[LeArc] LEARC Meeting Summary

[Jesse Risley]

There were six members and no guests present at the meeting last night.  

Items of business:

1. I was contacted by Gary Shanks, KA9FAJ, the ARES EC for Hancock County.  Gary would like to attend a future meeting and discuss establishing a formal ARES EC for our county, since we don't currently have one.  Tony, KB9NAB was contacted, but due to current time constraints he will be unable to fill the position.  If anyone is interested, please let me know so that I can forward that information to Gary.

2. In light of the recent request for ham assistance with the Swine Flu Clinic by ESDA and the Health Department, we discussed how facilitating amateur response for assistance in future cases could be stronger.  After discussion with Dan Kreps and a representative for the Health Department, it was decided that we need to have a phone tree list available that includes local hams.  Since fewer people monitor the repeater, it might be necessary in the future to utilize the land line or cell phone system to get in contact with hams.

3. We discussed generating more interest in the club, and amateur radio in general.  Meeting attendance is reaching record lows again.  Ted Williamson will be contacted to see about hosting another ham radio class in the community sometime this winter.  Dustin, KC9LRC is going to work on creating a sample post card that can be sent to all hams in the county who are not active club participants.  We will review this at the next meeting and take a vote on whether or not to spend club funds to mail something such as a meeting invite and net reminder to these folks, which is projected to cost less than $50.

4. Tony passed along that a local gentleman who monitors the VHF repeater misses our Sunday evening nets.

5. There has been no progress on Echolink due to computer hardware issues at the repeater site.  Also, the UHF repeater is still down.

6. I sent an email from the meeting to the Salvation Army about scheduling bell ringers for the holiday season.  Further information will be forthcoming.

7. Five (5) hours of ham assistance for public service were logged between Mark, KA9SZX and myself for a total of ten (10) man hours at the Swine Flu clinic (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.).

Note: The December meeting is the Christmas party.  Please plan to bring a treat to pass.

Jesse, K9JLR