[OKDXA] Club Stuff

[Don Loving]

 Is anyone from OKDXA going to set up a table at the Texoma Hamarama this weekend?   I need to re-enlist in OKDXA.
Don KM5OX
    On Monday, October 21, 2019, 10:39:29 PM CDT, Kim Elmore <cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net> wrote:  
 
 First, high praise for Jeff Martin, K5WE and Bill Roberson, N5AQ for 
both their excellent effort with VP2V and for a great presentation on 
their experiences. After a bit of thought, I'm not sure I have the 
necessary sauce to work 1000 Qs a day for 10 days straight. I've never 
made 1000 Qs even in a contest before, and that's only about a day. But 
ten days in a row?! That's some special sauce, alright.

We also thanks OCAPA for loaning us their projector!

By now, you all have seen that we lost some money on the Oct 19 banquet, 
to the tune of $157.37. This came about for various reasons and I'll try 
to lay out what we put together based on records Jeff Martin dug up. We 
had a marvelous speaker in Bill Priakos, W5SJ, who gave us a marvelous 
program. Jeff knows Bill, so we have Jeff to thank again for his insight 
and contacts. Bill drove to us from Ft. Smith, AR, which is about 2 h 40 
min, each way (which is a little longer than the trip between Stroud and 
Lawton). Obviously, we provided Bill and his wife the meal free of 
charge. We decided to buy Bill and his wife a room at the hotel, which 
was $65 plus taxes, so he didn't have to drive back that night. We also 
bought the reporter's meal (her husband paid for his), so there were 
three meals that we carried.

We were charged $9.99 per person by the hotel and a 24 person minimum, 
so that's ~ $240. Add in a $70 banquet room fee, $2 per drink, $4 per 
table for table cloths, a charge for the coffee pot, a $75 gratuity... 
It adds up. Past banquets have not been well documented, but Jeff was 
able to find the following past costs:

2010: $405.75
2011: $443.84
2015: $371.09
2016: $445.82
2019: $565.37

This year was about $120 more than any of the past years we can 
document. It's pretty clear that the hotel room, and the three free 
meals almost accounts for all of the shortfall. Yet, without this we 
likely wouldn't have had Bill as a speaker.

In the past, OKDXA has used the Fall banquet as a fund-raiser with 
varying success. Yet, this year we had $157 less than when we started. 
That's $157 less available for supporting DXpeditions. This brings us to 
questions about what we might want to consider changing. I want to 
solicit thoughts and ideas form the membership. This is, after all, your 
club. What do you want to see from it?

We charged $15 per person this year. It was an intentional decision but 
means that, with the other costs, we need to fill at least 25 paying 
seats to simply break even, leaving no discretionary monies. Not 
everyone benefited from the club's subsidy of the banquet. Ideally, that 
money should have been used to support DXpeditions. So, a strong 
argument can be made that the club shouldn't be in the business of 
subsidizing the banquet.?? I think this is a correct argument to make.

We have 54 members. The best turnout we can reasonably hope for is about 
30; usually less. Some people complained when the last banquet cost more 
than $15 per person.

Question 1) Should we continue to have a Fall Banquet?

Question 2) What is a reasonable cost? Is $20 per person too much or 
should we strive to never go over $15 per person?

Perhaps we might try a change of venue. Despite the historical issues 
that led to Stroud as a a fall meeting place, Stroud isn't as centrally 
located as OKC, especially for members from the southwest part of the 
state. I definitely don't want the club to become OKC-centric, but as 
travel goes, OKC is in the middle and, like Rome, all roads will get you 
there.

Question 3) Should we try someplace in OKC next year? If yes, where 
should it be? If no, should it stay in Stroud?

Aside from increasing the number of sunspots (don't I wish!), we need 
more members. This makes the next question very straightforward:

Question 4) What can we do to to increase membership?

Finding speakers and programs that appeal to everyone is always tough. So,

Question 5) We want suggestions for programs:?? What would you like to see?

The officers are open to any and all ideas and suggestions. Fire away!

73 & see you in the pileups,

Kim N5OP

-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //??? Attributed to many people; it???s so true that it 
doesn???t matter who said it./

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