NEXT MEETING

Next meeting will be at the Utilities Building on July 24th.  I think I might have said July 26th by mistake.  The topic will be propagation.

Our meetings are every ODD month on the 4th Tuesday.  I usually toss the date in there so people can put it down on their calendars.  If the date doesn't correspond with the date given please let me know, but remember it's the 4th Tuesday of the ODD Months.  What is an Odd month?  January is Month 1, February is Month 2.....March is Month 3.  I hope this helps.

We decided that we should go every other month for several reasons.

1.  People were getting burnt out having a meeting every month.  Especially in June when the the weekend prior to the meeting we have field day, February we have a camp out the weekend prior to the meeting, and the same with October.  We noticed that these months we had nobody show up for our meetings.
2.  It gets difficult picking 12 topics to discuss through the year, so there are nights where we show up and have nothing to discuss
3.  Life gets in the way.  Sometimes people just have other things to do, classes to attend if in School, family visiting or adventures so rather than make it tough on them we would rather spread things out so as not to smother them with Ham Radio.

So this is why we have meetings every other month.  If you feel that we should have meetings every month then we all need to know why you feel that way and then we need to have help with finding topics to talk about.  If there is a topic that you would like to learn more about, or there is a topic that you feel you know and would like to teach then please let me know.  If this is the case then all I ask is that you keep it within a Ham Radio, Emergency Communications or Preparation topic.

 

I know I keep asking for topics from the audience but nobody speaks up so what I do is try to find an interesting topic that I can discuss without having to have a ton of demonstrations, or have to have the meeting in a place where we can build things.  Why?  Because the one location we meet at won't allow us to build things.  Too afraid of getting the carpet ruined by hot, molten solder, or the potential of buring the building down.  We don't want to be the club that accidently burns a City building down.  We could go to HeatSync and build there, however the issue becomes how many people we can have in that location and teach effectively and without distractions.  So we work with what we have.

 

We have members that I haven't seen in a long time.  I don't know why we haven't seen those people or even the status of these people.  Are they members still?  Are they still interested in being part of our club?  We can't be everything to everyone, and for that I appologize.  We recently lost a member because this person felt that we were a club that wasn't to this person's particular taste.  I asked this person what I could do to keep them.....and they said....they wanted a club that was safe and one that did more on the technical side.  I tried to get this person to step up and teach but they said no.  The lesson I learned from this is that there are some that are willing to step up and be part of the club and help out and others who simply are looking for, what I call, handouts.  The club is here for you, but we need participation and willing people to step up and help out as well.

 

So if you are a member who hasn't shown up at the club meetings in a few months, please take the time and show up....even if it's for a few minutes to say hi.  If you want to talk about a topic and are willing to put in some time to learn about the subject and teach the rest of us, please step forward and let me know so I can schedule it in.

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Where am I going? And why am I in a handbasket?

KE7VLC Amateur Extra Class
Orion Thrower