Minutes of SPARC Meeting – February 2, 2024

Meeting held at DMI research

Meeting called to order at 1930

Minutes by Charles, W4BPP

Executive and Board members in attendance:

- - Executive Staff
    - President: Rich AA2MF
    - Vice President: Carol AB4YI
    - Treasurer: Will W7WMS
    - Secretary: Charles W4BPP
  - Elected Board members
    - Tom W4CU
    - Dee N4GD
    - John KI4UIP
  - non-elected board members:
    - Immediate past president Pat AA0O
    - Club trustee Dave KR4U
    - (NOT PRESENT) Repeater trustee Bill KN4LUZ
    - SPARC gap editor Bruce KF4TYA)

Business Meeting start and greeting:

- - The meeting opens with the pledge of allegiance.
  - New members, guests, and first timers recognized and introduced themselves.
  - The December and January meeting minutes were posted for the last meeting.

Reports:

- - Treasurer report, Will W7WS:
    - All income and expenses are rectified and in balance
  - Secretary’s Report, Charles W4BPP:
    - None.
  - VP report Carol AB4YI:
    - New check in and tracking related to ARRL rules, membership in ARRL, related to contesting rules.
    - Reach out for invite to slack, send an email to Carol
    - Long island CW club has classes online
  - Membership:
    - 1 new members are welcomed to the club and voted in.
    - 92 paid members as of the meeting
  - VE report Pat Connely:
    - Tuesday:
      - 1 upgrades, 7 new licensees!
  - Net Manager Report, Repeater Trustee Report Billy KN4LUZ (as presented by Charles, W4BPP)
    - 608 check in
    - 35 messages
    - 983 minutes
    - 35 sessions
    - Bill didn’t tell Charles who has the record with ~25-32 check-ins, probably Alex!!
  - Repeater Report. KN4LUZ Bill (per Ed NZ1Q)
    - 2m is working, 440 has some issues which will be investigated.
    - Need net controllers, reach out to Bill KN4LUZ
    - Repeaters need a tune up, otherwise ok.
  - Trustee Report, Dave KR4U
    - Station in good operating condition
    - Received a donation of an antenna tuner with switched inductor
    - Storage room is cleaned up and organized, no more storage of pop/soda due to exploding cans
    - Anyone brings equipment in, please let someone know what it is, why it’s here, what the value might be for any donations etc.
  - W4TA Station Trustee, Carol AB4YI
    - Working on logs to get them entered from computers etc.
    - Configuring LOTW and getting it updated
  - website report, Zach K04WPO (absent). Orin and Carol provide an update
    - Fixing photo galleries
    - Removing old people with login access
    - Deleted unused plugins and updated wordpress to latest version
    - Backed up current version, waiting to verify before overwriting legacy backup
    - send any posts, reports, or corrections
  - Newsletter/SPARC Gap Report Bruce KF4TYA
    - Send ideas and submissions to Bruce via email
    - Planning to put out a newsletter each quarter. Lots of pictures taken.
  - Antenna Team, Ed NZ1Q
    - A winch was installed and the tower no longer requires hand cranking.
    - Takes 3 minutes to raise or lower.
  - Tom W4CU with contesting update
    - 18 operators during recent contest. Won Florida with a terrific team effort.
  - Upcoming contests
    - NAQP RTTY Feb 24/25
    - CQWWPX RTTY Feb 9/10
    - CQ 160 Phone Feb 24/25
    - ARRL Sideband March 2nd
    - German name RTTY
    - CQWPX Sideband
    - ARRL DX Sideband

Old Business:

- - Opening station before meetings to learn how to operate and use the station
  - Club Holiday party was Wednesday Jan 10th 5-9pm at Brooklyn Pizza on Seminole and park Blvds. Fun but low turnout
  - Feb 17th we are moving back into the storage trailer. There are free items for taking.
  - Pay your dues if you have not already for 2024.

New Business:

- - Pat AA0O attended the B Sides conference and gave a presentation on CW last year, and we are invited back. Reach out to pat if interested
  - See Will if you would like to order a shirt, we need 20 to place an order
  - A discussion of total members, paid members, and how to grow that as well as possibly hosting our meetings online again. This will be discussed during the next board meeting.
  - As of the board meeting in February the member list will be updated to remove anyone who has not paid their 2024 dues.
  - Next executive board meeting is February 20th.
  - Next meetings topic will be on satellites and AmSat

Recess

Presentation

- - Home Brew night!!!

Meeting Adjourned 21:05

50/50 Raffle is held

Minutes of SPARC Meeting – February 2, 2024

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