MAARS Meeting Minutes, March 13, 2015
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submitted by Jim Foster, KDØNQQ, secretary The meeting was called to order at 6:55 p.m. at the new venue, Vista in Manhattan, KS. Repeater Upgrade Mark and Dave have not had opportunity to work on the repeater. Due to the state of the budget (see below) there is some urgency to get it in place so that the phone line can be discontinued. Dave will reach out to Justin Reed of the K-Link system for programming and troubleshooting assistance. Various club members have offered assistance of transport, paying for gas and buying meals as necessary. Treasurer Dave gave the treasurer’s report. He has been working, and is not quite finished, with an overhaul of the member rolls, and an audit of who is current in membership. In the mean time, the latest phone bill has been paid. It was over $60, due to charges AT&T adds for changing the name on the account. It will be back to the usual $43 next month. There is also a $31 charge for another 6 months of the P. O. box, which is due this month. With current assets, we must either increase income or decrease expenses. As the phone is the primary expense, eliminating that would help a great deal. That, of course, is dependent on getting the new repeater programmed and installed. VE Testing We have tentative agreement from several VEs: Brian Carter, Francis Sable, Bill Kuhn. Club has agreed to set the date of the testing session for May 16th, to allow time to publicize the event. Jim will reach out to the VEs and confirm their availability. Myron will schedule the room, and check for any conflict with graduation. Members are encouraged to promote this event wherever they can. Jim will inform Larry’s List, the ARRL website, the KAR newsletter and attempt to reach the KSU ham club via their Sunday night net. Fox Hunt Agreed to table discussion of such an event until after we get through bike ride season. Bike Ride — Cabin Fever, April 11th, 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Jay Clark has asked us to support this ride, we have tentatively agreed. We will need to recruit at least six or seven hams to the event by April 1, or we will need to bow out. Jim will coordinate volunteers pre-event. Dave, Farren and Jim will publicize to other hams in the area. Dave will bring his camper and portable tower to the start to give some presence to our participation. He will run net control from the school parking lot. He will also have a donation jar, asking for support of the repeater. We will use the St. Mary’s repeater. Jim will reach out to the K0HAM organization, asking for control to take the repeater off the net during the event. Jim will inquire of Sylvia, Brian and Mark to see who has the MAARS banner and the magnetic car signs. Some discussion of how we might be able to legally interact more closely with the Pott. County Sheriff, as their support on last year’s YBR ride was very helpful. Myron will look into this. Field Day — 27-28 June, 2015 no new business Agenda items for next meeting: Technical Presentation — Francis Sable Repeater Update — Dave, Mark Treasurer’s Report — Dave Ham Testing — Myron will confirm we have a room, and share details Cabin Fever — day before, last-minute preparation, hand out maps and assignments Attending: Francis Sable WØEVJ Wamego David Mills KDØAZG Manhattan Nancy Calhoun NØKMU Manhattan Myron Calhoun WØPBV Manhattan Farren Constable KBØAZJ Blue Rapids Jim Foster KDØNQQ Wamego |