Taos ARC On-Air Meeting Minutes

3/10/2021

President Mike K called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM

Presidents Message:

Mike reminded us that 2021 dues are payable now. It is important to renew, especially those of us that are ARRL members because we need to have a certain percentage of ARRL members to continue being an affiliated club (which comes with benefits for TARC) Paying by PayPal on the website is the preferred method due to ease of bookkeeping. BUT we will take cash, checks, chickens, or bitcoin.

He also mentioned that he had an email from Mitch Miller who is on our member list again. Finally, he gave us Matthew Conlan’s new call sign: KN8X

Treasurer’s Report:

We have $3,191.78 in the bank. We have been lucky to have donations to supplement our dues since our annual expenses are only about $300 less that our total dues.

New Business:

April 10, 2021 is the date for the New Mexico QSO party. Mike would like to have 4-5 generals with HF experience to man the EOC for the QSO party. If interested, contact Mike for arrangements. Optimally we would like to clean up the ham shack before then and replace the rotator (weather and equipment permitting)

Old Business:

Tim Henson told us he submitted his grant proposal to LANL on 2/21/2021, well ahead of thew deadline. This is the grant for STEM education at Taos High School. If awarded, we could be notified in April with funding in May. Tim is also working on covering the projected shortfall through smaller “cyber-grants” at LANL.

Mike also mentioned that we would still like to develop a ham station within the town of Taos. They have been a big help to us in the past and this could benefit us both.

More QSO party discussion followed: It would be good to have 8+ HF’ers working from home to handle the expected call volume. Rules, logs etc are available online at: http://www.newmexicoqsoparty.org/wp/

John Wheatly and John MacArthur told us that the QSO party is usually a big pile-up with HAM’s from around the country trying to make contact and check-in.

Tim made a motion to approve the February 2021 minutes, 2nd by Glen. Unanimously approved.

John Wheatly made a motion to adjourn, 2nd by John MacArthur and unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 6:24PM.

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