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All,
This update covers a host of material that we hope you will find informative.
New Officers – At the last Club meeting (Saturday, March 25), three new officers were elected. With the adoption of the Club constitution in 2022, and with the clear membership direction to get as much administrative business accomplished away from Club meetings as can be done, a board of directors system was put into place. To promote continuity there will be an election at each March Club meeting, but in alternating years executive (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) and non-executive/general officers will be elected. The body as a whole serves as a board of directors. This year the election was to fill the three non-executive/general officer positions. The term of office began on April 1 and the term of office is two years. All three members serving (Mel Toye (K5KEY), Dan Beard (KB7JZI) and Kelly Collins (W5KJC)) opted to not run for a subsequent term and so three new members were elected to fill their very large shoes. Elected were Haskell Maroney (KI5VGQ), Vicki Ross (KG5YWO) and Mark Perrine (KI5KNX). We all owe Mel, Dan and Kelly a huge thank you for their service. We also thank Haskell, Vicki and Mark for their willingness to step up and help with this important task. Kelly Collins continues in his capacity as Club station trustee.
This coming Saturday, April 15, we will conduct a board of directors meeting. The agenda items reflect a mix of discussion points covering myriad topics. The tentative agenda items are:
Dues – Cut dues ($25 to $24 and $37 to $36), expire everyone in January and prorate mid-year joiners. Club Treasurer George Haneke (NV7Z) has advocated for this to ease the administrative effort required to manage and monitor dues for the Club as it continues to evolve and grow. With nearly 50 members the challenges are getting pretty big and so he believes this approach would simplify things.
Hardware Insurance – Increase our insurance to better cover Atlas or hold what we have until next year?
Business Development Plan – Briefing to fully bring the new officers up to speed and develop details for how to move forward.
444.500 Operation – A comprehensive discussion of how the UHF repeater is operated, the NCTC link specifically and a more general discussion reference the upcoming Club station license renewal, control operators and their training adequate to the task of ensuring FCC compliance, and other administrative details.
WB5RDD versus RRVARC – A comprehensive discussion about how to best market the Club going forward, particularly with the business development plan.
Band Plan Printouts – ARRL has put out band plan documents that we have all seen in training books, online and occasionally as a handout. These can be printed out on your home computer. RRVARC is hosting these plans as a PDF to ease people finding them. If you want to take a look at the various offerings, please click this link.
50th Anniversary Speakers – We have invited a number of people to come to the 50th Anniversary Club meeting on Saturday, May 20. Family of Alvin and Bertie Todd, original Club members, plan to attend as our guest and their grandson (and ham) Steven Walker (WB5EJV) agreed to share some comments with the group. We also reached out to Pete Delkus (Chief Meteorologist, WFAA-TV Channel 8 Dallas/Fort Worth) and Steve LaNore (KB5DEY) (Chief Meteorologist, KXII-TV Channel 12 Sherman) and invited them to come and speak to the group, but both graciously declined. Storm chaser Reed Timmer was a recommendation, but looking into inviting him we discovered that he uses a booking agency and seeks $10,000-20,000 per speaking engagement. We have two other invitees pending replies and will update you on them once we know. In the meantime, if anyone in the Club has a personal connection to LaNore or Timmer and would not mind reaching out to them, we would all appreciate the effort.
We also wanted to emphasize that we are still looking for:
1) Two volunteers to review available ARRL awards and determine and nominate to the board anyone in our Club worthy of something ARRL gives someone for their efforts in amateur radio.
2) One volunteer to help coordinate programs to be presented at Club meetings.
3) High resolution pictures of weather, ham shacks and you or another ham operating.
To volunteer, please click this link and send an email to the Club officers. To submit pictures please click this link and send them to the admins.
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RRVARC Officers