2006 Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

TARC Board of Directors Meeting

February 2, 2006

Unapproved

Wes called the meeting to order at 7:07p.

The minutes from the last meeting were presented and reviewed. Keating, KC4HSI made a motion to approved the minutes, seconded by Lu, K4LVR. The minutes were approved.

Nominating Committee – N4WEB

Bill presented the proposed slate of Board nominees that will be presented to the General membership on 2/6. Bill also presented the proposed election process (see attached at end of the minutes).

Keating, KC4HSI made a motion to approve the election process, and Lu, K4LVR seconded. The motion was approved.

Repeaters – Lu, K4LVR

Lu discussed the needs of the .025 UHF repeater. Discussion ensued. Warrant, W1GUD made a motion to spend no more then $285 on a new antenna for the .025. The motion carried.

Field Day – Bill, N4WEB

Bill discussed that Field Day preparations were progressing, and a short list of sites for our Bug-Out were selected. Larry, KR4X, and Gary, KC5QCN to review the sites and make a final selection.

Bill stated their needs to be a Conex review of what we have and what works, and pull together a shopping list if items to acquire between now and FD. Bill commented that 2 F12-EF140s were needs, but that discussion was tabled till March.

A proposed 2007 FD theme was discussed following the selection of Jim, WB4WBL as EMCOMM chair. It was proposed that we deploy at the clubhouse, in a scenario where we are asked to support Hillsborough County EOC from the clubhouse, but our tower structures have been lost due to hurricane force winds toppling the trees in the backyard, and landing on the tower guy wires. This suggestion was tabled till after Field Day, 2006, but was suggested to be a guide-post for Jim to prepare for EMCOMM readiness.

Training – Keating, KC4HSI

Keating and Gary are planning to conduct an Element 3 course (General written) next month, and requested to buy the tapes/DVD for the course form ARRL. Discussion ensued, and it was determined they need to bring back the costs, and if the material is still available.

EMCOMM

Warren brought up the subject of moving our focus to EMCOMM now that the tower project is complete. He commented that we as a group need ensure we have all the capabilities possible to support deployed team members from the Club, and other groups as required. He stated there are many issues to look at to support EMCOMM at the clubhouse properly, and a committee chair should be chosen to address what is needed, make proposals, and see them through.

Warren, W1GUD made a motion to appoint Jim Lafolleyette, WB4WBL, to chair this committee. Keating, KC4HSI seconded and the motion was approved.

During the discussion, several ‘low-hanging fruit’ items were discussed that could be addressed immediately. These included:

· Cleaning up and completing the ladies room renovation

· Acquire a charge controller (marine) for the generator out back. It was determined the charging circuit on the unit does not re-charge the batteries.

· The transfer switch needs to be wired into the clubhouse and generator

· The generator should be made trailer able

· A floating Gel-Cell system should be investigated for the radios incase the generator fails

· Fly-away kits (and lists) should be built for those that may need to be deployed.

Jim commented one of the paramount capabilities for EMCOMM is flexibility, both in use, and frequency selection (frequency agile equipment)., and use of the gear when not being used in a deployment, so those who use it will know it works, and know how to work it.

TARC Fest

4/15 will be the date. Get the word out.

Field Day

The following individuals offered to help with Field Day this year:

Ian - GOTA station

Warren - SSB station

Biff - CW station

Julio - VHF station

Dan - Demonstatration modes

We still need people to help out with:

· food purchases

· cooking

· trailers

· media contacts

· Copying the FD message

· Other bonus points

· Transportation of gear to the deployment site

The following individuals commented about trailers … pls confirm:

Ian - Trailer

Dan - TPD command post/Camper

Steve - Cows for antennas

Mark - 5^th wheel

Brian - Trailer

NAQP update

NAQP, SSB, netted 58,672 points for the club. Thanks to all that participated. The next installment is either the Florida QSO Party in early April, or NAQP RTTY., or both. Please contact Warren, W1GUD, or Bill, N4WEB if you are interested.

Warren, W1GUD made a motion to adjourn, and Irene seconded. All left

Nominating Process:

The proposed slate of candidates will be presented by the Nominating Committee at the February, 2006 General meeting. This slate needs approval by the General Membership in attendance.
Nominations will be taken from the floor for others who wish to vote. The member nominated must select a SEAT to run for, and be willing to hold the position
At the close of the February meeting, all nominations will close, and no further candidates will be accepted for the March vote.

Voting process:

At the March, 2006 General Meeting, each candidate will be given the opportunity to address the membership why they should vote for them. Maximum time 3 minutes.
Only members in good standing (paid prior to March, 2006 General Business Meeting) may vote. This means you must have paid your 2005 dues prior to the March business meeting.
Only members in attendance may vote … No Proxies.
All ballots will be on paper.
Ballots will be tabulated by the Nominating Committee Chair, and monitored by one Board member and one General member, both not on the ballot. These two individuals will be selected by vote at the February meeting.

TARC Board of Directors Meeting

January 5, 2006

unapproved

Biff, K4LAW called the meeting to order at 7:36p.

The minutes from the last meeting were presented and reviewed. The minutes were approved.

Treasury

Internal account: $1361.26

External account $1603.95

Facility account ~ $1000.00

We owe:

Mike, NI4M $140 for the website hoster

Bart, AF4TK $185 for the lawn mower

Approximately $745 will be in Facility account after these expenses

Xmas letter to members who are unpaid did not get a good response (67 letters were sent). We have 101 paid members in 2005

Our corporation expenses (insurance, incorporation, etc) will be ~ $800 in May.

A motion by Warren, W1GUD to approve the Treasurer’s report was made, with second by Lu, K4LVR was made … Approved.

Xmas Party

45-50 people attended. We had accommodations for 70

The 50-50 drawing sole $110 in tickets. Biff, K4LAW won.

Tarc Fest

4/15 will be the date. Get the word out.

Computers

A pair (primary/secondary) net disks were installed for network storage These were $157ea. A motion by Bill, N4WEB, and seconded by Jim, WA3DIT to reimburse Julio, W4HY for the drives … Approved. This will be paid from the internal account.

The hub was updated to a switch for better network performance in the building

Logic 7 has been installed and configured on both Position A and Position B.

Tower Effort – Warren, W1GUD

All done …

Digital

It was decided to install in the EMCOMM station a WinLink setup. We will need a TNC, Computer, Radio, and antenna for the station. This station should also be able to handle other digital modes as well, with the right TNC or RigBlaster setup

There was discussion establishing an APRS Digipeter at the 025 site, and what would be required. It was decided a DiPlexor, VHF radio, and Kam-3 are required. This would give us north/south coverage.

Field Day Update