Is ARRL a Company? The Surprising Truth About Who Runs Ham Radio's Biggest League

Is ARRL a Company? The Surprising Truth About Who Runs Ham Radio’s Biggest League

If you have spent any time in amateur radio, you have run into the ARRL. The American Radio Relay League is everywhere in the hobby. It publishes QST, runs W1AW, administers DXCC and contests, lobbies the FCC, and represents US hams at international forums. It is hard to be a ham in America and not interact with the ARRL in some way.

But here is a question that trips up a lot of people, including hams who have been licensed for decades. Is the ARRL a company? And if it is not, why does it have a CEO?

The short answer is no, the ARRL is not a company in the way most people think of one. It is a nonprofit membership association, and the CEO is a paid staff position, not an owner or shareholder. The longer answer is actually pretty interesting, and it says a lot about how amateur radio is organized in the United States.

Let us break it down.

First, What The ARRL Actually Is

The American Radio Relay League was founded in May 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim, 1AW, and Clarence Tuska in Hartford, Connecticut. It was formally incorporated on January 29, 1915, under the laws of the State of Connecticut.

Here is the key part. According to the ARRL’s own Articles of Association, Article 1:

“The Corporation is nonprofit and shall not have or issue shares of stock or make distributions.”

In plain English, that means:

No shareholders. Nobody owns the ARRL. You cannot buy a piece of it.
No stock. It cannot issue shares.
No dividends. Any surplus money goes back into the mission, not into anyone’s pocket.
Tax exempt. It is registered under Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code, the same section that covers charities, churches, universities, and scientific organizations.

So legally, the ARRL is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. It is in the same legal category as the Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, your local public radio station, and the Smithsonian. It is not a for profit business, not a government agency, and not a club in the informal sense. It is a corporation, just a nonprofit one.

This sometimes confuses people because the word “corporation” sounds like “company.” But a corporation is just a legal structure. Plenty of corporations are nonprofits. The “Inc.” in “American Radio Relay League, Inc.” does not mean it is a commercial business.

Why The ARRL Has A CEO

This is the part that throws people. If the ARRL is not a company, why does it have a Chief Executive Officer?

The answer is that having a CEO does not make an organization a for profit business. Most large nonprofits have a CEO. The Red Cross has one. The Boy Scouts have one. Universities have them (they just call them presidents or chancellors). Hospitals have them. Your local food bank probably has one. A CEO is just the top paid staff person who runs the day to day operations.

In the ARRL’s case, the CEO position is defined in Bylaw 35 of the ARRL By Laws. The relevant part reads:

“The Board of Directors shall employ a Chief Executive Officer who shall hold office for such term and upon such compensation as the Board and he or she may agree upon. The Chief Executive Officer shall manage the affairs of the League under the direction of the Board of Directors.”

So the CEO is:

Employed by the Board of Directors (not the owner, not appointed by shareholders)
Paid a salary agreed upon with the Board
Responsible for day to day operations at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut
A non voting member of the Board (sits in on meetings, but does not get a vote)
Required to devote their entire time to the duties of the position

The current CEO is David Minster, NA2AA, who has held the role since September 28, 2020. He was elected by the Board at a special meeting in August 2020 and started at the end of September that year. According to the ARRL’s most recent IRS Form 990 filing (for fiscal year 2024, filed in November 2025, which all 501(c)(3) nonprofits must file publicly), his reportable compensation is approximately $309,000 per year, with a total compensation package of about $350,000 when other compensation is included. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but it is in line with CEOs of similarly sized nonprofits. For context, the Red Cross CEO makes over $700,000, and university presidents routinely make well over $500,000.

The Paid Staff At ARRL Headquarters

The ARRL has a real headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, at 225 Main Street, right next to W1AW. Inside that building is a paid professional staff that handles the day to day work of the League. Based on the most recent public IRS Form 990 filings, here are some of the top paid positions and their approximate annual compensation:

Position	Approximate Annual Compensation
CEO / Secretary (David Minster, NA2AA)	$309,000
CFO (Diane Middleton, W2DLM)	$204,000
Technical Relations Specialist (Jonathan Siverling)	$149,000
Director of Marketing & Innovation (Robert Inderbitzen, NQ1R)	$147,000
Publication & Editorial Director (Becky Schoenfeld)	$144,000
Principal Software Engineer (Dennis Budd)	$128,000
Director of Development (Kevin Beal)	$126,000

These are full time employees who work at HQ. They handle things like:

Publishing QST magazine
Running the ARRL Lab (equipment testing and measurement)
Administering DXCC, WAS, and other awards programs
Managing contests and logging
Operating W1AW
Processing membership applications and renewals
IT, finance, human resources, development (fundraising)
Coordinating with the FCC, FEMA, Red Cross, and other outside organizations
Maintaining the ARRL website and member services

The total HQ staff is about 97 employees, according to the ARRL’s own reporting. It is a real organization with real employees doing real work, and that work costs real money. The ARRL’s annual revenue is approximately $9.8 million. Which brings us to the next question.

Where The Money Comes From

Since the ARRL is a nonprofit and has no shareholders, where does the money come from to pay the staff and run the operation?

The ARRL’s revenue comes from several sources:

Member dues. This is the biggest single source. Members pay annual dues (currently $59 per year for a standard US membership as of January 1, 2024, with discounts for seniors, students, and family members).
Publication sales. QST, books, license manuals, and other ARRL publications generate revenue.
Donations and bequests. Many hams and their families leave money to the ARRL in their wills, or make donations during their lifetime. The ARRL Foundation manages much of this.
Advertising in QST. The magazine carries ads from radio manufacturers, dealers, and other businesses.
Program fees. DXCC applications, contest entries, awards, and other programs have small fees.
Grants. The ARRL receives grants for specific educational and emergency communications programs.

All of this money goes back into running the League. No one profits from it personally beyond their salary. That is what being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit means.

Now The Interesting Part: The Volunteers

Here is where it gets really interesting, and where a lot of people get confused.

The ARRL is not just the paid staff in Newington. It is also a massive volunteer organization that stretches across the entire United States and its territories. And the volunteers are not paid.

ARRL Bylaw 12 is explicit about this:

“All volunteer Officers, Directors and Vice Directors shall serve without compensation in any form. The League shall reimburse their reasonable and prudent administrative expenses and travel expenses in accordance with the travel and expense policies adopted by the Board of Directors.”

So the volunteers get their travel and admin expenses reimbursed, but they get zero salary. The IRS Form 990 confirms this. Every single Director and volunteer officer listed shows $0 reportable compensation.

Who are these volunteers? A lot of people, actually.

The Board of Directors

The ARRL is governed by a Board of 15 Directors, each representing one of 15 geographic divisions. Directors are elected by the ARRL members in their division every 3 years. They serve without pay. The Board meets twice a year to set policy, approve budgets, and oversee the CEO and HQ operations.

Each division also has a Vice Director, also elected, also unpaid, who serves as a backup and assistant to the Director.

The Officers

The ARRL has volunteer officers, also unpaid:

President (currently Rick Roderick, K5UR) — $0
First Vice President (currently Kristen McIntyre, K6WX) — $0
Second Vice President (currently Rick Niswander, K7GM) — $0
International Affairs Vice President (currently Rod Stafford, W6ROD) — $0
Secretary (this one is interesting, the CEO usually serves as Secretary, so this is a paid role filled by a staff person)
Treasurer (currently John Sager, WJ7S, a volunteer officer, not the CFO)

So the President, who is the top volunteer officer of the ARRL, makes nothing. The CEO, who is the top paid staff person, makes about $309,000. They are different roles with different jobs. The President chairs the Board and sets direction. The CEO executes the Board’s decisions and runs the headquarters. And the Treasurer, who oversees the investment of surplus funds, is also a volunteer, not the CFO. The CFO handles day to day finance and accounting, while the Treasurer has fiduciary oversight on behalf of the Board.

The Field Organization

This is where the volunteer army really shows up. The ARRL divides the US into 71 Sections, each with an elected Section Manager (SM). Section Managers are elected by the ARRL members in their section, and they serve without pay.

Each Section Manager appoints a team of volunteer assistants, all unpaid:

Assistant Section Managers (ASM)
Section Emergency Coordinators (SEC) who run ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) in the section
Section Traffic Managers (STM) who handle message traffic handling
Technical Coordinators (TC) who organize technical activities
Technical Specialists (TS) who assist the TC
Affiliated Club Coordinators (ACC) who liaise with local clubs
Section Youth Coordinators (SYC)
Public Information Officers (PIO)
State Government Liaisons (SGL)
Bulletin Managers who help distribute W1AW bulletins
Volunteer Monitors (VM) who observe and report on-band activity (the successor to the old Official Observers)
Volunteer Counsel (attorneys who advise on legal matters)
Volunteer Consulting Engineers (engineers who advise on technical matters)

Add all of that up and you are looking at thousands of volunteers across the country, all unpaid, doing the grassroots work of the ARRL in their local communities. They run hamfests, coordinate emergency communications, train new hams, handle traffic, investigate interference, represent the ARRL at local events, and much more.

Volunteer Examiners

There is one more big volunteer program worth mentioning. The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) program is one of several VECs authorized by the FCC to administer amateur radio license exams. The ARRL VEC uses thousands of Volunteer Examiners (VEs) across the country who give license exams to new and upgrading hams. VEs are not paid for administering exams. They do it as a service to the hobby.

Why This Structure Makes Sense

If you step back and think about it, this structure is actually pretty clever, and it is the same model used by most large membership nonprofits.

The members own the organization (in the sense that they elect the Board, which governs everything).
The Board sets policy and hires the CEO.
The CEO runs the paid staff at HQ.
The volunteers do the field work in their communities.

This splits the work between professionals (who handle the things that need full time attention, like publishing a magazine, running a lab, lobbying the FCC, and processing memberships) and volunteers (who handle the things that need local knowledge and presence, like running a section, coordinating emergency communications, and giving license exams).

It also creates a check and balance. The CEO works for the Board, the Board is elected by the members, and the members can vote out Directors who are not doing a good job. Nobody can buy control of the ARRL because there are no shares to buy. Control flows from the membership through the ballot box.

So Is The ARRL A Company?

No. Not in the way most people mean when they say “company.”

It is not a for profit corporation.
It has no shareholders or stock.
It does not pay dividends.
It is tax exempt under 501(c)(3).
Its surplus goes back into the mission.
Its top governance is elected by members, not appointed by investors.

It is a nonprofit membership association, incorporated in Connecticut, governed by an elected volunteer Board, run day to day by a paid professional staff, and supported by a massive volunteer field organization. The CEO is an employee, not an owner. The President is a volunteer, not a boss. The members are the ultimate authority, not shareholders.

If you want to compare it to something familiar, think of it like a large charity or professional association. The American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the IEEE, the Sierra Club, and the NRA are all structured similarly. They are corporations, they have paid staff, they have CEOs, but they are not commercial businesses. They are membership organizations.

Why Any Of This Matters

It matters because understanding how the ARRL is structured tells you how to engage with it. If you want to change ARRL policy, you do not write to the CEO. You write to your Division Director, because the Directors set policy and the CEO executes it. If you want to get involved locally, you contact your Section Manager. If you want to vote on the direction of the League, you become a member and vote in the Director elections every three years.

It also matters because it explains why the ARRL sometimes moves slowly or makes decisions that seem odd. A membership nonprofit with an elected Board and a volunteer field organization is not built for speed. It is built for representation and accountability. That can be frustrating when you want quick action, but it is also the thing that keeps the League accountable to its members rather than to a small group of owners.

And finally, it matters because it is a reminder that amateur radio in the United States is, at its core, a volunteer hobby organized by volunteers. The paid staff at ARRL HQ are important, but they are a small fraction of the people who actually make the League work. The real backbone of the ARRL is the thousands of unpaid volunteers who run sections, give exams, coordinate emergencies, train newcomers, and keep the hobby alive in their communities.

That is worth remembering the next time someone tells you the ARRL is just a business. It is not. It is something a bit more interesting than that.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as an accessible overview of ARRL’s legal structure, governance, and staffing, based on publicly available sources including the ARRL Articles of Association, By Laws, organization structure pages, and IRS Form 990 filings current as of the date of writing. ARRL governance details, officer names, salary figures, and program structures change over time. If you spot any outdated or incorrect information, please leave a comment below and the author will review and correct it. Constructive corrections from the ham community are welcome and appreciated. For the most current and authoritative information, always refer to the official ARRL website at https://www.arrl.org and the latest publicly filed IRS Form 990.