Gold Coast Amateur Radio Association
Board Meeting
Minutes

1)  Call to Order

Melanie Fernandez (KJ4VCT)called to order the board meeting of the Gold Coast Amateur Radio Association, Inc at 13:08 EDT (17:08 UTC) on June 6, 2021, on ZOOM.  A quorum was present with 7 board members.

2)  Old Business

a)    Memorial Plaques

Connecticut lost our inscriptions for the memorial bricks. Melanie will resend them.

“Grateful appreciation for the support of our club and Amateur Radio in general.”

b)    Erik’s Social Hamming Around

Joe McGee (NX4T) requested to postpone this event until after Field Day. Melanie Fernandez (KJ4VCT) suggested waiting until the end of July or the beginning of August.

c)   Get Voting System implemented now

A setting was overlooked that may have caused that the repeater does not unkey. Ricky Eaton (KD4HGR) will investigate this setting and try to make it work with what we have Ricky Eaton (KD4HGR) will have to go there and connect the computer to program the repeater.

3)  Trustee Report – Ricky Eaton (KD4HGR)

The internet was down for a while due to repairs on the roof. The CAT5 for the satellite was damaged by the roofers The cable is fixed now.

The club is considering installing EchoLink on our 610-repeater. David Warner (KB4ICU) has requested that so he can promulgate his Ham Helpers Net on Friday better and make it more accessible.

UHF server will be rededicated for WinLink Node. Charlie Artner (KN4VDW) will contact Barry Porter and/ David Wagner (WA2DXQ) to get more information on how to set up a node.

4)  Picnic July 7, 2021, @ Vista View Park

a)    Activity ideas – Jeff Stahl (K4BH)

We are going to do a Fox Hunt. Possibly we could build antennas and put them to use right there. Show and tell withdrawing of participants. The price will be a gift certificate to Mike’s Electronics. The purchase of a $50.00 certificate was approved without objections.

b)   Food Committee

Mike Wolf (K2HXC) offered to help with the cooking if nobody else is available.

c)    Invite Palmetto Club, Knights of the Round table, SEFTN

Jeff Stahl (K4BH) will contact Palmetto Club
Charlie Artner (KN4VDW) will contact Knight of the Round table and SEFTN

d)   Fees for Picnic

The cost for the shelter is around $79.00 and since it is such short notice, Melanie Fernandez (KJ4VCT) believes that there is not enough time anymore to fill out and submit the paperwork to get approved for the fees to be waved.

5)  Date for next Quarterly Dinner

The next quarterly Dinner is planned for September 18, 2021, @ 19:00 (23:00UTC) at Lester’s. Ricky Eaton (KD4HGR) will check with Lester’s for availability.

6)  Remote HF Station – Joe McGee (NX4T)

The remote station is working fine at this moment.

7)  Plan for Winter Field Day

Too early to start planning but Melanie Fernandez (KJ4VCT) will make sure that if we can get the Pavilion at Quiet Waters Park that we will have them Saturday and Sunday.

8)  Workshop

Ricky Eaton (KD4HGR) will check with Mike’s Electronics whether we can have some space there for workshops. Possible workshops for new HAMs could be on how to build a dipole.

9)  Upcoming Speakers

Charlie Artner (KN4VDW) will speak in October on MMANA, Joe McGee (NX4T) will contact Seth and ask him if he would be willing to speak on his military experience.

10)      Resume testing at Joe’s

Joe McGee (NX4T) and Jeff Stahl (K4BH) will work out a schedule.

11)      Next Board Meeting

July 18, 2021, at 1:15 PM via ZOOM

12)      Member Chair Report – Joe McGee (NX4T)

Joe McGee (NX4T) had problems finding information on our members, so he requested if it was possible to add additional information to the roster that is produced by Erik Olmer (W4EJO). The additional information that used to be on the roster is Phone number, Call Sign, email address, etc. Erik Olmer (W4EJO) will start providing this report to Joe McGee (NX4T) starting with the next report.

Joe McGee (NX4T) is questioning whether we should revisit the requirements for membership. The reason for his request was because nobody is really checking whether a new member is fulfilling the requirements, especially the requirement to have no felony record. This was the table for a later time.

Joe McGee (NX4T) also suggested starting membership cards again and after a brief discussion, this was also tabled for a later time.

Joe McGee (NX4T) was looking for information on our website and was unable to find it. He was visiting our website on a mobile device and the GUI is different on a mobile device than on the desktop. The top menu which is easy to find on the desktop is hidden behind three horizontal lines on a mobile device. In our case that is in the upper right corner of the website. There are unwritten and unspoken industry standards that are applied to our website via the template we use in WP. After a discussion among the board members, the board has decided to keep everything the way it is only the menu “People” shall be changed to “Members” which has been done at the time of the meeting.

13)      Adjournment

Melanie Fernandez (KJ4VCT) had to leave at 15:10hrs (1910 UTC)

Joe McGee (NX4T) adjourned the meeting at 15:12 EDT (19:12 UTC).

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