Curiosity. We approach people, projects, and situations with curiosity, asking questions before making assumptions. We actively look for opportunities to learn something new – particularly from our grantees and community members.

Experimentalism. We encourage our staff, volunteers, and grantees to try new things and take risks. Like good engineers and scientists, we ask that they share – and, if appropriate, document – what they learn, in service of supporting future experimentation and learning opportunities.

Respect. Respect may be defined as the due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, experiences, or traditions of others. We ask that all employees, board members, volunteers and grantees treat one another with this due regard and kindness, balancing both human-ness with professionalism in our interactions with one another.

Accountability. According to Wikipedia, “‘Accountability’ stems from late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate).” As an organization that supports engineering as well as financial support and distribution, it’s important to us that our equations balance – in our projects, in our accounting, and between one another and the individuals and organizations we work with. If we do something wrong, we aim to make it right. To support healthy and workable relationships, we ask that our community, vendors, and grantees do the same.

Openness & Transparency. ARDC aims to operate in a way that is as open and transparent as possible. This includes publishing information about all of our grants, using and contributing to open source software, making our tax returns and other records easily accessible, and communicating with honesty and truthfulness. We also expect that our grantees make their work available under open source licenses or otherwise freely available.

Inclusiveness. One of our goals is to bring people into amateur radio and digital communications science and technology, both in the United States and internationally. In particular, we aim to help and invite in the kinds of people who have not historically been a part of the fields’ mainstream demographics. We rely on the values of Curiosity and Respect to make sure we create activities and spaces that allow for participation from people from all walks of life.

Fairness. As an organization that makes grants, it is important that we weave fairness into all that we do. This includes ensuring that grant and job applications are reviewed with consistent criteria.

Generosity & Gratitude. Last but not least, ARDC is a giving organization, so generosity and gratitude are core to who we are and what we do. This principle includes financial generosity and extends to making time for needed conversations, supporting one another in times of need, assuming best intentions in the event of a conflict, and being grateful that we get to do what we do every day, even the hard ones.