The 2011 MARCO Annual Membership Meeting took place in El Paso, Texas from March 31 to April 2.
Danny W4DAN and Caroline, Arnold WB6OJB and Joan, and Jeff K6JW and Rowie arrived by automobile. Mary AE4BX came in her RV after wandering the country for about two months. The rest of us (Warren KD4GUA, Lou WA1HGE, Ellen KC9ARN and Paul N6DMV and Elsa) flew to El Paso. Linda KE5BQK and Bernie KD5QHV served as our capable and gracious hosts.
Unfortunately, KD4GUA and WA1HGE were delayed by bad weather. The rest of us gathered at the El Paso Marriott on Thursday evening, March 31 for a drink, and then adjourned across the street to the Cattle Baron for dinner.
On Friday morning, April 1, we traveled in a motorcade out to the airfield at Santa Teresa, New Mexico, where the plane KD5QHV flies usually resides. We had hoped to see “Big Bird” but it was away for maintenance. The Business Meeting was conducted at the hangar and was accompanied by a delicious breakfast featuring breakfast burritos and assorted other goodies.
Following the conclusion of the Business Meeting we all headed back to town, taking the alternate route across Franklin Mountain. This afforded us great views of the desert, the western portion of El Paso and Fort Bliss.
Later in the day we took a tour of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson desalination plant, the largest such inland facility in the world. Xavier Orozco, our guide, clearly and succinctly explained the workings of the plant and fielded questions from the group.
In the evening we descended en masse on Julio's for a tasty Tex-Mex dinner.
Saturday was hot and dry but luckily not windy. The group members spent their free time in various ways. Some visited the El Paso Art Museum while others toured the U.S. Border Patrol Museum. A small group returned to Santa Teresa to take a look at “Big Bird,” which had returned to its perch.
The annual MARCO Banquet took place at the Cattleman's Ranch in Fabens, Texas. All agreed with KD5QHV's assessment that “The worst food I ever ate here was delicious.” Happy hour saw the world premiere performance of the MARCO Blues Band, with Linda “Evita” Krasowski on blues harp and Jeff “Howlin'” Wolf and “Buffalo Bruce” Small on guitar. El Paso's own Pat “Guitar Slim” Chase was featured guest artist and graciously lowered his standards to allow the rest of us to participate. Thanks, Slim!!
We also had a visit from Andrew Jackson of the Border Patrol. He was kind enough to answer questions from the audience. Bernie Krasowski raffled a bottle of Shiraz uniquely labeled in CW, raising $140 for MediShare.
All too soon the weekend came to a close, and good friends were forced to part company.
We gather again in 2012 in Dayton, Ohio, and in 2013 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. See you there!
Watch video highlights of the meeting:
The meeting was called to order at 9:45 AM MDT by President Linda Krasowski KE5BQK.
Members in attendance were President Linda Krasowski KE5BQK, President-Elect Mary Favaro AE4BX, Secretary Danny Centers W4DAN, Treasurer Lou Wiederhold WA1HGE, Newsletter Editor Warren Brown KD4GUA, MediShare Chairperson Arnold Kalan WB6OJB, Bernie Krasowski KD5QHV, Paul Lukas N6DMV, Ellen Przekop KC9ARN, Jeff Wolf K6JW, Teresa Small and Bruce Small KM2L. Harry Przekop WB9EDP participated by telephone.
The minutes of the 2010 meeting were read and approved.
The Secretary reported that MARCO has 235 members, including 40 who are not current with their dues payments. Total membership is up by about 20, largely due to the Secretary's practice of sending a copy of the newsletter to new check-ins to the net. Some are also recruited at the Dayton Hamvention.
N3IM, N5RTF and W4DAN will be present at Dayton this year. The Ramada now demands a deposit for meeting rooms, the banquet, and also individual rooms set aside as a block for MARCO. The latter is problematic. W4DAN will speak with the hotel about this matter when he is in Dayton.
We now have a MARCO credit card. Treasurer WA1HGE must approve any expenditures using this card.
The Treasurer reported that while MARCO's annual inflows are steady, our expenses vary, primarily due to the cost of the annual meeting. Expenditure for the newsletter averages $2100 annually. At the close of 2010 total deposits were $10781.14 in the bank account and $6345.03 in a CD.
KM2L reported that despite improved security practices, the MARCO Website was hacked again. After some research, we believe that the attacked exploited a flaw in Filezilla, the ftp client that the Internet Committee was using to upload content. KM2L no longer uses this program for uploads, and we have been problem-free for the past few months.
MARCO Sunday morning Grand Rounds as heard at KM2L's station are now available via Skype. W1BEW and N4TSC are regular listeners. W0RPH and N5RTF often stop by.
KD4GUA delivered the Newsletter Editor's report. He welcomes contributions from members, especially technical articles. It was the consensus of those in attendance that the quality of the Aether is consistently outstanding, and that Warren is to be commended. WB6OJB commented that his wife had copied the recent article on medication expiration dates and distributed it to several of her friends.
WB6OJB and WA1HGE presented the MediShare report. The current MediShare balance is $6024, up from $3109 last year. We do not currently have a project, but this level of funding would allow us to proceed with one. There was considerable discussion about how to find a suitable project. Among the suggestions were contacting Mike Marks of Bush Hospital Foundation, the Medical Amateur Radio Society of Japan, MARCO members in Japan, and Direct Relief International. Additionally, WB6OJB has a contact in Zambia, and he will see if there might be a project available there. WA1HGE recalled that we had a communications project with an African hospital and its affiliated clinics a few years ago, and suggested that we contact them to see if they require any additional help. KD4GUA will contact Smitty, W6CS and KM2L will check back issues of the newsletter for contact information.
Duane Wyatt once again requested that MARCO consider funding his Kids' Club project. The consensus of the meeting was that we have previously dealt with this issue. Regardless of the project's worthiness, it is not consistent with MARCO's mission, and we consider the question closed.
WA1HGE commented on last year's appointment of KM2L as Assistant Treasurer. He indicated that the Secretary, W4DAN is the Assistant Treasurer, and that this action was redundant. W4DAN clarified the thinking behind this action. When Robin Staebler served as Secretary/and de facto Treasurer, no one else was familiar with his procedures, and no one else had access to the membership database. When he became ill, it was a difficult chore to recover the data. MARCO should take steps to avoid a similar scenario in the future, should an officer become incapacitated. W4DAN further recommended that the current membership database be converted from Filemaker to Microsoft Access or an equivalent and possibly be made available to additional officers. KM2L will explore online possibilities (“the cloud”). K6JW suggested the creation of a procedure manual by each officer, to be entrusted to the President for safekeeping.
KE5BQK and KD5QHV commissioned the creation of a new MARCO banner, displayed for the first time at this meeting. It will go with W4DAN to Dayton.
KD4GUA took possession of a 1500 watt amplifier as arranged by Stuart Oserman WA9ZPL. The amplifier requires a 220V line, and Warren does not presently have one in his shack. This is an “XYL” problem.
KD4GUA suggested that we start Grand Rounds one hour later, as propagation is better at that time. This will necessitate a change in frequency, as 14.307 MHz is occupied by the Air Force Flyers net after the end of our net. It was decided that near the end of Grand Rounds, KD5QHV/KE5BQK, N6DMV, WB6OJB and KC9ARN/WB9EDP will search for an unoccupied frequency, and interested participants will QSY to that frequency to continue discussion. Once we find a reliable frequency, we will move the net there permanently.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 AM MDT.
MARCO's annual meeting took place in Dayton, Ohio from May 13th to May 15th 2010 in conjunction with Hamvention.
Members filtered into Dayton throughout Thursday, May 13. Those with flights connecting through Chicago experienced weather-related delays and a difficult, tiring trip. Our headquarters hotel, formerly a Holiday Inn, was sold to Ramada in December, 2009. It appears to some of us that maintenance and housekeeping have slipped a bit.
Due to a tornado watch in southern Ohio, many of us decided to dine at the hotel on Thursday evening. Jeff K6JW and Bruce KM2L staked out a place in the bar. We were joined by John WD8NMV and then by Linda KE5BQK and Bernie KD5QHV. We adjourned to the dining room and the party soon grew to include Chip N5RTF, Keith N3IM, Joe WB2MXJ and Paul N6DMV. Danny W4DAN and Caroline, Arnold WB6OJB and Joan, and Warren KD4GUA decided to brave the weather and ventured out for dinner.
The annual MARCO Membership Meeting was held at the hotel on Friday morning (see minutes of that meeting, below). After adjournment, we all headed for HARA Arena and Hamvention. Miraculously the sun came out and remained for the entire weekend. Attendance at Hamvention appeared to be fairly good, and the vendors I spoke to reported having a good year. There were no blockbuster new products. Ten Tec is bringing out a snappy new QRP rig, and Flexradio showed off their Flex-1500, an HF and 6 meter QRP rig small enough to almost fit in your pocket. Clothing was the new fad, as Begali Keys offered T-shirts and belts bearing their logo and Tokyo Hi-Power Labs was selling the attractive Japanese jackets that their sales staff wear. The best flea market artifact: a stainless steel cadaver storage unit on casters, slightly used and yours for $500!Minutes of the 2010 Medical Amateur Radio Council Annual Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 8:45 AM EDT by President Harry Przekop WB9EDP.
Members in attendance were President Harry Przekop WB9EDP, President-Elect Linda Krasowski KE5BQK, Secretary Danny Centers W4DAN, Treasurer Lou Wiederhold WA1HGE, Newsletter Editor Warren Brown KD4GUA, MediShare Chair Arnold Kalan WB6OJB, Mary Favaro AE4BX, Joe Breaux WB2MXJ, Paul Lukas N6DMV, John Bennet WD8NMV, Bernie Krasowski KD5QHV, Mark Young N2OJD, Jeff Wolf K6JW, Keith Adams N3IM, Chip Keister N5RTF, Jay Garlitz AA4FL, Lionel Lieberman 4X1LL, Dave Leiberman KT8E, Bobbie Williams W1BEW, Tom Brewer W0RPH, Carl Rowland N0ARN, and Bruce Small KM2L.
The minutes of the 2009 meeting were read and approved.
The Secretary reported that MARCO has 215 members, including 32 who are not current with their dues payments. After last year's meeting, the membership database was purged of lapsed members. We do continue to recruit new members. They learn of us through the Website or by hearing the Sunday morning net. The ad in QST is not very effective at inducing people to join.
The Treasurer reported that in 2009 our cash inflow was up by $2907. Due to a computer error, the outflow numbers were not correct on the printed report, however advertising and newsletter expenses were steady, and MediShare expenses were minimal. The MARCO bank account balance was $10382 and we had a CD worth $6312. The MediShare account balance was $3109.
The Internal Revenue Service now requires filing of an annual report by all nonprofit groups. WA1HGE stated that he had filed the necessary paperwork and that we were in compliance with this regulation.
WB6OJB noted that a $50 expenditure was assigned to MediShare. This was for a gavel, and should have come from the MARCO account.
Internet Committee: N5RTF reported that the set of audio recordings of Grand Rounds has not been updated recently as reception has been poor.
KM2L reported that the Web site was hacked in December, 2009. Each page had a line of code inserted that redirected visitors to a malicious web site. As a result of that incident the Internet Committee has upgraded the security features of the site, and there have been no recurrences.
We receive frequent misdirected emails intended either for Medi-Share (a health insurance company) or Project MediShare (concerned with medical care in Haiti). KM2L developed a boilerplate response to these messages.
Much of the content on the MediShare web site is outdated. Members of the Internet Committee are willing to code and upload new material if those active in MediShare can provide it. MARCO members were also asked to report erroneous content or broken links on the MARCO web site. N5RTF suggested that the Æther publish a request to the membership for items that could be placed on the web site.
KT8E suggested that we explore a Google Ad Words campaign to help drive traffic to the site. As he has experience in this area, he offered to join the Internet Committee.
KD4GUA presented the MARCO Net report. The number of check-ins to Grand Rounds continues to set records.
There had been a recent suggestion from one member to limit the club officers' reports at the start of the net. WA1HGE spoke in favor of maintaining the current practice, as it facilitates communication amongst the officers and membership. No action was taken.
N4TSC has advocated simultaneous transmission of Grand Rounds over Skype. He is one of many stations who cannot reliably hear the net control station. He sent KD4GUA an article from QST describing such a system. N2OJD spoke in favor of this idea, and thought that at some point it could be expanded to include participation by Technician class licensees. The Internet Committee will work on setting up Skype simulcasting of the net control station's remarks.
N5RTF re-raised the issue of obtaining a 1.5 KW amplifier for the net control station. This had been discussed in 2009. WB6OJB suggested establishing a special fund for the purchase of an amplifier. Pledges would be solicited from MARCO's membership. The motion to establish a special amplifier fund was passed. W1BEW offered to speak with his contacts at Ten Tec to see if they would be willing to donate equipment. N2OJD offered to do the same with Palstar.
WB6OJB asked for discussion of the operating frequency of the CW net that precedes Grand Rounds. According to WA1HGE, some CW operators have experienced QRM at 14.307 MHz. W4DAN noted that many radios tuned to 14.307 MHz SSB would not hear a CW signal on that frequency. His suggestion was to move the CW operators to 14.306 and the SSB operators to 14.308 prior to Grand Rounds. KM2L suggested that the net control station remind Grand Rounds participants to listen for CW stations before transmitting on 14.307. The group consensus was that the CW operating frequency should be at the discretion of the CW operators.
KD4GUA presented the newsletter report. He is actively seeking radio-related submissions for publication in the Æther. There was discussion of whether the newsletter should publish the names of donors to MediShare and the amount of their donation. Many charitable organizations publish lists of their donors but group them in categories by amount. It was decided that Æther would follow this practice.
WB6OJB presented the MediShare report. We do not currently have sufficient funds to support a project. N3IM suggested that if we did adopt a project and publicized it, donations would increase accordingly.
WA1HGE reported that MediShare is still owed $300 by Motorola in Sri Lanka, stemming from an overpayment to the radio project there.
AA4FL is paying the monthly fee for MediShare's website and considering this as a donation to the organization.
New Business:
WA1HGE moved that MARCO donate $100 to Handi Hams. Motion approved.
W4DAN indicated that he had received an email from JA1BOM, a member of the Medical Amateur Radio Society of Japan. They are interested in possible collaboration with MARCO. K6JW asked what their goals and objectives are, but no one at the meeting knew. Their website is http://atlantic.gssc.nihon-u.ac.jp. The consensus is that we should proceed.
WB2MXJ suggested that we submit an article for QST detailing the history and purpose of MARCO. W4DAN answered that this was done in the past but QST edited it to the point that it was unrecognizable.
K6JW introduced Duane Wyatt's request that MARCO fund a “Kids Club amateur radio exposure unit.” This request was considered last year, and it was decided that it was not directly relevant to the mission or purpose of MARCO. After reconsideration, it was decided that this is still the case.
Election of Officers
Nominees for President Elect were AE4BX and K6JW. K6JW deferred and was informally designated “President-Elect in Waiting.”
The nominee for Secretary was W4DAN.
The nominee for Treasurer was WA1HGE.
This slate was unanimously elected.
Per the By-Laws, the immediate past-President serves as a Director at Large. As AE4BX was a Director-at-Large, WB9EDP will take the position she vacated by becoming President-Elect.
WA1HGE suggested that we consider an Assistant Secretary or Treasurer to learn the function of the position and to be able to step in and serve in the event of the death or incapacity of the office-holder. The appointment of assistant officers is permitted in the By-Laws. New President KE5BQK appointed KM2L as Assistant Treasurer.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 AM EDT.