Holland Amateur Radio Club General Membership Meeting Minutes for April 9, 2012 Meeting called to order at 7:02 PM by Vice-president Joe, N8FQ. He led off with introductions from around the room. Joe turned the floor over to Jeff, KB8QAP, who gave a very impressive demonstration of various types of “Go-Bags”, that is, bags loaded with the proper items and ready to go out the door. Jeff showed his main “bad news” bags, for surviving until Plan B. He then showed his HF go bag, complete with antenna, battery and Yaesu FT 857, which unfortunately, was not the door prize. Jeff had handouts listing what was in the first bag, and this list will be posted on the web site. Business Meeting. Joe opened with the reading of last month’s minutes, which were read and approved, and then the treasurer’s report which was also read and approved. The balance for the club is $ 4,814.02 New Business. Laryn, K8TVZ mentioned to the club that he would like to start looking at a new repeater controller to replace the 25 year old unit at Holland hospital. He will be talking to other technical chairs and look at controllers at Dayton. This is not a request to purchase, but a scouting trip. Phil, K8PVH mentioned that Jim, W8MRR is working on a printed membership list. Old Business. Joe brought up the concern for volunteer communicators for Tulip Time. It was pointed out that there are two distinct groups that operate: the parade lineup crew, and the crew that teams up with the medical volunteers from the Red Cross. The club directly operates the first group, and OCEC (Ottawa County Emergency Communication) handles the second. At this time, Joe introduced Don Meyer, KB8ODB, who is the new EC (Emergency Coordinator) for Ottawa County, reporting to Beth Thomas, Ottawa County’s Director of Emergency Management. Don had many items to talk about, with the immediate concern is supplying an adequate number of communicators for the Tulip Time Parade. There was extensive information shared back and forth between Don and the club. Don did ask that most members of HARC would serve their communities very well by becoming a member of OCEC. There are some changes regarding OCEC occurring, and those will be relayed to the HARC members via the reflector shortly. Don then asked for a volunteer from HARC to coordinate the communicators for the three days of Tulip Time. Bryan Leenheer, KD8LDX stepped forward for this task. If you would like to help with the medical communications part of the parade, please contact Bryan at Bryan.Leenheer (at) gmail.com Meeting closed at 9:08 PM Submitted April 12, 2012, Tom Bosscher