General Membership Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2014

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Tom, K8TB.

Secretary's Report:

Minutes of the August 2014 meeting were accepted as published on the website.

Treasurer's Report:

	General Fund:	 	$4,130.55
	Membership:   		$386.76

	Total:        		$4,517.31

	Treasurer's report was accepted as read.
	
Opening Remarks:

	Tom, K8TB: The GRARA Swap is this weekend: http://www.w8dc.org/main/page_activities.html

	Phil, K8PVH: OCARA will meet on Monday, September 29th at 7pm in the Ottawa County EOC.  Joe Bell, WD8USA will give a presentation about the National Traffic System (NTS).  Details are available on the reflector.
	 
	Laryn, K8TVZ: There will be a Skywarn meeting on Tuesday, September 23rd in the Emergency Services meeting room at the Ottawa County Fillmore complex.

Upcoming events:

	Programs:

		September:
			E.A.T.: The CW Class continues each Monday at 7pm.
				
		October:
			10/13 Monthly Meeting: TBD
			10/27 E.A.T.: Programming routers for Broadband-Hamnet (http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/)

	ARRL Centennial QSO Party:

		NOTE: Tom, K8TB has posted new info regarding the upcoming Michigan slot (10/15 to 10/22) at http://www.k8tb.org/w1aw.htm. Check there for slot availability.

		From the ARRL Website (http://www.arrl.org/centennial-qso-party):

			"The ARRL Centennial QSO Party is a year-long operating event that celebrates hams making contacts. In the end you will have accumulated points, worked new stations and made new friends all over the world.

			The Centennial QSO Party is made-up of two main activities: (1) W1AW operating portable in each state and most territories; and (2) The Centennial Points Challenge which is the accumulation of points from qualifying contacts made throughout 2014.  To have a score listed online in the Points Challenge competition, logs must be submitted through the  Logbook of the World (LoTW) system.

			W1AW will be on the air from every state and most territories, and it will be easy to work WAS working only W1AW portable operations. This is the first ARRL-sponsored operating event where every member is worth at least one point, so work as many points as you can during 2014! Earn awards based upon points, working all states or working W1AW portable in every state and territory. This is an on-the-air event like no other."
				
		The W1AW/8 contact for Michigan is now Dennis, KT8X.  Michigan's slots begin on 2/19/2014 and 10/15/2014.  The full schedule is available at http://www.arrl.org/files/file/On%20the%20Air/W1AW_2014_sked.pdf
		

	Tom, K8TB will teach a General License class, starting September 24th. The class runs for 8 weeks, with a testing session on the 9th week.  The class will be held at the Grand Rapids Red Cross; the cost is $20.

	On September 20th and 21st, we will be assisting the Red Cross at the Civil War Muster (Van Raalte Farms).  We need a net control operator (or perhaps more than one).


Old Business:

	"Spark in the Park": Tom, K8TB

		The weather forecast impacted the event; attendance was about half of what was expected.

		We received great comments from attendees, and fully expect that this event will grow over time.

		We expect involvement from more clubs in the future.

		Roger Cox, W8IO held a Michigan UHF/VHF Society meeting.  22 people attended.  More information is available at http://mivus.org.
				

	Liability Insurance:

		The policy approved at last month’s meeting has been purchased.

	Club Repeater:

		Laryn, K8TVZ has the new equipment on the bench, and is getting it ready for installation.
		
	VE Testing (Tom, K8TB):

		The Red Cross has been reserved for the new regularly-scheduled VE Testing sessions we discussed last month.

		The testing sessions will be scheduled as follows:
		VE Testing: second Saturday of each even-numbered month at 6pm.
		Ham in a Day: prior to the April, August, and December VE testing sessions at 1pm.

		Information on how to become a VE can be found at http://bit.ly/1CkyAYS.
		
	Last month, Mike, W8DER suggested that we look into scheduling a youth net.  We will discuss this again in the future.

New Business:

	None to report.

The business meeting was adjourned at 7:15pm, followed by a presentation by Bob Heil, K9EID via Skype. 

Submitted:
Todd Boss, W8YHF
Holland ARC Secretary
secretary@hollandarc.org 

Please contact the Secretary with comments or corrections.