MARCI Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
June 16 , 2009
The meeting was call to order at 7:00 p.m. by the president Ed Skalecki, NI4MX.
Those present constituted a quorum:
Ed Skalecki, NI4MX, President
Jonelle Nabergail, KI4WSN, Vice President
Frank Morton, AC4MK, Treasurer
Roger Byron, KR4WS, Secretary
Jerry Johnson AE4XW, Director
Jim Woodson, KE4INM, Director
(Absent Bruce Theroux, KJ4IFH, Director)
The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as published on the club Web pages.
The Treasurers Report:
AC4MK gave an interim report treasures report and it was filed for audit. The Insurance company was notified of a change to the addressee on the policy. A review of the policy to assure status and define what is covered.
Committee Reports:
Membership:
Jerry Johnson presented credentials of one potential new member. Mike Greenawald, KI4WAY was approved for membership. He also applied for ARRL membership via the club taking advantage of the club's offer to pass the $15 discount to him. The chairman will proceed with the ARRL application. A new membership list was given to all board members, we have 67 members.
Education:
VE testing will be held this coming Saturday and the next will be 3rd Saturday in September, the 19th.
Technician License Prep Class had no responders to the offer of holding a class in July.
Due to the lack of response or requests, no other class is planned.
Old Business included programs for 2008 – 2009
Jul. Field Day follow-up, ED, Frank and Geoff. Discussion followed on additional presentation. Ideas included:
discussion on telephone access to the repeater - that access is for control of the repeater - there is no-longer a capability for someone to access the repeater for personal phone calls or echo checks and etc.
discussion on having folks bring their hand held radios for one-on-one tutorial of operating techniques - it was pointed out the last event did not have enough experts to cover the need.
discussion on someone to present what is available for contest logging, to cover the different programs availability, cost, ease of use, etc. Jim agreed that he could do such a presentation.
Aug. No Meeting. Possible participation in a contest as a group.
Sep. Geoff will present net procedures for the September meeting and what his new role as PIO is going to be and how it affects the club.
Oct. Roger will present a homebrew antenna event for the October meeting. The intent is to provide lengths of 300 ohm TV lead wire and demonstrate how to transfer it into a functioning J-Pole antenna good for 2 meter and 70 centimeter operation. Hands on attempts with coaching would follow and a session of fine tuning would conclude the event.
Nov. and Dec. are still open. It is hoped others might suggest possible speaker/ presenters. Some suggested Ann Coyer and/or Bob Roy do a presentation on Antarctica Operations.
Thursday night net discussion ensued. There was general agreement the new format is doing well. The intention is to allow further discussion on items presented. One additional idea was to allow a question and answer period where any and all could join in on the technical or otherwise discussion. The objective is to advance to knowledge level of our members and other listeners. It turns out there was an opportunity missed during the last net in that Jim introduced comments on how there were several repeaters that were forced to shut down on a mountain to the North. The ARRL article did not give any reason for it but it turns out there were some folks who knew why and could have joined in. Opportunity missed! Recently the analog TV signals were shut down. As a result there is no longer a need for several TV towers. It turns out to be less expensive to remove the towers that pay for the space they occupy. Without the tower there is no support for the repeater antennas. The NI4CE repeater system is affected by this. What effect remains for further discussion. "See you Thursday night!"
Further discussion followed on the different uses for the net. It was pointed out the Sarasota club is using repeaters for different forms of training. Frank brought up the concept of User Groups in different Computer Clubs. We could apply the concept but having a meeting of SUGS (special user groups) where each group to meet a half hour before the general meeting to discuss the specific topic.
It was suggested we start up CW classes. We do have some expert instructors who can help us all learn and develop more expertise using CW. We all know you can send code faster than you can receive - try sending rather than listening. Practice it, eventually you can start to listen and understand. Some folks listen to a combination of letters, the whole word, forms a musical combination that is easily recognizable. Learning letter by letter is debilitating in that one concentrates on getting every letter, stopping to remember that "one I didn't recognize right away" while others being sent are not even heard. Obviously there is some interest in have such a class. More to follow on this.
Another possible discussion could be on the sun radiation and the eleven year cycle.
Jim will look at a potential contest that a group from the club could work. We look forward to more information on this during the next meeting.
Ed asked the board to print out a copy of the By-Laws and the Policy and to review them for possible up-date. We'll discuss them in September.
Jonelle mentioned the Newsletter committee has been working on the first edition. She expects to have copies available for the next meeting and to be published on the Web pages. Ed indicated he could get it printed and Jim suggested he convert the file to the "pdf" format for emailing to all members.
New Business included:
a request from the Southern Broadcast Society for someone to talk on the subject of Ham Radio. It was thought this might have been accomplished by Geoff when he was interview on the air on WSRQ radio station by their News Director, Matt Bruce.
Jerry introduced a letter from the National Philanthropy Society requesting our attendance at a forthcoming luncheon. We would attain membership and participate for a specific number of attendees depending on our contribution to their organization. Ten club members could attend for $5,000 contribution and so on down. Due to the limits of our budget the board voted to pass on the invitation.
Ed mentioned that much of the data passed to him included several Newsletters. Roger suggested they be kept and reviewed to add selected items to the history file.
Jonelle mentioned that with the hurricane season at hand, Walmart has a First Aid Kit selling for $7.50, a worthwhile investment, just in case.
Jerry mentioned that Staples has a special on printers in that they will take $50 off a new printer if you turn in an old Laser Printer.
The meeting adjourned at 7:48 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
Roger Byron, KR4WS, Secretary