Yes, in April after a long consultation with our membership we finally changed our system to, members only. However , we are following the IARU recommendation and do allow non-members to sign up to a, “ pay-to-receive only “ service – If you go to the web-site and then to the RSGB shop page , you can find more information concerning that.. Users can sign up for as little as, £7.99 per year.

There is no big change for full members of our society and they can still both send and receive cards at no extra charge per year, it is included as a member benefit.

We believe, from what we see that unwanted and uncollected cards is a really big and growing problem for all societies. Since the economic crisis of 2008 it has been costing us ever more money to sort them and to ship them to our volunteer collection points. We have a network of volunteer sub-managers who hold collection envelopes, supplied to them by the members. Now, if a card arrives and there are no envelopes …or… the card is for a non-member, it is held for 3 months . If no envelopes arrives, or the station has not joined the service in the 3 month period, the volunteer can, if he or she wants, “re-cycle” the card . The card is not returned. We considered doing this but had to reach the conclusion that it was no longer environmentally friendly, or cost effective to do this anymore. The problem is just too big.

There is one exception, we do as a matter of courtesy try to return uncollected cards sent for a “Silent Key” if we can.

Our big promotion now is to encourage what we call, ‘Responsible QSLing.’ We would like other IARU societies to consider doing the same . We want stations to ask the other one, “If I send my card- can you receive it?” or when offered a card to be more honest and say, “ Thank you but – Sorry, I don’t collect.” Also to make their information at QRZ.com much more clear and honest , maybe to become selective in what they send and to consider using the OQRS or Club Log ideas for general card requests. It is our belief that, this programme will likely take 2-3 years to take effect , but it is thought that just maybe it will begin to help us and everyone to give a better service to those that really do want the cards.