Board Meeting Minutes November 2024
The virtual Board Meeting on November 4, 2024, using Zoom technology, was called to order by President, Don Whiteman KK9H at 7:02 CST.
Present: Brian Dubin AB9ZI, Dick Hagedorn KD9TGX, Richard Friedman W9RCF, Art Paton N9AEP, Marty Boroff WD9GYM, Rich Davidson K9RD, Udo Koch N0LSR, John Cankar W9JM, Relu Jianu NJ9R, Greg Karlove W9GAK, Elliot Goldman K9EHG, Todd Marshall KD9NBB, Donn Dengel W9TOC
Absent: Tami Witbrodt KD9IXB Vic Maiewski KA9KBD Carly Ho KD9VDM
Old Business:
Secretary: The Minutes of the October 7, 2024 Board meeting were unanimously APPROVED.
Treasurer: Richard Friedman’s October 24, 2024 report was E-Mailed to Board members. It showed that the Club is fiscally sound and was unanimously APPROVED.
New Business:
President’s Report: Don Whiteman KK9H announces that Hamvention 2025 will be held in Xenia, Ohio on May 16, 17, and 18. As usual, the Club has a space for 1 car and 1 Flea Market table. Please contact Don KK9H or Chuck KB9TAP for tickets. Hear much more news at the club meeting on November 12!
A motion for Mark WA9IVH to replace 3 old Windows-10 computers for less than $3,000 was APPROVED.
Tech/IT Report: Greg W9GAK reported on his Saturday visit to the 440 repeater. He found and replaced a damaged piece of flexible coax. That eliminated the intermittent, erratic signal strength problem.
Newly installed equipment makes remote rebooting possible. After rebooting the computer, Winlink operation was restored. D-Star test reached Midlothian Illinois – a good shot!
Vice President Report: Brian AB9ZI reported on the Nominating Committee’s progress toward completing the list of candidates for 2025 Club Officers to be elected in December. Candidates have been identified for all elected positions except for Vice President.
New for 2025: the Communications Team, led by Udo N0LSR, will consist of several positions including Website, Groups.io, Calendar, e-mail blasts, QRZ page, and Facebook page. Udo will also edit eMitter.
Membership:
Tami was not present, but last month there were 217 Club members who were paid-up to date. Sign-up for 2025 membership started on Oct.1, 2024. There were 260 paid-up members at the end of 2023.
Payment of Annual Dues: The dues for 2025 (payable by December 31) are $35. Please notify Tami KD9IXB when you are renewing and then make payment to our Treasurer, Richard W9RCF.
COMMUNICATIONS: The Board Position for Publicity and Communications has been divided by Brian AB9ZI into several different and much smaller tasks. In particular, groups.io responsibility will be divided among 4 individuals instead of one. That makes the individual tasks much easier.
Remarks on the eMitter: Don KK9H indicates he will continue to submit the “President’s Desk”. Also, that Udo N0LSR will add a couple of items, and be the editor in 2025.
Art N9AEP reports the eMitter, revised by Board comments, will be published tonight.
Website Report: There was no Website Report this evening.
NET Report/Field Day 2024 Commentary: Net Report: For the 70 cm net, Marty reported there were 5 net meetings, totaling 196 check-ins in October, and 1,526 year-to-date. On average, there are 39 check-ins every week. Historically, the most check-ins we ever had was 2,300 in 2020.
Field Day 2024 was a rip-roaring success boasted Don KK9H ! Our club efforts put us in the top ½ of 1 percent of all entrants in the 2024 Field Day contest. The large number of operating modes and our GOTA station contributed significantly to the final score which was even higher than last year.
PROGRAMS: Upcoming meeting topics for the next three months.
November 12: Main Program: Presentation of the Slate of Candidates for 2025 Club Officers.
Bonus: Rich W9RCF reveals everything you need to know about repairing and refinishing Antique Radios.
December 10: Annual membership and financial reports by Tami KD9IXB and Richard W9RCF
respectively Vice President, Brian Dubin AB9ZI will conduct the election of club officers for 2025.
January 14, 2025: “FlexRadio – The Flex-8000 Series Overview” by Michael Walker VA3MW
Education Director Report/VEC Testing: Rich K9RD Davidson reported
At the October 20 VE Testing Session, 8 candidates registered, 4 new technicians, 2 upgraded to General, and 1 candidate did not pass the Extra test. The next VE test session at the Library will be on Sunday, November 17 at 1:00 PM.
Build Club: Udo N0LSR reported: The Build Club meets on the 1st Wednesday of the month in the Civic Room of the Northbrook Library at 6 PM. The November 6th meeting will be held in Classroom 12. There will be a presentation about the many kinds of capacitors. That will be a short course about AC resistance at the lows and highs of voltage and frequency. Some mention might also be made about circuit applications combining capacitors and inductors with surprisingly useful results.
Club Ham Station activities take place on the 3rd Tuesday of the month in the Collaboratory of the Northbrook Library at 10 AM. This month, the group will assemble on November 19. The new antenna and tuner are working well.
Hams in The Park will be held on the 2nd Saturday of the month. The next meeting will be November 9. The following week will be used to accommodate Rain Days. The group meets in the Picnic Area of Daniel Wright Forest Preserve in Mettawa, Illinois at 2 PM.
AUCTION RESULTS: Relu NJ9R reported that the Club received $1,097 at the recent Auction, which is about $200 less than in 2023. A lively discussion followed about possible improvements. These range from having better items to auction to discontinuing it entirely. The group concluded that it is difficult to optimize this important revenue source, and we should give improvements a high priority yet this year.
PUBLIC SERVICE: John W9JM suggested an idea to make members more aware of outside activities and increase club members’ participation. We could give points (or badges or pins) for participating in outside activities like Fox hunt or Field Day. A prize ($) could be given to the member who has most points at the end of the year.
John mentioned that some volunteers arrived to the TREK 100 event at 2 AM. One benefit of participating in that event this year was we got 2 new volunteers for TREK 100 in 2025.
RECRUITING “YOUNGER” MEMBERS TO THE CLUB:
There was no report on the results of last months’ activity.
Donn W9TOC once made a Ham Radio presentation to our Club. He asked the Board for permission to make the same presentation to UW Madison. Without hesitation, his request was APPROVED.
In Closing: President Don Whiteman called for a motion-to-adjourn, which was made, seconded and unanimously APPROVED at 8:32 CST.
Respectfully submitted:
Dick Hagedorn KD9TGX