[NJARC] Public Repair Clinics

[sfg at comcast.net]

Hi,
I have volunteered my time to do repair clinics. I do not personally mind that someone else may have used use my time repairing their radio as a way of making money. I may not be in the league of Al or Nevil or Marty (and many others) as an expert, but I do get up and go to the clinics as often as I can and I have spent my time. 

I am also an offender in that I have told fleamarket vendors about repair clinics, knowing that they might show up and have a radio repaired for "FREE", in the expectation that they will profit from our help. In my view these people who fight to save old radios from the dumpster richly deserve our help. If you don't buy from them you buy from me and they are my source.

In a limited poll of those others who do the repairs at our clinics I found that they are not upset by an occasional "freeloader".  We should poll the others on this issue, since the repair clinics depend on our experts, whom can't afford to lose.

Unfortunantly, it seems to me, those who are most worried about NJARC being used are not those who drag their parts, equipment, isolation transformers, tube testers, signal generators and knowledge to Princeton to spend  the day fixing radios but those offended by finding their swap meet items (sold at the asked price) on the next table at a higher price or the five dollar bid of a little boy. The issue isn't about real money it is about the "Zen of Money".

Nobody is stealing your next mortgage payment or the food off of your table, this is a hobby. If it gets stupid, when someone is using the NJARC tube supply as thier private ebay stock, okay we will fight but please, please let's not be cheap or stupid. Public repair clinics are both useful to NJARC and fun. Let's keep them fun. 

Use your judgment, if I remember the issue with the young boy was over a item under $10. If we must fight let's make the minimum cash value a couple of hundred bucks.

Again I feel that we should be doing at least a couple of club clinics and training  sesions a month via the Infoage opportunity but the public sessions are also important to NJARC.
Steve Goulart