I would be cautious about attributing the June 4th date as being the primary reason for low attendance this year. What I and many others prefer is a consistent date year to year so we can plan ahead. If we know Aurora will always be the Saturday after Memorial Day, I think most people who want to attend could put that on the calendar and juggle their schedule to attend most of the time. Of course there will always be conflicts like weddings, graduations, etc, but I think there is a lot of value in establishing a consistent date.
I've been handling registration for the Aurora conferences since
1989. Yes, Au'22 was a good event, but it also had the lowest
turnout ever, and hardly anyone that lives any distance away. I
would not recommend that the first Saturday of June become a
permanent date. We have bounced around many different dates over
the years, including Dayton weekend and fishing opener. Every year,
there are a few people missing that make me wonder, why wasn't
so-and-so there? The obvious answer is that they had a conflict, as
I know these are people that always enjoy the conference.
I would recommend that we rotate the date through a number of
weekends, depending on the availability of the venue. The weather
in April is too often poor, so I would scrap that month. I think
Memorial Day weekend would be a foolish choice. Likewise the second
weekend of June, as that is the largest VHF operating event of the
year. Otherwise, I'd say most anything is fair game. By changing
the weekend, hopefully at least once or twice out of any three
years, a given person would be able to attend.
73
Paul W0UC
On 10/31/2022 10:56 AM, Jon Platt via
NLRS wrote:
Hello
NLRS land
Last year we had a bit of a scramble to find a hosting
facility for our yearly Aurora conference. Our previous long
time host had lots of weddings scheduled, perhaps a result of
a backlog from the COVID lock down days, and seemed that they
were less then excited to work with us. In searching around
for a venue that would work for our unique needs we were
fortunate to learn about the Medicine Lake Community Club
(MLCC). The MLCC fit our needs to a tee (antenna range, size,
access, meeting space, and cost) and we would like to use
their facility again for 2023 assuming we can find an open
calendar date.
Which brings me to the question for membership. If we have
the flexibility, what date do members want to see for
Aurora'23? Here are some Spring/Summer dates that would not
work or that have other events going on:
May 6/7 SBMS 2304 & Up Contest. We have in
the past held Aurora on this date.
May 19/21 Dayton Hamfest
June 3/4 ARRL Digi Contest. We could meet tho.
June 10/11 ARRL June VHF
June 24/25 ARRL FD
July 15/16 CQWW VHF
Are there any other dates that don't work? I think
there may be some local hamfests that happen during this
time that I am not aware of so please let me know. Aurora'23
was held June 4th. In previous years we have held Aurora
as early as late April and there has been a few years
where we had snow.
Based on what I see so far, potential dates for
Aurora'23 may be
Late April, like April 22 or 29, albeit we could
face weather issues.