Meeting Minutes
secretary@kwarc.org

Executive Board Meeting Tuesday January 8th /2002

Present: Dennis VA3DLT, Ben VA3BNY, Bob VA3MCK, Bill VE3ETK, Larry VE3LGN, Dave VA3DGS, Paul VE3SY, Dave VE3MRJ. Regrets -Ron VA3TVS

Meeting called to order by the president at 7:30Pm at Ratz-Bechtel Family Centre 

Central Ontario Flea Market: Hugh Baird KWARC our flea market rep has requested $100 for door prize purchases. It was pointed out that we have a $700 float to handle Flea Market expenses. This item to be deferred until more info is available.

Field Day Coordinator: Ben stated that we will need a new Field Day Coordinator. Fred VE3OQB plans to operate a band on that day. Ben will still be a very pro active assistant. We are looking for a willing volunteer. Backyard BBQ experience desirable. Got a student who needs educational job work hours?

CNIB Amateur Radio program donations. Paul and treasurer Dave both commented on solicitations from this group. There is a need to establish a coordinated giving program. We passed a motion last year to contribute an annual donation of $100 subject to annual Exec approval. Paul pointed out that we need to incorporate a standard procedure for donations on behalf of Silent Keys. Motion "That the club treasurer be authorized to make an annual donation of $100 +$25 per SK , in memory of each SK that has at some time been associated with our club. Move Bob, Seconded Paul. Unanimous approval

Purchase agreement of UHF repeater from VA3BNYfor $1.00. Dave VE3MRJ presented a motion to rescind the approval motion of the December Exec meeting. This was accompanied by a detailed rational. In essence, since Ben had not signed the agreement, it was assumed that he had decided to cancel the sale. After much discussion, a vote was taken,. The motion was passed. It is expected that the issue will surface again when some missing procedural documents are located.

The ongoing issue of club members installing equipment at "our" tower sites again surfaced, along with the usual lengthy discourse. While the previous Insurance issue was a red herring, there are now new issues . The contention is that no club member should be permitted to approach, or install anything at, a KWARC site, unless approved by the Board of Directors. As this item is rather complex, and the issue poorly understood, the president directed that it be moved forward to the February agenda for adequate time to study.

VE3RBM upgrade: Paul VE3SY wishes to offer KWARC a GE Master 11 UHF repeater tuned and ready to go, in exchange for the old VE3RBM repeater, less duplexer, which will be used with the upgrade repeater. Motion to accept - Paul, second by - Larry -- All in favour.

The new Repeater Controller. Treasurer Dave inquired about a bill for this device. Ben said that the invoice is yet to come, but that he had covered it with his credit card in the mean time. 

Stratford Voter location. Ben has been approached by Stratford ARC. They would like to talk to exec about positioning a repeater voter in our territory, possibly at a KWARC site. (This involves a VHF receiver and a 220 relay back into Stratford). Ben was directed, as our Tech Rep to find out exactly what they would like to do, and to report back at our next meeting. 

Availability of print material for the Advanced Amateur license: VP Bill was informed that the revised test is a licensed RAC product and that RAC should be approached directly. The actual course material is available for no charge at the Industry Canada web site. Bill will do a follow up

Proposed KWARC Code Practice service: Bill has offered to prepare a code practice program for license upgrades to 5wpm, with assistance from Ben for implementation aspects. This would likely be programmed into our VHF NASA Link station 147.510 for automated operation, when the Link is down. This proposal was enthusiastically accepted. 

VE3KSR is old and tired: Ben is up there at all times of the day - year servicing the beast. We need a new Repeater plus a backup, a Controller, ULR link , and some will power. And winter is upon us. We do have access to another museum grade repeater. This issue has surfaced before. VE3KSR is considered by many to be our showcase repeater. 

Establishment of a Capital Fund c/w administrators? Paul discussed the success of generating revenue by web site auctioning of donated radio equipment. This was demonstrated at our January club meeting. We should consider encouraging donations by the estates of SK's by such low key approaches as dedicating a portion of the return to the charity of the donor's choice, along with a note of thanks to the donor. This latter is already a current practice. The motion was put by Paul that we establish a committee to set up procedures to make this intent operational. This was approved. Paul is willing to continue to handle the selling arrangements.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:25pm.

Larry VE3LGN
acting scribe