[CVRC] ARRL Club News for September 2007

[ARRL Web site]

ARRL Club Newsletter
September 15, 2007
____________________________________________________________________

Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, Editor

IN THIS ISSUE:
+ Put Some Meat In Your Meetings
+ Feedback
+ Milestones

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Put Some Meat In Your Meetings

By Norm Fusaro, W3IZ
Assistant Manager
Member & Volunteer Programs Department

At some point in time the American homemaker had become uninspired
and somehow found no pleasure in making nutritional and appealing
meals for the family.  From this epoch of lost creativity came the
invention of the Hamburger Helper{R}.  This boxed concoction of
ingredients that was to take the place of planning and preparing
dinner for the family actually sent a message that the family meeting
-- dinner- had become as two dimensional as the picture on the front
of the package.

Your club is like a family with members who have needs and the desire
to be a part of something special.  The reason most people join a
club in the first place is to belong.  So if you want to increase
meeting attendance and club participation then dish-up some
excitement and make your meetings informative, friendly and
entertaining.

An excellent way to avoid meeting indigestion is to have an
activities person who is responsible for securing an entertaining and
informative program for each meeting.  The job of activities person
is not to actually present the program; however, that ability can be
a bonus if you have a vibrant individual who can hold an audience and
deliver good information.  The duties of the activities person are to
find programs and speakers for club meetings and to facilitate
activities that would interest the general population of the club.

Programs don't have to be renowned guest speakers or Hollywood
productions of rare DXpeditions or about hams saving the world from
eminent disaster.  Meeting programs can be as simple as a moderated
discussion on a topic of interest to the club.	What a meeting
program should be is well planned, of interest to the club members,
and presented in an entertaining and professional manner.

A good source for club meeting programs is right in your own
backyard.  Members of your club have lots to share and they would
probably be very comfortable talking to an audience of familiar and
friendly people.  Programs do not necessarily have to be radio
related.  Ask members to share with the club other activities in
which they are involved.  I have always found it interesting to hear
what other folks do when they are not climbing towers or scouring the
bands for QSOs.  It adds another dimension to the club and the
individuals.

Jim Larsen of the Anchorage ARC says "Since we moved away from 100%
ham topics,
our attendance has been climbing."  Jim sent me a list of meeting
programs that the AARC has planned all the way out to February, 2008.

Meeting programs that have been successful with several clubs are
ones where members can get a hands-on experience with a new radio,
software program or operating mode.  At our club we recently had a
demonstration about D-Star and tested an actual station set-up that
with which we made digital voice contacts.  Other interactive topics
offered at meetings include WSJT digital software for weak signals,
software defined radio, Logbook of The World, and many other software
applications for Radio Amateurs.  Hands-on presentations like these
are informative and entertaining and provide the audience with a
feeling of participation.

If you are fortunate to have more than one club in the area then
consider holding a joint meeting and invite a real heavyweight guest
speaker or organize a tour.  Tours and field trips are good club
activities to offer once in a while as an extra special treat.	In
the September edition of Hamtrix, the newsletter of the West Allis
Radio Amateur Club in Racine, Wisconsin, the club lists as one of the
upcoming activities a tour of a wind and solar energy farm.  That
sounds exciting to get a close look at the giant windmills and
workings of these green energy plants.

The West Allis club is already planning its Field Day activity with a
brainstorming session in September, nine months before Field Day.
With well thought-out planning like that, it is no wonder that this
club always has a good turn-out at meetings and other events.

Planning and preparation are essential for successful programs.  If
you are inviting a guest speaker to come to your club be respectful
of his/her time and other commitments.	If you must have a business
portion of the meeting then save it for the end of the meeting and
extend the courtesy to your guest by allowing him or her to speak at
the beginning.	When scheduling speakers it is a good idea to offer a
choice of dates for the guest to choose from.

If your presentation is one that involves some set-up of equipment or
props, be sure to get to the meeting early enough to be ready for the
members when they arrive.  Keep things simple and easy to set up and
breakdown, and triple check everything to verify that things work
before the big show.

Here is a tip: If your presentation involves an on-the-air contact
then don't leave things to chance.  You'll want to stack the deck so
make arrangements to have a near-by station on the air so that the
contact will be 100% good.  Be sure to pick a frequency that will
guarantee a solid QSO.

A large majority of clubs meet once a month and many clubs don't
gather during the summer months because of vacations and other
activities.  If your club is active in ARRL Field Day then one
meeting is usually devoted to preparation for that event.  Many clubs
will usually have a holiday gathering for the December meeting so a
quick glance at the calendar would indicate that the average club
will have to prepare a presentation for eight meetings over the
course of a year.  Some thoughtful planning and coordination can make
this a painless task for the activities person.

If you do find yourself in need of a quick fix for a meeting program
and need to "order out" then the ARRL multimedia library <
www.arrl.org/multimedia > offers some Power Point presentations for a
quick answer to "what's for dinner" or in this case what's the
program?  These programs were developed to be used as stand alone
programs or as backdrops to a larger presentation.  Please feel free
to modify them to fit your particular need.  Look at the multimedia
programs like a jar of spaghetti sauce; use it from the jar or doctor
it up to make it your own.  Yeah, it's still from the jar but it's
better than nothing.

Another source for entertaining and interesting material is the
Northern California DX Foundation < http://www.ncdxf.org/ > video
library.  The tapes are free to borrow, however your club is
responsible for paying the postage both ways.  While this is a
generous offer on behalf of the Foundation I suggest that if your
club makes use of their tape library then a donation should be in
order to help the organization and their support of DXing.

Any way that you slice it, if you want to bring members out to the
club meeting then you have to sell the sizzle.	Plan your programs in
advance, write a captivating announcement for the club newsletter,
and at the meeting be sure to invite everyone to attend next month's
exciting presentation that is guaranteed to leave them standing on
their seats and screaming for more.

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Feedback

Re: Mentoring Activity Is Active Mentoring, Club News - August

I have just finished reading the ARRL club newsletter article on
mentoring and I could not agree more. Just for a little background, I
am a new ham who walked into the first "no code" test session, took
all three elements and walked out an Amateur Extra, [and] had no idea
how to properly conduct a QSO. Luckily we have a strong local club,
the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association, whose members helped me
learn how to conduct myself on the air.

We are stressing micro henrys and smith charts and schematics only to
license hams who do not know how to make a contact.  l am living
proof of this.	We [new hams] must rely on mentors to teach what the
exams ignore.

I have become active in a local emergency communication organization;
I am making friends and contacts all over the world via PSK. That
probably would not have happened without a local group of hams
helping hams. Continue to stress mentoring and perhaps think about
stressing operating skills and not schematic drawings on the exams.
Hams do not build their own rigs anymore.

73 and good DX,

Ray AD5ZT

*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
   *	  *	  *
The article on mentoring in the August ARRL Club News was very well
written. The arguments were made logically, step by step, and made
the case for active mentoring very effectively. Whoever wrote that
gets my thanks and admiration.

I thought our club was doing pretty well on this front, but now I see
we can do much more.

George Lillenstein
AB1GL
President, NARL
*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
   *	  *	  *

Nice article.

Now here's the other side of the coin, at least in one case, but I'll
bet not the only one. I've been on the fringe of amateur radio all my
life, and always wanted to become licensed, but just never had the
time or the right opportunity. A year ago, I finally got serious,
made the time, studied and found a local test to take. I missed one
question, and was pleased to have finally reached this milestone. But
I was a little foggy on how to actually get on the air, wanting very
much to do everything right. I mentioned this in passing to the club
members who were administering the tests, but they really had nothing
to offer ... just "join our club, come to meetings." Well sure, but
why? What will you do for me?  I need some help, some mentoring, to
use the subject of the article. But these guys were more content to
just stand around talking about stuff that was way over my head, and
I left discouraged.

Still, I spent good money in a local amateur radio store, buying a
transceiver that had real good reviews, along with a power supply and
an antenna that was recommended to me by the store. But that's all
they wanted to do. They weren't interested in helping me get started
either. And I understand that, I guess ... they're in business to
make money, and I already spent mine. All they did was point me to
the usual bookshelf with all the standard books. No help there.

So I put up my antenna, hooked up my rig and power supply, and found
I could receive some stuff, but wasn't sure at all about
transmitting, and even though I had the appropriate charts and other
info, I wasn't exactly sure what frequencies I could be on, what
power, all that.

What was the end result? Put it all away, eventually took the antenna
down, and I've never been on the air for one second. So when you
refer to "dormant call signs [that] will clutter the census of
Amateur Radio for up to ten years, misleading the actual number of
active hams," it might help to understand that some of those are
owned by individuals whose desire was never to be dormant, or to
throw a handheld into a drawer for some future event.

In reading over what I've written here, I anticipate the obvious
response to be, "join a club, get immersed in the activities, enjoy
the fellowship" etc. But based upon the introduction I had earlier,
why would I join a club where they spent their time talking over my
head, and were more content to impress each other than help a
newcomer?

There are two sides to every story. Thanks for listening.

KI4QMR (Dormant)

* Editor's note: After we contacted KI4QMR and provided him with
information on other clubs in his area he reports that he has
attended a club meeting and he is currently studying for his General
classs license.
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ARRL Affiliation Milestones for August 2007

	25 Year
AZ	Southern Arizona DX Association
GA	Gwinnett Amateur Raio Society	W4GR
IA	Great River Amateur Radio Club	WB0LOB
NNJ	10-70 Repeater Association, Inc N2SE
OH	Athens County Amateur Radio Association W8UKE
SV	Amador County Amateur Radio Club	K6ARC
WNY	Salt City DX Association	W2ZC
		
	50 Year
ENY	Communications Club Of New Rochelle	K2YCJ
ID	Pocatello Amateur Radio Club	N7PI

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