL cards, callsign badges and plaques, car stickers and suchlike. The closure would not in any way affect BARTG’s contests or awards scheme which would continue to be run by the committee, as would the web site.

In September 2018 we wrote this:

The cut-off date for comments was the end of September 2018. The BARTG committee is grateful to all the members who submitted comments. The BARTG committee is now (2nd October 2018) considering those comments and will post more information here when its considerations are complete.

Now, in April 2019 we are writing this:

The majority of the committee continued to feel that the membership scheme served no useful purpose and could be closed without any detrimental effect to anyone or to BARTG.
A minority of the committee felt that it would be nice to keep the membership scheme running so that people could join BARTG and thus become a part of BARTG. This minority view was not supported by BARTG’s members of whom only two responded to our request for comments on the proposed closure.

The committee has therefore decided that the BARTG membership scheme shall close with immediate effect. 

Please remember that (as mentioned above ) anyone who was a Member or Friend at any time up to the closure of the membership scheme is  welcome to continue to use the BARTG logo/badge and their BARTG number (and those who have a BARTG cap or Tshirt or sweatshirt or tie or car sticker are welcome to continue to use them).

Ian G4EAN,
Secretary of BARTG.