The Manhattan Area Amateur Radio Society was formed on 7 July 1976. The founding meeting was called to order at 7:40 P.M. by Leroy Buller, KØWA.
They settled the noun before they settled the name
The first item of business was what to call the thing. The candidates recorded that evening were Flint Hills, Sunflower, Manhattan Area, Big Lakes, Wild Cat, Tuttle Creek and Blue Hills — “and others”.
Before choosing between them, the founders chose the noun. They voted to be a Society rather than a Club, and then voted the name Manhattan Area Amateur Radio Society. The S in MAARS has been deliberate for fifty years.
Meetings were first set for Wednesdays, and the second meeting was called for Wednesday, 4 August 1976. They have been on the second Friday for the whole documented web era, and the 2021 Standard Operating Procedures now fix them there.
Founding account: One surviving source — a 25th-anniversary history printed inside the Secretary’s Minutes of the March 2001 newsletter
Single source, uncorroborated. It covers 1976–1978 only and was never continued in the April, May, June, July or August 2001 issues.
Sourced. Last checked — 46 days ago.
Purpose
…to secure for members the pleasures and benefits of an association of persons interested in amateur radio and related fields, to further the exchange of information and cooperation between members, to promote knowledge of amateur radio and individual operating efficiency, and to conduct such programs and activities as may advance the general interest and welfare of amateur radio in Manhattan, Kansas and surrounding areas.
Constitution, Article II, Section 1
Open to all
Attendance at any Society meeting or other activity is open to all persons interested in any aspect of amateur radio, so long as such persons do not disrupt said meeting or other activity.
Constitution, Article II, Section 2
The reflector is the official organ — not this website
The Society email reflector is the official organ of the Society.
Constitution, Article III
That sentence is load-bearing. Anything that must reach the membership goes out on the reflector. This site is the public record and the front door; it is not how the Society talks to itself. A quiet week here means the webmaster is busy — it does not mean the Society has gone quiet.
The record we keep
Since 1998 the Society has published 127 newsletters, 82 sets of meeting minutes, 52 treasurer's reports and 6 year-end reports. All of them are in the archive, filed by type and by year, each with the file it was published as. Every year from 1998 to 2024 holds at least one document. The newest of them is dated January 2024.
The rest of the record is kept beside it: the memorials on Silent Keys, the rosters on Members, the photographs and the members’ own articles in Club files, and the old site’s own pages under History. Where a year is thin, the archive says so rather than smoothing it over, because an archive that hides its gaps is not a record, it is a brochure. What we know is missing lists what the old site linked to and never held.
More on how any of this is kept current: how this site is maintained.