HCRA Board of Directors Meeting
August 18th, 2013
Location: Brimfield, MA
Time: 2:00 PM
Present: KK1W, KB1NWH, AA1YW, N1MFL, N1FJ, N1KXR, W1MSW
OFFICER REPORTS
Vice President – KB1NWH
Field Day report (with W1MSW) and 2014 FD planning – See new business
Treasurer – AA1YW
Current financial report – $6267.14
Secretary – N1MFL
Status of state and Federal fiscal year end reports – State is complete. Federal is created and needs to be finalized
Plan and implement an on-line board meeting for January 2014
DIRECTOR REPORTS
Technical – K1YO – Not present
Would like to institute a “pre-meeting” Tech Corner at our monthly meetings. – All agreed a good idea, Matt and Bob will coordinate
Zero Beat – N1FJ
Cutoff and publication dates for Zero Beat, confirm with BOD and enter into the Yahoo calendar.
Membership – N1KXR
Report – To date we have sold about 20% of the tickets for the FT857 raffle.
At Large – Kx1x – Not Present
Planning for ham classes (Tech, General, Extra) for January location to be decided. – See New Business
Former Crew Member George (Chris) Fotopoulos/KB1PQU was awarded the FEMARA Scholarship
Program – W1MSW
September – Tom/K1KI, ARRL Diamond Anniversary
October – John/N1OLO from Hamsource
November – POTA presentation with Dan/KB1VWQ and Dave/N1MFL
December – .Holiday party, December 8th – See above
January – Open
February – Open
March – Show & Tell
April – Open
May – Open
June – Field Day training
Frandy suggested we run a ‘silent auction’ at all appropriate club meetings and volunteered to handle it. This will start with the September meeting.
OLD BUSINESS
Paypal membership renewal, is live on the website.- AA1YW, NT1K
Foxhunting status, is this dead for 2013? – N1KXR – Rich is on track to hold one in mid-September or October.
WRTC Station Sales – AA1YW, KK1W
- WRTC Sales Program (KK1W and AA1YW are working on this.
- Dave and Jim will finalize the program and announce it in Septembers Zero Beat. The main points of the program are:
- A fair price will be determined for all items we are offering for sale.
- The list, with prices will be published in September 2013 ZB.
- Anyone desiring an item will be required to tender a 20%, non-refundable deposit.
- If more people than items are requested at the September meeting a lottery will be held to determine who gets the item.
- In order to be in the lottery the 20% deposit must be tendered.
- All items must be ‘paid in full’ by June 1, 2014.
- Dave and Jim will finalize the program and announce it in Septembers Zero Beat. The main points of the program are:
NEW BUSINESS
Field Day – the final report – KB1NWH and W1MSW
- From all reports Field Day 2013 was a success
- We learned a lot about the new location
- We will have a better concept of station layout in 2014
- The Town of Agawam was a pleasure to deal with and the park was extremely well maintained.
- Dave/N1MFL made a suggestion for better/more signage to help visitors find their way around.
- Unless there’s a lot of input from the members once again food will not be supplied.
- 5A seemed to be fine with everyone
- Better equipment (transceivers) would have helped mitigate intra-station interference
Procedure for handling membership data between all concerned parties – tabled from the June meeting.
A new procedure has been designed for database maintenance as follows:
-
-
- All applications will go to Rich/N1KXR (the membership person)
- Rich will enter them in the Access database
- Rich will enter any new members into the HCRA mailing list
- Rich will pass the application to Dave along with payment.
- Dave will deposit the money and sign off on the application, then return it to Rich for filing
- All applications will go to Rich/N1KXR (the membership person)
-
Possible change of web host and other website improvements – NT1K, KK1W – Jeff and Chris/KB1RMA are working on a revised website that includes putting our database ‘in the cloud’. This would allow access and editing and available to all board members. Everyone agreed this is a good idea and is hopeful we’ll have something up and running soon.
Holiday Party Planning – Kx1x
- Holiday Party, December 9th – the date and location are confirmed.
- John/Kx1x is tentatively handling this event. I’ll work with John and relate how we handled the event and MTARA participation in 2012.
- Articles for ZB, website, Facebook and the HCRA mailing list
- Track ticket sales for each club and work with MTARA for the final accounting.
- Jim/KK1W will print the tickets
- Price /person will most likely be $20 this year.
Membership Renewal
- Membership Renewal
- Rich/N1KXR has this on his agenda. He will:
- Write an article for Zero Beat asking for renewals
- Copy that article to the website, Facebook and the HCRA mailing list.
- Frandy/N1FJ will include an application form in September ZB
- Jim/KK1W will create a modified application form.
- Matt/W1MSW will give Rich the passwords to the HCRA mailing list and a tutorial on how to add/modify members on the list.
- Rich/N1KXR has this on his agenda. He will:
- APRS Node in Chester (KK1W)
- Waiting on MTARA for any decisions here. Jim/KK1W has offered to help with equipment removal if needed but HCRA has no interest in operating a packet or APRS node.
- Donations to HMC and/or Agawam Park & Rec?
- $250 to HMC to paid in September
- $250 to Agawam Park & Rec
- Ed/KB1NWH will check and see if there is a specific fund we can donate to that ensures the entire donations goes to maintenance at School St. Park.
- Training sessions (Tech/General/Extra)
- John/Kx1x will be organizing this for January 2014
- HMC and Mercy will be informed so they can send employees for training.
- Location to be determined by class size and potential attendees.
- John/Kx1x will be organizing this for January 2014
- WRTC participation
- As a club HCRA will continue to promote this important event through July 2014.
2012/2013 Board Meeting Dates – Approved, Jim will enter in the Yahoo calendar September 10th
November 5th
January 7th – Possible on-line meeting
March 11th
May 6th
June 10th
Respectfully submitted by Dave Scarpa/N1MFL