W0MG Board Meeting Minutes, December 2021


The NIRAA board met at 6:30 PM on December 11, immediately before the October club meeting.

attendees:
	President: Al Jones (KB0VGG)
	Vice-President: Curt Wilson (NK0T)
	Secretary: Nathan Fisher (N0ZYC)
	Treasurer: Dave Kelly (KD0DK)
	Director 2020: Jan Fitkin (KE0IWP)
	Director 2021: John Humpal (WB0MAR)
	Director 2022: Taryn Colby (N0TKC)

Discussed need for an activities committee.  This is specifically for "non-regular" events such as Field Day
or the monthly after-the-meeting presentations.  Board approves forming an activities committee.

We also need to be looking for younger blood to pass on the responsibilities of maintaining the club's repeaters.
These individuals wouldn't necessarily be involved with repeater repair/construction/rebuilding, but should have
some basic knowledge of diagnostics and performance testing.  They would also be the ones to coordinate
repeater installation, maintenance, repairs, and removals.

We currently aren't maintaining a "hot swap" repeater for 94, is this something we want to do?

Discussed the yearly audit of the club's finances.  Recently the audits have been irregularly timed and not
always getting done as frequently as they should be - do we want to set up a specific date to have the audit
done by?  As stated in the Bylaws:
"An audit of books shall be done at the end of the physical year by a committee appointed by the president."
Jan can do an audit but won't be back in town until around late March.
JAN QWE CAN DO THAT AROUND MAY-JULY

VE Testing: we have a number of new VEs but they need training and we could do with some more VEs.  Do we want
to set up a VE training session?  A single short session should be sufficient to pass the test.  Most of getting
certified to be a VE is simply stepping up and going through the motions, and a training session may be just
what people need to motivate them to get on it.

Our club has quite a few new members, many of them fairly new to ham radio, who would benefit from an Elmer.
We should think about assembling an "Elmer pool" to be a resource-on-tap for new hams or anyone that needs it.

We could further boost our membership with a membership drive.  Discussed an email blast or conventional postal
mailing to hams in the area.  John has counted over 200 currently licensed hams just in the wloo/cf area alone.
Nate has roughly 140 in his email list that the minutes go out to.

Jan also suggested inviting VIPs/mayors/EMS/disaster coordinators etc to our meetings to improve visibility.
Also weren't we listing our club meetings in the local newspapers?

Taryn noted the club's facebook page is pretty active, we can advertise there.  We could use more activities than
just the club meetings though, the activities committee should help with that.

Discussed ideas for presentations: go box?  weather-spotting?  Weather-spotting may be an activity that will draw
in people, it used to be much more popular in the area when we had drills, presentations, and activations.  Is
Chuck still activating the ARES weather net in times of bad weather?  We should look into options for restoring
enthusiasm for that activity.  APRS would be a big improvement to help the coordinator direct the herd.

Harold's a "committee of one" right now for field day, he could use some help.  Will mention that during the
club meeting.

Jan took pictures of MacFarlane Park for later.  We have the Hickory Hills shelter reserved (for one day), and
the park is opem 7am-10pm.

We also need to discuss our upcoming Winter Field Day, maybe in leu of a January presentation?  The Rocket Club
presentation (April) could be a draw for outside attendees, we should advertise it.  Need to make sure they
are OK with the late hours of our club meeting. (John will confirm)  This also ties in with radio since the
rockets often use radio telemetry and assisting in recovery.


Meeting adjourned at 6:59 pm