August 2010 Meeting Minutes MCARA

Martin County

Amateur Radio Association

Fort Pierce Hamfest, Camp Creepy Volunteers, more Clubhouse news

Download August 2010 Minutes in a PDF

MCARA MEETING MINUTES
August 26, 2010

Meeting called to order at 19:00, by Doug Shields. There were 25 members present at tonight’s meeting. First announcement was that Secretary Ray J was ill and not in attendance, and volunteer was called for to record minutes for meeting. Steve Marshall volunteered to record minutes.

New business: previous bank account for the club was closed; with the issue of a check in the amount of $86.93. Current club balances are now at First Peoples Bank.

Next items covered were the handout information sheet; upcoming meetings, license sessions; list of future hamfests; contests and special events. Two members present tonight upgraded their licenses at the Ft. Pierce Hamfest. Kathy Marshall, upgraded to General; and Eric Boyd upgraded to Amateur Extra. Congratulations to both.

Everyone thought the Fort Pierce Hamfest was better this year; bigger crowds; more merchandise to choose from, and some pretty good deals. In addition to the listed special events on the sheet; Lee Pennington mentioned the Route 66 Special event during the second week of September. Week long event; with 18 stations and 2 “rovers”

Doug showed the group the WAS (worked all states) certificate that the club station K4ZK received after finally getting Hawaii.

Ron Tagg gave a report on the Skywarn Class held at EOC on August 21. Forty- four new spotters received their spotter card. Estimated attendance was 50. Ron reported that with the new spotters; Martin County now has 53 Skywarn Spotters; ranking us 4th in the NWS Melbourne district of 10 counties; behind Volusia, Orange and Seminole counties.

Tom Beattie told the group that the annual Girl Scout’s CAMP CREEPY is coming up October 22 and 23. Ham Radio volunteers are needed to assist the the event; with 10-15 volunteers needed.

Bill Laakkonen had spoken to John Bower and the CW training classes are scheduled to begin September 13 for eight weeks. Classes are on Monday and Thursdays at 7PM at the EOC building. Information is posted on MCARAWeb.com but see WX4MC.org ARES/RACES website for official details.

During last month’s meeting there was a lively discussion on the possibility of the club locating a clubhouse. Robert VanEtten had a slide presentation tonight showing some of the advantages and disadvantages of the club renting the property on county line road. Once again there was much discussion, with several ideas being presented. Some of the possible problems were also discussed. The property would be available to us for about $321.00 per month with an open ended rental. The property would be ours to use except during election days (it is a polling station) and one day a month when it is in use for a homeowner’s association meeting. The County continues to maintain the property, lawn service, water, sewer, and electricity. The club would have to pay for a telephone, alarm monitoring, DSL or cable Internet and any additional insurance. Doug once again mentioned that he is in favor of a clubhouse-BUT only as long as it is used by the club. If there is a possibility that it will not be used then he is against it; as it will just be a waste of money and time.

After more discussion, Robert VanEtten, KJ4CWJ, was made chairman of a committee to investigate the possibility of obtaining the County Line property as a clubhouse; and the cost associated with the plan; and to determine if the clubhouse would be adequately used. Members interested in helping Robert are urged to contact him.

The club membership is approx 60-70 members; not all are regularly active in the club; which dues would cover a portion of the monthly rental. Mention was made of a possible “adjustment” of dues.

The discussion lasted for approximately 45 minutes with the “wave of discussion”
(My term) going from a positive view; then to a negative view; then back to a positive view; then again to a negative view. In the end, nothing definite was decided; except that the discussion will continue.

After the discussion; the members were treated to ice cream and toppings; with member’s conversation turning to catching up with each other; and trading radio stories. During the “Ice Cream Social” the officers voted on the submissions for the official club QSL card. The contest was started 2 months ago with the winner selected tonight. There were 7 entries in the contest; and in the end, Lee Pennington was the winner and received $50.00.

The meeting was adjourned informally at approx 20:45; room cleaned chairs put away and tables stacked away.

Minutes submitted by Stephen Marshall KJ4FHU (Treasurer and acting Secretary), Martin County Amateur Radio Association, Inc.
8/26/2010 at 23:30