General Membership Meeting Minutes October 9, 2017 The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by Nick, KD8JBG. Secretary’s report accepted as posted. Treasurer’s report (Rich, WA8MTI): General Fund = $3,071.16 Membership Fund = $189.55 Cash on hand = $5 Total = $3,265.71 Upcoming Events: “Ham in a Day” Ham in a Day will be held at 1pm on December 9th at the VictoryPoint Ministries Youth Building. VE Testing follows each event at 6pm. For more information, or to register for the Ham in a Day class, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/holohiad E.A.T. This month’s E.A.T. meeting is going to be on October 23, 2017 led by Jeff, KD8THX. 2 Meter Net – The 2m net of the Holland Amateur Radio Club will begin at 7:30 at 147.06. All amateur radio enthusiasts are welcome to join the net. Please check in and join the fun! Feel free to reach out to Ed to take Net control. Simplex Net - Plan to be on 2 Meter Simplex at 146.430 MHz, now starting at 8:30P in the evening. This net is headed up by Aaron Folkert, KD8VUN. If you would like to act as net control or have any ideas for improving the net, please contact Aaron. Hope to hear you on the air! OCARA has a meeting on Thursday night, October 12th in the EOC Training Room at the Fillmore Complex. Ottawa County Emergency Management is offering a CERT Training Session on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-9PM October 23,2017 through November 22,2017 (excluding Nov. 15th) Participants must attend all classes to receive their certificate of completion. The training will be held at Ottawa County Fillmore Complex EOC. To register, contact: Jay Poll via phone at 616.842.7461 or email at OCCERT.CC@gmail.com or kingpark4438@yahoo.com. Old Business: Park2Park: Todd, W8YHF gave a report on Park2Park event, this was the third year of HARC involvement in the Park2Park race, which benefits Neighbors Plus. Todd thanked all 19 of the volunteers that helped out; and mentioned that the organizers of the event are looking forward to our participation again next year. Michigan State Parks on the Air (MSPOTA): From the MSPOTA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MSPOTA2017/): “The NORTHERN MICHIGAN AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE TEAM (NM8RT) is working directly with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation Division to operate a three year HAM Radio event "Michigan State Parks on the Air". MSPOTA is slated to kick-off in June of 2017.” HARC activated Holland State Park. Repeater: IRLP Node is back up and running. Jeff is going to work on interfacing the IRLP Node with Raspberry Pi rather than some of the dated equipment we have it running on currently. HARC feels it important to keeping the IRLP Node up and running. Ike, K8EMU attended Holland Twp. meeting along with Fitz, KC8KML. Holland Charter Township is proposing a 70 foot height restriction on towers; anything higher would require a variance. Other local townships allow 90-100 feet. Hams in attendance discussed the merits of Amateur Radio and the way that local tree cover makes tall towers preferable. The Bylaws Committee will begin to meet via email to review our current bylaws and suggest any updates. Great Lakes HamCon was this past weekend, October 7th and 8th at MIS in Brooklyn, MI. A number of members were in attendance. Kim indicated that information that was going around the event was that attendance was around 2,000 and the event broke even on their first year of the event. New Business: Phil, K8PVH & Nick, KD8JBG are working to communicate with the Holland BPW to try and get a tour of the new power plant. Tom, KD8DEG at the second hand ham store is looking for volunteers to move equipment that is owned by the club at the store that needs to be moved around. If you can help Tom and the club in this endeavor please meet at the shop on Saturday, October 14th at 9:00am. Sideband Net – Sidewinders around Michigan is held on Sunday evenings at 9:30P on 144.155 USB. The business meeting was adjourned at 7:32 pm. Submitted: Josh Barnes, KE8DXB Holland ARC Secretary secretary@hollandarc.org Please contact the Secretary with comments or corrections.