WRTC 2022 - Bologna - Italy - News

[4L5A]

I agree with Tonno, ES5TV on some points.
As I've written many times before, or we need to say hard that WRTC is out of politics and stick to that principle.
Today it looks like that, in order to hide the national affiliation of Russian radio amateurs, the WRTC committee decided to deprive all participants to show their national affiliation.
Judging by the position of the Russian participants they are ready and do not object to the deprivation of their nationality, in any case, I have not seen anywhere a single objection on their part anywhere.
But I heard behind the scenes that WRTC will not be held without the Russians.
But if the Russians are willing to refuse to represent their country and are ready to perform under the imaginary non-existent banners of the selection area, then I'm sure everyone else is not ready for that at all and will follow the example of Tonno, ES5TV.
The organizers made the mistake of allowing politics to become part of this competition.
Hence the accusations of their possible venality.
In fact, to abandon the flag of their country is a shame in my opinion, and even more so to perform under the flag of a non-existent entity is an even greater shame with no precedent.
At least to me such are not known.

[4L5A]

Message from Roman, UR0MC:
Hello colleagues
My name is Roman. My callsign is UR0MC.
I am a TL of the Ukrainian team at WRTC-2022 .I hope many of you remember UW2M/UZ2M in contests.
I fully support Tonno ES5TV.
I still have no idea how I will sit at the same table with people who rejoice at how Ukrainians are being killed.
I want to have certainty from the organizers.
If nothing changes, then I will also be forced to refuse to participate in this WRTC.
73
de UR0MC/UW2M/UZ2M

[4L5A]

Open Letter to the WRTC 2022 Organizing Committee
Re: Participation Rules and Policies

The WRTC 2022 "Behavioral Guidlines" as presented are offensive, punitive, unworkable, unenforceable and for this Team Leader profoundly unsupportable. I urge the WRTC Organizing Committee to quickly change course and replace these inappropriate rules with a comprehensive policy statement addressing the far more important issue of participant admission. Clear guidance is needed from the Organizers recognizing and addressing the political realities of an event taking place while participating nations are engaged in armed conflict. We are all in uncharted waters. The situation demands greater clarity.

One month ago the WRTC 2022 Organizing Committee posted their "Behavioral Guidelines" for event attendees. Many on this reflector have presented well considered opinions on this new set of rules and have offered reasoned suggestions on changes that might achieve minimal acceptance. Unfortunately we've yet to see any action taken or even suggested by the Organizing Committee that might rescind or modify their position.

This leaves me deeply disappointed and of the opinion the Organizing Committee has lost the ability to maintain important and fundamental WRTC principles and standards. In my eyes they've violated the spirit if not the terms of the event franchise granted to them by the WRTC Sanctioning Committee.

For thirty years, the Organizers of all eight past WRTCs referred to these on-site events as the "Olympic Games of Amateur Radio". They worked diligently to provide friendly and safe venues for attendees coming from countries with divergent political views. We've enjoyed the benefits of their work, a special and unique experience together, in an atmosphere promoting both good will and camaraderie as equals. To the degree feasible fair and equitable on-site competitions featuring a reasonably level playing field have taken place. However, for many (if not the majority of attendees) the competitive element has been secondary to and overshadowed by the "people" aspects of the WRTC experience.
Just like the Olympic Games, those who earn the privilege to participate naturally come to a WRTC to defend the honor of their home nation. This has always been a fundamental part of every WRTC and closely follows the principles and practices of the real Olympics.

We now have before us a misguided rule that forbids ALL participants from displaying any form of country reference. I consider the rule in direct conflict with the intent and principles of the WRTC program and reading it led me to conclude enough is enough ... this just doesn't work and it must be changed. One of the Organizing Committee co-chairs apparently agrees with me and resigned in protest.

Being generous, the new rule is an awkward attempt by the Organizing Committee to address the political sensitivities of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The rule as written is unreasonable and needlessly punitive for participants coming from countries that are not part of conflict. Qualified participants expect to come to a WRTC representing their home nations, not some artificial and arbitrary "Selection Area" substitute. The logic upon which the rule is based is flawed. National recognition and pride cannot be arbitrarily prohibited or legislated out of existence. The Organizing Committee has made what I feel is a grave mistake attempting to do this and must withdraw the rule if they hope to re-establish a reasonable level of trust and harmony with event participants. There are workable alternatives preserving national identifiers that have been adopted by other International Sports Federations. This approach would likely work at WRTC-2022.

On February 28, 2022, just four days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced its recommendation "that International Sports Federations and sports
event organizers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions." Further, "Sports Federations that are unable to do so were advised to only allow athletes from Russia or Belarus to compete under neutral status, and not for their home country". Since the IOC made this announcement, virtually every international sports organization has followed this guidance.

For WRTC-2022, it seems a feasible compromise would be to allow Russian and Belarusian operators to attend and participate, but only if they do so without any references to or visual display of symbols of their home countries. They would compete as neutrals under the banner of the WRTC Organizing Committee.

Herein lies a potentially workable compromise solution for the WRTC 2022 Organizers - adopt a policy that closely parallels the IOC's recommendations and guidance which provides an exception for neutral participants. The realities of this horrible ongoing war are not something any of us can or should ignore, and certainly not for the good of a ham radio event. But there are ways to proceed in good faith.

Compromises that move us toward resolving this critical issue are on the table for consideration without delay by the the Organizing Committee. I urge them to act and act quickly.

I cannot in good conscious comply with rules that are not supportive and consistent with long-standing WRTC principles and practices.

Please share you views with the Organizers. Silence is not an option.

Respectively,

John Crovelli, W2GD

[4L5A]

Message from I4UFH:
WRTC2022 Organizing Committee is not a political organization, it is just a committee that should provide continuity of radio sports events from past to future ones.



As humans we are very sensitive to the actual geopolitical situation.



As organizers we are sensible to the aim of WRTC, based on respect and friendship between all ham radio.



For this reason we have been spectators of the feelings of fellow ham radio on the world scenario.



The Aggressiveness of some of them is publicly clear and it is against WRTC main rule.



For these reasons our position must be to protect WRTC and people's safety during the event.



We want to make clear that:



1) During the main events, opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies, competitors and referee meetings, there will not be references to any Country. This means that flags and symbols will not be permitted or displayed in the Meeting Rooms and Opening/Closing Ceremony Spaces. At the same time, the participants will be required to wear the shirts provided by the WRTC 2022 committee during these activities (Dressing Code).



There will be no ban on participants displaying symbols of their country outside the public events related to WRTC. During, for example, lunches, trips, free time and Contest Site. Even if in this case no restriction is present, we kindly suggest observing any behavior that can avoid offending the sensibility of any present person.



Competitors at the WRTC are qualified individually and by their own means in their Selected Area. No WRTC competitor has been supported by any official national association to represent their own Country. We often refer to WRTC as the Olympic Games of Radio, but this is an important difference between the Olympic Games and WRTC.



The WRTC2022 organizing committee has been working on this event since 2017. We are working to invite all radio amateurs from around the world to compete in a fair field in the real Hamspirit. This has always been the spirit of all WRTCs from the 1990 Goodwill games and we want to continue with this idea. We kindly ask you to respect the Hamspirit, our rules of hospitality and the work we have done for all of you, and you will be welcome at WRTC2022.



2) Reflector is meant to simplify the organization of WRTC events and not for any other subject of discussion. From now the reflector will be suspended, any message will be redirected to in...@wrtc2022.it . All messages will be checked and answered with priority to emails with subjects related to organization.



3) A special support will be available for teams that may require it. WRTC Organization Committee is reserving some resources for TL or TM needs. We are refining the access rules and we will publish them when ready in the next few weeks.
Best 73 de WRTC 2022 Organizing Committee

[4L5A]

All,

For those of you dismayed that you can no longer post to the recently removed WRTC2022 reflector, please note that I have recreated a reflector at wrtc2022reflector@groups.io. Please feel free to sign up again to that reflector; previous members are not automatically carried over, this is essentially a new reflector.

While this new group is not (at least for now) monitored by the WRTC Committee, its obvious to me that participants and other interested parties want and need a place to discuss issues. This can be that place.

I will not be censoring points of view, but I will ask all posters for a refrain on personal attacks if they wish to participate.

73,
Drew K3PA

[4L5A]

A very strange position of the organizers WRTC 2022 - blocking participants in the group. I feel it will be "fun" there. Roman, UR0MC.

[4L5A]

Message from OG9X:
I just read the announcement from Italian Committee. It was a total shock for me that they went even backwards. Now the Russians can use their flags and other symbols like " Z " outside the official
By Timo Korhonen OG9X

[4L5A]

Contesters,

By now it is apparent to most that the Organizing Committee has no serious intention of reconsidering any decisions based on community input. Further, they seem interested in simply shutting down the discussion altogether. To me personally, this is more concerning than the outcome of any one individual decision. There appears to be no concept of accountability to the individuals who actually participate in the sport. While I think we all appreciate the hard work the committee has put in, I certainly feel that all of you should be part of the big picture. The host should not "own" WRTC any more than an olympic host can rewrite all the rules for each sport every four years.

In my opinion, this should be a core function of a/the sanctioning group. They should be setting the overall goals and limits of WRTC, while the hosts handle logistics and possibly some small differentiating details. Perhaps this is actually happening behind the scenes, but I see no evidence of it.

If some of you are receiving communications from the committee suggesting more openness or sharing of decisions and progress, please let us know. I hate to judge the situation more harshly than deserved. But lacking any real communications, how can we do otherwise?

Several of you have noted your displeasure with the situation and hinted or stated that you will not participate without some change. We need to know where each other stand on this matter so we can make out own decisions. This is one core function of the reflector. I have already made my decision.

Do the rest of you still hold hope that the situation will change, or do you intend to withdraw, or do you plan to attend and just hope for the best? Please let us all know.

I fear that at this point, what we are doing is laying the ground for a better WRTC 2026/7/8 and assuring survival of the event through some level of stability.

73,
Drew K3PA

[4L5A]

Glad you didn't get it in the wrong way, Mike!

And yes, that was indeed the case in all previous WRTCs but the "free lunches" don't last forever. All previous WRTCs were led by well-respected contesters who had no problems raising the funds needed to cover all costs. Obviously, this is not the case now and the fact that the competitors (not the referees and volunteers, I hope) are asked to chip in is just a consequence of a failed fundraising campaign. The individual sponsors lists for the current and the past two WRTCs are very illustrative in this regard.

What I found most interesting in these lists, though, is that there were only two donations from Italy for the past two WRTCs - IV3VSC and IK1HJS, who donated to WRTC-2014 and WRTC-2018, respectively. The fact that the Italians don't have the habit of donating for this kind of events should have been a priori known to the Sanctioning Committee, so I think they anticipated that the fundraising goals were not going to be met. Still, the WRTC was awarded to Italy, which pretty much tells me there were no other candidates and the Sanctioning Committee had no other choice. Back then I would've supported this decision. Now ... now I think the Sanctioning Committee made a mistake.

On the soothing side - hotels in Italy are not that expensive compared to those in US

73, Alex LZ4AX

[4L5A]

Until now, each WRTC organizer has accepted the challenge to run the event according to Olympic spirit and to raise money to cover the costs of the competitors. This places a high burden on the organizers. The Italy group has chosen a different path. It is unfortunate they have not been more transparent and better at letting participants to know the costs.

There may be a lesson in this for the Sanctioning Committee to provide more guidelines for the organizers to maintain consistency between the events. At the same time, it is the differences that allow each organizer to deal with their local situation. This is not Forumula 1 or the actual Olympics with huge TV contracts to help pay the bills.



Randy K5ZD