[FCARC] Meeting notes for September 2012

[Craig Szczublewski]

A summary of the FCARC meeting notes for September 17th, 2012:

The meeting was called to order at 7:45pm with 17 members and guests in 
attendance. Due to schedule conflicts and miss-communications, we were not able 
to gain access to our normal meeting room and decided to have a quick meeting at 
the County Admin Building parking lot.  We altered the normal format by skipping 
reading of the previous meeting minutes and proceeded directly into a State of 
the Club address from KB8ELG, the club president.

Highlights of the Address where:

What do we want to do with the club?  Are we focusing on a social organization, 
public service, education, or emergency service?  A mission statement should be 
created, defining why we are a club.

Projects we need to address in the next two months include selling surplus 
equipment to replenish funds, get power to the new repeater building and 
relocate the equipment, and get the backup repeater online.

Projects to be done by January include IRLP/Echolink integration to the main 
repeater, T-Shirts redesigned, touch up the wooden sign we haul around to 
events, arrange Christmas dinner.

Fund raising ideas were also discussed, including a possible winter hamfest, 
along with other fund raisers.

Bryan also discussed forming a "Hams in need" help team for area hams that 
either do not have the proper tools and diagnostic gear troubleshoot issues, or 
need help and guidance with the hobby.

Committee reports followed the Address:

Education: We have one participant in the tech class.  The class will have it's 
second week this Saturday, and testing at 12:00pm at the Delta Public Library on 
September 29th.  Walk-ins are welcome.  Due to schedule conflicts, there was no 
testing session in August.

Repeater Committee:  Andy has the backup repeater and will draw up the necessary 
forms to submit for the insurance claim.  We are planning in having the new 
repeater building operational by the end of October.

Memorial Committee: No report.

Membership: We have 57 paid and lifetime members.  Thanks to all who continue to 
support our club, it helps with the costs of running the club and allowing us to 
maintain and upgrade our repeater.

T-Shirt Committee: Several club members have stepped up to volunteer for this 
project.  We should have results very soon.

Hamfest Committee: No news, next years Hamfest is back in Tedrow on June 1st.

Field Day Committee: No news

Upcoming and Special Events:
October 6th: Lockport 5k/10k walk/run (see club site for details)
December 17th: Christmas Dinner at the Barn in Archbold, 6:00pm

Upcoming Hamfests:
10/07/2012 Madison Heights, MI (USECA)
10/21/2012 Kalamazoo, MI
11/17/2012 Ft Wayne, IN

Next Meeting:  The next regular club meeting will be October 15th at the County 
Administration Building, 152 S. Fulton St, Wauseon (we swear it will be indoors 
this time).  The club meeting will be at 7:30pm.  After the regular business is 
complete, George (N8EUY) has offered to give a tutorial on putting up custom 
messages and announcements on the repeater.

Club Nets:

Weeknights at 10:30pm Bud's Midnight Madness Net -- 147.195+
Wed at 8pm Informal Two Meter & ARES Net -- 147.195+
Wed at 9pm 6M Net -- 50.400 AM on the first Wednesday of the month
Wed at 9pm 6M Net -- 52.525 FM Simplex

We also want to thank everyone who stopped out to Harrison Lake for the Ohio 
State Parks on the Air net.  The club had a great time and we look forward to 
participating again next year.


I probably missed a lot, so plan on attending the next meeting...
...73 for now!

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Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU