Board Decides to Continue Club Grant Scheme

Following the very successful WIA Annual Conference 2012 in Mildura the WIA Board met on Monday 28 May 2012 and among the matters it considered was the WIA Club Grants Scheme. The question as to whether the Club Grants Scheme should be continued was raised in the Comment in the December 2011 issue of Amateur Radio, and comments were invited. While little response was received to the Comment, a very productive discussion ensued at the Open Forum following the Annual General Meeting as part of the Annual Conference.

It was clear that almost everyone thought that the criteria for a Grant had become too complicated, and that rather than a project being innovative in an identified way, it should simply be useful, for amateur radio, the WIA or the club. The Board decided to continue the Scheme, and adopted new Rules with a much simpler and wider test for a Grant. The Board felt that some suggestions could not be adopted, but did allocate a sum of $6,000 for the current year as the maximum sum to be distributed this year.

The test for a Grant is now for "a project to receive a Grant under these Rules it must be considered by the Grant Committee and the Board to be sufficiently useful for any one or more of amateur radio, the Affiliated Club or the WIA to justify the making of a Grant."

The new Rules are on the Affiliated Club section of the WIA website, also accessible by clicking the following Link

The Board has set the date by which applications for Grants are to be lodged to be Monday 20 August 2012.

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