OCRA Board Meeting, April 30, 2018

Attendees:

Dave (W4SAR), Karen (KD4YJZ), Dee (KU4GC), MK (W4MKR), Steve (W3AHL), Dan (KR4UB), Keith (W1KES), Wilson (W4BOH), Lad (W4ORD)

Financials:

Balance statement is strong.  Current membership with dues current is 74.

Establish a Board email group – will use to share and approve meeting minutes

Dan (KR4UB) has created a new membership sign up form to assist in managing existing and new members.  We need to announce at next membership that OCRA stickers are available for $5.

Repeater:

Dan (KR4UB) will contact Alex at UNC to determine if they are able to provide any financial assistance.  The level of assistance will help determine our next steps.  There may be opportunities to locate and share the repeater with Chatham County CERT. We need to be diligent in discussions and move forward with a repeater decision in the coming months.

Public Service:

Steve (W3AHL) mentioned that public service activities are down this year.  However, John Stone mentioned that several new events have been added to the schedule. If interested in sharpening your ARES or CERT skills, these events are great learning opportunities.

Durham Fest:

There is work session Friday May 25 from 6:00-8:00 for setup.  Saturday morning, setup assistance will be needed starting around 7:00 AM.  The ham fest will start at 8:00 AM and end around 12:30 PM, with tear down starting shortly thereafter.  Tables are $12 and space available for $8.

Early registration tickets are available and will be registered for $50 drawing.  VE session will also be part of the HAM Fest.

Decision:

Board agrees to spend $24 for two tables.

Field Day:

Planning is ongoing. Antenna designs and locations will be finalized in the next month.

Lad will contact Kelly to determine available, costs, and logistics for providing diner around 5:00 PM on Saturday night.  This would reduce the dependency on band captains and other participants in managing meal logistics.

Sunday morning breakfast will still be provided by members.

February 12th Meeting – The Program is You!

Our next monthly meeting will be held 7:00pm Monday at the Efland Baha’i Center.

The program is…You! I believe our club is at a crossroads, times and situations have changed since the founding of the club over 25 years ago. At our recent board meeting, concerns were raised that the long-term core membership is aging out, some of us have worked hard over many years and want to avoid burn-out. The greatest concern perhaps, is assuring a succession of the club to newer generations of hams, and the passing on of the club’s knowledge base and technical ability to keep the repeaters running, and to keep a pool of trained communicators available for public service and emergencies in our area. We don’t want to see a malaise and decline set in, but want the club to be fun and vibrant.

So let’s have a serious discussion, we want to hear from you what can be done to revitalize the club. Are changes needed? What can we do to build a technical pool? What engaging, fun things can we get into?

We already have Field Day, probably the single biggest group project we engage in (with the DFMA).
Can we get teams for other contests as well?
What hands-on “clinics” would you like?
What presentations would you like best?

It is your club, tell us what you like about it, what is not working, what you would want to see done.

73,

Dave, W4SAR