Minutes of the January 2011 meeting of the Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club

At 7:00 PM the meeting was called to order by President Royce Rainwater

Old Business

The 60 ft. tower that Bill Farris is donating will be taken down soon. Two weeks after it is taken down, bids for the tower and antennas will close.  All the equipment and items not sold by that time will be posted on ebay by Mike Bell.

Treasurer Rick Deaton provided an update regarding realigning the members of the board of directors.  As of December 31, 2010, there is only one voting member.  Current officers do not vote and the bylaws do not provide a way to replace a voting member or appoint someone to the board.  This is one of several items that the board needs to review. There will be a brief board of directors meeting tonight after the club meeting. A club’s bylaws are available on the web site.

President Royce Rainwater reported that there has been no action regarding the van discussed at the last meeting.  We are waiting on the television station’s management to determine if they are willing to donate the vehicle.

The club sent an invoice to Clearchannel Broadcasting for the expenses for the gravel at the repeater site.

New Business

The club’s web site has been hosted by godaddy.com.  The web page recently crashed and is now being hosted at Jim’s hosting account.  Mark Clayton made a motion to keep the club’s web site and the hamfest web site hosted at Jim’s account and cancel the service with godaddy.com.  It was seconded, voted on and passed. The web site will be down for several days during the transition but Jim will post an alternative site. The transition and change in service will not cost the club additional money. The web site for the hamfest has been updated.

An emergency communications exercise in May will regionally cover the areas on the fault line. Hospitals are preparing to have more licensed personnel to provide communications. The plan is to have a technician class with ARRl curriculum on Saturday and testing on Sunday before May to get people licensed. More information will be provided when a date and location is secured.

The hamfest on Saturday, April 2 is ARRL approved and Jim Scott has secured the program for February meeting.  Mike Bell made a motion that the meeting be adjourned. It was seconded, voted on and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.