[FARC] Thank You! Introduction - New Officers - And some thoughts!

[Curtis Campbell]

- Current FARC Officers -

2013 FARC President - Curtis Campbell - KB3WHX - kb3whx at kb3whx.com
2013 FARC Vice Pres.- Position Open - To be filled 18 MAR Meeting
2013 FARC Treasurer - Mark Whitmore - AB3KS
2013 FARC Secretary - Dennis Campbell - KB3WLJ

First, thanks to all for the confidence you have demonstrated in me, in
electing me to the position of FARC President for 2013. I will endeavor
to fill the rather large shoes of the past Presidents. I am not a
writer, so bear with me.. :

With that, it does present me with a small problem, in that at the
meetings, while being chair, I cannot make motions. So I will send this
out, and let the course of events run, and see where we end up. So the
following are my thoughts, opinions, ideas, or ranting depending on your
point of view. :-)

My goals are simple, and straight forward. To improve upon what has
worked well in the past, to bring our organization into technological
parity with the present. To build for the future viability of the
organization. To increase our numbers, fund raising abilities, and to
return the social aspect of our hobby. We are after all a social club
for people who happen to be HAMS.

The focus of our officers needs to be one of "Customer Service" in that
our customers are our membership. We need to provide a value in our
organization to our customers, for if we do not our customers will
dwindle in number, and we will cease to exist.

It is my belief that our membership has elected us to the positions we
are in, in order to keep the business of the business running smoothly.
Not so we can put them to sleep in the meetings by discussing the nuance
of the nuance of running the business for one or two hours.

So with that I offer for consideration that every nuance does not have
to be run past the membership as they have mandated us to do just that
function. The rules for what does, and what does not have to be voted on
are clear (at least reasonably so.) In the event that we do need a vote
from the membership on some expense or similar item, we of course will
need to accomplish that.   This will avoid the 30-60-90 day cycle for
getting many things done. If I am wrong in this I am certain that the
membership will quickly correct me. 

It is my view that we as a club need to keep the business meetings as
short as possible. This can only be accomplished by the officers talking
with each other, and discussing issues outside of the once a month
meetings. It is also further enhanced, by consolidating document
formats, and storage locations, so that we all operate on the same page.
For the meeting time we free up, we I am sure can fill it with talk
about radio or related, be social, learn, teach, do, build, test, or do
something new related to the hobby. This will take some commitment from
both the officers, and the membership. 

We should also remember that our mandate as Amateur Radio Operators is
that of Public Service in times of need. In the meeting of 18 February
2013 it was actually stated that Frederick County has so much as said,
that they won't likely need us. To which my reply was, "Till their
system breaks", which drew a nervous chuckle from those attending. That
aside, we should always be training or learning and be prepared just in
case, as that is our mandate.

Somewhere along the line we have gotten off track and forgotten that our
reason for existence is largely for the social aspects of the hobby. We
have let the running of the business overrun everything else. Of course
we should strive to keep the business running, and reduce the meeting
time needed to accomplish this.

The main focus should be to return the thrill of learning something new;
doing something we have not done before, meeting people, and forging
relationships with like minded individuals and to the more social
aspects of the club. It's really easy to let the business get in the
way, but that does not serve the club well. We are after all, a club
based on Radio, so if radio or related items are not really covered
either in the meetings or presentations, we have failed in meeting our
mandate.

There are a number of things we can do in short order to improve our
path into the future.

As of this writing, we are looking for committed folks willing to take
on a challenge. Participation is the key, as talking about it does not
get it done.

Currently it seems as if most events are attended by the same group of
people.  We need some new faces in the participating groups.
Encouragement and a positive nudge is a team effort.

We should be reaching out to the other clubs in the area, and working
with them for the common good of the hobby. Not as a single entity
within the hobby. There are several good organizations locally. It is my
intention to occasionally attend their meetings as a visitor, and reach
out if we are able. These include LARG - Loudoun County, and the
Gettysburg Area clubs, Carrol County, Hagerstown, BARC, and so on.

With this here are my goals that I will strive to accomplish during my
tenure as FARC President.

1. Reduce meeting time needed to accomplish the business of the business
to less than 30 Min.

2. Keep the officers of the club communicating and facilitate the
consolidation of documents,membership tracking, to a single source,
single format, for easier tracking.

3. Promote information sharing and an open social agenda for our
members. We should not be limited to one meeting a month, and getting
togather as groups is encouraged at different locations, we need not
just come out of the woodwork once a month.

4. Consolidate and adopt a standard format for all related documentation.

5. Consolidate and adopt a standard accessible location for information
storage.

6. Promote interaction, training materials, articles, and information
sharing on our website

7. Although somewhat less footprint than MADXRA in range, promote our
repeaters and the use for local club traffic, and events.

8. Engage officers and members and leverage strengths and ideas for
overall clubimprovement.

9. Increase the number of "Participating" members.

10. Increase semi-local outreach to nearby clubs. Great positions for
Ambassadors.

11. Try to restart VEC activity through the Laurel VEC - Possibly with
in cooperation with FARG, MADXRA, and possibly BARC.

12. Provide one-on-one training as time permits to interested parties,
in the use, administration, editing, authoring, and contributing roles
of our web site.

We need to engage our members, not just hope they show up and pay their
dues. I do understand that the normal club dynamics are at play here. We
will have a group that does and a group that doesn't. The only thing we
can do is to encourage, attempt to come up with interesting things, and
make them part of the team. If possible, we should tap each member, look
to each other, and engage everyone to demonstrate their strengths.

To that end, I have created the start of the FARC Elmers List, to which
people can look to for knowledge of many areas. You are encouraged to
share those areas of strength where you excel.

Further enhancements will be happening for the members on the website, a
few coming up in short order as well. Check the "Library" tab on the
website, and click "Public -- Dropbox" Future new items will be likely
placed there. http://frederickarc.org <http://frederickarc.org/>   
More, better, faster... So stay tuned.

As a side thought at this point, perhaps a some standing committees such
as social, education, etc. should be created, ideas welcomed.

All ideas and recommendations will be considered. Please feel free to
contact me at any time via e-mail and together we can revitalize the FARC.

I look forward to seeing all of you, and hopefully some new members at
our next meeting on Monday, 18 March 2013 @ 7PM, Independent Hose Co.  # 1

Curtis Campbell -- KB3WHX -- kb3whx at kb3whx.com <mailto:kb3whx at kb3whx.com>
2013 FARC President