Meeting held at DMI Research
Meeting called to order at 1930
Minutes by Hal, W1EES
Executive members in attendance:
President – Rich Cariello, AA2MF
Vice President – Carol De La Torre – AB4YI
Treasurer – Will Scott, W7WMS
Secretary (temp) – Hal Chase, W1EES
Board member – John Toth, KI4UIP
Board member – Tom Schaeffer, W4CU
Club Trustee – Dave Trewin, KR4U
Immediate past President – Pat Connelly, AA0O
Business meeting start and greeting –
Pledge of Allegiance
New member/guest introductions –
Dave – K4DRW
Mary – KQ4APT
Paul – KT4YEY
New members voted in
Current member introductions
Admin business –
Executive committee met on 11/21/2023 – minutes not posted yet
Treasurers report – Will – W7WMS – Report accepted/approved
Vice presidents report – Carol, AB4YI –
Is setting up year’s schedule for monthly meeting presentations
Investigating application for group messaging (SLACK)
SPARC Reflector
Mailchimp – new email service
VE Testing – Pat, AA0O
SPARCFest – 1 upgrade to Extra – 1 upgrade to General – new Tech
Monthly VE session – 1 upgrade to General – 2 new Techs
Net reports – Billy, KN4LUX – not present
W4GAC trustee – Dave, KR4U – all working well – 160M dipole connected (as an FYI, there was an ARRL CW contest running during the meeting)
W4TA trustee – Carol, AB4YI – is new trustee for W4TA from Executive Board meeting
SPARC Newsletter – SPARC Gap – Bruce, KF4TYA – is looking into expanding the newsletter – ideas he’s working on include reviews on various gear (written by members), related stories of interest, he’d also like to get some assistance on working to get this publication full of interest to all members.
Old business –
This was discussed previously, but never actually got completed – we need VOLUNTEERS for some tower work – no, you don’t have to climb it, in fact, this it to eliminate the need to climb it – we’ve got to get the motor installed to get the raising/lowering of the tower automated! Ed, NZ1Q, is the one to contact for this project.
Speaking of VOLUNTEERS, we could use some members to be Mentors or just folks who are good at some aspect of our hobby – are you good at soldering! Want to help some members not so good at it so they can make cables? Good at Power Poles? I’ll bet there are some members who could use your expertise!
New business –
The SPARC “after-the-holiday” Party – is scheduled to be Wednesday, 10 January 2024, at Brooklyn Pizza (that’s at Seminole Blvd and Park) from 5pm to 9pm (or 1700 to 2100)
Storage trailer – we had equipment stored out back in one of the trailers and the DMI folks wanted to clean it out … so , we removed most/a lot of our “stuff” (currently stored in what used to be our radio room). They have cleaned out what they wanted, and we can now put our “stuff” back – BUT – we want to go through it first – do we really want/need everything?? We have scheduled Saturday, 13 January 2024, as the day to go through everything and sort it all out. We’re going back to that word … VOLUNTEER … please stop by, even for a few hours to give us hand!
Presentation – HF Propagation and the Sun – presented by Ed, NZ1Q
Meeting Adjourned – 2112
50/50 Raffle held