General Membership Meeting Minutes
January 11, 2016

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Nick, KD8JBG.

Secretary's Report (Todd, W8YHF):

	Minutes of the December 2015 meeting and the 2016 executive board meeting were accepted as published on the website.

Treasurer's Report (Rich, WA8MTI):

	General Fund:	 	$3,561.00
	Membership:   		$36.76

	Total:        		$3,597.76

	Treasurer's report was accepted as read.
	

Opening Remarks:

	Thanks were given to our 2015 officers:
		President: Tom Bosscher, K8TB
		Vice President: Bryan Leenheer, KD8LDX
		Treasurer: Phil Van Huis, K8PVH
		Secretary: Phil Malburg, KD8TEW

Equipment Report:

	Dave, WA8RSA: Put up another TNC at Fillmore complex; others are located at Holland Hospital and the Holland Red Cross chapter house.  These devices support 2 meter packet operation on a frequency of 145.070.

Upcoming events:

	Programs:
		January:
			1/19 HARC Banquet: Farmhouse restaurant, Zeeland.  See the reflector (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/k8daa/conversations/topics) for more details.
			1/25 E.A.T.: We will review the new electronics training videos that the club has acquired.
		February:
			2/8: Ken, AC8OF will show and explain the SDRPlay receiver (http://www.sdrplay.com/).
			2/22 E.A.T.: We will view two more training videos.

	VE Testing:

		VE Testing is conducted at the Red Cross on the second Saturday of each even-numbered month at 6pm.
		“Ham in a Day” events are held prior to the April, August, and December VE testing sessions at 1pm.
		The registration form for the Ham in a Day class is located at: http://tinyurl.com/harchiad 

	SKYWARN Training - Ottawa and Kent County SKYWARN Teams: 
		The SKYWARN training will be held at the Jenison Center for the Arts, located at:
		8375 20th Ave
		Jenison, MI 49428

		Please enter off the Bauer St. entrance, just north of the Center.
		Our training this year will be held February 26th 2016, beginning at 6:30pm.  Doors will open at 5:30pm.
		There will be several organizations with booths set up for you to enjoy. Please feel free to arrive early to take a look around and reserve your seats.
		Please see https://skywarn2016.eventbrite.com for registration info.

	National Parks on the Air (NPOTA):

		From the ARRL Website (http://www.arrl.org/NPOTA):
			
			"Throughout 2016, Amateur Radio will be helping the National Park Service celebrate their 100th anniversary.
			Hams from across the country will activate NPS units, promote the National Park Service and showcase Amateur Radio to the public."
		
		You can follow NPOTA activity on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NPOTA/ or on Twitter: @ARRL_NPOTA
		
	Winter Field Day (http://www.winterfieldday.com/):
	
		The contest runs for 24 hours during the last full weekend in January each year from 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Saturday to 1700 UTC (12:00 noon EST) Sunday.
		For 2016, the dates are January 30 and 31, 2016.
		
	North Korea Activation:
	
		There will be an official activation of North Korea this summer.  Polish operator Dom Grzyb, 3Z9DX (QRZ: https://www.qrz.com/db/3z9dx) will be operating as P5/3Z9DX.
		More information is available via his website: http://k38dom0.wix.com/3z9dx
	
	Ed, KF8EV is looking for net control operators, especially for the month of March.  Please see the reflector for more details.
	
	A geosynchronous digital amateur satellite will be launched in 2017 by Virginia Tech (http://bit.ly/1Q52ZhD).  A ground terminal is being developed to enable hams to access the satellite (http://www.amsat.org/?p=4822).
		
Old Business:

	December 12 Ham in a Day and VE Testing Results:
		Ham in a Day:
			William Berendson, Grand Rapids: KE8CWB 
			Fawn Colombatto, Millington: KE8CWA 
			Sam Clarke, Holland: KE8CVZ 
			Matthew Donahue, Marshall: KE8CVY 
			Timothy Schnobel, Holland: KE8CVV 
			Tony Tran, Lowell: KE8CVU 
			Ward Perry, Grand Haven: KE8CVT
			Mansel Reed, Lowell [tech and general]: KE8CVW
			Justin Van Deusen, Holland [tech, general, AND extra]: AC8VH
	
		Walk-ins:
			Kevin Piszczek, Whitehall [tech]: KE8CVX.
			Jack Wesseldyke, Holland [general]: KE8CIO
			
		The Ham in a Day program has been mentioned on two podcasts recently:
			Amateur Radio Newsline (http://bit.ly/1SvlvUN [story begins at 6:03])
			ICQ Podcast (http://bit.ly/1TvAaAc [story begins at 41:40]).

New Business:

	Tom, K8TB will be presenting proposed changes to the club bylaws at a future meeting.  These proposed changes will close loopholes and simplify overly restrictive items.
	
	Program Ideas:
		Nick, KD8JBG:
			Motorola DMR
			AMSAT
			Gordon West - Skype Visit
			SATIRN
			VHF Rover
			Ottawa County FCC Database
			Solar24
			Ottawa Co. Radio System
			Bring 'n' Brag
		Phil, K8PVH - Foxhunts
		Dave, WA8RSA - Field Trip to Coast Guard Station
		Ike, K8EMU - Field Trip to TV Station (WZZM or WGVU)
		
	EAT Meetings (Tom, K8TB):
		Tom submitted a motion to spend $34.95 to purchase library of basic electronics videos for EAT meetings.  Motion passed.
		
	Get Out of the Cabin Dinner (f.k.a. New Hams Dinner):
		The dinner will be held at 1:30pm on Saturday, February 27th at Old Country Buffet, Rogers Plaza (https://goo.gl/maps/aLaVBAxzzQD2).
		There will be door prizes for new hams.  Tom submitted a motion to spend $30 for our club's share of the door prizes.  3 other clubs will also be sponsoring for a total of $120.  Motion passed.

The business meeting was adjourned at 7:45pm, followed by a video presentation on the Navassa K1N DXpedition.

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

Please contact the Secretary with comments or corrections.