[MarinTeams] HWA General Meeting

[hbco2]

All,

 

Thank all of you who attended our General Meeting this last Saturday and
made it such a success.  Your offers of support and volunteer effort are so
vital to the success of the program!

 

We had good representation from all parts of Marin, including a phone call
during the meeting from a volunteer indicating that the West Marin repeater
was reactivated.  But more on that later.   The first part of the meeting
was taken with introductions by those attending with descriptions of
activities underway in their various neighborhoods.  That was followed with
a brief review of the exercises and accomplishments CERT Radio  has made
over the last year or so.  It is quite a list.  

 

Following a break, we acknowledged the major contributions by several
members:

 

Peter Thompson for the tremendous effort of composing, editing and
publishing our Basic Training manual.

Marjorie Schwier for her organizational support in our License Classes,
Communications Classes and exercises.  Marjorie spent hours

assembling the huge database generated last year to produce the Simplex
Radio report we recently submitted to County Supervisor Susan 

Adams and Brian Waterbury of MMRC.  Marjorie's organizational efforts were a
major contribution to the success of our General Meeting.

Irwin Taranto for his support of the certradio.org website, and efforts in a
DC3 communications subcommittee that resulted a showing of our CERT

                Radio program on a County emergency communications chart,
and his computer assistance on the Simplex Radio report.

Jay Hubert for his substantial contributions and development of the CERT
Digital project.

Vivian Cohen for her participation and help in a number of exercises and
with MMRC.

 

Of course there are additional contributions made by a number of
individuals, of which we are ever thankful, and without which we could never
have reached our present capacity.  Thank you, all!

 

A number of challenges are before us.  Our West Marin repeater installation
is under review, with a likely need to replace the antenna, battery and
solar controller.  Installation of additional solar panels may also be
necessary as the repeater power is derived completely from solar.  We are
also seeking a new location to reinstall the repeater that was formerly at
our clubhouse at Hamilton Field, and will need a new antenna and possibly
power generation at the new site.  We also need help rolling out our CERT
Digital project.  As a major milestone, committee volunteers were identified
for these activities, as well as for a programs of recruiting new
volunteers, developing new quarterly exercises and expediting the processing
of our imminent non-profit filing.  If you would like to participate in any
of these committees, please let me know.

 

Of course this activity does not come without expenditures.  If you are able
to provide funds to defray installation costs of repeater and digital
equipment and of costs of insurance and similar operating expenses, please
help.  We estimate we need to raise approximately $1500, which is off to a
running start thanks to the generous contributions of those attending the
general meeting.

 

The Hamilton Wireless Association has supported the radio resources used by
the CERT Radio project and now a rebuilding effort is underway due to the
closure of our Hamilton clubhouse.  Club operations are sustained through
donations from its associate members; the club hasn't received grants or
funds from other sources.  HWA annual club dues are due in January.  If you
are not already, would you consider joining the club as an associate member
at $25.

 

If you would like to make a contribution or join HWA, you can do so on-line
at http://www.k6bw.org.  Or, if you prefer, please  send a check to:

 

Hamilton Wireless Association, Inc.

PO Box 150635

San Rafael, CA 94915-0635

 

Contributions are reportedly tax-deductible, based on our pending 501(c)3
application.

 

Thanks again to all those who were able to make the general meeting such a
success.  Thirty years ago, we were warned of an impending major earthquake.
Hopefully, we won't see one within the next thirty years, but trust we will
all be working together this year to make sure we have done our best to
minimize the impact of any untoward event.

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill, AB6MT

Hbco2 at sbcglobal.net

415-258-0864