ORANGE COUNTY RADIO AMATEURS
Monthly Membership Meeting – April 12, 2021
Platforms: OCRA UHF Repeater and Zoom.
Minutes
MEETING CONVENED AT 7:30 PM.
MEMBER CHECK-IN – W4SAR (David)
OCRA UHF REPEATER: W4SAR (Dave); KD4YJZ (Karen); KU4GC (Dee); KA5ETS (Doug); W4CFO (James); W4AEN (Ed); W3AHL (Steve); KA1HPM (Nick); W4ORD (Lad); N4JQR (James); N1LN (Bruce); KI4MXP (Gerald); KN4JYP (Kathy); N4KF (Kenneth); KM4MBG (Jack); WB4OSU (Sherri); WA4PSC (Howie); KK4RRT (Michael); N1YXU (Laurie); KI4RAN (Bill); KO4DHJ (Ken); KR4UB (Dan); KM4WXW (Jeffrey) KN4VXB (Aurora); N2XZF (Paul); KF4PAB (Lenore); KN4QBZ (Fred); KR3AM (Mark); KN4JYP (Kathy); W4CFO (Jim); KW4JY (Calvin); KZ1X (Steve); W4BOH (Wilson); KZ1X (Steve); K2HJX (Jeremy); ZOOM: N8BR (Bill); KR4UB (Dan)
OFFICERS’ REPORTS:
President – W4SAR (Dave): Introduction and General Remarks
Vice Present – W4ORD (Lad): No formal report. Noteworthy is the fact that he contacted Virginia, the director of Aux Comm, and informed her that if there are no candidates for the coordinator of Aux Comm in Durham County he would be happy to be considered for the position.
Repeater Committee Reports – KR4UB (Dan – Orange County) and KA1HPM (Nick – Chatham County): No new information to report.
Treasurer – KR4UB (Dan): Currently 99 members are current with dues paid for 2021, 6 members need to renew and 5 memberships are expiring. This past year 32 new members joined 15 of whom are newly licensed.
MEETING AGENDA
Revised Job Descriptions for Executive Committee Members – W4SAR (Dave) We will now vote on proposed changes in the club bylaws that govern the position descriptions for officers and executive board members. We will accomplish this task via the club repeater and Zoom. For several weeks documents containing both current position descriptions and those being proposed have been posted on the club website for perusal. In order to vote you must be a club member in good standing (paid-up dues for the current year). When your call sign is announced, please reply “yes” if you favor adoption of the proposal, “no” if you do not favor adoption, and “abstain” if you are not a member in good standing or you choose not to vote for some other reason. The foregoing procedure resulted in the club’s adoption of the revised bylaws with a final vote of yes=28, no=0, and abstain=1 (new member abstaining due to not yet being familiar with the club’s bylaws).
Our second issue for discussion is the proposed revision of the club’s repeater code of conduct.
KR4UB (Dan) A copy of the proposed revision of our Repeater Code of Conduct which has been prepared over a period of several months has been posted on our Club’s website since the last club general meeting. It has gone through at least 3 revisions. An adopted code of conduct better positions the club when action must be taken on violations on the club’s repeater systems as required by FCC regulations. Comments on the document are now needed. We hope that you will be in agreement with its message. It has been a long time in coming!
KM4MBG (Jack)-The Durham AuxCom group is also looking for a coordinator to re-establish relationships with the county.
Field Day 2021- W4SAR (Dave): We are starting to round the corner on our planning for this year’s field day. The pandemic is still alive and we need to make some important decisions rather quickly. The basic issue we need to resolve concerns the format of this year’s club effort. To establish perspective most of you will recall that before the Covid 19 pandemic began OCRA participated in field day as a large multi-station group operating together at the W4BOH home. Last year in 2020, because of restrictions in group activities stemming from the pandemic, individual club members operated field day at their respective home stations with each contributing to an aggregate score for the club. This format was actually encouraged by and facilitated through changes made in contest rules by the ARRL. Noteworthy is the fact that over the years both of these formats have yielded impressive scores placing our club efforts among the top 9 of several thousand Field Day entrants. So, will our operation this year be a large group activity, a number of isolated individual activities, or a hybrid effort that can include both? General Discussion: W4BOH (Wilson): Generously offered his home and facilities for a group effort. He further recommended that if we do this we could require vaccinations and masks. N1LN (Bruce):suggested that this year’s field day might be a good opportunity for small groups to develop and operate in very safe ways. KR4UB (Dan): If we work FD individually from home stations it might be valuable to maintain contact with each other using Zoom. This could be especially useful for sharing information about band conditions and activity levels or simply exchanging conversation between operators. Zoom contact with other stations was a great resource for Dan this past field day.
Additional respondents presented various positions on the question of which mode for field day is best for the club. Some were supportive of a large group setting while others liked the notion of single operators working in isolation from home stations. All were sympathetic with the need for protecting the health of all participants.
Field day activities will be further discussed at the next meeting of the Executive Board tomorrow evening.
Meeting Adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
WLB/s