[GVARC] Call for Volunteers: 2005 Gilroy Garlic Festival

[Bill Childers]

Gilroy Garlic Festival Communications
Woody Woodruff and Bill Childers

Dear Amateur Radio Operator,

          Woody and Bill would like to extend an invitation to join the 
Communications Committee during the 27th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival 
to be held on July 29th, 30th, 31st, 2005.  Many of you have volunteered 
in the past and we are looking forward to working with you again. If 
this is your first time and you want to know more about the Gilroy 
Garlic Festival please read on.
          The Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival is known worldwide for more 
than just promoting Garlic. This is the "Premiere" Festival that all 
festivals want to emulate. Communications plays a vital role in the 
success of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. We provide communications 
services for over 30 different committees and groups such as Emergency 
Services, Utilities, Transportation, Parking and Gourmet Alley. 
Communications provides over 300 radios, 6 repeaters and a Network 
Operations Center staffed by Amateur Radio Operators, such as you, to 
make the Annual Gilroy Garlic Festival the great success it is each year.
          A radio call comes in from a Committee person on the Festival 
grounds to the Main Net requesting Medics for a person passed out. It is 
the skills of an Amateur Radio operator such as you which keeps the 
person on the radio calm and directs others in the Network Operations 
Center to provide Festival Emergency Services with the information and 
location of the emergency. The Main Net Operator also keeps the Net 
clear of non-essential communications traffic during  emergencies. The 
Communications Committee is always looking for Amateur Radio operators 
who want to hone their skills in emergency communications. Additionally 
your technical skills are also needed to help with setup and take down 
of the equipment. This could be your chance to learn about commercial 
repeaters, EIRP, SWR, FCC licensing process, programming commercial 
radios or fixing LMR400 coaxial cable connectors.
          The Communications Committee considers the Garlic Valley 
Amateur Radio Club as its primary source for volunteers.  As a member of 
the GVARC, the hours that you volunteer are donated to the Club. GVARC 
uses the money to provide services and equipment such as the WGGF 
Repeater and equipment used for Field Day.  These services happen thanks 
to the effort of volunteers like you who worked during the many other 
Garlic Festival and donated their hours to the Club. This is the only 
fund raising event that the club is involved in each year, so please 
take this into consideration if you decide to support the GVARC and 
Amateur Radio.
          If you will be joining us this year please fill out the 
questionnaire (available for download at 
http://ultra.nulldevice.net/2005VolunteerSignup.doc in Word Document 
format) indicating dates and times that you are available. Please show 
your preference for work position and we will endeavor to accommodate 
all requests. We will give shift/position preference to members of the 
GVARC. All Communications Committee Volunteers will enjoy free 
admittance to the Festival, great food, special volunteer parking and a 
Garlic Festival Communications Tee Shirt. We look forward to hearing 
from you.
           Finally, we would like to thank all of you for your support 
throughout the years.  The festival's been an immensely fun opportunity 
and we're looking forward to working with you again this year, as well 
as working with any new hams who haven't yet gotten involved in the 
Festival. 

Thank You,
Woody Woodruff (W6MUG) and Bill Childers (KE6VVW)
Chairman and Assistant Chairman
Gilroy Garlic Festival Communications Committee

NOTE: The questionaire/signup document is available for download in MS 
Word format at the website 
http://ultra.nulldevice.net/2005VolunteerSignup.doc .  Please fill it 
out and email it to both woodyrat at garlic.com AND bill at nulldevice.net.  
Also, if you know of hams willing to volunteer who aren't on this list 
or don't have internet access, please pass the application on.  You can 
snail-mail the application to Woody (address is at the top of the 
application).  Thanks!