Meeting of November 12, 2011

Eight members assembled Saturday morning as the November meeting returned to Crandall House in Ashaway, RI. High on the list of agenda items was the election of officers for 2011-2012. Three members found out why it is important to attend, in their absence they were elected to office!

The photo below shows the presence of a quorum of qualified members (W1PN was also present but behind the camera).

Elected were:

K1DM, President

K3IU, Vice-President

W1PN, Secretary

KB1BNO, Treasurer

W1WBB, Contest Manager

Reports:

Secretary: Minutes of October 22 are on the website and were distributed. Adopted as presented.

Treasurer: Absent

Contest Manager: Focus should now be on the ARRL 10 Meter contest, December 10-11, 2011. It was attempted to set a specific goal for the club with the intent to involve everyone, much as we did for the NEQP contest earlier. NG1G suggested a goal of 3 billion points, but cooler heads prevailed. K3IU suggested a participation related goal, e.g., at least 15 members operating for 20 hours each. NG1G raised the possibility of a promise of individual achievement (time and/or points) in advance of the contest and then an aggregation of these promises to a club goal. Additional discussion revealed the difficulty of setting a goal without further analysis and comments. It was decided to continue this topic through a post on the website.

KS1J observed that we should have a Tips, Hints, Strategy post for this contest. Jim volunteered to write the post.

Old Business:

W1AN continued the on-going discussion of the club going to Puerto Rico in 2013 for the CQ WW WPX RTTY contest. Carlos would like to host our operation. (See http://w1pn.com/wp/2011/11/17/plan-ahead-2/ for more information.) A sometimes raucous discussion ensued on the vicissitudes of operating in a tropical environment. NG1G is the ramrod for this effort and will bring order out of this chaos and report on the website.

New Business:

Jim, KS1J, is trying to assemble records of our performance in the past. Please append a comment here with your recollections of contests in which we have scored at or near the top to assist Jim in this data collection task.

W1AN raised the question of what to do about the Yahoo reflector. Consensus was to shut it down since its function has been replaced by the new website. Mechanics of how and when this will be done must be resolved. Discussions revealed that some members do not know how to accomplish their needs with the website. This is exemplified by how to use RSS to cause notification of new and changed information. Additionally it would be useful if non-Members could see some things on the website for the purpose of recruiting. It was agreed that we should limit the reflector to being a repository of old but perhaps useful information and change its parameters so that the origination of new emails, files, etc, is not possible. NG1G is responsible for the implementation of this decision which implies that we find ways to help members who have trouble understanding how to use the new website.

The issue of club members vs reflector members arose several times in the preceding discussions. Who gets unrestricted access to the website and who does not? Who are the members? How do we serve both groups? Should we? While lots of issues were raised none were resolved and were left for subsequent meetings.

Holiday Luncheon (February meeting) at Greg’s. Chuck will be asked by W1AN if he will organize again. Club will not pay for the dinner this time because we don’t have the money (an issue that has to be discussed at a future meeting).

Motion to bestow Honorary Member status to Bill, N1HRA, was passed unanimously.

It became obvious that members were becoming fatigued so the meeting adjourned at 1350.

Respectfully submitted,

Ed Haskell, W1PN, Secretary

3 comments on “Meeting of November 12, 2011

  1. Well, I guess I learned my lesson to never miss a meeting again!:(

    Mike, K1DM

    P. S. Watch out, I learned to delegate VERY WELL while working for the Coast Guard!

  2. Congrats to new Prez Mike K1DM and new vice-Prez Ken K3IU…excellent choices! And thanks to Johns W1AN and ‘XX for their great service to the club.

    As incoming Contest Manager I’ll request (delegate!) that John W1XX, for the time being, continue to maintain the club members scores spreadsheet for the annual Intra-Club Competition.

    I look forward to Jim KS1J’s post on Tips and Hints for the upcoming ARRL 10 Meter contest, a CTRI CG focused event this year…advice from an expert who made more than 900 DX Q’s on 10M alone (in a world class LP *all-band* effort!) during the recent CQWW SSB contest.

    Good Luck THIS coming weekend to those participating in CQWW CW…should be the best condx seen in this event in years.

    Bill W1WBB

  3. Sorry I missed the meeting. It sounds like it was a good one. Congratulations to the new officers – and to the outgoing ones. The shoulders of burden have been shifted.
    73
    Chris, KA1GEU

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