Minutes of the August 2016 meeting of the Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club

Minutes of the FSAARC meeting of August 15, 2016:

The meeting was called to order by Rory Bowers K5CKS. The minutes of last month’s meeting were approved with a motion to accept as posted on the internet by Joe Stokes, K5JPS and seconded by Richard Davidson W5ACP. The treasurer’s report was given by treasurer, Cathy Haugh KF5UYT, the July 2016 balance forward was $5,012.85. A $37.00 electric bill was paid and deposits of $53.00 were made for an ending balance of $5,028.85. A motion was made to accept the report as presented by Ray Van Syckle KG5GTK and was seconded by Joel Goldstein W5GOL. Motion carried. Wayne Johnson W5OFN – repeater committee chair says we need to get something together to fix the building and clear the grounds. A date of Sept. 14 and Sept. 17 was agreed upon to do this work. New business bought up by Mike Cole W5TMC. Looking for volunteers in getting involved in the ARRL Gavel award. We have only 2% of the club members responding to Mike’s email. Those who participate would submit their contest logs for 9 different ARRL contests to have them count for the club. Mike has to send in a roster of participants if you want to be involved. Send Mike an email if you are interested. This helps the club out on WAS and DXCC and to get a “Gavel”. Should start in 2017. For more info go to the ARRL’s website and search for gavel. The NAQP SSB contest is this weekend as well as a RTTY roundup on Sunday. No old business. No presentation. If you have ideas for a presentation, please let a club officer know. This past weekend we had 11 people show up to a RTTY information class. Pat Hopkins N5VMO and K5JPS put it on. W5TMC is putting on a CW learning class on the 145.110 machine nightly. This is going well. We had 3 people upgrade this past Saturday when VE testing was done. Two who were Ray Van Syckle KG5GTK upgraded to General and Cheri Burks KG5EFB upgraded to Extra. Some other informative and how-to classes are upcoming. The next NPOTA will probably have more hands on for the digital radio setup and hands on usage. This will probably occur near the end of September. Mike Bell K5JMB then made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The 50/50 drawing was done and W5TMC won keeping $2.00 and donating the rest to the club.

Respectfully submitted

Jeff Ricketts K5KDX acting secretary