MARA Meeting April 3, 2008
Old Business – there is a 3 person hot tub we need to get rid of. It’s got low mileage on it, and it is on the 2nd floor, so whoever picks it up will have to arrange for help moving it downstairs.
Treasurer’s report – $7350. 2 expenses: the extra space was 179.00. Food for the March meeting was $73.78. There was over 50.00 in dues for a subtotal of $7,246. We renewed the CD for 6 months at 3.670%; the balance on the CD is 23,700. Grand total was 30296.00.
Ham Hilliard W4GMM made a motion, and Jeff Kloek KI4NDR seconded it to accept the treasurer’s report.
The minutes were deferred until next meeting.
John Cummings is filling in for Sri as Secretary.
Joe WA4OVO: The MS Walk is set to be in Plough Park, from 8:30 to 12:30. They need volunteers as backup to new operators. See Joe to sign up.
Joe’s next General class is to run on Saturdays for 3 weeks, April 5th, April 19th, and April 26th, with the test being on the 26th. Tech classes started last month and will restart on April 14th due to the Final Four. The class ends May 5th.
Keith WA5LPW: Tony & Bill went to Union City with materials from the Estate Sale. They made $486.00 for the club. We still have 3 units of items from that event.
Tony Brignole WA4KHN: We need to fill in duties tonight for those who can volunteer. Doors need manning up from 7:00 to 9:30. We have 3 load-in doors this year. John Wood will be handling the Talk-In. The Free Fest will run form 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Drawings for the main prizes will start roughly at 2:30. Smaller prizes will be given away hourly.
Per Keith, Allinco is donating a switching power supply, and MFJ is also providing a power supply. ICOM is providing 4 Sport HT’s, 1 65 watt 2 meter mobile, and the Sign Man is providing 2 name badges. We are not sure yet what Kenwood will provide, but they verbally agreed to provide a D710A APTS Radio.
Memphis Amateur is paying a majority of the $1300.00 cost of the mailout.
Last time the concession stand brought in between $500 and $600. Lance and Tony donated monies, and the overall cost to put last year’s event was $700.00 overall.
Ham volunteered to hook up the speakers for the FreeFest.
We will have Dr. Pepper at the concession stand this year.
If anyone has a special dietary need, please let Tony Brignole know.
David Sax will be our announcer. Joe Lowenthal has the tickets covered. Joe will also deal with ST. Jude. All attendees will receive one free ticket. We need people for the tables containing the estate sale items.
Folks do not have to be there for the larger prize drawings; only for the smaller hourly prizes. Raffle Tickets are $1.00 each, or 6 for $5.00. Larger amounts will incur a price break.
Tables are 6 and 8 feet long.
If there is no rain, we will have spaces outside.
The construction should be done with the library having moved in last week. It all should be paved by next week. The floor inside the building is still the original floor, but that is due to be replaced sometime in the next year or so. The rooms upstairs are closed in.
The question came up whether or not volunteers get free breakfast. No – this is for St. Jude. MFJ and Memphis Amateur are eating free.
Folks need to be sure not to block the doors we are loading in through. Park away from the building. The grill will be covered by a canopy.
Ham Hilliard to facilitate the MARS sessions.
Huxtable came up, and the need to bring bug repellent.
More OLD Business: Randy discussed the Microsoft Software. Our Corporate Charter says that we’re an education related organization, which means we have no access to some of the software originally discussed; especially Adobe and Quicken titles. We need to be re-classified as a Disaster Preparedness organization in our charter to get those packages.
The thought may be that we may move our site to Google Apps as that is free to 501c3 corporations.
Henry WD4Q Announcements: He didn’t get on air last weekend in March – he apologized for that. He’s going out again the last weekend in April.
There is a special QSL card available from Directors, Vice Directors and ARRL Staff.
Conventions: Delta Division – the home state for these rotates annually from East to West. Now it’s in Chattanooga. In 2009, it’s open – this is the perfect opportunity for us to have it here in Memphis. We must get this submitted and approved through Henry.
Then it goes to ARRL HQ and the EC committee approves it. (He’s on that committee). We should start this process at the end of FreeFest.
Henry discussed individual hams’ requests to modify the rules based on having had precious QSL cards destroyed in tornadoes. This cannot be done.
He discussed a question as to whether Echo Link contacts are valid: He says as long as they are made in compliance with the log book, it is ok. This is not likely to be the case.
Our BRICK is in for the MARA club. There is an acrylic version that was passed around the club membership. It was determined that a home was needed for this item, and Carol Huddock was selected to receive it.
We have 2 tower jobs after Free Fest.
The meeting ended at 8:23.