Holland Amateur Radio Club Board of Directors Meeting April 6, 2010 Building Committee Extra items in the basement - we didn't decide on what to do with these things.... any ideas? No decisions made, this item will be discussed again at the May meeting. Derrick W8DDN and Ross KD8MGM did a cleanup around the clubhouse this past weekend and all yard waste was put by the curb and the city did a pick up. Jim N8QMD and Kim N8KAL report on bathroom plumbing issues. The problem is somewhere in the plumbing, not in the water service. Alan NV8A got us a great deal on a ladder for the clubhouse and it came with a $10 rebate check which he received and turned over to the club. Education Committee Mike Cole WD8HNA has offered to teach Morse Code classes with help from Ernie W8EL. Fall Classes. Tom K8TB will lead an Extra class and Jim N8QMD will lead a Technician. We have tentatively decided that we should the Technician and Extra run classes on different nights, since they must share the projector and other resources. We will continue the discussion as to whether it would be better to use the fire station conference room for the fall classes. If we receive no donations of Tech and Extra books by this fall we will need to purchase them from ARRL. We will make an announcement about the need for books at the next meeting. Mike Hill W8DER and Chuck Nowak AJ8W will be running holding a Make and Take on antenna building later this spring. Projector Fund. We are now the proud owners of not a new projector and a portable screen. Funds left over are being rolled over to our next club fundraiser, the Repeater Repair Request list. One student asked for a Charitable Contribution receipt for the HARC class fees because HARC is a charitable organization. The student also asked if the fees charged for VE testing were allowable by FCC, and if so were they also deductible? Rick N8GGO wrote a letter to to address these concerns, stating that the class fees did not appear to be deductible since the student had not simply made a donation but had received 'goods and services' for these fees, and that fees for VE testing were allowed and appropriate. He included appropriate sections of FCC Part 97 and IRS publications to substantiate this position. We may use portions of this letter to prepare a handout for students. VE Testing Committee Congratulations to Rick N8GGO on his first successful VE testing session, along with his sidekicks Kim N8KAL, Tom K8TB and Jim KC8KE. Emergency Committee SKYWARN had an impressive HARC turnout. Laryn K8TVZ will continue to configure the 2m and 70cm repeaters for regular net and other operations. We discussed using “Net Mode” and other repeater modes during the Monday night nets to familiarize participants with the various courtesy tones and squelch tail behaviors. Laryn will explore a method to link to the Allegan repeaters. Communications Committee John N8WVN, moderator of our K8DAA Yahoo group, is actively monitoring the group, purging 'spam-type' members who join but don't have emails forwarded or otherwise participate, and enforcing other Terms of Use for this group. He will contact each questionable member via email to verify that they participate in activities and ask that they at least sign up to receive Special Notices email. If he receives no response, he will assume that the account has expired and remove that account. He will deal with members who violate our Terms of Use on an individual basis. Website HARC is waiting for our IRS 501c3 documentation.. Phil K8PVH will make the appropriate contacts and advise when it arrives so that we can take steps to activate PayPal on the website, reapply for our Tax-Free ID at Office Max and other businesses. We will develop a membership form on the web and will discuss items to be included at the next Board meeting. Audio recordings of Last Call Nets can now be downloaded from our Website. We will continue work to develop other memorials for our members who have passed. Miscellaneous Items: We will printing our tri-fold informational brochure so that members can help to promote the club by leaving them at area establishments during their weekly outings. Membership Directory – We need to finalize items that should be on the “sign up sheet” for data and discuss the best way to get the data. How do we verify old booklet info for new booklet? Drew Robinson N8UXP has offered his help. We identified several fundraiser activities, including working at the Poker Zone, holding bake sales at meetings, selling food from Goodies, and selling coupon books. We will continue to solicit input from the membership. Tabled discussion of what to do with equipment donated form the estate of Hollis W8FIZ that has already been itemized and photographed. HARC will not have a Tulip Time Special Station this year. We will try next year. Repeater Repair Laryn K8TVZ will put together a 'wish list' for needed and wanted repairs and upgrades. Recorded by: Jim Heyl, N8QMD, Secretary secretary@hollandarc.org Please contact the Secretary with comments or corrections.