[FCARC] March 16 Meeting Notes

[Craig Szczublewski]

Hello everyone, here are notes from the Monday night Club meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm with 22 members and guests in 
attendance. Minutes from the previous meeting and the treasurer's report were 
read and accepted.

Committee reports follow:

Education: KE8RU has opted to switch coursework material for the Technician 
Class from the ARRL Technician Study Guide to the Gordon West Technician Test 
Preparation guide.  All people involved with the upcoming class felt it provides 
a better entry level experience, while focusing mainly on the test pool.  The 
manuals actually come at a cost savings as well.  Andy was reimbursed for 6 
manuals which will be used for the April Technician Class.  The W5YI group has 
also made available their PowerPoint presentation for the instructor, which 
accompanies the manual.

Repeater Committee: Plans are still rolling forward to take advantage of the 
Yaesu DR-1X club promotion.  The club voted to advance $500 to KE8RU who will 
use his personal credit card to pay for the acquisition (that is the only method 
Yaesu is accepting for payment), and hopes to have the paper work turned in this 
week, ahead of the end of March deadline.

Memorial Committee: No Report.

Members in Distress: As we have been reporting, Alan Nash's (KC8UQU) mother is 
currently in hospice care following a stroke in February.  Ben Murray also 
reported Don Law's (KD8SUF) mother passed away this month, Don frequently checks 
into the nets on the K8BXQ repeater.

EC Report: Jim McBride has, again, urged members to complete the club's 
Emergency contact form, which can be used to muster club members in the event of 
a county emergency which requires mobile communications.  The form can be found 
at:  http://k8bxq.org/tmp/ECForm.php

We encourage all members to complete the form for Jim.  He would ultimately like 
to have better ties with our county EMA by being able to call on volunteers when 
needed.

Membership: We have 48 members as of the February meeting.

T-Shirt Committee: No Report, although I know KB8ELG did have information to 
present, we may send out a separate e-mail about this.

Hamfest Committee: The Summer Hamfest will be June 6 at the Tedrow Woodlot.  And 
the Winter Hamfest has been set for December 5 at the American Legion on St Rt 
109, just south of Delta.  We had a large amount of interest from attendees at 
the Toledo Hamfest, so we expect great attendance for this years summer swap 
meet.  With only two meetings before the event, we'll start focusing on the 
logistics of the operation in April and May.

Good of Amateur Radio:

1. We had good club representation to a full house at the March 5 Storm Spotter 
class.  Our county EMA gave a very nice promotional plug to Amateur Radio and 
the club in general.  KB8ELG reported much interest in the Technician Class as 
well.  If you missed the Storm Spotter Class, there is another on March 28 at 
9:00am in Lucas County at St. Luke's.

2. Lindsay (K8LI) reported that the American Legion is actively looking to get 
amateur radio stations up and running in Legion Posts.  We have a few of these 
in Fulton County, and may be a great outreach program from the Club.  More 
information can be found here:

http://www.legion.org/documents/pdf/amateur-radio-brochure-web.pdf

Upcoming Hamfests:

04/11/2015 Highland, MI (Milford)
05/15/2015 Dayton, OH (5/15 to 5/17)
06/06/2015 Tedrow, OH (FCARC Summer Swap)
06/07/2015 Chelsea, MI
06/21/2015 Monroe, MI

Next Meeting:  The next regular club meeting will be April 19 at the County 
Administration Building (same as the Drivers License Bureau), 152 S. Fulton St, 
Wauseon.  The club meeting will be at 7:30pm.

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

That's all I have for now.  Please reply back to me with corrections as I am 
quite sure I missed or misquoted something...

Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU