Inland Empire Club Regular Meeting Minutes
November 13, 2008
Spokane Community College, Spokane, WA, Room 252
The meeting began at 6:34 PM, Vice President John Barnett, W7JRB presiding.
Treasurer’s report: K7DWB, Dave, gave a brief financial report reflecting the recent ham fest returns. Dave invited members whose dues may be due to pay them tonight. Dues notices will be sent out via U.S. mail soon for the fiscal year 2009.
December club meeting: As usual, instead of the regular monthly club business meeting, the December meeting will be a dinner party at the Timber Creek Grill, 9211 E. Montgomery Drive, Spokane Valley, December 11 at 6:00 PM. There will be no V E license exam testing here this month. There will be a "white elephant" gift exchange during the Christmas party. In order to participate, each participant must contribute a gift valued in the $5.00 range.
V E test session report: AA7RT, Mary, reported the results of tonight’s exam session. They are: Total tested: 7
Technician class: 2 successful
General class: 2 successful
Extra class: 1 successful
D-Star report: W7JRB, John, after considerable research, reported that it is cost- prohibitive at this time for the club to persue establishing a D-Star communications system. Possible cost estimate is between $8,000 and $10,000.
Gordon Grove: Gordon Grove, Section Emergency Coordinator for Eastern Washington, presented an excellent video production designed to introduce and inform the "non-ham" public to the amateur radio community, demonstrating what a valuable public service resource amateur radio is. Describing three basic aspects of amateur radio (the culture, radio spectrum, and people), the video featured "testimony " of several local active hams, some of which are members of the IE VHF Club. Gordon emphasized that amateur radio exists, in great part, because of its dedication to public service. Gordon stated that there are 77 amateurs enrolled in the Spokane County Amateur Radio Emergency Services organization. (A.R.E.S.) See the web site
www.spokares.org for additional information.Bylaws: History: After a bylaws committee was established by the board, that committee reviewed, and then revised the IE VHF Club bylaws. The revised edition was published on the club’s web site for several weeks for members to review prior to tonight’s meeting. Then, at tonight’s meeting, copies of the proposed revised bylaws were circulated among members. Before the members were asked to vote on the revised bylaws, the membership was invited to suggest additional changes to the revised bylaws. Mike Shaunessy, KE7AVK, recommended that the word "audit" in section VII, paragraph 1, be changed to the word "review" in order to reduce the possibility of liability in the event of a dispute regarding financial records. The bylaws committee and the board immediately approved this change. Additionally, the revision date at the end of the document needed to be updated to today’s date (November 13, 2008) in order to reflect these latest changes. The bylaws committee and the board immediately approved this.
Motion to approve the revised bylaws was made by W7BHP, Dick. Motion was seconded by AD7FO, Jack. A vote by unanimous affirmation by a show of hands of the membership present carried the motion to approve the revised bylaws, and the revised bylaws will be published on the club’s web site (
www.vhfclub.org).50/50 drawing: A total of $10.00 was received in 50/50 ticket sales. AA7RT, Mary, was the lucky winner of the $5.00 jackpot.
Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:10 PM
Minutes are recorded and submitted for board approval by WA7BAA, Don, Secretary